The Retribution Presidency: Trump’s Government of Revenge 

Donald Trump is living up to his promise that a second term would be about “revenge.” Since returning to the White House, he has turned the machinery of government against his critics—ordering selective prosecutions, purging disloyal officials, and brandishing emergency powers as if they were going out of style. 

The Constitution was not built for this. The president is supposed to “take care that the laws are faithfully executed.” The framers famously assumed the chief executive would act in good faith, like George Washington, whose honor was above reproach. They never imagined a president who would wield the vast powers of the office to settle personal scores. 

Sure, the architecture of checks and balances exists on paper. But it is meaningless when a docile judiciary refuses to rein in a rogue president, and congressmen who know better are too afraid of retribution to stand up to executive overreach. Impeachment, designed as a last resort, requires a two-thirds Senate supermajority that has never been mustered. The Senate has never convicted a president. Andrew Johnson came close. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about his tryst with Monica Lewinsky, but he was acquitted. Donald Trump is the only president ever impeached twice—and yet here he is again. 

Retribution Presidency: Law Enforcement

The president is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, sworn to “faithfully execute the laws.” But one man’s infidelity is another’s loyalty. Trump has declared that he is out for “revenge” against his enemies and uses the Justice Department to work his will. 

He learned the art of vendetta from his lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn, who once complained that my old boss, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, was out to get him. Morgenthau replied: “A man is not immune from prosecution just because a United States attorney happens not to like him.” But there is more to it than that. 

Attorney General, later Justice, Robert Jackson saw selective prosecution as the “most dangerous power of the prosecutor.”  

When he addressed a meeting of U.S. Attorneys on April 1, 194o, Jackson said: 

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. 

It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself. 

Trump has done just that. He ordered investigations of political foes like Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud. while ignoring similar alleged transgressions by allies such as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. His super-loyal attorney general, Pam Bondi, has eagerly done her master’s bidding. 

And add to the list Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook whom he has sought to fire with allegations of that old chestnut mortgage fraud. 

Last month, Bondi announced probes of former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan, alleging they had made false statements to Congress about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has an idée fixe about the stale and ancient matter that he calls “Russia, Russia, Russia.” 

Just this past weekend, he searched the home and office of his former national security adviser, John Bolton, on the purported basis that he was looking for classified documents and leaks. Is the kettle here calling the pot black? Bolton, a neoconservative Trump critic, dared to tell CNN that Trump “looked tired” in Alaska; that he had “achieved very little” by meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin; and that “Putin clearly won.” 

When journalists asked Bolton if he were worried Trump would come after him as part of a “retribution campaign” being waged through the FBI and the Department of Justice. Bolton pointed out that Trump had already come after him by removing his Secret Service protection despite specific Iranian threats against his life. Bolton added, “I think it is a retribution presidency.” He knew whereof he spoke. 

The Pardon Power 

The president’s ability to pardon makes his retribution arsenal even more potent. With it, Trump can absolve violent adherents and “buy” the silence of embarrassing witnesses. 

Trump can pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, whom prosecutors at the Department of Justice itself called a serial liar, in exchange for her silence about the nature of Trump’s 15-year relationship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 

Interviewed in prison by Trump’s former criminal lawyer, now Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, she chirped, “[A]s far as I’m concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I … admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him.” 

But the Epstein scandal is all buried in the Justice Department files, containing references to Trump, not the grand jury minutes, and certainly not the self-serving statements of a convicted and imprisoned sex offender, Maxwell. It’s the files, stupid. Full disclosure of the Maxwell tapes tells us little or nothing. She was singing for her supper. The president has the power to keep the files shrouded in secrecy with claims of executive privilege. We’ll see how far the MAGA congressional oversight committee gets with its subpoena.  

Emergency Powers Without Emergencies 

Trump has also shown how easily presidential emergency powers can be abused. He can declare an emergency, which Webster defines as “an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action or an urgent need for assistance or relief,” when no such exigent circumstances exist, simply because he says so, and use his declared emergency to impose draconian tariffs without the consent of Congress. 

He can call out the National Guard  in the District of Columbia because he says there is an emergency, although the label ill-fits the facts on the ground. He can refuse to call out the D.C. National Guard as he did on January 6, 2021, where there is an incontestable emergency, and then pardon the violent criminals responsible for the insurrection. Indeed, he can pardon anyone he pleases. 

And Trump just launched a new executive order charging Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth with creating “specialized units” in the National Guard that will be “specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues,” apparently setting them up to take on domestic law enforcement as part of Trump’s bizarre effort to take control of Democratic-run cities. 

If the law gives him such power in the District of Columbia for only 30 days, he can ignore the limitation. He said he wants to extend the deployment for more than the 30-day limit the law allows and warned that he would take over the city “with the federal government.” More National Guard personnel are on the way from red states, with cities having higher crime rates than those in Washington.  

He told reporters that his administration would invade Chicago, which he called a “mess.”  

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a statement from the Pentagon that the 2,000 National Guard members stationed in Washington, D.C., will begin to carry weapons. Weapons needed against whom, the homeless, juvenile delinquents, Democrats? 

Subverting Democracy 

The implications for elections are chilling. Many wonder if there will be mid-term elections at all. The Texas gerrymander may be insufficient to ensure a MAGA victory in the House. And if there is no MAGA victory, rest assured, there will be cries of fraud seeking to delegitimize the vote. What Trump cannot abide is a Democratic majority in Congress launching investigations and elaborating legislation aimed at reining in executive overreach and even bills of impeachment. Trump can declare an “emergency,” and red state governors can suspend congressional elections in their states. 

And even if there is an election, Democracy Docket’s Marc Elias warned that Trump is “stationing the military and other federal law enforcement in blue areas so—when the time comes—he can pivot their mission to suppressing voting rights and undermining free and fair elections.” On Tuesday, Trump ally Steve Bannon said on his webcast War Room: “They’re petrified over at MSNBC and CNN that, hey, since we’re taking control of the cities, there’s going to be ICE officers near polling places. You’re damn right.”  

Immunity and Impunity 

Trump calls Democrats like Bernie Sanders “socialists.” Socialists, I always thought, were those who believe in government ownership of the instruments of production. Yet, Trump bragged the other day that the government has taken a 10 percent stake in Intel, which builds semiconductors and chips. He made the deal by threatening to “fire” Intel’s chief executive officer. How he would propose to do that remains unclear. Trump says he intends to take similar stakes in other companies. 

The Supreme Court gave Trump blanket immunity from prosecution for crimes committed in office, and the collateral damage to law firms, universities, the media, and the public interest has been devastating. The Court hasn’t made Trump’s targets settle, but they fear the court may make them sorry they didn’t. Luminaries of the private sector quake at demands that are clearly illegal and unconstitutional. Imagine punishing law firms for the clients they serve and demanding that they render free services to MAGA. Imagine withholding funds needed for research from private universities because Trump doesn’t like what is being taught there or opposes their internal policies. Imagine suing media companies to shut them down with frivolous billion dollar claims of libel. It’s Orwellian., not the country established by the Founders, the “sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.”  

When Bolton labels this a “retribution presidency,” the shoe fits neatly. 

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