Brandon Wright, a GS-14 Platform Services Manager for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), admitted that career officials within the department actively resist directives from political appointees, including newly appointed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“The truth is, we don’t let them [secretaries] get in our way,” Wright disclosed to an undercover O’Keefe Media journalist. He went on to explain the deeply entrenched bureaucratic resistance within DHS, likening it to a multi-layered septic system that filters out directives it does not align with. “There’s a lot of layers, like [in] government… By the time the actual marching orders get to me and below, we can filter it in a way that steadies the ship.”