The Trump administration, Fox News and the Alt-Right are working themselves into quite a state over the Deep State. They truly appear to believe that former President Obama and a merry band of holdover bureaucrats are running a shadow government two blocks from the White House. In some versions of theory the "fake news" media are also a part of it all.

The new administration is not functioning well in large part because President Trump has not been an effective leader. He has not filled many of the appointed positions in his administration and he has spent much of his time vacationing or holding rallies when he should have been putting an administration together. This is not Obama's fault. There are plenty of qualified Republicans who could fill these positions, but looking for them is too much like work for this president. He just wants to do the fun stuff.

Michael Cook

Norwich