WASHINGTON — In a speech at the Democratic convention in August, Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration official, recently boarded a plane when a passenger looked at her and said, “Your days are numbered.”
Not wanting to escalate a bad situation, she said nothing, but the disturbing encounter is emblematic of the hostility she faces as a well-known and vocal critic of Trump. Now that Trump is back in the White House, he is surrounded by new fears that he, his appointees or supporters may try to punish him for his speech.
“I’m worried that I’m going to be targeted by him and a lot of people around him,” Troye said in an interview. “They know very well who I am. I am worried about my family.”
He has plenty of company. For some who oppose Trump, the election results have prompted renewed concerns that he may enter office seeking revenge.
He has been out of power for nearly four years, airing grievances about how he believes he has been mistreated by law enforcement, but on Jan. 20 he will be sworn in with many of the government powers at his disposal. He makes no secret of who wronged him, and as president he can change their lives if he chooses through investigations, tax audits or military courts.
During the campaign, Trump made various statements about whether he would target people who upset him. What he said can be interpreted in different ways. He spoke hours after being accused of improper handling of classified documents last year, and if elected “Appoint a real special prosecutor Going after the most corrupt president of the United States of America: Joe Biden and the entire Biden crime family.
“My revenge will be successful,” he said in February, dismissing any concerns that he was seeking revenge.
he said Fox News last month in an exchange about arming the government against political enemies: “I don’t want to do that. This is bad for the country. I don’t want to do that. I didn’t say I would. But they did it.”
In that interview, he described Democratic Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff of California as the “enemy within.”
As for special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, Trump said last month he should be “kicked out of the country.” (A spokeswoman for Smith declined to comment).
Rep. Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump ally in Congress, said he doesn’t expect any prosecutors to face reprisals over Trump’s investigations.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen because we’re the party against political persecution,” Jordan told CNN on Sunday. “We are against using the law to go after your competitors.”
None of these have an exact parallel in modern times. Former President Richard Nixon had his enemies, but he fought them alone.
“The bottom line is that The Post is going to be in goddamn, goddamn trouble from now on,” Nixon told aides in 1972, complaining about the Washington Post’s reporting. “Well, the game must be played very roughly.”
Interviews with 10 people — first-time Trump administration staffers, lawmakers and critics, among others — reveal varying levels of difficulty.
Private attorney Mark Zaid said he is consulting with clients on how best to protect themselves in a second Trump administration. He said he advised some to leave the country before Trump is sworn in and live abroad until he gets a sense of whether he is inclined to retaliate.
“I am already aware of people who have made such plans,” Zaid said.
Punitive measures can take different forms.
In the past, a federal judge ruled that prison officials engaged in “retaliation” against Trump over a book written by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. They moved Cohen from house arrest to prison, “in retaliation for Cohen’s desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book critical of the President. [Trump] and discussing the book on social media” Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote. He ordered that Cohen be returned to custody at this Manhattan apartment.
Security clearances can be essential for people moving into the private sector, and if the Trump administration clamps down on them, it could deprive them of their livelihoods.
Incoming Vice President JD Vance was proposed last month In an interview last month, the Trump administration said it would revoke the security clearances of 51 people with national security experience who signed the letter Before the 2020 election, the authenticity of emails found on a laptop belonging to Joe Biden’s son Hunter is being questioned.
Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan that “they all still have security clearances, I believe that will change when we win.”
Former CIA chief of staff Larry Pfeiffer, who signed the letter, said: “I have colleagues on this list who are active members of companies doing business in the intelligence community and they will be on this list. If their permits are revoked, they are likely to lose their post-government livelihood.
“In our view, it would be completely unprecedented to withdraw people’s permission for some of the views they espouse,” he said.
Trump will take office with a voter mandate and minimal restrictions. Republicans would take control of the Senate and be better positioned than Democrats to control the House, given the election results still to come, eliminating potential checks and balances on the executive branch.
Separately, a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year granted the president broad immunity. preventing possible retaliation.
Because Trump is limited to one term, public opinion will not be an obstacle for presidents to be re-elected.
Although Trump has sometimes given assurances that he won’t seek revenge for wrongs he’s suffered, some of his critics aren’t sure he means it.
Last month, a Fox News host asked him if he would “do to them what they did to him.”
“A lot of people say that if you want to know the truth, this has to happen,” Trump said.
When asked if he will “look at his political enemies” when he returns to office, Trump answered: “No, I want to make this the most successful country in the world.” I want to do it.”
Schiff’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Schiff after Trump called him a domestic “enemy.” posted on the social network “There is no reason for such dictatorial behavior. Apart from the ambition of dictatorship”.
Pelosi’s spokesman referred to her comments Los Angeles Times In an op-ed he wrote before the election, he said that if Trump wins, “not only us, but many other people will be targeted.”
Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat who was a top adviser before taking office, said: “If anybody really starts using the criminal justice system or other aspects of government to target their enemies, then we’re nothing but a banana republic.” In Trump’s first impeachment case. “The response you’ll get from Republicans will be: ‘Joe Biden did it.’ I would ask any right thinking person that Joe Biden weaponized the Justice Department during the Justice Department. condemned his own son.”
Some people who have criticized the public in the past, not wanting to draw attention to themselves or oppose Trump, remain silent for now.
One former White House official who spoke out against Trump described himself as “scared” and declined to be named.
Another former Trump administration official, who has publicly mocked Trump, said that while they were in the United States, the others were “talking to tips and trying to figure out what the immigration laws and policies are in places where they might be thinking about going.”
“It’s unreal,” this person added. “It’s unreal to have these thoughts and concerns in this day and age in this country.”
It’s not just Trump and his entourage that scares the speakers; is also his follower. Two days after the election, someone replied to one of Troye’s posts on X: “You should prepare for jail too. “Trump owns your poor ass.”
Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who was attacked on Jan. 6 and has since been a vocal critic of Trump, called him an “authoritarian” earlier this year. Hours later, he is 78 years old mother “confused” with a SWAT team coming to his home while he was in his nightgown on a false report.
Now Fanone says he’s haunted by his mountain home in Virginia, fearing Trump might arm the police.
“I’m going to die here in my house,” he told the Washington Post. “I’m not going to be in some ‘Disciple’ f—— military tribunal.”
Zaid represented a whistleblower in Trump’s first impeachment trial and also defended some of the 51 signatories to the Hunter Biden letter. In 2019, Trump called her a “sleazeball”, referring to some anti-Trump tweets she had written two years earlier.
He is also worried about the future.
“We’re certainly concerned that the new White House is going to make it harder for us to fairly represent federal employees — (meaning) that they won’t retaliate against our clients,” he said.
“There’s no doubt they can make our lives difficult and interfere with everyone’s legal practice if they want to, they just won’t respond to what we do.”
A spokesman for Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
If Trump or his political appointees seek legal punishment, career prosecutors may not find such cases easy to prosecute, nor do they want to go along.
Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who wrote a book criticizing Trump’s methods, said in an interview: “I feel like there’s a long list of punishments, and I’m on it.”
He hypothetically described what could happen if Trump ordered the Justice Department to open an investigation into a political enemy that had no legal basis.
Ultimately, the inquiry will fall from political appointees to career Justice Department prosecutors. Bolton, a former Justice Department official in the Ronald Reagan administration, said these lawyers choose to do it “when the rubber hits the road.”
“A career prosecutor says, ‘I won’t do it’?” Are they firing him? Is he resigning? When does this go public? Fifteen seconds later the answer to this. And then we have a crisis.”
Trump’s appointments may provide the first clues about how he will use the broad powers of government. Will he fill the posts with loyalists who only want to please him and follow his instincts, or will he choose people who remain guided by the rule of law?
At least one Democrat cheered Trump’s selection of Susie Wiles, daughter of the late NFL football announcer Pat Summerall, as White House chief of staff.
“He’s brilliant, tough, strategic,” U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., wrote in X. “He will serve the country well.”
For now, others who may have reason to fear Trump’s return are watching and waiting to see what happens.
Aquilino GonellA former US Capitol police sergeant who was attacked by Trump supporters on January 6 and later testified before the House Committee investigating the riots said: “Yes, I have to be vigilant. I mean, I have a family to take care of.”
Gonell suffered injuries in a January 6 attack that forced him to retire in 2022. He campaigned for Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race and spoke about what he saw as Trump’s failings, with supporters flooding the Capitol that day and meddling in government. transfer of power.
“They can’t erase what I’ve done,” Gonell said. We fought with his crowd.”