President-elect Donald Trump called for unity after declaring victory. Photo / Doug Mills, The New York Times
President-elect Donald Trump’s momentary talk of unity on election night may underestimate the depth of his resentment after multiple impeachments, investigations, indictments and lawsuits.
On the night he recaptured the presidency, Donald Trump declared that “it’s time to unite” and “put the divisions of the past four years behind us”. That was then. It took only 55 hours for him to begin threatening again to use his newly reclaimed power to investigate those who anger him.
Peeved at what he called “fake, untrue, and probably illegal rumours” that he might sell shares of the social media platform that has become a prime source of his wealth, Trump went online to deny such plans and demanded that those spreading such speculation “be immediately investigated by the appropriate authorities”.
Whether he will ever carry out that or his many other threats to prosecute antagonists is still unclear. Trump sometimes lashes out without follow-through. But not always. And he spent much of the campaign focused on exacting “retribution” for all the ways he believed he had been wronged, leaving allies and adversaries alike anticipating a wave of payback after he takes office again in January.
Eight years after his initial victory, Trump returns to the White House angrier, more embittered, more aggrieved and more overtly talking about revenge than the last time. His momentary nod to unity on election night led to some predictions that he might ease off the menacing threats. After all, he has essentially gotten everything he wants – vindication by voters, an election sweep more convincing than his first and the almost certain end to any risk of going to prison himself, especially after the Supreme Court granted presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts taken in office.
But that may underestimate the depth of his resentment and desire for retaliation after the multiple impeachments, investigations, indictments and lawsuits aimed at him. He may not go after the biggest figures, like President Joe Biden or Vice-President Kamala Harris, but allies expect him to pursue at least some of the targets he has singled out. And even if he holds back on some, his mercurial nature means that no one can assume he would not change his mind, creating an atmosphere of intimidation that may inhibit vocal dissent.
“Will Trump retaliate?” asked Gwenda Blair, a biographer of the Trump family. “Of course. The only question is how much will be broad-brush and how much will be targeted.”
“At the least,” she said, “there will be loud, highly publicised congressional investigations, special prosecutors and more than a few actual prosecutions. There will also be more quiet retaliation, in the form of tax audits, nonrenewal or cancellation of grants, programs, loans, firings and/or nonhirings.”
Trump’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would pursue his campaign promises. But some advisers said no one should be surprised if he does. Trump does not believe in forgive and forget, one person familiar with his thinking said. He is an eye-for-an-eye person, and he is seething about what has happened to him the past four years.
Republican insiders said the President-elect’s advisers are engaged in a debate pulling him in opposite directions. His most confrontational aides and allies are encouraging him to go after his foes, reasoning that what they call “lawfare” attacks on Trump crossed a line and justify an unforgiving counteroffensive. Other advisers, including some wealthy donors, view that as unproductive and damaging to his legacy, arguing that he should focus on his policy agenda of tax cuts, tariffs and an immigration crackdown.
The proxy for that battle is the choice of Attorney-General. The decision about who to install at the top of the Justice Department is being seen as an indicator of which way Trump will go with his retribution campaign. If for instance it is someone like Matthew G. Whitaker, an aggressive former federal prosecutor who briefly held the post in an acting capacity in Trump’s first term, Republicans said that would mean the President-elect is determined to punish his rivals.
If it is someone like Jay Clayton, a former Securities and Exchange Commission chair under Trump now at Sullivan & Cromwell, or Robert J. Giuffra Jr., a co-chair of Sullivan & Cromwell and a former counsel to the Senate Whitewater committee that investigated President Bill Clinton, then it would be taken as a sign that Trump wants to focus more on his immigration crackdown and other priorities.
In the days since the election, some of Trump’s more combative allies have relished what they expect to be the coming reprisals. “Here’s my current mood,” Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, a group focused on appointing conservative judges, wrote on social media. “I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall. (Legally, politically, and financially, of course.)”
Davis, who has dismissed speculation that he may be considered for attorney-general, added that “Trump’s opponents attempted to bankrupt him for non-fraud” and “imprison him for life for non-crimes,” so they are in no position to complain. In an interview with conservative online influencer Benny Johnson, Davis warned Letitia James, the New York attorney-general, not to continue her legal efforts against Trump. “Because listen here, sweetheart, we’re not messing around this time, and we will put your fat ass in prison for conspiracy against rights.”
What Trump does not do through the Justice Department, his Republican allies in Congress may do on his behalf. Two House Republicans, Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, signalled Friday that they would investigate Jack Smith, the federal special counsel, in the next term by sending his office a letter directing him to preserve records of his investigations into Trump.
The list of people or organisations that Trump identified for investigation during his campaign is long and varied. Altogether, NPR tabulated more than 100 such threats. He vowed to appoint “a real special prosecutor to go after” Biden and his family and said Harris should be “prosecuted for her actions” on border policy. He shared posts calling for former President Barack Obama and former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, his most prominent Republican critic, to be tried by military tribunals.
He has also demanded the prosecution of people he blames for the criminal and civil cases against him, including James, who won a US$450 million civil verdict against Trump for defrauding lenders; Justice Arthur Engoron, the New York judge who presided over that case; and Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who convicted Trump of 34 felony counts stemming from hush money paid to Stormy Daniels.
As for Smith, who charged Trump with trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents, the President-elect has said that he would not only “fire him within two seconds” on his first day back in office but also that the Government “should throw Jack Smith out” of the country.
Trump has also suggested prosecuting a member of the Georgia grand jury that indicted him and threatened “long term prison sentences” for election workers he believes cheated him of his last election. He has said that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, “will spend the rest of his life in prison” if it can be determined that he has broken any laws.
Trump is an advocate of revenge. “Get even with people,” he once said. “If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard.” The first time he won the presidency, he relished rally crowds chanting “Lock her up” and even told his opponent, Hillary Clinton, on a debate stage that if he won “you’d be in jail”. He did not follow through, softening after his victory and saying she “went through a lot”. But he never fully gave up the idea and came back to it from time to time.
While in office, Trump sought to use law enforcement agencies against his political adversaries in ways that were once unheard of in the post-Watergate era. He repeatedly badgered his attorneys general to investigate Obama, Biden and other Democrats like former Secretary of State John Kerry, only to be rebuffed. But his administration did investigate others who angered him, like the former FBI officials Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and others.
Trump may not go so far as to investigate Biden now that he has won. House Republicans spent years looking into Biden’s family and did not come up with evidence to justify impeachment. Moreover, an 81-year-old former President will no longer be a threat to Trump, who tends to focus his ire on people currently angering him.
But Trump’s critics added that nothing should be taken for granted. “He’s erratic and has the attention span of a 7-year-old,” said Harry Litman, a former Justice Department official under Clinton. “But his thirst for revenge against those he views as his current antagonists is very real, and there’s no reason to think he would be deterred by legal niceties. Just ask Andy McCabe or Peter Strzok.”
That reality was made clear in the past few days when a number of people on Trump’s presumed enemies list declined to comment, for fear of attracting his attention. As one put it, it would be insane to speak out at this time.
Gen. Mark Milley, the retired Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, told Bob Woodward for his new book that he was concerned Trump could recall him to active duty and then court-martial him.
Trump’s outburst at speculators trading stock of his social media company came across as mostly venting – and shoring up his own net worth. Shares of Truth Social were falling when he posted a message disputing that he would sell shares. The stock quickly rebounded, adding $500 million to his net worth. It seemed doubtful any actual investigation would follow.
But some of those closest to him are pressing him to live up to past promises. Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire patron, posted a video Friday first taped by the former President nearly two years ago vowing “to shatter the left-wing censorship regime” that he blamed on “a sinister group of deep-state bureaucrats, Silicon Valley tyrants, left-wing activists and depraved corporate news media”.
Trump has accused federal officials and social companies of trying to suppress conservative speech, while they have said they were only trying to identify falsehoods about elections, vaccines and the like.
Trump said in the video that he would “order the Department of Justice to investigate all parties involved in the new online censorship regime” and “to aggressively prosecute any and all crimes identified”. In reposting it, Musk, the owner of X, formally known as Twitter, added, “YES”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Peter Baker
Photographs by: Doug Mills, Eric Lee, Emil Salman and Ruth Fremson
©2024 THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Kremlin refuses to comment on Ukrainian allegations.