As our guest author Rebecca Gordon explains the term “deep state” is from Turkey, where they have government by a criminal gang. And though Trump clearly enjoys accusing others of what he displays, the legitimate government, the one filled with non-political civil servants carrying out the public’s business in a republic, is not a “deep state.”  He is trying to manipulate fears by creation of an imagined sinister government. But he hates that some don’t just cater to the executive. These are the other co-equal branches: legislative and judicial. Gordon argues that a shadow government, one that conducts foreign policy with unaccountable cronies is the real deep state. And it is dangerous.  But like Joe McCarthy and Nixon and Reagan, Trump intentionally conjures up a fake monster for us to focus on while his actual shadow forces are the real threat to democracy.