“Donald Trump ran a campaign based on retribution. Now he is perfectly positioned to carry it out,” Politico said (here) the day after the 2024 election. Here’s the “enemies list” compiled by Politico, in case you want to check whether you’re on it:
- Joe Biden –Trump claims Biden is corrupt, and also said he should be “arrested for treason,” and intends to appoint a special prosecutor.
- Kamala Harris — Trump says she should be prosecuted for allowing migrant “murderers” to cross the border. But her real offense was running against him, and humiliating him in their debate.
- Barack Obama — Trump is still mad about what he claims was FBI spying on his 2016 campaign, although actually the FBI was looking into a Trump campaign adviser’s activities involving a foreign government (Russia). And it couldn’t have hurt him very much, because he won that election. More concerning, as recently as August 2024 Trump called for standing Obama before a “military tribunal.”
- Hillary Clinton — “Lock her up!” hasn’t gone away, ostensibly for conducting secretary of state business through a private email account. But this is really baseball rules. He “suggested Clinton should face the same sort of criminal prosecutions brought against him,” according to Politico. If your pitcher hits our batter, our pitcher will hit one of your batters. Doesn’t matter which one.
- Nancy Pelosi — Paul Pelosi sold his Visa stock a few months before the DoJ’s antitrust division sued the company. I don’t see the logic of prosecuting her for this, but when is vengeance ever logical? He also wants to prosecute her for allowing the Jan. 6 riot to happen, and ripping up her copy of his State of the Union speech.
- Letitia James — As New York attorney general, she sued him for business fraud and got a $450 million judgment, so he wants to prosecute her back. Baseball rules.
- Arthur Engoron — Was the judge who ordered him to write that $450 million check.
- Alvin Bragg — Is the New York district attorney who prosecuted Trump in the Stormy Daniels case and got a 34-count felony conviction. Trump thinks he “should be prosecuted for prosecuting.”
- Mark Pomerantz — Was an assistant D.A. in Bragg’s office who quit when Bragg at first declined to pursue charges against Trump. Trump thinks he disclosed grand jury information (which he denies), which presumably would make Trump look bad and maybe even guilty (given that he was convicted).
- Michael Cohen — For testifying against Trump, his former employer, in that case. This violated the omerta rule. But Trump doesn’t want his former fixer whacked, only prosecuted “for lying and all of the tumult and cost he put the D.A.’s Office through.” And, presumably, sent back to the prison he was released from.
- Jack Smith — The special prosecutor in the election interference and classified documents case, who “must go to prison” for “election interference and prosecutorial misconduct,” and also “must be thrown out of the country.”
- Rep. Adam Schiff — For chairing the House Jan. 6 committee, which to Trump is “treason.” Schiff also read an “exaggerated version of what Trump might have said in a controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.” (Trump exaggerated about Haitian workers eating dogs and cats, so why can’t Schiff exaggerate, too?) That phone call is a big deal to Trump, because it got him impeached, but that was his own fault.
- Liz Cheney — For serving on the House Jan. 6 committee, and endorsing Harris, both of which he considers “treason.” Nine-man firing squad for her.
- All other members of the House Jan. 6 committee — For committing “fraud and treason” by “persecuting” the Jan. 6 rioters. Trump hasn’t specified the fate he wants for them. (Feed them to wild dogs?)
- Police Lt. Michael Byrd — Trump wants the cop who shot Ashli Babbitt, who was cleared by an official inquiry, prosecuted for “murdering” her.
- Gen. Mark Milley — Ostensibly for calling a Chinese military official on October 30, 2020, to reassure him the U.S. wasn’t about to launch a surprise attack on China, because U.S. intelligence picked up the Chinese were worried about that (details here), which Trump considers “treason” calling for “the death penalty.” But the real problem more likely is that Milley called Trump a “fascist” during the 2024 campaign.
- James Comey — Trump fired him as FBI director within days of taking office in 2017, but isn’t done with him yet. Comey wrote a book Trump apparently didn’t like, because Trump accused him of leaking “CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted” (try to contain your laughter).
- Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — The former FBI agent and FBI lawyer got on Trump’s bad side by working on the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. (Remember how excited Trump’s son was to get Hillary’s emails from the Russian lawyer?). But Strzok’s more serious offense was calling Trump an “idiot.” Trump wants to prosecute them.
- Hunter Biden — He’s already pleaded guilty to a gun charge and tax evasion, but Trump apparently is still looking for that $20 million (or whatever the amount was) that Trump believes he split with his father. I assume Trump wanted that money for himself.
- Mark Zuckerberg — Trump is mad at Zuck’s wife for donating $420 million toward election infrastructure before the 2020 election. I infer Trump believes this contributed to his loss, or interfered with his efforts to overthrow that election. In any case, Trump called it “a shameful … plot against the president.” Trump didn’t spell out any punishment for Zuck, but said, “We are watching him closely.” Legions of paparazzi would like to know how he manages to do that.
- Rep. Jamaal Bowman — Trump wants him jailed for pulling a fire alarm to delay a House vote on a spending bill, which Trump thinks is worse crime than anything the Jan. 6 rioters did. Bowman pled guilty to a misdemeanor and paid a $1,000 fine, and was censured by the House. Does Trump plan to suspend the double jeopardy clause to prosecute him again for this?
- 51 signers of a letter — About Hunter Biden’s laptop, a few weeks before the 2020 election, arguing emails on the laptop were planted by Russian intelligence agents. The signers were U.S. intelligence officials. The emails turned out to be authentic.
- The people who stole the 2020 election from him — These include “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials,” whom he has targeted for prosecution for “unscrupulous behavior,” which presumably means accurately counting the votes that showed he lost. While he didn’t mention the 81 voters who voted for Biden (i.e., against him), he probably hates them, too.
- Politico’s publisher, editors, and reporters — For their reporting about the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Trump wants them thrown in prison — and raped in prison — to make them identify the leaker. (I suspect Justice Alito, the author of the draft, did but I can’t prove it.)
If there’s a silver lining to this, it’s that Trump is lusting for prosecutions, not summary executions or Guantanamo torture (I don’t want to give him ideas). Sure, he can appoint a loyal lackey as Attorney General who will appoint other loyal lackeys as U.S. attorneys and special prosecutors.
But if any of those lawyers pursue meritless charges for the purpose of vexing or harassing people Trump hates, they’ll lose their licenses to practice law. He may have presidential immunity, but they don’t, so they won’t do it.
Even if they do, there are other obstacles: Judges, grand juries, and trial juries. If prosecutors don’t have valid cases, and evidence to support them, judges will dismiss them. They can try to steer the cases to handpicked Trump-appointed judges eager to curry favor with him (I’m thinking of Aileen Cannon), but the targets of his ire will still be acquitted by juries.
There’s nothing he can do about that, because even an autocratic president can’t issue commands to jurors. He can only hunt them down and retaliate against them in order to intimidate the jurors in his other persecutions.
Obviously a president shouldn’t abuse the power of the office to get even with people he feels have crossed him, but that won’t hinder Trump, who has no concept of public service. He views the office of the presidency and its powers as his personal property, to do with as he wishes.
Even so, it remains to be seen whether that was all bluster, or he really means to use the resources and powers of the federal government to punish people who’ve offended him in one way or another.
If he does, and Democrats get a House majority, he’ll get impeached again. But Trump is already destined to go down in history as the most impeached president, so maybe he figures he has no legacy left to lose.
One final thought: If he dismantles the FBI, as he’s threatened to do, how will he investigate them?
Below: Artist’s impression of Trump daydreams
