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Former FBI Director James Comey used a Sunday television appearance to say plainly what many of President Donald Trump\u2019s supporters have long argued: that key figures in the federal law enforcement and intelligence bureaucracy view themselves as a counterweight to the elected administration, rather than subordinate to it.<\/span><\/p>\n During an appearance on NBC\u2019s \u201c<\/span>Meet the Press<\/span><\/a>,\u201d\u00a0Comey said he has little confidence in the Justice Department\u2019s current leadership but urged career employees to remain in place through the remainder of Trump\u2019s term. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI have great confidence in the people down below who are just trying to hang on,\u201d Comey said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m urging them, hang on. Two and a half years, and then we can rebuild these institutions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Former officials criticizing an administration is commonplace. What stands out is that Comey framed the department\u2019s Senate-confirmed leadership as a temporary aberration to endure until the bureaucracy can \u201crebuild\u201d itself. <\/span><\/p>\n In Comey\u2019s telling, the true stewards of federal agencies are not the president and his appointees, but career officials embedded within them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The comments came as Comey remains under <\/span>indictment<\/span><\/a> for his May 2025 Instagram post featuring the phrase \u201c86 47,\u201d which prosecutors say amounted to a threat against Trump. The former FBI director dismissed the case during the interview and <\/span>mocked<\/span><\/a> Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, suggesting Blanche should \u201cbone up on the rules\u201d after publicly discussing the prosecution.<\/span><\/p>\n Comey\u2019s posture throughout the interview was consistent: contempt for the administration at the top, confidence in the career bureaucracy beneath it, and open anticipation that Trump\u2019s presidency is something federal employees should simply wait out.<\/span><\/p>\n That message cuts to the heart of a debate Trump has raised since his first campaign \u2014 whether the administrative state sees itself as politically neutral or as an institutional force capable of resisting elected leadership it deems unacceptable.<\/span><\/p>\n Comey appeared to answer that question directly. By urging federal employees to \u201chang on\u201d until Trump leaves office so the institutions can be \u201crebuilt,\u201d he described a bureaucracy that is not simply carrying out policy disagreements internally, but one that can preserve itself against democratic change and restore its preferred order when the political climate shifts.<\/span><\/p>\n