Why Trump's Calls To Prosecute His Political Opponents Aren't Empty Threats
The guardrails that prevented Trump from prosecuting his political opponents in his first term won't be there in a second term. Americans should take these threats seriously and vote accordingly.
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Donald Trump’s calls to prosecute his political targets have become even more dangerous. They’re not simply ramblings that will never come to fruition. They’re concrete threats that now have the infrastructure of his party behind them.
When Trump tried to prosecute his political opponents in his first term, administration officials like Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Attorney General William Barr refused. This time, he has the full buy-in of the Republican Party, a federal judiciary with a right-wing tilt, and an "army” of Project 2025-trained loyalists waiting to be installed in a second Trump administration who will empower his worst authoritarian impulses.
Trump’s allies are not only calling for immediate prosecutions of Democrats by Republicans at the state and federal level. They’re also plotting how Trump can exact revenge in a second term. Legal experts confirm he’ll have the power to do it.
In my article earlier this week, I focused on the Republican disinformation campaign being waged to justify the prosecution of their political “enemies” and why we need to hold the line on reality. In this piece, we’re going to explore these threats of retribution and why every American should be paying attention.
Republicans Are Calling For The Prosecution Of Trump’s Political Targets
After Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in New York, Donald Trump and his Republican allies wasted no time trying to gaslight the public about the nature of this trial.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) falsely called the conviction “a purely political exercise” and the result of a “weaponization of our justice system.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tweeted, “These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.”
Vice Presidential hopefuls also joined the performative Loyalty Olympics. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) called for an investigation into Judge Merchan’s family. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) called the conviction an “absolute injustice” in a cringey video he posted on Twitter/X. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the proceedings a “political show trial” and sent another post declaring, “Don’t just get angry about this travesty, get even!”
Before we go any further, it’s important to restate this truth:
President Biden did not prosecute Trump. There is zero, absolutely zero, evidence that Biden has been involved in any of the prosecutions of the former president. The federal cases have been overseen by a special counsel appointed by a reluctant Attorney General, Merrick Garland. The state cases are totally independent of federal influence. Meanwhile, Biden’s own DOJ is prosecuting his son.
The narrative that Biden is weaponizing the justice system is a straight-up lie being used to provide a false justification for Trump and Republicans to prosecute Democrats.
The New York Times and Axios have reported on these dangerous calls to jail Trump’s political opponents from Republicans and right-wing figures.
Steve Bannon, who was just ordered to jail on July 1 for his contempt conviction, has called for the jailing of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and other Democratic targets, including "investigations to include [Democrats'] media allies." Bannon, along with many other right-wing figures, have called for state Republicans to launch politically motivated probes of Democrats:
“There are dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys who need to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history.”
Speaker Mike Johnson is supporting a House Republican hearing that will target prosecutors who have held Trump accountable. Johnson told "Fox News Sunday" that the purpose of the hearings “is to investigate what these prosecutors are doing at the state and federal level to use ... political retribution in the court system to go after political opponents, federal officials like Donald Trump."
Republican lawmakers at every level have called for prosecutions. Senator Marco Rubio ramped up his rhetoric, saying Republicans need to “fight fire with fire.”
In a conversation with far-right commentator Tim Pool, Trump ally Laura Loomer went even further: “Not just jail, they should get the death penalty.”
Trump himself has long made his campaign about retribution and the prosecution of his political targets, including explicitly promising he will appoint a Special Prosecutor to “go after” President Biden. On Newsmax on Tuesday night, he doubled down on this post-conviction: "So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, and it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.”
On Thursday, in reaction to Steve Bannon being ordered to prison, Trump sent a social media post calling for the Congressional January 6 Select Committee members to be indicted. There is, of course, no basis to prosecute them, but that won’t stop Trump. His retribution target list is long, and if he wins re-election, he will 100% prosecute them.
How Trump Plans To Target Guardrails And Prosecute Opponents
What makes Trump’s threats of prosecuting his political opponents so alarming is the fact they are not empty threats. Trump will absolutely have the power to pursue this, and it would take America down a dark, authoritarian path we can’t easily walk back from.
Adam Liptak, The New York Times' Supreme Court correspondent, wrote an excellent and alarming article about the feasibility of Trump’s calls to prosecute his political targets. The push notification The Times sent out for the piece laid out the stakes clearly:
The substance of Liptak’s piece confirms what many of us have been saying and what I’ve been writing about in this newsletter for months. The context surrounding Donald Trump’s re-election, including his plans to purge civil servants, erodes the guardrails that would prevent him from prosecuting his political targets. From Liptak’s piece:
“…If he is already challenging bedrock norms about the justice system as a candidate, Mr. Trump, if he wins the presidency again, would gain immense authority to actually carry out the kinds of legal retribution he has been promoting.
The Justice Department is part of the executive branch, and he will be its boss. He will be able to tell its officials to investigate and prosecute his rivals, and Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to purge the federal bureaucracy of those found insufficiently loyal to his agenda, will be able to fire those who refuse.
While the department has traditionally had substantial independence, that is only because presidents have granted it. If the legal system resists political prosecutions in a second Trump term, it will be largely because judges and jurors reject them.”
I’ve written extensively about Trump’s plan to purge the federal bureaucracy in my coverage of Project 2025 and discussed it on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle. The guardrails that contained Trump’s authoritarian impulses in his first term simply won’t be there in a second term.
When it comes to a Cabinet that pushes back on Trump, as they did in his first term, Trump is preempting that with a plan to only appoint loyalists. As bad as his first term was, many of his Cabinet officials pushed back against his insane requests.
“Lock Her Up!” wasn’t just a rally chant. It was a real effort. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, for example, told Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that Trump repeatedly pressured him to investigate Hillary Clinton. This happened both privately and publicly. He refused and was later fired. Trump did the same thing to Attorney General William Barr, but this time demanded indictments of then-candidate Joe Biden. Barr refused. Trump’s next attorney general won’t refuse.
The civil service that makes up the federal government and previously pushed back on Trump’s corruption will be purged. Trump plans to re-implement his Schedule F executive order, which Biden rolled back, that would allow him to more easily fire career civil servants. Trump will then replace them with tens of thousands of loyalists who are already being trained and screened by the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025 allies.
The courts, which are the ultimate check on presidential overreach, have been stacked with right-wing extremists who have been issuing radical rulings. The Supreme Court is no different, with their 6-3 majority making increasingly favorable rulings for Trump and the conservative movement. They will approve many of his unilateral actions under the unitary executive theory, according to New York Times reporter Charlie Savage.
The Republican Party is now fully loyal to Donald Trump and ready to execute his far-right authoritarian agenda, including backing the prosecution of Democrats. If Republicans win a majority in the House and Senate, you will see no impeachment hearings for Trump if he orders his Attorney General and federal prosecutors to target Democrats and members of the media.
Grand juries and non-partisan judges will be the last line of defense to protect Trump’s opposition from being prosecuted if Trump pursues baseless charges of his targets.
Every crazy thing you hear Donald Trump saying, consider them to be promises if he wins re-election because he’s corrupting most of the mechanisms that can stop him.
Americans are faced with a choice in this election. What kind of country do we want to be? Will we really elect a convicted felon to the highest office in the land and give him the authority to vengefully prosecute anyone he doesn’t like?
We can’t let that happen. We have to mobilize and make sure we definitively reject this authoritarianism at the ballot box.
So glad to read your clear-headed explanation of the dire situation our country is facing. Personally I get apoplectic when I try to articulate my fears to friends, so I will refer them to your writings. Thank you, Ahmed.