What Is Deep State? Donald Trump Jr Tweets Article Supporting Conspiracy Theory

President Donald Trump and some members of his administration have maintained “deep state” existed in the White House. On Friday, his son Donald Trump Jr. tweet a report saying the deep state “is real.”

The deep state is a conspiracy theory that states bureaucrats, intelligence officials, and other government officials are leaking information with the Trump administration in a bid to manipulate the country.

Trump Jr. shared a Drudge Report tweet that had a Washington Free Beacon article claiming the Trump administration faces national security leak every day. This article prompted him to tweet: "If there was ever confirmed that the Deep State is real, illegal & endangers national security, it's this. Their interests above all else."

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The Free Beacon article cited a report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that said the U.S. faced “damaging leaks of information” since Trump assumed office.

"Under President Trump, leaks are flowing at the rate of one a day," the Senate committee report stated, noting that "under President Trump's predecessors, leaks of national security information were relatively rare."

According to a May report by Politico, Trump and his top aides, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, were of the opinion that the leaks targeting the Trump administration were part of a deep state conspiracy. One outside adviser to the president told Politico at the time that “the more people talk to him about it, the more he obsesses about it.”

Furthermore, the White House noted a series of negative stories has affected Trump’s presidency.

“We are letting others dictate entirely how we are perceived," the White House officials told Politico. “The calendar changes every day. There is no rhyme or reason to a lot of it.”

In June, Trump’s former campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski alleged ex-FBI Director James Comey was part of the "deep state" and he tried to "manipulate the media" against the president.

"What we've seen from Jim Comey is his goal is to manipulate the media, manipulate the press," Lewandowski said on NBC's "Today" show. "He is part of the deep state. He's everything that's wrong in Washington," he added.

In March, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer implied that the Trump administration was dealing with the deep state.

“Does the White House believe there’s such a thing as the deep state that’s actively working to undermine the president?” a reporter asked during Spicer’s press briefing at the time.

"I think that there's no question when you have eight years of one party in office, there are people who stay in government - and continue to espouse the agenda of the previous administration," Spicer replied.

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Also in March, Fox New host Sean Hannity, who is known to support some conspiracy theories, criticized what he called "deep-state Obama-holdover government bureaucrats who are hell-bent on destroying this president”.

“It’s time for the Trump administration to begin to purge these saboteurs before it’s too late,” he said.