Tyler O'Neil Profile picture
May 5 15 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Who are the Biden political appointees who "burrowed in" to the federal bureaucracy?🤔

The list includes a former White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council member, former USAID staff, and immigration lawyers.

I'll explain "burrowing in," then get to the names.

🧵1/15 Image
First, what is "burrowing in?" @hughhewitt gave a good concise definition in an interview with me at @JobCreatorsUSA's Freedom Fighters Summit

Presidents appoint more than 3K people for "political" positions, but there are at least 2.3M federal workers. Most are in ostensibly non-political "career" positions.

Burrowing in involves switching from a "political" to a "career" position.

🧵2/15
Why is this a problem?

“The biggest challenge that every single new Cabinet secretary and their subordinates will face is the entrenched bureaucrat,” @TheFGA's @stew_whitson told me.

He described both overt opposition to the president and “quiet insubordination.”

🧵3/15
A recent @ScottWRasmussen poll found a whopping 75% of the DC-based feds making $75K+ who voted for Kamala Harris in the last election said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy.

The deep state in a nutshell.

🧵4/15

dailysignal.com/2025/04/24/dee…
“It’s easy to throw sand in the gears for something you don’t like, and that’s one of the reasons why things run so slowly in the government,” @ceidotorg's @SeanGHiggins told me.

CEI tracks regulations, which cost nearly as much as income taxes



🧵5/15 dailysignal.com/2025/04/26/ave…Image
The Office of Personnel Management (@USOPM) publishes a report showing the bureaucrats who burrowed in, and I dug through these reports.

“Our goal is to ensure all career appointments are based on merit,” OPM Spox McLaurine Pinover told me.

On to the names.

🧵6/15 Image
1⃣Kerry Doyle

Doyle worked for ICE & DHS under Biden, then applied to be an immigration judge. She got a pay bump, from $168K to $176K.

Doyle got fired in February, right before she was going to be sworn in.

She had previously worked at Church World Service, which receives federal money to move immigrants across the country. She also worked for a House Democrat.

🧵7/15Image
2⃣Margot Benedict

Benedict joined the DOJ as an attorney in July 2021 and ultimately served as senior counselor to AG Garland.

She first received an offer for a career position in 2023, which she filled in January. She received a raise from $116K to $131K.

She left the DOJ in March, returning to Morrison Foerster, where she had previously worked. She served brief stints interning at the National Women's Law Center and clerking for Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, on the Judiciary Committee.

🧵8/15
3⃣Elisa Santana

Santana joined USAID in 2022, and OPM approved her switching to the Department of Commerce in December. She got a pay bump, from $104K to $106K.

She recently posted that she lost her job.

Before USAID, Santana worked for Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan and Dem. Rep. Lloyd Doggett.

🧵9/15
4⃣Tara Boggaram

OPM approved Boggaram to switch from a political position to a career position at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. She took a pay cut, from $137K to $111K. She seems to still be at IDFC.

Boggaram previously worked as a field organizer for Beto O'Rourke's failed 2018 Senate campaign.

🧵10/15
5⃣Ruirui Kuang

Kuang also moved from a political position to a career position at IDFC. She also took a pay cut, from $146K to $125K.

She previously worked in the Obama White House as an innovation specialist on the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team in 2015-2016.

🧵11/15
6⃣Susan Wang

Wang worked at the Office of Management and Budget and moved to an attorney advisor role at the DOJ's office of legal counsel. She got a hefty raise, from $63K to $105K.

Wang interned with then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., worked as a field organizer for the Obama campaign in 2012, then served as digital chief of staff for the Biden Presidential Inaugural Committee.

🧵12/15
7⃣Megan Doherty

Doherty went from USAID to become vice president of programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She got a raise, from $126K to $200K.

Trump has moved to eliminate the Wilson Center, and it seems Doherty is one of the few remaining employees overseeing its downsizing.

Doherty spent 7 years at the National Democratic Institute, which has received more than $1M from the Foundation for Open Society. She served on Obama's National Security Council.

🧵13/15
8⃣Andrea Delgado-Fink

Last but not least, I'll mention Delgado-Fink, who appears to still be at the Forest Service. She switched from a political role at the Department of Agriculture in October, getting a raise, from $113K to $131K.

Fink worked at the green activist group Earthjustice from 2012 to 2019. She joined the Biden-Harris transition team and served on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

This environmentalist past suggests she may oppose the Trump administration from within.

🧵14/15
I will note that I don't have any evidence these bureaucrats will or would have opposed Trump from within.

I would hope that, as employees of the executive branch, they would follow lawful orders.

However, they illustrate the phenomenon of the "burrowing in" phenomenon on the Left.

🧵15/15

Read more at the link⬇️

dailysignal.com/2025/05/04/bur…

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More from @Tyler2ONeil

May 6
No, this isn't a parody video.😲

A Democrat did literally invoke "trans Jesus" on the floor of the Colorado Senate.

Yet the legal maneuvering of Chris Kolker and his party in that chamber is even worse.

🧵1/10

dailysignal.com/2025/05/06/dem…
Brief refresher:

Colorado LGBTQ groups pushed for HB25-1312, a bill that would define "misgendering" and "deadnaming" as "coercive control" and mandate custody courts consider them.

Democrats excluded parental rights groups from discussion, comparing them to the KKK.

🧵2/10
The bill passed the Colorado House, 36 in favor, 20 against, and 9 absent in a largely party-line vote.

The Colorado House has 43 Dems and 22 Republicans. The Colorado Senate has 23 Dems and 12 Republicans.

🧵3/10 Image
Read 10 tweets
Apr 26
One of the worst government abuses I've seen happened in the state where I went to college—Michigan.

It truly is Orwellian.

Michigan AG Dana Nessel launched a "Hate Crimes Unit" citing the SPLC, which compares conservative and Christian groups to the KKK.

One of the targeted groups, @aflc_freedomlaw, sued to block Nessel from placing his group under surveillance.

All this took place in 2019. The last move on the case happened in 2021.😲

Now, AFLC will finally have its day in court—in June.

Here's a thread on the case.

🧵1/10

dailysignal.com/2025/04/25/orw…Image
The case dates back to February 2019.

The SPLC released its hate map for 2018, and Nessel responded by pledging, "Hate cannot continue to flourish in our state."

"I have seen the appalling, often fatal, results of hate when it is acted upon," she added. "That is why I am establishing a hate-crimes unit in my office—to fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups which have been allowed to proliferate in our state."

That may sound noble, but if you know anything about the SPLC, it should be unnerving, if not downright terrifying.

🧵2/10Image
Image
You see, the SPLC is no neutral arbiter on hate.

It champions almost every leftist cause you've ever heard of, and accuses those who dare disagree of being driven by "hate."

Do you follow the traditional Jewish or Christian teachings on sexuality? You're an "anti-LGBTQ hate group."

Want our immigration laws enforced? You're an "anti-immigrant hate group"—even if you have legal immigrants on the board.

Are you concerned about radical Islam inspiring terrorism? You're an "anti-Muslim hate group."

Do you think parents should have a say in their kids' education? You're an "anti-government extremist group" and on the hate map.

Last year, the SPLC even added groups of doctors who oppose "gender-affirming care" and @againstgrmrs to the "hate map."

When the FBI was caught citing the SPLC's "hate map" in targeting "radical traditional Catholics," it was rightly a huge scandal.

🧵3/10
Read 10 tweets
Apr 24
🚨DEEP STATE TAKES SHAPE

A shocking new poll from @ScottWRasmussen shows just how many D.C.-based bureaucrats who voted for Kamala Harris say they plan to disobey a lawful Trump order if they consider it bad policy.

Yes, people who work for the taxpayer plan to disobey the people's elected president. This is the key definition of the deep state.

🧵1/10

dailysignal.com/2025/04/24/dee…Image
RMG Research, Rasmussen's polling firm, identifies federal government managers as federal employees in the DC region who earn at least $75K.

The firm asked this essential question:

"Suppose that President Trump gave an order that was legal but you believed was bad policy. Would you follow the president's order or do what you thought was best?"

THREE QUARTERS—75%—of DC bureaucrats who voted for Kamala Harris said they would "do what I thought was best" rather than follow Trump's order.

Only 16% said they'd do as the people's elected president ordered.😲

🧵2/10Image
NOTE: This isn't asking if they'd follow Trump over the law.

This is just asking if they place their own opinion of good or bad policy ahead of the person who was elected by the people to lead the executive branch.

It's also worrying that 18% of those who voted for Trump say they'd "do what I thought was best" instead of following the order. That's probably a lot lower than it would have been if the poll was conducted in 2017, however.

🧵3/10
Read 10 tweets
Apr 7
🚨'CROSSED THE RUBICON'

The legacy media seems not to have noticed, but the Colorado🏔️ House passed HB 1312 largely along party lines: 36 for, 20 against, and 9 absent.

Colorado Democrats not only held the vote on Sunday night but they also moved to end debate in a way @RepCaldwell says was premature.

Caldwell says Democrats stifled debate, and that would echo what they did last week...

🧵1/6

dailysignal.com/2025/04/07/cro…Image
What does the bill do?🤔

“It’s codifying into law that if their ideology confuses your child, and you don’t affirm that delusion, you’re committing child abuse and can lose custody of your child,” Caldwell told me.

“We have now crossed the Rubicon of parental rights with this bill,” he added.

🧵2/6
When Caldwell asked whether parental rights groups had been allowed to weigh in on the legislation, a Democrat—Rep. Yara Zokaie—mocked the very idea.

“A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups, and we don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,” she quipped last Tuesday.

Zokaie doubled down on the comparison on Friday, explicitly citing the Southern Poverty Law Center.

🧵3/6

x.com/Tyler2ONeil/st…
Read 6 tweets
Apr 5
🚨BREAKING

Colorado state Rep. Yara Zokaie doubles down on comparing parental rights groups to the KKK, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Zokaie did so while defending a bill that would define "misgendering" and "deadnaming" as "coercive control" and would require courts to consider it in custody battles.😡

So, parents who don't want to trans their kids should have their kids removed from them, and if these parents team up to form a group, they'll be demonized as hateful like the KKK.

Got it.

🧵1/7

dailysignal.com/2025/04/04/col…
Zokaie had first compared parents groups to the KKK in a hearing on Tuesday.

She attempted to explain why parental rights groups had been excluded from discussions on HB 1312, the bill in question.

“A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups, and we don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,” she quipped.

🧵2/7
Two House Republicans slammed Zokaie's remarks.

“Calling parental advocacy groups ‘hate groups’ is just their excuse to marginalize and ignore them while maintaining a pretense of moral superiority,” @COrepKdeGraaf told me.

@RepCaldwell said the comparison uses “inflammatory labels that are only meant to create division” and “dismisses the valid concerns of parents.”

🧵3/7
Read 7 tweets
Mar 24
🚨FOLLOW THE MONEY💰

The Left is freaking out about President Trump ramping down the Department of Education. Dems say Trump has "declared war on America's students," but the move won't impact kids on the ground.

Who will it harm? Unions that bankroll Democrats and other left-leaning NGOs.

Here's a 🧵 explaining what may actually happen and why the Left can't handle it.

1/4

dailysignal.com/2025/03/23/wha…Image
WHAT DOES THE DOE DO?🤔

Contrary to the Democrats' suggestions, the Department of Education doesn't actually run schools. Rather, it handles federal funding for schools and enforces certain rules like Title IX.

These functions can arguably be reassigned to other federal agencies, and other actions can be delegated to the states, which actually run public schools in this country.

2/4Image
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF DOE DISAPPEARS?

“Teacher unions benefit from access to a central place where they can advocate for programs that benefit them,” @Heritage's @JM_Butcher told me.

“Having access to a central office from which they can lobby for large sums is more cost-effective to them than 50 different states.”

Of course, the unions' power base "is in the states," and "surveys of state and local chapters find that they don’t always approve of what the national office is doing."

If the DOE goes the way of the do-do, it will be harder for national teachers unions to justify their national offices in D.C.

3/4
Read 4 tweets

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