President Donald Trump has wasted no time cleaning house in the federal government upon taking office for his second term. In just the first few days, Trump shuttered all government DEI offices and fired hundreds of Biden political appointees. At the same time, Trump has appointed Elon Musk to oversee the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to cut trillions in waste from the federal government. Despite all of this, Trump still faces the reality of a massive bureaucratic deep state made up of thousands of entrenched employees throughout the government, many who are still vowing to resist him. And as Trump found out in his first term, dismantling that deep state is no easy feat.
Critics are already warning about Trump needing to "Beat the Resistance" that undermined him during his first term. James Fishback, the CEO of Azoria who has offered to join DOGE, recently told Fox Business Trump needs to go beyond cutting waste, fraud and abuse. "(It's about) cutting excess regulation, bureaucracy, and the administrative state," says Fishback. "Over the past 50 years, the codes of federal regulations have gone from 15 pages to over 180,000 pages...this bureaucracy is holding back new businesses, holding back entrepreneurs, holding back companies from hiring new workers."
When it comes to truly draining the swamp once and for all, ending DEI and launching DOGE are a good start...but Fishback warns the Trump administration shouldn't stop there. "DOGE's mission can't just be the spending cuts that are absolutely right under Elon's leadership," he says. "It also has to be President Trump's original vision of cutting back the administrative state, to save America and to bring in this new golden age."
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