It is Trump himself, under the camouflage of populist rhetoric, who has overseen the open expansion of the deep state: entrenched interests gaining outsize influence and setting their own policy agenda, unchecked by the will of the people, their elected representatives or the civil servants meant to regulate them. (The Washington Post)

“They take detailees, not the best from these agencies, often the worst, they stick them into the White House,” he concluded. “It's a practice that frankly should end, and the political appointees, Tim Morrison and [Kurt] Volker aren't mistaking themselves for the president, it's these Deep State bureaucrats that do.” (Christian Whiton)