Nov 26 (Reuters) – In his second time period, Donald Trump has turned a marketing campaign pledge to punish political opponents right into a tenet of governance.
What started as a provocative rallying cry in March 2023 — “I am your retribution” — has hardened right into a sweeping marketing campaign of retaliation towards perceived enemies, reshaping federal coverage, staffing and regulation enforcement.
A tally by Reuters reveals the dimensions: At the least 470 folks, organizations and establishments have been focused for retribution since Trump took workplace — a mean of multiple a day.
Some had been singled out for punishment; others swept up in broader purges of perceived enemies. The rely excludes international people, establishments and governments, in addition to federal workers dismissed as a part of power reductions.
The Trump vengeance marketing campaign fuses private vendettas with a drive for cultural and political dominance, Reuters discovered.
His administration has wielded govt energy to punish perceived foes — firing prosecutors who investigated his bid to overturn the 2020 election, ordering punishments of media organizations seen as hostile, penalizing regulation companies tied to opponents, and sidelining civil servants who query his insurance policies.
Lots of these actions face authorized challenges.
On the identical time, Trump and his appointees have used the federal government to implement ideology: ousting navy leaders deemed “woke,” slashing funds for cultural establishments held to be divisive, and freezing analysis grants to universities that embraced variety initiatives.
Reuters reached out to each particular person and establishment that Trump or his subordinates singled out publicly for retribution, and reviewed a whole bunch of official orders, directives and public information. The end result: probably the most complete accounting but of his marketing campaign of payback.
The evaluation revealed two broad teams of individuals and organizations focused for retaliation.
Members of the primary group — a minimum of 247 people and entities — had been singled out by identify, both publicly by Trump and his appointees or later in authorities memos, authorized filings or different information. To qualify, acts needed to be aimed toward particular people or entities, with proof of intent to punish. Reuters reporters interviewed or corresponded with greater than 150 of them.
One other 224 folks had been caught up in broader retribution efforts – not named individually however ensnared in crackdowns on teams of perceived opponents. Almost 100 of them had been prosecutors and FBI brokers fired or pressured to retire for engaged on instances tied to Trump or his allies, or as a result of they had been deemed “woke.” This contains 16 FBI brokers who kneeled at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020. The remainder had been civil servants, most of them suspended for publicly opposing administration insurance policies or resisting directives on well being, environmental and science points.
The retribution took three distinct types.
Commonest had been punitive acts, resembling firings, suspensions, investigations and the revocation of safety clearances.
Reuters discovered a minimum of 462 such instances, together with the dismissal of 128 federal staff and officers who had probed, challenged or in any other case bucked Trump or his administration.
The second kind was threats.
Trump and his administration focused a minimum of 46 people, companies and different entities with threats of investigations or penalties, together with freezing federal funds for Democratic-led cities resembling New York and Chicago.
Trump brazenly mentioned firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for resisting rate of interest cuts, as an example. Final week, he threatened to have six Democratic members of Congress tried for sedition – a criminal offense he mentioned is “punishable by DEATH” – after the lawmakers reminded navy personnel they will refuse “illegal orders.” This week, the Protection Division threatened to court-martial one in every of them, U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a former Naval officer.
The third kind was coercion. In a minimum of a dozen instances, organizations resembling regulation companies and universities signed agreements with the federal government to roll again variety initiatives or different insurance policies after going through administration threats of punishment, resembling safety clearance revocations and lack of federal funding and contracts.
It’s a marketing campaign led from the highest: Trump’s White Home has issued a minimum of 36 orders, decrees and directives, concentrating on a minimum of 100 people and entities with punitive actions, in accordance with the Reuters evaluation.
Trump brazenly campaigned on a platform of revenge in his newest run for the presidency, promising to punish enemies of his Make America Nice Once more motion. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he mentioned in a March 2023 speech. Weeks later, whereas campaigning in Texas, he repeated the theme. “I am your justice,” he mentioned.
Immediately, the White Home disputes the concept the administration is out for revenge. It describes current investigations and indictments of political adversaries as legitimate course corrections on coverage, crucial probes of wrongdoing and bonafide coverage initiatives.
“This entire article is based on the flawed premise that enforcing an electoral mandate is somehow ‘retribution.’ It’s not,” White Home spokesperson Abigail Jackson mentioned. There isn’t any place in authorities for civil servants or public officers “who actively seek to undermine the agenda that the American people elected the president to enact,” she added. Trump is abiding by marketing campaign guarantees to revive a justice system that was “weaponized” by the Biden administration, Jackson mentioned, and “ensure taxpayer funding is not going to partisan causes.”
Trump’s actions have been cheered by his staunchest backers. Proper-wing commentator and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon advised Reuters using authorities energy to punish Trump’s enemies is “not revenge at all” however an try and “hold people accountable” for what he mentioned had been unfair investigations concentrating on Trump. Extra is on the best way, he mentioned.
“The people that tried to take away President Trump’s first term, that accused him of being a Russian asset and damaged this republic, and then stole the 2020 election – they’re going to be held accountable and they’re going to be adjudicated in courts of law,” he mentioned in an interview. “That’s coming. There’s no doubt.” There’s no proof the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump’s allies level to actions former President Joe Biden took upon taking workplace. After Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed bid to overturn his election loss, Biden revoked Trump’s entry to categorised info, a primary for any former president. Biden additionally gained a courtroom battle to dismiss Senate-confirmed administrators of unbiased businesses serving mounted phrases, such because the Federal Housing Finance Authority, and eliminated scores of Trump-era appointees from unpaid advisory boards.
But the dimensions and systematic nature of Trump’s effort to punish perceived enemies marks a pointy break from long-standing norms in U.S. governance, in accordance with 13 political scientists and authorized students interviewed by Reuters. Some historians say the closest trendy parallel, although inexact, is the late President Richard Nixon’s quest for vengeance towards political enemies. Since Could, as an example, dozens of officers from a number of federal businesses have been assembly as a part of a job power shaped to advance Trump’s retribution drive towards perceived enemies, Reuters beforehand reported.
“The main aim is concentration of power and destruction of all checks against power,” mentioned Daron Acemoglu, Nobel laureate in economics and a professor on the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how, which faces an ongoing federal investigation for embracing variety and fairness applications. “Retribution is just one of the tools.”
Dozens of Trump’s targets have challenged their punishments as unlawful. Fired and suspended civil servants have filed administrative appeals or authorized challenges claiming wrongful termination. Some regulation companies have gone to courtroom claiming the administration exceeded its authorized authority by proscribing their capacity to work on categorised contracts or work together with federal businesses. Most of these challenges stay unresolved.
INVESTIGATING FOES OF TRUMP
The administration has moved aggressively towards officers within the authorities’s authorized and nationwide safety businesses, establishments central to investigations of Trump’s alleged misconduct throughout and after his first time period.
At the least 69 present and former officers had been focused for investigating or sounding alarms about Russian interference in U.S. elections. U.S. intelligence businesses concluded quickly after the 2016 election that Moscow sought to tilt the race towards Trump, a discovering later affirmed by a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report in August 2020. Acts of retribution tied to the Russia probe embody the September 25 indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, a break from Justice Division norms meant to defend prosecutions from political affect.
Comey, who led the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign, was charged after Trump demanded his prosecution. The Justice Division has solid the case as a corruption crackdown. Comey and his legal professionals mentioned in courtroom paperwork that the case was “vindictive” and motivated by “personal animus.” Comey, who pleaded not responsible, declined to remark. A federal choose dismissed the case on Monday, ruling that Trump’s handpicked prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed.
At the least 58 acts of retribution have focused folks Trump seen as saboteurs of his election campaigns, together with Chris Krebs, the highest cybersecurity official throughout his first time period. Trump fired him in 2020 for disputing claims that the election was rigged. In April, Trump stripped Krebs’ safety clearance and ordered a federal investigation into his tenure. Krebs, nonetheless asserting that Trump’s defeat was legitimate, has vowed to combat the probe. He didn’t reply for this story.
Reuters documented 112 safety clearances revoked from present and former U.S. officers, regulation companies and state leaders – credentials wanted for work that entails categorised info. In August, Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard introduced she was revoking 37 clearances.
In a response to Reuters posted on X, an company spokesperson mentioned Gabbard and Trump are working “to ensure the government is never again wielded against the American people it is meant to serve.” She added: “President Trump said it best, ‘Our ultimate retribution is success.’”
Leon Panetta, CIA director and protection secretary beneath former President Barack Obama, had his safety clearance revoked in January together with others who signed an October 2020 letter suggesting Russia might have been behind reviews about emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer. On the time, Joe Biden — Hunter’s father — was Trump’s Democratic rival within the 2020 election. An govt order Trump signed in January claimed: “The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.” Panetta has mentioned he stands by signing the letter.
Panetta advised Reuters he had already surrendered his clearance after leaving authorities practically a decade in the past. Trump’s retribution marketing campaign is hurting CIA morale and wrecking the bipartisan belief that enables Washington to operate, Panetta mentioned. “What I worry about is that our adversaries will look at what’s happening and sense weakness,” he mentioned. “This kind of political retribution leads to a loss of trust, which ultimately leads to a failure of governing.” The CIA didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The revenge effort additionally reaches deep into the civil service, punishing workers who communicate out towards Trump’s insurance policies and turning types of dissent that had been tolerated by previous administrations into grounds for self-discipline.
This summer time, a whole bunch of Environmental Safety Company staffers wrote an open letter protesting deep cuts to air pollution management and cleanup applications. The fallout was swift. Greater than 100 signers who hooked up their names had been positioned on paid depart. At the least 15 senior officers and probationary workers had been advised they might be fired. The remainder had been knowledgeable they had been beneath investigation for misconduct, resulting in a minimum of 69 suspensions with out pay. Many remained out of labor for weeks.
“They followed all the rules” of conduct for civil servants, mentioned Nicole Cantello, one of many signers and an officer with the American Federation of Authorities Staff, a union that represents many affected staff. She known as the punishments an try and “quell dissent,” stifle free speech and “scare the employees.” In an announcement, the EPA mentioned it has “a zero-tolerance policy for career officials using their agency position and title to unlawfully undermine, sabotage, and undercut” administration coverage.
On the Federal Emergency Administration Company, about 20 staffers had been placed on depart and now face misconduct investigations after signing a letter criticizing the company’s choice to scrap bipartisan reforms adopted years in the past to hurry catastrophe aid.
Cameron Hamilton, a Republican who served briefly as appearing head of FEMA, was fired in Could, a day after telling Congress he didn’t consider the company must be shut down, contradicting the administration.
Hamilton advised Reuters he nonetheless helps Trump. However he mentioned too many senior officers are firing folks within the identify of retribution, making an attempt to impress the White Home. “They want to find ways to really launch themselves to prominence and be movers and shakers, to kick ass and take names,” mentioned Hamilton. “They’re trying to show the president ‘look at what I am doing for you.’”
In an announcement to Reuters, the Division of Homeland Safety, which incorporates FEMA, mentioned it’s constructing a “new FEMA” to repair “inefficiency and outdated processes.” Staff “resisting change” are “not a good fit,” the assertion mentioned.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, former head of the Nationwide Institute for Allergy and Infectious Illnesses, sees her firing in October — three weeks after submitting a whistleblower grievance alleging politicization of analysis and vaccine coverage — as a warning shot. She advised Reuters the administration’s purge of dissenting well being officers is breeding “anticipatory obedience” — a reflex to conform earlier than being requested. “People know if they push back … this is what happens,” she mentioned. The impact, she says, is an ecosystem of worry: those that keep in authorities self-censor; those that communicate out are branded “radioactive, too hot to handle.”
The Division of Health and Human Companies, the company that oversees NIAID, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Federal company leaders have dismissed a big selection of officers they deemed out of step with Trump’s MAGA agenda, together with workers concerned in variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives and people engaged on transgender points.
David Maltinsky, a Federal Bureau of Investigation worker, says he was fired by Director Kash Patel for displaying a Pleasure flag at work — one in every of a minimum of 50 bureau personnel dismissed on Patel’s watch.
Maltinsky sued the FBI and Justice Division, alleging violations of his constitutional rights and searching for reinstatement. The Justice Division has but to file a proper response.
In his 2023 e book, “Government Gangsters,” Patel named 60 those who he mentioned had been members of an “Executive Branch deep state” that opposed Trump, together with former Democratic authorities officers and Republicans who served in Trump’s first administration however ultimately broke with him. He known as for firings and mentioned that anyone who abused their authority ought to face prosecution. In his 2025 affirmation listening to earlier than Congress, Patel denied that it was an “enemies list.”
Reuters discovered that a minimum of 17 of the 60 folks on Patel’s listing have confronted some kind of retribution, together with firings and stripping of safety clearances. The FBI didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In opposition to perceived foes within the personal sector, the administration has wielded monetary penalties as leverage. At the least two dozen regulation companies confronted inquiries, investigations or restrictions on federal contracting, usually for using or representing folks tied to previous instances towards Trump. Eight struck offers to keep away from additional motion.
9 media organizations have confronted federal investigations, lawsuits, threats to revoke their broadcast licenses and limits on entry to White Home occasions. Trump has additionally prompt revoking broadcast licenses for networks whose protection he dislikes.
The targets embody universities, lengthy solid by the president and his allies as bastions of left-wing radicals.
Officers froze greater than $4 billion in federal grants and analysis funding to a minimum of 9 colleges, demanding coverage adjustments resembling ending variety, fairness and inclusion applications, banning transgender athletes from girls’s sports activities and cracking down on alleged antisemitism amid pro-Palestinian protests. 5 universities have signed agreements to revive funding. Harvard College efficiently sued to dam a freeze on $2.2 billion in federal help for the college, which Trump accused of “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired” dogma. Harvard declined to remark.
The administration has described the funding freezes and different efforts to power coverage adjustments at schools and universities as a crucial push to reverse years of leftward drift in U.S. schooling. “If Reuters considers restoring merit in admissions, reclaiming women’s titles misappropriated by male athletes, enforcing civil rights laws, and preventing taxpayer dollars from funding radical DEI programs ‘retribution,’ then we’re on very different planes of reality,” mentioned Julie Hartman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Training Division.
A HISTORICAL PARALLEL: NIXON’S ENEMIES
It’s unattainable to foretell, in fact, how far the Trump revenge marketing campaign will go, or whether or not it is going to be affected by a current slide in in style assist.
Trump has been damage by public frustration with the excessive value of dwelling and the investigation into late convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Nixon resigned in 1974 over the Watergate scandal, through which aides to his re-election marketing campaign broke into Democratic Occasion headquarters and the president himself later directed a cover-up. Whereas in workplace, he saved a listing of greater than 500 enemies. However whereas Trump has performed his retribution marketing campaign within the open, historians word, Nixon’s enemies listing was conceived as a covert instrument.
John Dean, chief counsel within the Nixon White Home, wrote a confidential memo in 1971 addressing “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” The deliberate strategies included tax audits, phone-tapping, the cancellation of contracts and prison prosecution. But the execution faltered: IRS Commissioner Donald Alexander refused to conduct mass audits, and most targets escaped severe punishment.
Different current presidents, to make certain, have been accused of searching for to punish opponents, although on a smaller scale. The Obama administration pursued “aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information,” the Committee to Shield Journalists mentioned in a 2013 report. Two IRS workers alleged they had been retaliated towards throughout the Biden administration for elevating issues concerning the dealing with of the tax-compliance investigation of Hunter Biden.
Nixon’s plotting remained a secret till the Watergate hearings uncovered it, turning his enemies listing into a logo of presidential abuse. The secrecy mirrored a political tradition through which retaliation was whispered, not broadcast, and the place institutional checks blunted a lot of Nixon’s ambitions.
Trump’s method reverses that sample, historians say. He has brazenly named his perceived enemies, urged prosecutions in public and framed vengeance as a marketing campaign vow. Some say as we speak’s “enemies list” politics are in that sense farther-reaching than Nixon’s, probably signaling a shift towards a normalization of retribution in American political life.
Corey Brettschneider, a political science professor at Brown College who has written a e book on energy grabs by American presidents, mentioned Nixon was finally checked and compelled to resign by Congress, together with members of his personal Republican Occasion. “That’s just not happening now,” he mentioned.
(Further reporting by Nathan Layne, Nate Raymond and Sarah N. Lynch)
