Republican senators highlighted a growing deep state opposition to President-elect Donald Trump, citing a revealing new poll on the federal bureaucracy and urging Trump to be vigilant as he enters office next week.
The poll, which the firm RMG Research released Monday, revealed that 42% of what the survey calls “federal government managers”—federal employees who live in the National Capitol Region around Washington and earn at least $75,000 annually—plan to politically oppose the incoming administration.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the federal government managers who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in November said they would ignore a lawful order from Trump if they considered it to be bad policy. Only 17% of the Harris voters in the federal bureaucracy said they would follow Trump’s order.
“Bureaucracy is the real threat to democracy,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement Wednesday. Ernst leads the Senate DOGE Caucus, an effort to help the DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental panel led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and aimed at rooting out waste and abuse in the federal government. Conservatives often warn that insulating federal bureaucrats from Congress and the president weaken the voters’ ability to have a say in their government.
“The bureaucrat class has forgotten that their job is to serve the American people, and I am happy to help remind them,” Ernst added. “As the Senate DOGE Caucus Chair, I am rooting out the rot in Washington. Federal employees are paid by taxpayers to work for taxpayers. They can either do their job or find another.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted other efforts bureaucrats are taking to tie the incoming president’s hands.
“Entrenched bureaucrats are already subverting President Trump’s agenda and working to box in the incoming administration and Republican Congress, including and especially on foreign policy,” Cruz told The Daily Signal. “President Trump and administration officials are going to have to focus immediately on ensuring such bureaucrats are fired.”
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., condemned the deep state effort as “shameful” and endorsed some policies to combat it.
“This polling data is shameful—civil servants must serve our nation, not their political party,” she told The Daily Signal. “The administrative state is a huge problem that demands serious reforms.”
Reining in the Bureaucracy
Britt named a few pieces of legislation she supports to rein in the bureaucracy, such as the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act and changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has a complicated funding scheme to insulate it from Congress’ authority.
“I’m committed to restoring power to the American people and ending unelected bureaucrats’ red tape regime,” she said. “That’s why I proudly support measures like the REINS Act and efforts to make the CFPB subject to the congressional appropriations process.” (Britt, Cruz, and Ernst co-sponsored the REINS Act in 2023.)
“I am confident that the nominees and appointees President Trump has selected will help get the federal government back to doing the work of the American people rather than the entrenched bureaucracy,” Britt added. “I look forward to getting President Trump’s cabinet confirmed quickly and working with his administration to advance the ‘America First’ agenda.”
The poll also found that Republicans who work in Washington federal offices are more likely to support Trump. Republican federal government managers proved more likely to say (74%) a bureaucrat should be fired for refusing a presidential order, while only 23% of Democratic managers agreed.
RMG Research surveyed 500 federal government managers between Dec. 9 and Dec. 23. The margin of error for this poll is plus or minus 4.4%.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
