That the incoming Trump administration will go after its political enemies, using all levers of state power to intimidate and persecute those who previously sought to hold the president-elect accountable, can no longer be portrayed as hysterical speculation, nor as something that would surely be opposed by cooler heads in a Republican-led Congress.
Donald Trump ran as the candidate of “revenge” and "retribution," filling his meandering campaign speeches with complaints about those who had investigated him over his connections with Russia and incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Anyone hoping an electoral victory would spur a change in heart — as opposed to justifying, in his mind, a national campaign to repair his narcissistic injuries — was dispelled of that notion this week.
