In his first week in office, President Trump made it clear that his promises of exacting revenge on his perceived enemies were not empty campaign promises — and that his revenge was aimed not only at punishing the past but It is also to intimidate anyone who might cross it. In the future
By removing security protections from former officials facing credible death threats, he signaled that he was prepared to impose potentially severe consequences on anyone he viewed as insufficiently loyal. is That included his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who helped lead the pandemic response.
Mr. Trump’s decision to try to reduce civil service protections was aimed at weeding out federal employees who he believed had slowed or blocked his first-term agenda and replacing them with loyalists. Developed but not fully implemented in Mr. Trump’s first term, it is intended to create a chilling effect so that career employees know they can be fired if they don’t comply, a senior aide said. can go
By ordering the Justice Department and intelligence agencies to scour their ranks for political bias, he began the process of firing or sidelining officials deemed to be trying to be cast as “witch hunts” against
His decision to pardon the most violent January 6 rioters and those convicted of sedition for planning an attack on democracy freed top leaders of far-right groups. Shortly after being released, two of the most prominent of those leaders insisted, unrepentantly, that they wanted Mr. Trump to take revenge on their behalf.
A week into Mr. Trump’s second presidency, it’s hard to gauge what practical impact his actions, seen as anti-establishment, will have. For example, an executive order announcing investigations into the Justice Department and intelligence agencies to “ensure accountability for the former administration’s weaponization of the federal government” is vague. What the investigators should test, and what the “remedial actions” say about the order. For may seem like.
But taken together, the moves give a clear signal that Mr. Trump feels unrestrained about punishing disloyalty, that he is willing to go much further against his adversaries than he is likely to do. He did during the election campaign and that any opposition would have to pay the price. to come
In a statement, White House communications director Steven Cheung said Mr. Trump was making good on campaign promises. “As he has consistently said, the best reward is the success of all Americans, and based on the historic steps he has taken in less than a week, the country is back on track,” Mr. Cheung said. ” said Mr. Cheung.
Mr. Trump’s actions included ordering government officials to report on their colleagues’ efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
But perhaps the most blunt message came when the president stripped security details from several former officials who have faced death threats. It was a surprising move, one Mr. Trump had not hinted about in the campaign he was considering.
Dr. Fauci, whose advice and policies during the pandemic led to him being seen as a villain by many of the president’s supporters, lost his immunity. So did National Security Adviser John R. Bolton and former Secretary of State Mr. Pompeo during Mr. Trump’s first term. Both Mr. Bolton and Mr. Pompeo have been the targets of assassination plots for their involvement in advising Mr. Trump on behalf of Iran in 2020 when he decided to assassinate Iran’s top security and intelligence commander. Similar sensitive decisions were made with security based on intelligence community threat assessments.
But last week, Mr. Trump said he was not guaranteed security after leaving the government, and that he made enough money to pay for private security. He said that he would not feel any responsibility if he was harmed by the opponents.
Mr. Trump’s decision left officials like Mr. Bolton scrambling to find and fund their own defense.
“I think that’s Trump’s style, beyond any question, and that’s what he really wants to do,” Mr. Bolton said in an interview on Sunday. “For all the talk about looking forward, what he really wants to do is look back. But I’m not so sure the road is smooth.
The decision on the security detail was particularly troubling to some Republicans because at least two of the officials whose security was revoked — Mr. Pompeo and Brian Hook, who was the special envoy for Iran policy — did nothing to overtly oppose Mr. Trump. . Mr. Pompeo has been slow to endorse them and drew some mild criticism after news broke in 2022 that Mr. Trump had retained classified documents after leaving office. But Mr. Hook had committed no apparent crime. He even volunteered his time to help Mr. Trump’s transition team.
Republican lawmakers close to the two men were left scrambling to figure out what happened. This has become a common phenomenon, as job seekers in the second Trump administration navigate a maze of loyalty requirements, trying to figure out what the political statute of limitations is for any kind of disloyalty. , and why it applies in some situations and not others.
Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, publicly briefed Mr. Trump’s security detail on Sunday. came out about his unease about the decision, a rare example of public pressure from within the party to retaliate against the president. It’s about desire.
Mike Pence, Mr Trump’s first-term vice president, whose life was threatened by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021, said he was “disappointed and concerned” by the decision to cancel Mr Bolton’s security detail. are “good”. , Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook.
During a meeting with reporters at his nonprofit’s offices in Washington on Friday, Mr. Pence said he would not discuss classified information, but that it was clear from public reports that the threats from Iran were real, ongoing. are, and that there is a security threat. The lives of former officials need to be protected.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sought to provide some protection by granting early pardons to some people, including his relatives, who could be targeted by Mr. Trump and his allies.
But Mr Trump suggested to Fox News host Sean Hannity last week that Mr Biden had made a mistake in not pardoning himself.
“The funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is that he hasn’t pardoned himself,” Mr Trump told Mr Hannity, before claiming – based on no evidence – that Mr Biden had done the work of his family members. benefited from became president.
The targets of Mr. Trump’s ire often found themselves facing investigations or other government actions during his first term. But it was only a year before his defeat in 2020 that he began to take a more systematic approach to purging the government of those he saw as his enemies and reuniting it with loyalists — A playbook they are now executing.
A critical moment came in November 2019. Mr. Trump was sitting in the dining room adjacent to the Oval Office, watching on television a procession of officials testifying in his first impeachment trial.
Mr. Trump erupted, according to people in the dining room. He wanted to know who these officials were who were testifying against him.
He had long focused on the notion of a “deep state,” a group of Trump haters, or “snakes,” as he called them, hiding within the federal bureaucracy to thwart him and his agenda. made On that day five years ago, he saw in his mind a parade of officers who had betrayed him by testifying that they had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Mr. Biden. What was seen, heard or told about the efforts.
After the Senate acquitted him of the impeachment charges, Mr. Trump was visibly upset as his aides cheered. “Never should have happened,” he said, filled with anger about what he had been through as he decided to immediately enforce the payment. He brought a former personal aide, John McEntee, then 29, back into government and tasked him with ridding the federal bureaucracy of “snakes.”
Mr. McEntee did so with gusto, firing people suspected of disloyalty and redesigning the government’s hiring questionnaire to more effectively test candidates for loyalty to Mr. Trump.
Mr. McEntee’s broader efforts were stymied by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which underpinned the changes that Mr. Trump wanted to halt. Still, Mr. McEntee began developing loyalty-testing questionnaires and changed the White House’s liaison to key Cabinet agencies such as the Justice Department — an approach Mr. Trump and his team would take at the start of his second administration. They are the forerunners of it.
Mr. McEntee is now played by another Trump loyalist, Sergio Gore, who is the new director of presidential staff and effectively the point man to enforce loyalty.
At the time, Mr. McEntee was something of a standout among Mr. Trump’s aides, as there were few who shared his goal of running the government through hardened loyalists. But now those working directly for Mr Trump are weighing in on the idea.
Many, like him, have been investigated, petitioned or even indicted for his actions as president and after he left office. And like them, many believe their accusers should pay.
