Mother Jones; Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Donald Trump loves revenge. Who says so? He does. For years before he became president, he gave speeches touting the value of vengeance and its critical role in his own personal success. And now, as the first ex-president to be indicted, arrested, and arraigned on criminal charges, he is once more turning toward avengement.
Trump has been straightforward about his affection for retribution and its importance in his life. In 2011, he spoke to the National Achievers Congress in Sydney, Australia, and explained how he had become rich and famous. He noted there were a couple of lessons not taught in business school that had been essential for him. At the top of the list was this piece of advice he shared with the audience: “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.” In other public appearances, he regularly voiced this sentiment. In 2013, he tweeted, “‘Always get even. When you are in business, you need to get even with people who screw you.’ – Think Big.” The following year, he tweeted an Alfred Hitchcock quote: “Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”
As a political candidate and a president, Trump put this into practice, constantly and loudly slamming and deriding—and often lying about—his foes and detractors, including aides and appointees who dared to cross or criticize him. He incited the January 6 riot that nearly led to violence against his own vice president, who Trump had privately castigated as a “pussy” for not assisting his plot to reverse the 2020 election results. At the Conservative Political Action Conference held last month, Trump told an adoring crowd, “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.” Avenging angel (mainly for himself)—that’s a routine pose for this man who has been haunted by insecurities and propelled by pathological narcissism his entire adult life.
Now the target—victim, he would say—of the New York City criminal justice system, Trump has let his revenge-rage run wild. Hours after he was arraigned in a New York courtroom—where supporters across in the street waved a “Trump or Death” flag—Trump appeared before a crowd of loyalists at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and ranted. Even though Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the Trump case, that day had warned Trump against making statements that could “incite violence or civil unrest,” Trump once again demonized his perceived enemies. He assailed New York district attorney Alvin Bragg as “Soros-backed,” a reference to Jewish billionaire George Soros, the target of many right-wing conspiracy theories. He also knocked Bragg’s wife. He attacked Merchan as a “Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family.” He claimed special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s retention (or theft) of classified White House records and probing the Trump-led efforts to overturn the election, was a “lunatic.” He referred to Atlanta district attorney Fani Wilis, who is investigating Trump for having pressured state election officials to flip the election results in his favor, as a “racist.” And he did the same for New York state attorney general Letitia James, who is investigating Trump for alleged business fraud. (“She’s put our family through hell,” Trump said of James. “It’s cost hundreds of millions of dollars to defend.”)
This was nothing new for Trump; he has long been grousing about the law enforcement officials on his trail. At Mar-a-Lago, he referred to these public servants collectively as “radical left lunatics” who imperiled the United States and metaphorically, if not literally, placed a bull’s-eye on their backs. Days prior to his arraignment, Trump had published on his social media site a photograph of him holding a baseball bat in a threatening manner that was alongside a photo of Bragg. (He also referred to Bragg, who is Black, as an “animal.”) After the arraignment, Donald Trump Jr. posted an article that featured a photograph of Merchan’s adult daughter.
Though vengeful wrath has always been standard operating procedure for Trump, he has raised the danger level of such conduct by pulling other Republicans and conservatives into his crusade of revenge. In recent days, his defenders have issued calls for reprisals, urging an all-out political war that weaponizes law enforcement agencies. On Fox, Ari Fleischer, who two decades ago as White House press secretary helped sell the Iraq war to the American public with falsehoods, declared, “Here’s what I hope happens now… I earnestly hope conservative prosecutors in rural areas of America indict Bill Clinton, indict Hillary Clinton, indict Hunter Biden.” For what, he did not specify.
Fox News' Ari Fleischer: "Here’s what I hope happens, Sean. I hope conservative prosecutors in rural areas of America indict Bill Clinton, indict Hillary Clinton, indict Hunter Biden." pic.twitter.com/vIBQbsAfM1
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) April 5, 2023
Conservative talk show host Jesse Kelly complained that “[n]ot one Republican DA in the entire country has announced impending charges against a major Democrat. Not one. We will never win until the Low T GOP starts hitting back. Ever. We give the communist [sic] zero incentive to stop or even slow down. Pathetic.” (“Low T” presumably means low testosterone.) He, too, did not specify what charges a “major Democrat” should face.
Responding to Kelly’s demand for a partisan Defcon-1 blitz, right-wing commentator Matt Walsh tweeted, “Mutually assured destruction is the only way through this. Treat them like they treat us. Hold them to their own standards. It’s not pretty but it’s the only way. Either this or we bow down and surrender.”
Fleischer, Kelly, and Walsh are loudmouth pundits, easy to dismiss. But an influential member of Congress came close to endorsing this declaration of war. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, disclosed that on the day of Trump’s arraignment he took calls from Republican county attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee who eagerly asked “if there are ways they can go after the Bidens.” Comer did not disavow their brazen proposals to abuse their powers for political purposes.
James Comer on Fox & Friends says he took calls yesterday from county attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee who are eager to "go after the Bidens" to retaliate for the Trump indictment pic.twitter.com/ZFsblpqiMb
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2023
Threats are on the GOP agenda. After Trump was indicted last week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the QAnonish pal of white nationalists, issued a tweet that vowed retribution: “Our side chants ‘lock her up’ and their side is going to get a mug shot based on a witch hunt. It’s time to change that. Gloves are off.” (Appearing at a modest-sized Trump rally in New York City shortly before Trump’s appearance at the court house on Tuesday, she compared Trump to Jesus, noting both had been arrested.)
Lawyers usually tell criminal defendants to cool it and not attack the judge and the legal system while a prosecution and trial are underway. Trump could face contempt charges and perhaps earn a gag order (which is not often issued by New York city courts) if he continues to utter statements that can be viewed as threatening. That’s why one of his lawyers, Susan Necheles, tried (absurdly) to walk back Trump’s post-arraignment remarks, saying, “He’s not going after the judge. He has commented that he thought there were some issues that may cause a conflict. That’s not going after the judge. He is not threatening the judge. He is not going after the judge.” Well, he was going after the judge.
Overreaction on the right to Trump’s arrest was hardly shocking. WND published a commentary that condemned Trump’s arrest as “a Lefty Sieg Heil to the Rainbow Swastika” and that asserted this development showed that “the long LGBT cold war against Christians is now going hot.”Multiple conservatives called for Bragg’s arrest. In the immediate aftermath of the arraignment, Trump predictably signaled his desire to stick to his favorite mode of politics—scorched-earth—and he gave a green light to the right to mount an extreme counter-attack. For years, he has resorted to revenge to advance his own interests. Now Trump is doing so to rev up yet another potentially dangerous political clash and to undermine the American system of law and accountability to which he has been subjected.
