Lisa Yates, an intel officer and Biden Administration holdover, has gifted the world a how-to guide on sabotaging efficiency within the government. Her six-step strategy to quietly resist President Trump’s agenda reads like a playbook for ensuring mediocrity and doubling down on every bureaucratic stereotype imaginable. If government inefficiency were an Olympic sport, Yates would already have her gold medal.
Her instructions aren’t just laughable—they’re a masterclass in how to ensure government waste thrives. Let’s dissect each step of this stunning exercise in sabotage:
Step 1: Rigorous Adherence to Protocols
Yates’ Instructions:
“Insist on following every policy, procedure, and step to the letter—even when it slows down processes. This is sometimes called malicious compliance but remains within legal boundaries. For example, require extensive documentation reviews and approvals before implementing policies or directives.”
Translation:
Weaponize the rulebook. The goal is to drown every decision in so much bureaucracy that even the simplest task feels like solving three Rubik’s cube while juggling them…in the dark.
Imagine the government’s infamous $610 million IT modernization projects that produced nothing but outdated tech. Yates essentially advocates turning your department into a real-life DMV—just slower and with more documentation.
Step 2: Bureaucratic Delay
Yates’ Instructions:
“Use bureaucratic processes to slow down decisions or implementation of policies. For example, ask clarifying questions or request additional information, escalate issues for further review or approval, and invoke requirements for internal audits, legal reviews, or compliance checks.”
Translation:
Step aside, LA firefighters—you’ll need to fill out these forms in triplicate before you can save anyone. When the devastating California wildfires erupted, response times were bogged down by endless environmental impact reviews, bureaucratic hurdles, and permit delays. That’s what happens when “compliance” becomes a higher priority than saving lives. Yates wants you to replicate that dysfunction everywhere, ensuring action gets lost in a maze of legal reviews while entire cities metaphorically and literally burn to the ground.
JUST IN: LA Mayor Karen Bass gets cooked by President Trump and Palisades residents over bureaucracy blocking LA homeowners from cleaning up their property lots and getting permits to rebuild their homes. pic.twitter.com/T4aCOzxM1v
— Ermias (@ErmiasAlem) January 25, 2025
Step 3: Over-Communicate
Yates’ Instructions:
“Share all directives widely within your chain of command or among relevant stakeholders. Increased visibility can delay or complicate actions that might otherwise proceed unchallenged.”
Translation:
Spam everyone into submission. When you can’t stop progress outright, bury it under an avalanche of memos, CCs, and unread email chains. Obama and Biden were giants of “shock and awe“. They allowed so much chaos that Republicans didn’t know what to tackle on a daily basis. When we weren’t fighting Obamacare, we were battling against the Muslim Brotherhood, whom Democrats allowed to infiltrate our government. Plant enough Muslims in government, then cover for their activities including terror attacks, and soon we are thankful to have their culture among us.
Step 4: Raise Endless Questions
Yates’ Instructions:
“Consistently seek detailed clarifications or propose alternatives during meetings. Framing questions as ensuring due diligence can slow momentum while appearing constructive.”
Translation:
Become the guy in every meeting who asks, “But what if we tried it another way?” on repeat. This strategy is already alive and well in government, evidenced by every problem that continues to get kicked to the next administration. A perfect example is illegal invaders. Every politician is on record for saying we need to at the very least deport illegals who commit violent crimes. But the only one who has implemented a solution is Donald Trump. If Yates believes raising endless questions will work on this issue with Trump, the question I would ask her is, “Is you resume up to date?”
Step 5: Prioritize Other Tasks
Yates’ Instructions:
“Place directives or projects you oppose lower on your priority list while focusing on higher-priority or more pressing issues. This can naturally delay their implementation.”
Here is Karen Bass asking for more tax money so she can still not do that task she promised with the smaller tax:
Karen Bass isn’t going to let a little thing like previously spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in her failed attempt to solve homelessness, stop her from asking more from taxpayers to fund her failed attempt to solve homelessness. pic.twitter.com/qU7l4qYU7T
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) October 22, 2024
Translation:
Ignore it until it either disappears or someone else deals with it. Think about how FEMA has responded to recent natural disasters. Pretend that saving lives is “high-priority”, then meet for status updates. Allow weeks to pass, as urgent aid sits in warehouses. When people complain, explain that you have a checklist of priorities that you must get to, in order to be more helpful to them. Of course the irony is that you were never helpful to them. North Carolinians waited on housing, food, and more. While the government pretended to be doing something, the citizens of North Carolina had to fend for themselves. Had it not been for the Trump win, who knows where North Carolina would be on Harris’ “to do” list.
Step 6: Strategic Interpretation
Yates’ Instructions:
“Apply directives in a way that technically complies but undermines their intended outcomes.”
Translation:
This is the “play dumb” step. If there’s a directive you don’t like, interpret it so poorly that it becomes useless. It’s the same energy that resulted in billions of dollars in COVID relief fraud because of a lack of oversight. We funded a disease that killed less people than the flu, then offered vaccines that did more damage to humans than the disease itself. Thus, what should have been controlled with over-the-counter meds turned into a multi-trillion dollar boondoggle. As you ponder this, consider Biden’s multi-billion dollar EV station rollout that didn’t occur, or the broadband infrastructure deal that delivered nothing.
Final Thoughts
Lisa Yates didn’t craft a clever resistance strategy; she just described the government’s standard operating procedure. Her guide is a testament to why projects take decades, cost taxpayers billions, and still fail. If anything, she’s made a compelling case for a massive reduction in bureaucracy—starting with her own playbook.
