'You've Got to Fight': Reagan Veteran Praises Trump's War on the Deep State

The Daily Signal Podcast

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don Devine is proud that The Washington Post once attacked him as President Ronald Reagan's "terrible swift sword of the civil service," but even he is blown away by the muscular reforms of the Trump administration. That doesn't stop him from giving advice on how to slay the deep state leviathan, however. Devine, who served as the second director of the Office of Personnel Management under Reagan from 1981 to 1985, warned that public-sector unions will always oppose efforts to bring the administrative state to heel, so any conservative will have to take on these issues with steely resolve. "They're going to be fighting you no matter what you do," Devine told The Daily Signal. "The unions in the government, which shouldn't even be there ... The unions, that's their job, all right? If you do anything, they're going to go to the courts after you." "So, what's the answer? You got to do it anyway, you got to fight them," he explained. Public-sector unions, who represent federal government employees, have filed multiple lawsuits to block Trump's reforms on everything from DOGE getting access to federal data to the firing of probationary employees to the removal of collective bargaining privileges. Trump has just the stomach to face this threat, however, Devine said. Tune in to find out what happens next! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:27.7	Full terms apply.
0:34.9	This is Tyler O'Neill, Senior Editor at the Daily Signal, and this is a special bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast.
0:43.4	I sat down with none other than Don Divine, and he had this wonderful picture.
0:49.3	He held up the Washington Post, the front page, which attacked him as President Reagan's
0:55.6	terrible swift sword of the civil service.
0:59.1	And, you know, this is a fantastic piece of evidence, not only of the left's bias, but also
1:05.6	of Don Divine, the reason why I wanted to sit down with him, he helped Reagan go through and hold
1:12.5	the bureaucracy accountable. And now he says, he has advice for President Trump. And he says
1:18.4	he's never seen a transition as good as this Trump 2025 transition. My interview with Don
1:26.0	Devine is next.
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