Rumblings of a ‘Deep State’ Undermining Trump? It Was Once a Foreign Concept

President Trump’s inner circle has criticized the intent of government organizations like the C.I.A. Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s allegations that former President Barack Obama tapped his phone and his assertions that the bureaucracy is leaking secrets to discredit him are the latest signs of a White House preoccupation with a “deep state” working to thwart the Trump presidency.

The concept of a “deep state” — a shadowy network of agency or military officials who secretly conspire to influence government policy — is more often used to describe countries like Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan, where authoritarian elements band together to undercut democratically elected leaders. But inside the West Wing, Mr. Trump and his inner circle, particularly his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, see the influence of such forces at work within the United States, essentially arguing that their own government is being undermined from within............https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/deep-state-trump.html