Trump’s Biggest Fans Think He’s Part of the Deep State Now

Right-wing influencers Candace Owens and Andrew Tate think Donald Trump has been compromised by the so-called “deep state.”

Tate appeared on Owens’s YouTube show Candace, and Owens raised the idea that Trump has changed since his first presidential campaign, and it’s because of money.

“It doesn’t feel to me like the same Trump from 2015,” Owens said in the episode released on Thursday. “And obviously he’s the better candidate. I want Trump to win as well, but it does seem that now he’s accepted money that he can’t be as hardcore about certain topics and certain issues as he was back in 2015 when there was no chance he was gonna win.

“Now it feels like, I don’t know, like they’ve kind of—I don’t wanna say buck-broken him, but there’s definitely a lot of consultants around,” Owens continued, using a term referring to physically punishing or sexually assaulting a male slave in front of other slaves to humiliate him.

Tate concurred, saying that he’s “a fan of Trump” too, and posited a theory that Trump tried to reason with his opponents during his time as president.

“I think there was part of his mind that said, ‘You know what, I’m really gonna get back into administration and teach these guys a lesson,’ and then I think something happened,” Tate said.

“Someone came along at some point and I think perhaps that deal was done, they said, ‘You won’t go to jail, Trump Tower will stay standing, your kids will be safe in America, everything’s gonna be OK, but you’re gonna have to bend on these few things,’” Tate added.

Tate further expanded on his conspiracy theory, claiming that while he was praying for a Trump victory, he thinks the former president and convicted felon has cut some kind of deal with the deep state to protect himself and his family.

“I just feel like somewhere along the line, something has been agreed to to prevent postpresidency or post-death for his empire and for his children,” Tate said. “There seems to be some kind of deal somewhere … I don’t know exactly what the deal is. I’m not even gonna say that I blame the guy for taking it. But some kind of agreement’s been made.”

The idea that Trump has been tamed in his campaign cycle this time around beggars belief. Are Tate and Owens referring to his attempts to disavow the Project 2025 manifesto, or his reduced travel schedule following the attempt on his life last month? Because it’s pretty clear Trump isn’t trying to tamp down his rhetoric. And they’re not the only ones: Trump has also lost the support of white nationalists like Nick Fuentes. Maybe they all are finally noticing Trump’s apparent cognitive decline.