Trump just delivered the darkest of messages

On Friday, the FBI raided the home and office of John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.

Although it cannot be confirmed that the agents wore flak jackets emblazoned “DJT Retribution Tour 2025” on the back, they didn’t need to. Trump’s DOJ apparatchiks had already swarmed social media in the most unserious law-enforcement performance since the great Leslie Neilsen’s Police Squad classics.

The tweets were something to see. All just happened to get posted right around the times FBI agents were showing up for coffee with the Boltons. All were delivered in classic mean-face protocol, which of course demanded that no reference be made to anything in particular.

From FBI Director Kash Patel: “NO ONE is above the law … @FBI agents on mission.”

Agents on mission? What are you, 12?

But Patel’s was the serious stake in the ground. Others just retweeted it:

From Attorney General Pam Bondi: “America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.”

From Deputy FBI Director Don Bongino: “Public corruption will not be tolerated.”

Bongino’s prospective bunkmate, Andrew Bailey, must be chomping at the bit to have a piece of this action.

This is such amateur hour. These performative fools have debased the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

We have a real problem here. The specifics of Bolton’s situation are beside the point.

In matters referencing national security, affidavits are almost always sealed — sometimes forever. There won’t be a lot of substance for liberals to pore over this weekend with their biscuits and gravy at Cracker Barrel.

The only part of this story worthy of prospective consideration is whether somehow, some way, the Republican political establishment might get nudged out of its cultish trance by this happening to old ally. I don’t think so.

Bolton is not a sympathetic figure on a personal level. From his earliest days as a vitriolic, super-militaristic, hyper-partisan neocon, his persona has remained the rarest of acquired tastes across the political spectrum.

More directly to the point of this story, it remains impossible to forgive Bolton for putting his bank account ahead of his country in 2019. That’s when he refused to testify in Trump’s first impeachment so as not to compromise upcoming profits from the 2020 release of his explosive tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.

Who knows what would have happened had Bolton done the right thing?

It’s widely assumed that the book — and Trump’s years-long public feud with Bolton — are the beginning, middle and end of this FBI adventure. And yes, karma’s a bitch.

But remember that famous old passage? “They came for the crotchety national security advisors, but I wasn’t a crotchety national security advisor, so I said nothing.”

In that sense, Bolton presents an ominous test case. Whatever natural base of supporters he might have had is likely limited to his cellphone contacts. He could be in for a rough time.

And I truly don’t believe anyone should be celebrating that.

I’ll harken back to my June 9 column on another part of Trump’s terroristic playbook. That was about ICE stormtroopers, but it applies equally to the police-state tactics involved today with the FBI:

“There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that reads: “Hang one to scare a hundred.”

I assure you there a whole lot more than a hundred former Trump officials, military brass and other vocal critics who won’t sleep well tonight. Trump just delivered the darkest of messages — and it has been received.

If anyone might harbor even the slightest doubt that this is 100 percent about vindictive, petty and malicious retribution, it’s helpful that the Dark Lord of Vengeance couldn’t contain his devilish glee.

“Good morning. John Bolton. How does it feel to have your home raided at 6 o'clock in the morning?” — Roger Stone.

This is what America voted for.

And John Bolton’s home won’t be the final venue.