Former President Donald Trump is not a subtle man. He telegraphs his schemes, often in the middle of a tsunami of rapid-fire misinformation. It was true of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and it’s true of his plans to use a second term to make good on all the autocratic, dictatorial threats he has made since being voted out of office. Even more disturbing is how on board his supporters seem to be with the idea.
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Trump has taken particular umbrage at the multiple investigations into him and his company, framing any and every attempt to hold him accountable as a politically motivated attack. It’s a classic case of projection, given his numerous calls for his opponents to be prosecuted. But he suggests to his supporters that any revenge he’d take should he win in 2024 would simply be his playing by the rules his adversaries have set.
Trump suggests to his supporters that any revenge he’d take should he win in 2024 would simply be his playing by the rules his adversaries have set.
At an October campaign stop in New Hampshire, Trump went on a tear that said the left has “weaponized law enforcement” to “arrest their leading political opponent: me.” He said it was “third world country stuff” and then, chillingly, “that means I can do that, too.” Accordingly, his advisers are reportedly plotting how to use the Justice Department to follow through on that promise.
According to The Washington Post, his advisers have discussed sending the military into the streets to put down potential protests on Inauguration Day should Trump win next year. He reportedly wants to investigate former Attorney General William Barr and former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who’ve been harshly critical of him since leaving his administration. Meanwhile, The New York Times has reported that his allies have been assembling lists of lawyers who would back Trump’s attempts to stretch the law to the breaking point in a way that many appointed during his first term were unwilling to do.
Both stories build on what our own eyes have seen. Russell Voight, a former Trump official and current pro-Trump think tank director quoted by the Times, has been leading the charge to bring a more fascistic understanding of power to bear in a second Trump term. The Heritage Foundation, the more established conservative bulwark, is working with Vought and other far-right figures on what’s known as Project 2025, which, among other things, would result in a purge of career government officials and a vast increase of presidential power.
“It is unclear what alleged crimes or evidence Trump would claim to justify investigating his named targets,” the Post reported. Some might take that as a silver lining. The current charges against Trump, in contrast, have been based on serious allegations of wrongdoing and accompanied by ample evidence, and they are playing out in open court, where the government has had to defend its claims. The odds feel slim that his actual persecution campaign manages a similar feat against his long list of enemies.
Trump appears to be plotting investigations because he has determined his targets are guilty of insufficient loyalty to him at a minimum.
Suppose, then, that Trump succeeds in finding an attorney general who is able to get confirmed and is fine handing over the keys of the Justice Department to the White House. That AG opens investigations into Kelly, Barr and other former allies. And then what? The best case here is that the cases either languish for lack of wrongdoing or, if they’re brought forward, charges are immediately tossed out for clearly targeting people for their political views or lack of loyalty to Trump.
But the fact that Barr isn’t likely to go to jail is almost beside the point. Trump has been, and will be, granted the presumption of innocence, even as federal prosecutors argue, as they just did, that he “stands alone in American history for his alleged crimes. No other president has engaged in conspiracy and obstruction to overturn valid election results and illegitimately retain power.” But Trump appears to be plotting investigations because he has determined his targets are guilty of insufficient loyalty to him at a minimum. The courts may not sentence someone for such a crime, but the punishment is already baked in, in the form of harassment from investigators and Trump’s MAGA backers and in the costs of hiring lawyers to defend against allegations.
More troubling, and more damaging in the long term, is what such an agenda’s coming to fruition would say about what American voters are willing not only to accept, but to demand from their chosen candidate. Trump is framing his campaign around retribution for slights against him. But he isn’t losing support. Nor, despite the multiple criminal cases against him, is his base abandoning him. Instead, according to a recent poll that has Democrats concerned, he’s ahead of President Joe Biden in a likely rematch next year.
There’s clearly still a long way to go between now and then, and he’s a criminal defendant in four cases. That same poll showed that up to 6% of voters could leave Trump if he’s convicted. I keep returning, though, to how open Trump has been about wanting revenge. If he’s elected on that platform, his voters will expect him to carry it out.
He may run into the same problem that congressional Republicans have when it comes to delivering. But Trump is likely to argue he has been given a mandate to use all the levers of power at his disposal — and in a very frightening sense, he’d be right.
