Federal employees plan to derail Trump administration, survey finds
A significant number of federal employees plan to resist the Trump administration and even refuse lawful orders, a recent survey found.
The poll, conducted by RMG Research for the Napolitan Institute, surveyed three groups of people: the Elite 1%, defined as those with postgraduate degrees who live in densely populated areas and earn more than $150,000 a year; Main Street Americans, who comprise 70%-75% of the population; and Federal Government Managers, defined as federal employees who earn at least $75,000 a year and live in the National Capital Region encompassing Washington, DC.
While most respondents in the first two categories — including many Democrats — told pollsters they plan to support the Trump administration, Federal Government Managers were more divided. Forty-four percent of federal employees said they will support Trump while 42% said they plan to resist his efforts to govern. The latter includes 73% of Democrat employees, 40% of whom said they will “strongly resist” the new administration.
More concerningly, 64% of Democrat government employees said they would ignore a lawful order from President Trump if they think it’s bad policy, while only 17% said they would obey it.
“This survey confirms that bureaucrats in the administrative state are planning to oppose Trump from within, whether that means by refusing lawful orders or by engaging in political activism against Trump outside of work hours,” wrote Tyler O’Neill for The Daily Signal. “This deep state phenomenon undermined the first Trump administration, and the president has pledged to fight it aggressively in the new one.”
‘How to thwart or countermand the commander-in-chief’
CNN reported in November that senior Department of Defense (DoD) officials have been holding secret meetings to discuss how to thwart President-elect Donald Trump’s orders.
Pentagon leadership has been preparing responses to various scenarios, like if Trump orders the military to help mass-deport millions of illegal immigrants who flooded in under the Biden-Harris administration. They are also prepared to respond if Trump fires large swathes of federal employees, which he likely will. The incoming president is designing a major overhaul of the federal government, which may include the elimination of the Department of Education.
“We are all preparing and planning for the worst-case scenario, but the reality is that we don’t know how this is going to play out yet,” a Pentagon official told CNN.
“Troops are compelled by law to disobey unlawful orders,” said another official. “But the question is what happens then – do we see resignations from senior military leaders? Or would they view that as abandoning their people?”
CNN contributor Scott Jennings commented on the DoD’s “informal meetings.”
"I don't like this because what's Donald Trump supposed to think?” commented Jennings. “You know, he's sitting down there, he's the president-elect. And now he's got to read in the newspaper tonight that the unelected bureaucracy of the federal government is having meetings at some level about how to thwart or countermand the commander-in-chief.”
A practice coup in 2021
The Pentagon held similar meetings in January 2021 in which they used the pretext of January 6th to seize control of the military from Trump. Then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley claimed that Trump was going to issue an “unlawful order” to deploy the military against taxpayers. He therefore instructed DoD officials to disregard orders from Trump unless they came from Milley himself.
Preparing to go rogue
The Gold Report has detailed how Democrats have been preparing to repeat the coup by priming the military to refuse “unlawful orders” from Trump.
NBC reported in January 2024 that “a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs.” The report also hinted that members of the military are being conditioned to refuse orders from Trump if they are “illegal.”
“The military’s role is unique in that soldiers and sailors are trained to obey the commander-in-chief but are told not to follow illegal orders,” the report said.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) was quoted as saying that the United States can survive a Trump presidency if “the military itself resisted what they deemed to be an unlawful order.”
In the meantime, politicians like Blumenthal have been working to make Trump’s agenda unlawful. Blumenthal, for instance, introduced a bill that would forbid a withdrawal from NATO, a move Trump has openly supported.
After Trump’s win in November, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pointedly reminded the US Armed Forces to only obey “lawful orders” from Trump.
“As it always has, the US military will stand ready to carry out the policy choices of its next Commander in Chief, and to obey all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command,” he wrote in a letter. “You are the United States military — the finest fighting force on Earth — and you will continue to defend our country, our Constitution, and the rights of all of our citizens.”
