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

    Harry Posted on

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    Capitalizing on Donald Trump’s incendiary comments about political rivals, Democrats have warned for months that he would take office with an “enemies list” and wage a revenge campaign unparalleled in modern politics.

    The voters shrugged and Yet Trump was electedand his allies say concerns about retribution are overblown. Trump likes to talk tough and often doesn’t listen − They point to the “lock her up” chants aimed at Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election campaign and argue that it was all theater. However, no investigation was opened.

    Trump is known as a vindictive person. He went after those who politically pushed him out of office and waged a relentless campaign against Republicans who voted for his two impeachments. He has also previously meddled with the legal system, firing FBI Director James Comey over his handling of the investigation into alleged collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

    Room Attorney General fires Jeff SessionsHe allegedly drew Trump’s ire after recusing himself from the Russia investigation and pushed for a Justice Department criminal investigation. to former Secretary of State John Kerry After the two clashed over the Iran nuclear deal.

    The question now is: Are Trump’s campaign threats just bluster or a harbinger of a tumultuous period of reckoning?

    Will he be encouraged by Trump? a sweeping victory and recently Supreme Court decision proposal broad immunity Do a president’s actions in office eliminate threats to his opponents? Is it payback time?

    Trump talked about legal action against everyone on the campaign trail President Joe Biden To the Vice President Kamala Harrisformer GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. He railed against perceived “enemies within.” He has threatened his opponents with prosecution, drawn comparisons to authoritarian regimes and raised serious concerns about the country’s democratic foundations.

    Trump shared a social media message saying Cheney was “guilty of treason”; this accusation was also leveled against former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.

    “This is such a terrible act that in the past the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump wrote about Milley on social media.

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

    More: Trump has vowed to go after his enemies if elected. Meet two practitioners who are ready to make it happen

    But those close to Trump are downplaying talk of revenge, and many point to Clinton’s example as a sign that campaign rhetoric does not mean legal action. They echo Trump, saying the greatest revenge would be a successful presidency with a thriving economy.

    “He’s never done this before, I don’t think he’s going to exhaust himself with this,” said a Republican consultant close to the Trump campaign, adding: “He knows how the history books are written… he knows whether to get in or not.” and inflation is calming down, the world is calming down. The last part about him I don’t quite believe it.

    Some longtime Trump watchers are skeptical.

    “The idea that Donald Trump would come to this as Mary Poppins after taking on the role of Godzilla on the campaign trail is a gross misreading of who he is,” said Trump biographer Tim O’Brien.

    Just as Trump frequently made contradictory statements throughout the campaign, I mean one day Biden and his family should face a special prosecutor and another “My revenge will be success” While some allies have suggested prosecutions may be necessary, they are also generally pouring cold water on the idea of ​​a revenge-focused presidency.

    “If he didn’t do it in his first term, why would he do it in his second term?” Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, said Tuesday at the new president’s election night party in West Palm Beach. “Now, as they have told us over and over again, those who break the law must be prosecuted.”

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

    “What we need to be prepared 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 think Trump will file criminal charges against his rivals believe there could be a purge of the Justice Department, leading to criminal charges against the current president.–He ruled out efforts to overturn the 2020 election and allegations of mishandling of classified documents. Trump has promised to shoot Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases.

    “Revenge to me means firing half the Justice Department. I don’t think revenge means people are going to jail,” said Sam Nunberg, a former Trump aide turned critic.

    Trump frequently claims that the Justice Department has become politicized and is pursuing “legal action” against him, despite there being no evidence that he intervened in any of Biden’s cases and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s insistence that the agency acted independently.

    A shakeup at the Justice Department could threaten the agency’s independence and subject it to the whims of the president, giving it broad powers to go after perceived enemies.

    “I think you’re going to see real mischief in the Justice Department,” said Ty Cobb, a lawyer in Trump’s White House who is now a critic of the former president and has predicted “loyalty tests” for prominent Justice Department figures.

    O’Brien called Trump’s campaign a “revenge tour” for a man who believes he was unfairly ousted from the presidency in 2020. O’Brien said an aggrieved Trump with few guardrails would be dangerous in a second administration.

    “I think it will lead to an authoritarian approach towards the US public that no one is accustomed to or has seen in the modern era,” O’Brien said. “And I think the consequences will be surprising and serious.”

    Harris focuses on Trump’s campaign threats closing messageHe said that he would come to office with a “to-do list” while his opponent had a “list of enemies”. That wasn’t enough to stop him from achieving victory, and Trump’s allies say that doesn’t ring true.

    “It’s not going to be about revenge,” Stone said. pardoned by Trump After being found guilty of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and making false statements. “I think he understands that the way to get the biggest ‘(expletive) you’ possible is to turn the country around and become the most popular president in American history. I don’t think he’s interested in personal revenge, that’s not his goal.” It never happened here.

    Marc Short, who served as former Trump Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, said Trump’s language during the campaign was “unfortunate.”

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

    Short stated that Trump never sued Clinton after making the promise in 2016, and said it was reasonable to ask whether he would continue this time after a campaign full of threats.

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

    What do the election results mean to you? become a member for breaking news and exclusive analysis for USA TODAY’s On Politics newsletter.

    Harry
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