Donald Trump Targets ‘Bad People’ And ‘Deep State’ For New Purge From His Administration, ‘Axios’ Reports
President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered sweeping personnel changes to cabinet agencies within his administration that will amount to a “purge” of what he calls “bad people” and the “Deep State,” according to an exclusive report by political news site Axios.
Trump has named his former “body man” Johnny McEntee to head the purported purge, according to the Friday morning Axios report. McEntee — who is 29-years-old — was fired as Trump’s personal assistant in March 2018, when he was being investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for financial crimes that could make him a security risk, according to legal news site Law & Crime.
After he was fired by Trump’s then-Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly over concerns related to “online gambling and mishandling of his taxes,” McEntee was escorted out of the White House, according to a report cited by Law & Crime. Those concerns made it impossible for McEntee to obtain certain security clearances.
As of Thursday, according to the Axios report, Trump has brought McEntee — a former college football quarterback at the University of Connecticut — back into the White House. He was purportedly assigned to head the presidential personnel office and has supposedly already held a meeting to announce the purge.
McEntee reportedly told staffers that he will be looking to identify any employees who hold “anti-Trump” views. Those so-called “Never Trumpers” will supposedly then be denied promotions and shifted between agencies in an effort to purge them from the administration, according to Friday’s report.
Trump has openly espoused a conspiracy theory in which members of what he calls a “deep state” within the government and military are constantly plotting against him. At a November campaign rally in Florida, Trump told the audience that any military officials who oppose his decisions belong to this “deep state” and are conspiring to bring him down.
McEntee is just one of the people recently added to the administration largely because Trump considers them to be his most staunch loyalists. Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks was rehired earlier this month as an adviser to Trump.
On Thursday, it was also revealed that Trump has named ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell to serve as acting Director of National Intelligence, according to a report by NBC News. Grenell replaces Joseph Maguire as the nation’s highest-ranking intelligence official — reportedly without previous experience in the intelligence community or with intelligence policy.
According to the reports on Thursday, Trump became angry at Maguire after an intelligence briefing to Congress warned about Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election. Trump was reportedly worried that Democrats would use that information against him in the election campaign, NBC News reported.
