Trump: 'I have a chance to break the deep state'

President Trump predicted he would come out victorious in his war against the "deep state."

“If it keeps going the way it's going, I have a chance to break the deep state. It's a vicious group of people. It's very bad for our country,” Trump told Sinclair Broadcast's Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson.

Trump and his allies have long claimed there’s a “deep state,” or a shadow government, working to undermine his presidency. This was preceded by Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" of bureaucracy during his campaign.

The main target for their "deep state" assertions have been leakers and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, often dubbed a "witch hunt" by the president, which is now under scrutiny by U.S. Attorney John Durham. Democrats have expressed discomfort with the inquiry and are worried that it is a political effort to discredit Mueller's inquiry.

More recently, Republicans have rallied around the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts but now says the bureau set him up, and a recently declassified list of top Obama officials who received information in response to “unmasking” requests that disclosed Flynn's identity in surveillance intercepts of foreigners.

Trump praised Richard Grenell, his acting director of national intelligence, for declassifying the list.

“When you look at what Richard Grenell has done in eight weeks, these people didn't do anything for two and a half years,” Trump said in the interview that aired Sunday, criticizing his former spy chief Dan Coats and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The Republican-led Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe, a Texas congressman, as Trump’s new intelligence chief.

"Ratcliffe is fantastic,” Trump said.

During his confirmation hearing, Ratcliffe denied knowing the meaning of the “deep state” when asked whether he believes there is one in the intelligence community.

“I don’t know what that means,” he said. “I don’t know what that is.”