April 29th 2024

What exactly is this “Deep State” that I speak of? Some of the characters in this book are elected leaders. Others are yellow journalists in the media who serve as peddlers of propaganda and disinformation at the behest of the ruling elites. Still others are Big Tech tycoons and actors affiliated with non-governmental organizations, who carry water for the Democrat Party and the radical left. But my most dogged opponents were officials within the executive branch itself—members of the unelected federal bureaucracy who think they have the right to rule America, not Congress or the president. Altogether, these actors have come to be known as the Deep State. A few years ago, most Americans had never heard the term “Deep State,” and those who had would have thought that the idea of some murky shadow government operating behind the curtains in Washington, DC, was just a little too outlandish—something that may exist in other countries but certainly not in the United States in the twenty-first century.

Today, it is impossible to deny: America simply doesn’t work the way we were told in Schoolhouse Rock!. All sides of the political spectrum can acknowledge that the people are not the sole sovereigns of America acting through their representatives in Congress and in the White House. The people and their wishes are not even the primary deference point for power in our government. Instead, there are groups of people at the highest levels of government, business, and culture who operate independently of elections and of the people. They aren’t mentioned in the Constitution, and they have their own rules, priorities, interests, and sources of power. As I confronted them time and again, I caught them manipulating the national security apparatus and failing to put our government’s no-fail mission first—the mission to keep the American people safe and secure. Not only that, but they would abuse their power to subvert what the people voted for, twisting reality according to their own purposes and shredding the foundations of our constitutional republic in the process.

At first glance, they can seem to be everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Here we see a politicized investigation, and there we see the absence of a needed and legitimate investigation, coupled with failure of oversight, accountability, or even interest from Congress or the press. Here we see a selective leak of classified information to damage a certain political movement or actor, with the establishment media acting in unison—often using the exact same language and phrases—to reinforce the Deep State’s narrative. There we see a seemingly coordinated cover-up where the truth seems to always remain hidden, or even blocked from dissemination by Big Tech. Taken in isolation, every little event is able to be explained away. “It was a bad apple.” “It was an oversight.” “It was a single abuse of authority.” But taken together, a picture emerges of a coordinated, ideologically rigid force independent from the people that manipulates the levers of politics and justice for its own gain and self-preservation. This group is the Deep State.

—Kash Patel