In his years as president, Donald Trump frequently bemoaned the “deep state” hidden within the federal government to sabotage his presidency. But despite his complaints, he secretly installed dozens of his own political appointees in career government positions. He also installed other loyalists to influential boards and groups. This was one of his final moves as president, but it may be the one thing he did that’s the most enduring, Joe.My.God. reports.

But just as Trump worked to undermine much of what the Obama administration achieved, Biden and his administration are seeking out government employees installed by Trump hoping to rid the bureaucracy of their influence so that he can move forward with no impediments to his agenda.

NBC News notes there is nothing new or original about the former president’s attempts to install his political appointees as civil servants. This is part of a process that’s come to be known over the years as “burrowing.” Outgoing presidents have been doing this for years.

This can, however, be a tricky situation because civil service employees have protections that government workers don’t have, therefore making it difficult for new administrations to fire them.

And the bad news, in this case, say good government advocates, government watchdogs, and federal bureaucracy experts and one member of Congress is that Trump’s burrowers are plentiful and dangerous.

That’s not all, either. These experts also say that in his final days as president, Trump placed allies in obscure positions, including advisory boards with close connections to decision-makers in high-level agencies. These folks hold unpaid positions on prestigious boards, and of course, have access to lawmakers, decision-making processes, and information that could make its way back to Trump.

“Under the guise of stopping a ‘deep state’ coup that never existed, Trump appears to have created a deep state of his own,” noted David Rohde, the executive editor of New Yorker.com and author of the book In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About America’s Deep State, published last year, said if Trump’s efforts continued unimpeded, this would have posed “an existential threat to democracy.”

Now Biden and his administration are separating the wheat from the chaff, having terminated or placed on leave a number of government employees that Trump hired as his presidency drew to a close, including the top lawyer at the National Security Agency and several members on advisory boards at the Pentagon.

In a statement to NBC News, a Biden administration official said they are “conducting a thorough review of several councils, commissions, and advisory boards,” noting “as part of that review, we may remove individuals whose continued membership on the board would not serve in the public interest.”

But these people are peppered throughout the federal government, meaning digging them out and identifying them could be a difficult task.

“Not to be hyperbolic, but the damage some of these people could do is enormous,” said Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy at the non-partisan Project on Government Oversight.

It looks like Biden administration officials have their work cut out for them. From January through September 2020, Trump political employees petitioned the Office of Personnel Management at least 49 times for civil service jobs, a congressional aide familiar with the situation told NBC News. While 20 are still pending, 15 were approved, and 14 were denied, declined, or withdrawn.

I’m going to cut to the crucial part here, owing to the length of this article, and it’s perhaps the most important part of this story:

“Our government has a phenomenally large and complex and diverse set of problems to address — a pandemic, an economic crisis, cyberattacks,” said Max Stier, CEO of the non-partisan Partnership for Public Service.”

“We have a system where a president gets to name any number of people to any number of jobs. But in so many cases, and certainly, in the last administration, they’re not chosen for their ability. They are not the best and brightest.”

Hopefully, Biden and his people are on their collective toes because this is something we may all have to deal with for possibly years and decades to come.

Former President Trump embedded dozens of his own political appointees in career government positions and appointed other loyalists to influential boards and groups. Now, the Biden admin. is trying to rid the broader federal bureaucracy of Trump loyalists. https://t.co/McGw6d5gDm

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 28, 2021