Donald Trump campaigned with a vow to utilize governmental authority to exact revenge on those he felt wronged by. It seems he is now delivering on that promise and is hinting at extending his reach beyond the confines of Washington.
Recently, the FBI conducted a search of the residence of John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser during his first term, who has since become a critic. Bolton referred to the current administration as “the retribution presidency” in a recent interview.
Trump’s associates have launched probes into Democrat Letitia James, the New York attorney general involved in a lawsuit against Trump’s business over purported record falsifications, and Sen. Adam Schiff from California, who led Trump’s initial impeachment proceedings. The Republican-led administration has also charged Rep. LaMonica McIver from New Jersey for activities related to an immigration protest in Newark, following the arrest of Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka. Additionally, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a New York City mayoral hopeful, is under scrutiny.
Trump has instructed prosecutors to look into two additional individuals from his first administration: Miles Taylor, who penned a book pointing out Trump’s supposed authoritarian behaviors, and Chris Krebs, who faced the president’s ire after confirming the security of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.
These actions seem to align with the retribution strategy Trump promised after facing four separate criminal charges during the time he was not in office. This includes a case concerning his attempts to reverse the 2020 election results, which the U.S. Supreme Court significantly weakened, emphasizing the broad immunity presidents have for actions taken while in office.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson commented, “Joe Biden weaponized his administration to attack political rivals, most notably President Trump,” adding that Trump is now engaged in “restoring law and order.”
In addition to making good on his promises of retribution, Trump has deployed the military into American cities to fight crime or help with immigration arrests. He has sent thousands of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to patrol the streets in the nation’s capital, after activating the Guard and Marines in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Taken together, the actions have alarmed Democrats and others who fear Trump is wielding the authority of his office to intimidate his political opponents and consolidate power in a way that is unprecedented in American history.
“You combine the threat of prosecution with armed troops in the streets,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. “The picture is pretty clear for anyone who’s read a history book what kind of administration we’re dealing with.”
Past election investigations are a Trump focus
Trump began his second term by pardoning more than 1,500 people who were convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. His Justice Department, meanwhile, has fired some federal prosecutors who had pursued those cases. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered a grand jury to look into the origins of the investigation of his 2016 campaign’s ties with Russia, and Trump has called on her department to investigate former Democratic President Barack Obama.
The government’s watchdog agency has opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the classified documents stashed at his Florida estate. Those cases were among several that dogged Trump in the years between his presidential terms, including the New York fraud case and charges for election interference in Georgia brought by the Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County.
All those investigations led him to claim that Democrats had weaponized the government against him.
“It is amazing to me the number of people the Trump administration has gone after, all of whom are identified by the fact that they investigated or criticized Trump in one way or another,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a former Justice Department official who is a George Washington University law professor.
On Friday, Trump used governmental powers in other ways to further his goals.
Trump has been unsuccessfully trying to wrest control of the independent Federal Reserve. After his housing director alleged that one of the central bank’s governors had committed mortgage fraud, Trump demanded she resign or be fired. He also announced that Chicago could be the next city subject to military deployments.
Trump sees himself as the ‘chief law enforcement officer’
Vice President JD Vance denied in a television interview that Bolton was being targeted because of his criticism of Trump.
“If there’s no crime here, we’re not going to prosecute it,” Vance told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Friday.
Trump said he told his staff not to inform him about the Bolton search ahead of time, but he stressed that he has authority over all prosecutions.
“I could know about it. I could be the one starting it,” the president told reporters. “I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer.”
Bolton occupies a special place in the ranks of Trump critics. The longtime GOP foreign policy hawk wrote a book published in 2020, after Trump had fired him the year before. The first Trump administration sued to block the book’s release and opened a grand jury investigation, both of which were halted by the Biden administration.
Bolton landed on a list of 60 former officials drawn up by now-FBI Director Kash Patel that he portrayed as a tally of the “Executive Branch Deep State.” Critics warned it was an “enemies list.” When Trump returned to office in January, his administration revoked the security detail that had been assigned to Bolton, who faced Iranian assassination threats.
The FBI is now investigating Bolton for potentially mishandling classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. In contrast, Trump condemned the FBI’s search of his own Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022.
Retribution is wide-ranging, from judges to the military
Trump has also targeted institutions that have defied him.
The president issued orders barring several law firms that were involved in litigation against him or his allies, or had hired his opponents, from doing business with the federal government. Trump cut deals with several other firms to do free legal work rather than face penalties. He has targeted universities for funding cuts if they do not follow his administration’s directives.
His administration filed a judicial misconduct complaint against a judge who ruled that Trump officials likely committed criminal contempt by ignoring his directive to turn around planes carrying people being sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The actions are among steps that seem to be intensifying. Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired several military leaders perceived to be critics of the president or not sufficiently loyal, and earlier this week the administration revoked the security clearances of about three dozen current and former national security officials.
“It’s what he promised,” said Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official and Biden White House staffer who is a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. “It’s what bullies do when no one tells them ‘No.’”
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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
