If the public sees behind the Wizard of Oz-like curtain, and recognizes that these people in the White House and Congress are just reading from the security manager's cue cards, and the shots are really being called by un-elected officials in Langley and Fort Meade and the FBI headquarters, the legitimacy of the government gets called into question. The CIA, FBI and NSA rely upon the appearance of democratic control for their own legitimacy.

Law scholar Michael J. Glennon examines the long, post-Truman transfer of power from democratically elected politicians to un-elected managers of the security state, and explains how Trump's provocation of America's double government (and conversely, its new liberal defenders) could restructure the mechanisms of power in our democracy.

Michael wrote the June cover story Security Breach: Trump’s tussle with the bureaucratic state for Harper's.