Neither Democrats nor the Washington-based news media want Donald Trump’s presidency to succeed and one of the most effective ways to ensure it doesn’t is for people to sabotage his administration from within, as was often the case in his first term.
But they don’t explicitly acknowledge that reality. They instead cloak the subversion in nobility by referring to “independent” administration officials or cabinet appointees whom they urge to “exercise independence.”
On Friday’s episode of The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast, reporter Jonathan Swan said Trump and his closest allies are “scouring the executive branch, looking for any pockets of independence and removing them.” Likewise, during the confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for attorney general Pam Bondi, Democrat Sen. Chris Coons said, “One of the concerns I’ve raised … is safeguarding the Department of Justice’s independence…”
The point is to frame disobedience to the duly elected president as an act of nobility. When they say “independence,” they don’t mean an enthusiasm for critical thinking and personal experience that could be useful in offering advice to form the president’s thinking. What they mean is insubordination, a readiness to rebuke direction from Trump that will once again derail the agenda he was elected to implement…
The Federalist 
