The Deep State Is Still Sabotaging Presidential Policies

Guest Post by Moon of Alabama

Ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar reminds us of subtle maneuvers by deep state actors to sabotage presidential policies.

When a U.S. spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union President Dwight Eisenhower had not be informed about its real mission. The CIA claimed that it had been a weather plane that went off course after its pilot was incapacitated. The president repeated that tale.

The Soviets then published that the wreckage of the U-2 spy plane had been recovered and the pilot captured alive. The Soviets were miffed of being lied to and Eisenhower’s attempt of detente with them failed.

Bhadrakumar sees a parallel in the recent Ukrainian drone attacks on strategic bomber on several Russian air field.

President Trump, in a call with the Russian president Putin, claimed that the U.S. had had no knowledge of the attack. That is, as several former CIA members confirm, implausible. The operation had been the making for 18 month which means that it had been initiated under President Biden. U.S. and/or British intelligence was certainly involved in designating the targets.

It seem that Trump, like Eisenhower before him, was not informed and thus embarrassed himself.

While Trump was talking with Putin Russian officials warned that deep state forces within the U.S. have not changed their anti-Russian aims:

Moscow should take very seriously reports that certain circles in the United States want to see Russia destroyed, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a news conference at TASS ..
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“The fact that certain circles in the United States have been and are still hatching plans to move towards eradicating Russia as a state is also undeniable. It is enough to follow the discussions that are taking place, including on political science platforms. We should not underestimate the consequences of such a mindset,” the deputy minister noted.
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His comments came in response to the words of Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an interview with Le Monde, who argued that former US President Joe Biden, during his administration, mentioned a desire to destroy Russia.

Ryabkov probably though of an upcoming conference about the ‘fracturing states’ of ‘one of the globe’s last colonial empires’, i.e. Russia, by the CIA connected Jamestown Foundation. The invitation to the conference says:

The Kremlin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine come at the cost of potential mutinies, fracture, and dissolution at home. Understanding the consequences of Russia’s deteriorating internal conditions will be the main topic of the upcoming conference, which will involve experts in foreign affairs, defense, and geopolitics, along with representatives of Russia’s captive nations long-recognized by the United States. Russia is one of the globe’s last colonial empires, denying captive nations the right to self-determination and independence. Whether it remains an aggressive imperial power committed to threatening its neighbors or otherwise devolves into fracturing states, U.S. and allied policymakers cannot afford to ignore Russia’s future.

While Trump is at least somewhat attempting to create better relations with the Russian Federation parts of the foreign policy blob are still dreaming of dismantling it.

We are seeing similar attempts of counteracting presidential policies with regards to China.

On May 11 during trade talks between the U.S. and China in Geneva both sides agreed to calm things down:

Both sides reduced their tariffs. China also promised to reduce some of its non tariff measures:

China will [..] adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2, 2025.

The financial markets relaxed and everyone was happy about it.

But on May 14, the very same day the new rules were to apply, the U.S. introduced new and extremely harsh measures against Chinese products:

The US Commerce Department issued guidance stating that the use of Huawei Technologies Co’s Ascend artificial intelligence (AI) chips “anywhere in the world” violates the government’s export controls, escalating US efforts to curb technological advances in China.The agency’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a statement on Tuesday that it is also planning to warn the public about “the potential consequences of allowing US AI chips to be used for training and inference of Chinese AI models”.

While this may not have been a technical breach of the Geneva agreement it certainly violated the spirit of the agreed upon Joint Statement: …

In consequence China continued to withhold export licensees for rare earth products which U.S. industries need. Trump was furious about this but seemingly without understanding what had caused China to take that step.

On Thursday a phone called between Trump and President Xi tried to calm things down (archived).

The two leaders, speaking for the first time since Trump became president, agreed to another round of high-level trade talks to follow up on the truce reached in Geneva last month, and exchanged invitations for state visits.
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Trump said on Truth Social “there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products,” but the Chinese readout didn’t mention the issue.

On Friday, just a day after the president’s attempt to calm down trade issues with China, four deep state actors set out to again sabotage him:

The U.S. in recent days suspended licenses for nuclear equipment suppliers to sell to China’s power plants, according to four people familiar with the matter, as the two countries engage in a damaging trade war.The suspensions were sent to companies by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the people said, and affect export licenses for parts and equipment used with nuclear power plants.
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Nuclear equipment suppliers are among a wide range of companies whose sales have been restricted over the past two weeks as the U.S.-China trade war shifted from negotiating tariffs to throttling each other’s supply chains. It is unclear whether a Thursday call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would affect the suspensions.

Why, just a day after Trump’s call with Xi, did ‘four people familiar with the matter’ found it necessary to inform Reuters of this?

This is, like the withholding of information on CIA operations in Russia, a measure to embarrass the president in eyes U.S. opponents. It is also an obvious attempt to sabotage trade with China.

The Chinese will note that the president’s words get counteracted by his administration. Why should they even talk with him when he is not able to impose his own policies on the people who are supposedly working for him?

In consequence U.S. companies will have wo wait longer to be allowed to purchase the rare earth products they urgently need and can only get from China.