In his first week in office, President Trump made clear that his promises to take revenge on those he perceived as enemies were not empty campaign promises, and that his retribution is intended not only to impose punishment for the past but also to intimidate anyone who can come across him. in the future.
By removing security protections from former officials who face credible death threats, he signaled that he was willing to impose potentially profound consequences on anyone he deemed not sufficiently loyal. Among them were his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, who helped lead the response to the pandemic.
Trump’s decision to try to reduce civil service protections was aimed at removing federal employees he believes delayed or blocked his first-term agenda and replacing them with loyalists. That initiative, developed during Trump’s first term but never fully enacted, is intended to create a chilling effect so that career employees know they could be fired if they don’t comply, a senior adviser said.
By ordering the Justice Department and intelligence agencies to begin combing their ranks for political bias, he began a process of dismissing or sidelining officials deemed to have participated in investigations he had tried to portray as a “witch hunt.” ” against him.
His decision to grant clemency to even the most violent Jan. 6 protesters and those convicted on sedition charges for plotting an assault on democracy freed top leaders of far-right groups. Shortly after being released, two of the most prominent leaders stated, unrepentantly, that they wanted Trump to seek revenge on their behalf.
A week into Trump’s second presidency, it is difficult to assess what practical effect the avalanche of actions will have on what he considers a hostile establishment. For example, an executive order announcing investigations into the Justice Department and intelligence agencies to “ensure accountability for the previous administration’s weaponization of the federal government” is vague about what it is supposed to do. that investigators should examine, and what the “corrective actions” the order calls are. because it might seem.
But taken together, the measures send a clear signal that Trump does not feel obliged to punish the disloyal, that he is potentially willing to go further against his enemies than he had promised during the election campaign and that any opposition will come at a price. . to come.
In a statement, Steven Cheung, White House communications director, said Trump was delivering on promises he made during the campaign. “As you have always said, the best reward is the success of all Americans, and based on the historic actions you have taken in less than a week, the country is back to normal,” Cheung said.
Trump’s actions included ordering government officials to report on their colleagues’ efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
But perhaps the strongest message came when the president removed security details from several former officials who had faced death threats. It was a surprise move, one that Trump had not indicated on the campaign trail that he was considering.
Dr. Fauci, whose advice and policies during the pandemic led many of the president’s supporters to view him as a villain, lost his security protection. So did John R. Bolton, national security adviser during part of Trump’s first term, and Pompeo, former secretary of state. Both Bolton and Pompeo have been targets of assassination plots by Iran for their role in advising Trump when he decided to kill Iran’s top security and intelligence commander in 2020. Like other US national security officials who had been involved in making similarly sensitive decisions, they were provided security based on threat assessments from the intelligence community.
But last week, Trump said they were not guaranteed security once they left the government and that everyone had made enough money to pay for private security. He said he would not feel responsible if they were harmed by his adversaries.
Trump’s decision left officials like Bolton looking to find and fund their own protection.
“I think this is Trump’s style, beyond any doubt, and it’s what he really wants to do,” Bolton said in an interview Sunday. “Despite all the talk of looking forward, what you really want to do is look back. But I’m not so sure the road will be easy.”
The decision on security details was especially disturbing to some Republicans because at least two of the officials whose security was removed (Pompeo and Brian Hook, who had been a special envoy working on Iran policy) had done nothing. to clearly oppose Trump. . Pompeo was slow to endorse him and leveled some mild criticism after news broke in 2022 that Trump had preserved classified documents after leaving office. But Mr. Hook had committed no obvious crime; he had even volunteered his time to help on Trump’s transition team.
Republican lawmakers close to both men were left trying to figure out what had happened. This has become a common phenomenon, as job seekers in the second Trump administration navigate a maze of loyalty demands, trying to discern what the political statute of limitations is for any hint of disloyalty, and why. It applies in some circumstances and not in others.
Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, on Sunday made public their displeasure with Trump’s decision on security details, a rare example of public reaction from within the party to the president’s penchant for revenge.
Mike Pence, vice president during Trump’s first term, whose own life was threatened by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021, said he was “disappointed and concerned” by the decision to cancel Bolton’s security details. , Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Hook.
During a meeting with reporters Friday at the Washington offices of his nonprofit, Pence said he would not discuss classified information, but that public reports made clear that threats from Iran were real, ongoing and that security was necessary. to protect the lives of former officials.
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. attempted to offer some protection by granting preemptive pardons to some people, including family members, who could be targeted by Trump and his allies.
But last week, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Biden might have been wrong to not grant himself a pardon.
“The curious thing, perhaps the sad thing, is that the pardon was not granted,” Trump told Hannity, before claiming (without any evidence) that Biden benefited from the work of his relatives before he became president.
Targets of Trump’s ire often faced investigations or other government actions during his first term. But it wasn’t until the year before his defeat in 2020 that he began developing a more systematic approach to purging the government of those he considered enemies and replenishing it with loyalists, a playbook he is executing now.
A critical moment came in November 2019. Trump was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office, watching on television a procession of officials testifying in his first impeachment trial.
Trump exploded, according to people who were in the dining room. He wanted to know who those officials were who were giving damaging testimony against him.
He had long focused on the notion of a “deep state,” a group of Trump enemies or “snakes,” as he called them, hiding within the federal bureaucracy and frustrating him and his agenda. That day five years ago, he watched what in his mind was a parade of officials betraying him by testifying about what they had seen, heard or reported about his efforts to pressure President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate Biden.
After the Senate acquitted him of those impeachment charges, Trump looked somber as his aides applauded. “It should never have happened,” he said, adding an expletive, furious at what had happened. He immediately set about enforcing revenge. He brought a former personal assistant, John McEntee, then 29, back into the government and assigned him the task of ridding the federal bureaucracy of “snakes.”
McEntee did so with gusto, firing people suspected of disloyalty and redesigning a government hiring questionnaire to more effectively vet candidates based on their loyalty to Trump.
McEntee’s broader efforts were hampered by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which halted the changes Trump wanted to stop. Still, McEntee began developing loyalty testing questionnaires and shifted White House liaisons to crucial Cabinet agencies like the Justice Department, precursors to the approach Trump and his team are taking at the start of his second administration.
McEntee’s role is now filled by Sergio Gor, another Trump loyalist who is the new presidential personnel director and, effectively, the point man for enforcing loyalty.
At the time, McEntee was something of an outlier among Trump aides, as few shared his goal of having a government run by rigorously tested loyalists. But now those who work directly for Trump are committed to the idea.
Many, like him, became embroiled in investigations into his actions as president and after he left office, receiving subpoenas or even accusations of their own. And like him, many believe his accusers should pay a price.
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