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    • Trump talked about revenge. Will he deliver as president?
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    Trump talked about revenge. Will he deliver as president?

    Online Niel Posted on

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    Taking advantage of Donald Trump’s incendiary comments about his political opponents, Democrats have spent months warning that he will enter office with an “enemies list” and execute a campaign of revenge unparalleled in modern politics.

    Voters shrugged their shoulders and he chose Trump anywayand his allies say concerns about retaliation have been overblown. Trump likes to talk tough and often doesn’t follow through − It’s all theater, they argue, pointing to “shut it down” chants during the 2016 campaign that targeted Hillary Clinton. But no prosecution emerged.

    Trump is known for being vindictive. He went after those who took him down politically, relentlessly campaigning against the Republicans who voted for his two impeachments. And he meddled in the legal system, firing FBI Director James Comey over the agency’s handling of an investigation into alleged collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

    He too fired Attorney General Jeff Sessionswho drew Trump’s ire after recusing himself from the Russia probe and his Justice Department reportedly seeking a criminal investigation in former Secretary of State John Kerry after the two clashed over the Iran nuclear deal.

    Now the question is whether Trump’s campaign threats are fanfare or the precursor to difficult score-setting.

    Will a Trump encouraged by a crushing victory and a recent one supreme court decision offer broad immunity because the actions of a sitting president meet threats against his opponents? Is it payback time?

    Trump talked during the campaign about legal action against everyone President Joe Biden to the Vice President Kamala Harrisformer GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. He criticized perceived “enemies within”. He has threatened opponents with prosecution, drawing comparisons to authoritarian regimes and raising serious concerns about the nation’s democratic foundations.

    Trump shared a message on social media saying Cheney was “guilty of treason,” a charge he also leveled at former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

    “This is such an egregious act that in former times the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote on social media about Milley.

    During a Pennsylvania rally Trump said Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted” for her handling of immigration.

    More: Trump promises to go after his enemies if elected. Meet two officers ready to do just that

    Still, those close to Trump play down talk of retaliation, with many pointing to Clinton’s example as a sign that campaign rhetoric doesn’t mean legal action. They echo Trump in saying that the greatest revenge will be a successful presidency with a booming economy.

    “He’s never done it before, I don’t think he’s going to be consumed with it,” said a Republican consultant close to the Trump campaign, adding that “He knows how the history books are written … he knows if he’s going to get in. and inflation relaxes, the final chapter on it.

    Some longtime Trump watchers are skeptical.

    “The idea that Donald Trump is going to go into this like Mary Poppins after being Godzilla on the campaign trail is just a misreading of who he is,” said Trump biographer Tim O’Brien.

    As Trump often offered contradictory statements on the campaign trail, saying one day that Biden and his family should face a special prosecutor and another who “my revenge will be successful” some allies suggest that criminal prosecutions may be warranted, while throwing cold water on the idea of ​​a presidency broadly focused on revenge.

    “If he didn’t do it in his first term, why would he do it in his second term?” longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone said Tuesday at the incoming president’s election night party in West Palm Beach. “Now, that being said, those who broke the law, as they keep telling us, should be prosecuted.”

    Conservative Political Action Conference President Matt Schlapp believes the federal bureaucracy will try to cripple Trump’s presidency and that he must be “ready to fight.”

    “What we have to be ready to do is prosecute or at least discipline all these swamp creatures who are trying to undermine the rightfully elected president,” Schlapp said.

    Even those who don’t believe Trump will seek charges against his opponents believe there could be a purge at the Justice Department, which has brought criminal charges against the current president.–pick for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump has he undertook to shoot special counsel, Jack Smith, handling both cases.

    “Revenge means to me that half of the DOJ will be fired. I don’t think retaliation means people are going to be thrown in jail,” said former Trump adviser-turned-critic Sam Nunberg.

    Trump often claims that the DOJ has been politicized and engaged in “legal action” against him, despite the fact that Biden has not intervened in any of his cases and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s insistence that the agency act independently.

    A shakeup at the DOJ could threaten the agency’s independence and make it subject to the president’s whims, giving him sweeping powers to go after perceived enemies.

    “I think you’re going to see real nastiness at the Justice Department,” said Ty Cobb, a Trump White House lawyer and now a critic of the former president, who predicted “loyalty tests” for top DOJ figures.

    O’Brien described Trump’s campaign as a “revenge tour” for a man who believes he was unfairly stripped of the presidency in 2020. An injured Trump with few railings in a second administration will be dangerous, he said O’Brien.

    “I think he’s going to visit an authoritarian approach to the American public that nobody in the modern era is used to or has seen,” O’Brien said. “And the consequences, I think, will be stunning and serious.”

    Harris focused on threats from the Trump campaign in it closing messagesaying she will take office with a “to-do list” while her opponent has an “enemies list.” That wasn’t enough to keep him from victory, and Trump allies say it doesn’t ring true.

    “It’s not going to be about revenge,” said Stone, who was pardoned by Trump after he was convicted of obstructing the congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and of making false statements. “I think he understands how he ultimately gets the biggest ‘(expletive) you’ possible is to turn the country around and be the most popular president in American history.” I don’t think he’s interested in personal revenge, that’s not his motive. here, it never was.”

    Marc Short, who served as Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said Trump’s language on the campaign trail was “unfortunate.”

    “I think as conservatives one of our fundamental principles is to believe in the rule of law,” Short said. “I’ve often criticized left-wing dictatorships for going after their political enemies, so I hope that won’t be the case.”

    While noting that Trump never charged Clinton after making a promise in 2016, Short said it’s reasonable to question whether she will follow through on that promise after a campaign filled with threats.

    “It’s a fair question because I think the rhetoric was more heated this time,” Short said.

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