Taken together, the apparatus of Republican groups are laying plans to transform the federal government, slashing the administrative power of agencies, making it easier to fire career civil employees, cutting the roster of those working for the government and vetting a generation of new loyalists to take positions to enact conservative change…

AFPI has also launched an effort to vet potential political appointees for the next Republican to win the White House, parallel to separate undertakings by the Heritage Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group led by former senator Jim DeMint and former congressman Mark Meadows, who served as Trump’s last chief of staff.

Meadows has told others he is working with Trump advisers to make sure Trump has a team around him that is sufficiently loyal to him and his agenda. He did not respond to a request for comment. Meadows is not as close with Trump as he once was, according to advisers, who, like others for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal details…

“The paradigms have to shift. Our goal is to take on the deep state in the national security state and even some in the domestic agencies,” Vought said. “There are ones that are more problematic than others.”