The Biden Bureaucracy’s Firewall: How Activists Are Trump-Proofing The Government

The defining feature of a democratic republic is that the will of the voters determines the direction of government. Administrations change, policies shift and the bureaucratic apparatus is meant to function as a neutral executor of the people’s chosen leadership. Yet, under President Biden, an insidious transformation has taken place: the installation of activist bureaucrats, not to serve the country impartially, but to thwart the return of President Trump and to insulate Democratic policies from electoral consequences. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the elevation of Dr. Lyric Jorgenson at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Jorgenson’s career path is a case study in the Biden administration’s broader effort to fortify the federal bureaucracy against conservative governance. A longtime NIH scientist and policy architect, she was embedded in the Obama-era Cancer Moonshot program under then-Vice President Joe Biden. In 2023, she was promoted to the role of associate director for science policy and later designated as the agency’s scientific integrity official. On the surface, this might appear as a routine personnel decision, but it was, in fact, a calculated move within a larger scheme to prevent a Trump-led recalibration of federal science policy.

The implications of her appointment became clear when the White House directed NIH to implement new safeguards against so-called “political interference.” But the real purpose was more specific: to establish bureaucratic tripwires designed to obstruct any efforts by a future Trump administration to exert influence over public health policy. Notably, this effort began before Democrats were aware that Trump would appoint figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to key positions, demonstrating that the goal was not to counter specific policies but to preemptively block any conservative influence. Jorgenson’s role became the linchpin in this effort, as she was tasked with ensuring that NIH research and funding priorities remained aligned with the progressive scientific establishment’s preferences. Her authority to define what constitutes “political meddling” effectively gives her the power to delegitimize any policy changes under a Republican administration.

By embedding Jorgenson in a position of watchdog authority, the Biden administration has erected a structural blockade against Trump’s return. The rationale offered is that scientific integrity must be protected from “partisan agendas,” yet this assumes that the status quo—the left-leaning scientific consensus—is somehow apolitical. In reality, decisions about research funding, pandemic policies and public health messaging are inevitably infused with ideological considerations. Jorgenson’s appointment is a clear effort to preserve the progressive orientation of federal health policy while shielding it from the scrutiny of a Trump administration that might seek to reassert a different set of priorities.

The NIH is not an isolated case. Across the federal government, Biden’s appointees have been engaged in a systematic effort to “Trump-proof” agencies that were subjected to scrutiny and reform during his presidency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have all implemented measures that make it difficult for a new administration to alter their course. For instance, the EPA negotiated a union contract that explicitly protects scientists from what it defines as “political interference,” a provision designed to shield entrenched bureaucrats from accountability should Trump’s team seek to redirect environmental policy.

Even more broadly, Biden’s team has moved to block structural reforms of the federal workforce. Trump’s proposed Schedule F initiative, which aimed to make policy-influencing bureaucrats more accountable by allowing their removal, was swiftly reversed by Biden. But the administration went further by formalizing new civil service protections that would make it exceedingly difficult for a future Republican president to reintroduce such reforms without facing extensive legal and procedural obstacles.

These maneuvers reveal the true nature of what Biden officials have termed “safeguarding democracy.” Rather than ensuring fair governance, they have worked to insulate the administrative state from democratic oversight. The argument that scientific agencies should be free from political influence ignores the reality that these institutions have already been deeply politicized. The effort to protect their supposed neutrality is, in effect, an effort to prevent any course correction by an administration that does not share their ideological commitments.

In the case of Dr. Jorgenson, her role as a scientific integrity official grants her significant discretion to determine which policies align with the accepted scientific consensus and which are deemed politically motivated. This is a power that can—and will—be wielded selectively. The Biden administration has made no secret of its desire to “wall off” federal agencies from a returning Trump presidency, and Jorgenson’s appointment was a deliberate step in that direction. Her oversight can serve as a pretext to resist or discredit any conservative-leaning policy shifts by labeling them as undue interference.

This is not the operation of a neutral civil service. It is a concerted effort to impose ideological rigidity on institutions that should be responsive to electoral outcomes. By establishing a framework in which any deviation from progressive policy norms is cast as an attack on science or integrity, the Biden administration has ensured that federal agencies function as barriers rather than instruments of governance.

Ultimately, what is at stake is not merely the ability of a future Trump administration to set its own agenda. It is the fundamental principle that elected officials—not self-appointed guardians within the bureaucracy—should determine the direction of the country. The American people voted in 2016 for Trump’s vision of government. They voted again in 2024. Yet Biden’s bureaucratic entrenchment is an attempt to nullify those choices, to strip them of effect by ensuring that no matter who is elected, the same policies endure.

Democracy is subverted when unelected officials wield more power than those chosen by the people. Dr. Jorgenson’s placement at NIH is a small but telling example of how Biden’s administration has sought to place key institutions beyond the reach of electoral consequences. If this strategy succeeds, the will of the voters will be merely advisory, while the permanent bureaucratic class retains ultimate control. This is the essence of the Biden administration’s anti-democratic maneuver: installing activists in positions of power to serve as the last line of defense against the voice of the people.

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