You need to factor in the entrenched "deep state", what we call "the swamp". These people are the Federal government's senior brain-trusts. A few examples:
1. Fau-Chi hiring the Chinese Wuhan Lab, run by a Chinjese general to develop gain-of-function research of bat viruses to make them more deadly to humans.
2. The state department egg-heads (Dr. Fiona Hill) told Obama not to give Ukraine real weapons to fend off the Russian invasion. Trump gave the Ukrainians Javelin anti-tank missiles. Major difference in policy.
3. The FBI was a cesspool of falsified evidence, perjury traps, bad FISA warrants, political bias, illegal spying on political opponents. So was the CIA, NSA, and many other government agencies. The Swamp still needs to be drained, before the democrats **** up the military with "wokeness" and CRT.
Good idea looking at the official definition of populism. True, the opponents are the "elites" who think they are mentally superior, but as Reagan said, "but what the "elites" know just isn't so".
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