Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George H.W. Bush, has shared her insights on the challenges Donald Trump faces in draining the swamp during his second presidential term. Following Trump’s 2024 victory, Fitts noted that while the president has supporters who genuinely want to eliminate the deep state, many others around him may be reinforcing it.
Fitts emphasized that Trump’s success in his second term will depend on political alignment at both the federal and state levels. She pointed out that the 2024 election provided a Republican landslide, creating an opportunity to make significant changes. However, Fitts cautioned that competing interests will play a crucial role in determining the direction of his administration.
“If you see some of the people around the president, they’re the ones who really do want to drain the swamp,” Fitts explained. “But many others are building the swamp.” She gave examples of policies, such as promoting digital IDs and private cryptocurrency involvement with federal finances, which, according to her, could expand the power of the deep state rather than diminish it.
Fitts also highlighted two critical issues for Trump’s next term: exiting the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Agreement. She suggested that Trump’s past success in withdrawing from these international agreements must be revisited, particularly as the central bankers push for greater control over fiscal policy and independence from Congress.
“There are going to be a couple of key issues. He got us out of the WHO before. It’s imperative he get us out of the WHO again,” Fitts stressed. “Will he do that? Will he get us back out of the Paris Agreement as he did in the first administration?” Fitts expressed concern that failure to address these issues could allow the deep state to thrive further.
She also warned that Trump’s administration could face intense pressure from the financial elites who want to expand their power. “The big issue in America right now is the central bankers would like to assert much more control over fiscal policy and achieve much more independence than they have under the law,” she noted. “They’re still accountable to Congress and they’re going to work hard to get Trump to help them do that and stripping out the Civil Service and replacing it with Big Tech will help them do that.”
“If you look at the dependency of the American economy on organized crime and war, the deep state it’s not something that happens in Washington, it’s something that happens within the cash flows of every county in America,” Fitts explained. “So the 3100 counties and 50 states. And those counties and States are highly dependent of the financial machinery of the deep state. So the corruption, whether it’s organized crime or war, is really bottom up and many people in America say they want Trump to reduce our dependency on organized crime, reduce our dependency on money laundering at the same time. They’re not prepared to deal with the financial ramifications if he does so.”
Fitts further explained the challenges Trump would face from local governments and businesses that depend on the financial machinery of the deep state. “If you’re the president, you walk into the Oval Office and your political guy is going to say ‘Well, Mr. President, the American people have spent billions to get you elected, now they want their government grant, they want their government purchase,’” Fitts described. “You’re going to turn to your Secretary of Treasury and say ‘Okay, how do I fund this?’ and he’s going to say, ‘You better be nice to the people who control the war machine and the organized crime cash flows who launder the money.’”
Fitts acknowledged that change can only occur when there is alignment between Washington and state governments. She pointed to the importance of strong relationships between congressmen, governors, and state officials. “Where you get really powerful change and we’ve seen this in the last year is where you get an alignment between interest in Washington,” Fitts explained.
“So one of the reasons you saw real support for the Republicans, if you look at the great freedom fighters across the country – in the Treasury’s office, in the AG’s office, in the state legislator’s office, in the governor’s office, what they will all tell you is if we have a Republican White House, we can get far more done in terms of turning machinery,” she added.
She added that “when you get alignment between them and the state legislators, the governors, and the AGs, that’s when you can start to turn the machinery.” According to Fitts, alignment is key to achieving the deep structural changes needed to drain the swamp.
“Without those alignments, it’s not going to happen,” Fitts concluded. Despite the serious challenges, she expressed optimism about the changes she says are already taking place.