'Revenge, retaliation, retribution': Trump's 'fixation' on targeting his critics grows

According to a study conducted by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), the closer the November election grows the more Donald Trump is expanding his enemies list with an eye on retaliation should he be reelected.

The study looked at posts on his Truth Social account, which also included his "re-truthing" of his followers posts aimed at his critics, which CREW points out are "under the radar" due to Truth Social's limited reach compared to larger platforms such as Facebook or TikTok.

As the Guardian's David Smith reported, an analysis by CREW of more than "13,000 messages published by Trump ... found him vowing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his foes."

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The Guardian report notes, "The presumptive Republican nominee has threatened to use the federal government to go after Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times since the start of 2023, the study found. These threats include FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time. He has also threatened or suggested that the FBI and justice department should take action against senators, judges, members of Biden’s family and even non-governmental organizations."

According to CREW's vice-president for research Robert Maguire, "He is promising to go after what he perceives to be his political enemies. He is promising to essentially weaponise the government against anyone he sees as not sufficiently loyal or who is openly opposed to him."

He added, "He has constantly seeded this idea that the numerous charges against him are trumped-up charges and it seems almost to have given him license to openly say, ‘You’ve done this to me, so I’m going to do it to you.’”

The report notes that the former president — recently convicted of 34 felonies in a Manhattan — has dialed down his more violent rhetoric but it is dangerous nonetheless.

"It is critical in making sure that law enforcement and the Department of Justice – all of the things that that entails, both the federal prosecutors and the FBI – cannot be manipulated by the president to go after political enemies. That would go a long way to hamstringing any effort by any president, to be clear, to use those law enforcement powers to go against political enemies," Maguire explained.

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