A Deep Dive Into the Deep State: Unpacking the Summer of Trump Conspiracy Theories

There was never any collusion, and if there was, that’s not a crime. What there was, in fact, were two FBI agents, high off malice and the malodorous fumes of their illicit sexual affair, sending thousands of texts that show them conspiring to clear Hillary Clinton of criminal charges, in a desperate attempt to get her elected, and then, when that failed, turning their efforts towards framing Donald Trump. And not just two FBI agents: the broader intelligence community made sure that Trump entered office with an albatross strapped firmly around his neck. They used a discredited dossier to get a warrant to surveil Trump and his associates, and they used the thin evidence of that surveillance to institute a criminal probe, led by a man with so many conflicts of interest he should have never been appointed at all. And all that was due to the workings of the Deep State, whose agents are with us even today, striving mightily to finish their dark work.

That is, anyway, the version of events according to a large chunk of the right wing of the United States. The key element here is the “Deep State,” which, despite what the events of the past few months might indicate, is a real term with a real meaning beyond the fever dreams of Fox News. It’s typically used in countries where the military appears to be working in secret to undermine democratically appointed leaders. But, as the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller lingers on (and on and on), Trump and his supporters have become ever more convinced, it seems, of the existence of secret machinations within the U.S. government (the use of the term “Deep State,” according to Google Trends, started to spike in December 2017). In many ways, what the Trump campaign termed The Swamp during the election has morphed into a fiendishly clever, multi-pronged enemy of the president. Under its hydra-like thumbs, the members of this shadowy force are willing to undermine American democracy in order to thwart Trump’s populist revolution and the danger it poses to the global elites.

The Deep State is also the subject of a bumper crop of conservative books this spring and summer, each dedicated to explaining the phenomenon to Trump loyalists, who might be wondering by now why America has not yet become “great again.” (This desire to explain Trump’s struggles with governance also explains the popularity of QAnon, a now-famous conspiracy theory centered around the idea that the president is secretly doing a really good job.) Two of the new Deep State-oriented books are by Fox News personalities: Jeanine Pirro, a former judge who hosts the network’s version of a legal analysis show, has produced Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy, while anchor and former lawyer Gregg Jarrett has written the similarly heated-sounding The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump. A third, far weirder entry comes from Jerome Corsi, the Washington Bureau Chief of InfoWars, who’s previously written for conservative-leaning conspiratorial sites like World Net Daily and Human Events.

It’s likely not an accident that all three books are appearing in advance of the 2018 midterm elections: all three are an attempt to build a case for continuing to trust the president, no matter what the lying media says or what the tainted Russia investigation might uncover. Conspiracy theories tend to arise in moments of upheaval, social change, real unrest; for the ruling party of this country, backing a sitting president, to engage in conspiracy theorizing is a signal that they know they have something very serious to lose, and are currently at risk of losing it. Thus far, Trump has tweeted appreciatively about both Jarrett and Pirro’s books; Pirro also tweeted a photo of herself and the president beaming in the Oval Office, a selection of MAGA hats laid out on the Resolute Desk and Trump brandishing her book like a tube of toothpaste recommended by nine out of ten dentists.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/a-deep-dive-into-the-deep-state-unpacking-the-summer-of-trump-conspiracy-theories-710953/