DeSantis Can Corral the DC Security State

Trump will not be able to secure justice for the abuses inflicted upon him...and many others.

For Trump to secure real justice for the abuses inflicted upon him by the out-of-control administrative state in Washington, then he paradoxically cannot be the Republican nominee.

Regarding that abusive deep state, the release of the Durham Report further establishes that the highly politicized national security and law enforcement arms of the federal government brazenly act as a policing and spying apparatus for Permanent Washington. These shadowy operators within a parallel and unaccountable government target everyone from Catholic Latin mass attendees to the sitting president during Trump’s term.

In fact, Donald Trump was unjustly targeted and surveilled as a candidate, then as president-elect, and even while in office – by the very government agencies the people elected him to oversee. Without any factual predicate, the Intelligence Community continually harassed and investigated Trump, all the while leaking supposedly damning information to a compliant press that was all too eager to do the public relations work of the alphabet agencies. Even leftist CNN host Jake Tapper conceded that the Durham Report is “devastating to the FBI, and to a degree it does exonerate Donald Trump.”

But the abuse extends far beyond Donald Trump. A decade ago, America’s top spy, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, blatantly lied under oath and claimed that the NSA was not monitoring the communications of millions of innocent American citizens. Clapper paid no penalty at all for that perjury. To the contrary, he has been handsomely rewarded by the corporate media ever since with cushy, lucrative jobs.

More recently, newly unsealed FISA court records reveal hundreds of thousands of illegal and warrantless FBI searches of Americans in 2021.

These dangerous realities were aptly described by Glenn Greenwald, a rare prominent media figure still doing real journalism. Greenwald remarked: "The most dangerous development of all in the US is that the security state is fully liberated... to use their investigative powers to manipulate our politics, control the outcome of our elections, and destroy any political leader that gets in their way.”

So, how can we the people rein in this reckless security state?

For starters, justice for Trump and for MAGA in general means he should not be the nominee — primarily, because he will not win. Trump’s own pollster Tony Fabrizio shows that among the disaffected supermajority that overwhelmingly  does not want a 2020 rematch of Trump vs. Biden, if forced to select from those two, the disillusioned independents break for Biden by a whopping 39% spread. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, among that massive cohort of Americans, Biden “tops Mr. Trump by a big margin, 54% to 15%."

But even if Trump were to win, he is precisely the wrong politician to hold the security state accountable, for two reasons:

1. Trump as Lightning Rod – Trump is so polarizing and controversial, that his involvement turns any serious policy discussion into an instant circus around Trump. Because the most public abuses of the IC were perpetrated against Trump, he becomes precisely the wrong authority to fully investigate, reveal, and punish the wrongdoing. Instead, any such inquiry would devolve into yet another Trump vs. corrupt media shouting match, with no real accountability for the government malefactors. Former Congressman Keith Rothfus made exactly this point in an earlier article, observing that with Trump, “there will be no accountability for the FBI, Department of Justice and intelligence community actors who sabotaged his first term.”

2. DeSantis’ Discipline and Focus – Trump’s first term fumbled important potential policy wins, resulting from his inability, or unwillingness, to meticulously master the process of governing. Trump excelled at disruption but not policy implementation and team building. Loud public fights may be entertaining at times, but they will not systematically deconstruct the administrative state, and especially not the super powerful and entrenched national security state.

Here, the contrast elevates DeSantis markedly. As a former military officer and skilled attorney, Governor DeSantis presents the perfect background to confront the abuses of these federal agencies. DeSantis has also proven his executive effectiveness through the methodical pursuit of policy wins. These DeSantis successes flow from his relentlessness, strategic personnel hiring decisions, overall tactical excellence, and a keen willingness to take on powerful interests.

To secure justice for Trump — and for all Americans who have been abused by the security state — the best option for the patriotic populist right is to elect Governor Ron DeSantis.