'Targeted for retribution': Democrats say they're already afraid Trump is coming for them

Democrats are afraid a convicted felon will be coming after them in 2025 when he reclaims his position as president of the U.S., journalists revealed Monday morning.

Donald Trump is the object of alarm for Democrat political aides and federal workers who fear they could face financial ruin and prosecution as the president-elect claims new powers for the executive branch, panelists said on CNN.

"Have you talked to Democrats who are afraid that he is going to come after them?" host Kasie Hunt asked Axios reporter Alex Thompson.

"Yeah," he replied. "Especially on the mid-level, aides or even campaign aides, are afraid of lawyer fees, putting them on the verge of bankruptcy."

Thompson predicted retribution will take the form of Justice Department investigations and mass firings that would represent a historic shift in American government.

Trump's administration would be motivated both by what Maggie Haberman described over the weekend as the president-elect's lifelong obsession with revenge and his party's disdain for most government regulation, said Thompson.

"They view federal bureaucracy as an unauthorized fourth branch of government," Thompson said. "You are going to see the biggest change of the executive branch that we have seen in our lifetime."

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Megan Hayes, a Democratic strategist, said she was concerned about young Democrats whom she argued were going to be used in Trump's game of retribution chess that will unfold as investigations in Congress.

"I think they are going to used as pawns," Hayes said. "It's really people's lives. You have very young 30-something-year-olds where it will take a financial toll."

Frank Foer, staff writer for the Atlantic, told Hunt he also feared for the career government workers who will stand between Trump and his plans to demolish federal agencies that have defined American government for more than a century.

"They are targeted for retribution," Foer said. "There are cabinet departments and agencies that have cultures that have been built over 100 years that are going to be decimated...There is a plan to change not just the way they implement one policy or another, but to change the face of the federal government forever."

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