By New York Post (Opinion) | Created at 2025-01-25 16:36:45 | Updated at 2025-01-27 06:06:46
1 day ago
Americans are unifying behind President Trump far more than we did in 2017. Eight years ago, cries of “not my president” resounded through Washington, DC, but this year, it seems the hard-left “resistance” has gone out with a whimper.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case inside the federal government.
A new poll from Napolitan News showed that 64% of the federal bureaucrats who work in DC and voted for Kamala Harris vow not to implement a lawful order from Trump if they consider it bad policy.
Forty-two percent of all DC bureaucrats in the survey said they would dedicate their political efforts to opposing the administration.
Trump has come back to the Oval Office with resounding applause and renewed vigor.
He unleashed an opening salvo on his first day in office by revoking the security clearances of the 49 surviving former intelligence officials who helped launch the Big Tech suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop by suggesting it was a “Russian information operation.”
While critics say this move is little more than messaging, Trump is right to send the message loud and clear: the privileges of serving in the federal government should not be used to create a misinformation campaign aimed against a presidential candidate.
Trump is right to revoke these clearances, and he’s just getting started. The president has hand-picked nominees who will bring real change to the establishment in Washington, DC.
Tulsi Gabbard, who found herself on a TSA watchlist, will bring accountability to the Intelligence Community. Kash Patel, who worked to bust the hoax that Trump was a Russian asset, will bring accountability to the FBI.
Russ Vought will reform the Office of Management and Budget, helping Trump reinstate Schedule F, a key reform that will enable the president to fire bureaucrats who oppose the people’s elected president.
All this may not be enough, however.
Removing the woke influence from the federal government won’t be an easy task. My new book, “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government,” explains why, and helps lay out the path forward for the administration and Congress.
The Woketopus works like this: influential donors like George Soros — and his son, Alex, who now runs the Open Society Foundations — bankroll a system of woke nonprofits that staff and advise federal agencies, getting their agenda enshrined in the regulations Americans must live by.
Here’s what you didn’t learn in school about our government. Remember that fancy Constitution, with its nice checks and balances to enable the majority to rule while protecting minority rights?
That’s not how it works today. Instead, unelected bureaucrats write far more regulations than Congress passes laws, and that means that woke nonprofits can influence policy by going to the bureaucrats and circumventing the people’s elected representatives.
Left-wing activist groups have been feeding their cronies into the administrative state for years, but this influence campaign revved into high gear under former President Joe Biden.
His administration revealed just how woke the bureaucracy had become, and why Trump will have to work overtime to root out the bad actors.
In the book, I highlight the far-left groups with the most influence in the bureaucracy Biden oversaw — and explain why they’re an abiding threat. Groups like the Center for American Progress, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Human Rights Campaign spread their tentacles into the administration.
These organizations drove the Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels, its demonization of conservatives, its open borders policies, and its radical transgender agenda.
While Biden is no longer in office, these organizations haven’t ceased to exist. The ACLU, for example, is gearing up to block Trump’s policies in the courts.
The Trump administration needs to be on the lookout for the organizations in my book and be wary of their woke influence.
Trump is off to a great start, but rooting out the Left’s influence campaign will take more than just executive orders. Congress also needs to get involved.
The House and Senate should revisit the question of whether public sector unions should be allowed to represent federal workers. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, no conservative, opposed the very idea of public sector unions because they pit civil servants against the people’s elected representatives.
FDR’s concerns were born out, as unions like the American Federation for Government Employees loudly opposed efforts to make the bureaucracy more accountable to the people’s elected president.
Public sector unions were once illegal in the federal government—Congress should consider returning to that standard.
Congress should also consider bills like the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. This would take some of the legislative power that the Constitution gives to Congress away from unelected bureaucrats and restore it to the people’s elected representatives.
Finally, Congress should reconsider the freedom that agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau enjoy.
While the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse — the ability to determine how much money each agency receives — the CFPB is insulated from Congress’ oversight. This creates a bureaucracy untethered to the people’s elected representatives.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government (1/21/25, Post Hill Press)
