"If there is an advantage to electing a preening, petty, thin-skinned, whiny, vindictive, vacuous, mendacious, boorish bully" to the White House, I wrote in November 2016, "it may be that he prompts a reconsideration of the absurd hopes and cultish veneration that surround the presidency." I suggested that "a ridiculous president will encourage Americans to take the presidency less seriously."
That did not quite work out as I hoped. Although Trump was predictably ridiculous as president, the comedy turned to tragedy by the end of his term, when rioters outraged by his stolen-election fantasy stormed the U.S. Capitol, interrupting the congressional ratification of Joe Biden's victory. To this day, Trump insists, against all evidence, that he actually won reelection in 2020. The voters who returned him to office this week either agree with him or think it does not really matter whether the president is dishonest or deluded enough to stick with that preposterous story four years later.
In addition to his claim that systematic election fraud deprived him of his rightful victory in 2020, Trump has accumulated many other grievances in the last eight years. The question now is whether and how he will use the powers of the presidency to act on his grudges. Trump has pitched various ideas that should worry libertarians, including broad, heavy tariffs and mass deportation of unauthorized U.S. residents. But his authoritarian impulses, exemplified by his repeatedly expressed desire to punish his political opponents once he is back in power, should trouble everyone who values civil liberties and the rule of law.
Trump is still angry at the Democratic operatives who supposedly helped install an illegitimate president. "If we win, and when we win, we're gonna prosecute people that cheat on this election," he said in September. "And if we can, we'll go back to the last one too." Given all the wild fraud allegations that Trump embraced in 2020, who knows what that means?
Trump is angry at Biden, whom he blames not only for stealing an election but also for instigating two federal indictments against him. Trump has repeatedly vowed to investigate Biden for alleged corruption. "I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president [in] the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family," Trump promised at a June 2023 rally. "I will appoint a real special prosecutor to investigate the Biden bribery and crime ring," he reiterated at another rally later that month.
After Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Trump was angry about the sudden switch, and he began imagining criminal penalties for her. Harris "should be impeached and prosecuted" for her complicity in the Biden administration's border policies, Trump said at a rally in September.
Trump is angry at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In his 2024 book Save America, Trump complained that Zuckerberg "steered [Facebook] against me" during the 2020 election. He added a warning: "We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison."
Trump is angry at everyone who supported his second impeachment, which was amply justified by his reckless conduct before and during the Capitol riot. He is especially angry at the House select committee that investigated the riot and issued a scathing report recommending criminal charges against him. In March 2023, Trump said the committee's members "should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!" A year later, Trump declared that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R–Wyo.), who served as the committee's vice chair after joining nine other Republicans in supporting his impeachment, "should go to jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee!"
Trump is angry at Special Counsel Jack Smith, who obtained two federal indictments against him: one alleging that he illegally tried to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, the other charging him with improperly retaining classified records after leaving the White House. Trump has said Smith, whom he accuses of "illegally leaking to the press," "should be prosecuted for MISCONDUCT."
Trump is more justifiably angry about his 34 felony convictions in New York, which were based on a vague, convoluted, and legally iffy theory aimed at punishing him for paying off a porn star to keep her from talking about a sexual encounter with him. He thinks Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, like Smith, should be prosecuted for leaks.
Trump is angry about New York Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud case against him, which resulted in a staggering (and puzzling) $364 million disgorgement order issued by judge Arthur Engoron. At a rally in January, Trump said James and Engoron "should be arrested and punished accordingly."
Trump is angry at news organizations for covering these and other controversies in ways that made him look bad. They are "enemies of the people," he says, and their sins against him are so egregious that they should have to pay him damages, relinquish their broadcast licenses, or suffer other, ill-defined penalties for "fake" news coverage, "election interference," and "illegal political activity." Trump also has said that protesters who burn the U.S. flag and Supreme Court critics who try to influence its decisions should go to jail.
Is Trump serious about any of this? "If you're president again," conservative talk show host Glenn Beck asked him in August 2023, "will you lock people up?" Trump's response: "The answer is you have no choice, because they're doing it to us."
Last June on Fox News, Sean Hannity practically begged Trump to give a different answer. "People are claiming you want retribution," Hannity said. "People are claiming you want what has happened to you done to Democrats. Would you do that ever?"
Trump responded by complaining that "what's happened to me has never happened in this country before," adding that "it has to stop." Hannity took that as a disavowal of retribution, and Trump seemed to confirm that interpretation by saying his critics were wrong to think "you will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies," as Hannity put it. Then Trump spoiled the assurance by adding, "I would have every right to go after them." Although "I know you want me to say something so nice," he said, "I don't want to look naïve."
As Trump sees it, he has been a victim of "hoaxes" and "witch hunts" throughout his relatively short political career, all orchestrated by a Democratic cabal dedicated to his destruction. The conspirators, whom he variously describes as "communists," "Marxists," "fascists," "radical left lunatics," "sick people," and "vermin," constitute "the enemy from within," a category that Trump defines broadly enough to include political opponents such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.).
Will Trump's angry, vengeful rhetoric amount to anything? There are several reasons to think it might.
During his first term, Trump was restrained by calmer, more experienced officials who pushed back against hotheaded proposals such as yanking broadcast licenses from news outlets that offended him and shooting protesters or migrants in the legs. But Trump did not like being told what he could not do. According to John Kelly, Trump's second chief of staff, his former boss did not even comprehend the idea that his subordinates had a higher duty than obedience to his will.
This time around, Trump is apt to rely on advisers who are less inclined to question his instincts. To give you a sense of what that could mean, Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who played a key role in Trump's attempts to reverse the 2020 election results, is reportedly a contender for White House counsel. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who resisted Trump's pressure to intervene in the January 2021 tally of electoral votes, has rebuked his former boss for asking him to subvert the Constitution. By contrast, Pence's replacement, Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio), says he would have been happy to do Trump's bidding.
Trump also may be emboldened by the July 2024 Supreme Court ruling that embraced a broad version of presidential immunity from criminal liability for "official acts." The Court explicitly said that shield encompasses communications between the president and the Justice Department, one of the chief ways that Trump could make life unpleasant for his critics.
In his second term, Trump won't have to worry about jeopardizing his reelection by openly targeting his political opponents. But if he is nevertheless concerned about the potential political consequences, there are subtler ways he can punish his enemies, such as using his wide discretion to impose tariffs and selectively relieve favored businesses of their burdens.
Maybe Trump will give up his grudges and let bygones be bygones in the interest of bipartisan comity. But that would require self-restraint, charity, and considered judgment—qualities he has rarely demonstrated.
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