Deep State Power Plays: IRS Overhaul and Billy Long’s Confirmation Battle

The “deep state’s” alleged efforts to main­tain con­trol over the Depart­ment of Defense, IRS, and finan­cial sys­tems amid the Trump administration’s aggres­sive IRS over­haul. The unusu­al pro­mo­tions of IRS whistle­blow­ers Gary Shap­ley and Joseph Ziegler, who claimed the Hunter Biden tax inves­ti­ga­tion was obstruct­ed, with Shap­ley briefly appoint­ed act­ing IRS com­mis­sion­er. How­ev­er, Shap­ley was oust­ed after a pow­er strug­gle involv­ing Trea­sury Sec­re­tary Scott Bessent and Elon Musk, replaced by Deputy Sec­re­tary Michael Faulk­ender, mark­ing the third IRS act­ing leader in a week. Trump’s nom­i­nee, for­mer Rep. Bil­ly Long, to per­ma­nent­ly lead the IRS, not­ing his stalled Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion due to con­cerns over $137,000 in cam­paign dona­tions used to repay per­son­al cam­paign loans—a prac­tice deemed legal post a 2022 Supreme Court rul­ing but crit­i­cized for enabling cor­rup­tion. The episode frames these events as part of a broad­er “deep state” cam­paign to thwart MAGA-aligned fig­ures, empha­siz­ing Long’s ties to a fraud-prone tax cred­it and the ongo­ing bat­tle for con­trol

• The deep state does not want to lose con­trol of the DOD, IRS, and the mon­ey. Remem­ber the two guys that tes­ti­fied from the IRS on the Hunter Biden case. Trea­sury pro­motes IRS agents who say Hunter Biden tax case was stymied, It was an unusu­al pro­mo­tion. 
• The Trump admin­is­tra­tion has been under­tak­ing an aggres­sive over­haul of the IRS. Trump picks a Hunter Biden whistle­blow­er to tem­porar­i­ly lead the IRS. Pres­i­dent Trump has nom­i­nat­ed Bil­ly Long, a for­mer repub­li­can con­gress­man who pushed a tax cred­it that was a mag­net for fraud to lead the agency but the Sen­ate has yet to con­firm him. Head of the IRS is oust­ed in the Trea­sury’s pow­er strug­gle with Elon Musk. Bessent deputy Michael Faulk­ender will be the new act­ing leader replac­ing Gary Shap­ley. Faulk­ender will be the third act­ing leader of the agency this week. 
• Bil­ly Long is hav­ing a hard time get­ting approved by the Sen­ate under secu­ri­ty over dona­tions that paid off per­son­al debt. Long received $137K in cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions just enough to pay off per­son­al loans to his cam­paign. There is noth­ing ille­gal here. This is done on a dai­ly basis. You can loan your cam­paign mon­ey and pay it back with inter­est. 
• In 2022 the US Supreme court struck down a lim­it on the amount of post elec­tion funds a can­di­date can use to pay back per­son­al loans. The major­i­ty found the lim­it an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al restric­tion on the free­dom of speech, while the dis­sent­ing jus­tices argued remov­ing it would pave the way for polit­i­cal cor­rup­tion. 
• The deep state is alive and work­ing to stop MAGA.