Earlier this month, TV talk-show host Dr. Phil McGraw asked Donald Trump if he’d declare that revenge “is a race to the bottom and it stops here.”
“I’m okay with that,” Trump replied, but “revenge can be justified, though, I have to be honest, sometimes it can.” And it’s tempting, given “what I’ve been through.” Trump also told Sean Hannity he would “have every right to go after” his opponents.
There is no reason to doubt he means what he has said. Revenge has been a major theme of his reelection campaign. If he returns to the White House, Trump has affirmed, weaponization of the Department of Justice “could certainly happen in reverse … if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them.”
Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after the most corrupt president in the history of the USA, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, and all those involved with the destruction of our elections.” He would make MSNBC “pay” for its “illegal political activity” and “come down hard” on Brian Roberts, the “sleaze-ball” CEO of Comcast, which owns the channel. A few weeks ago, Trump demanded indictments of all the members of the House Select Committee on January 6, 2021 for “illegally deleting and destroying all of their findings.”
Trump is better prepared for revenge now than he was the first time around. During his presidency, Trump directed the Department of Justice to investigate Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State John Kerry and former FBI Director James Comey, but prosecutors and his attorneys general uncovered insufficient evidence to indict them. According to John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, he has learned to install “sycophants,” instead of by-the-book “guys like me” in the White House, the cabinet and federal agencies.
If elected, Trump plans to issue an executive order empowering him to replace any career officer in the federal government without recourse to civil service rules. Tens of thousands of employees, whom he considers members of “a sick political class that hates our country,” are likely to be terminated.
These days, MAGA Republicans are all-in on revenge. Like their leader, they are willing to rely on “alternative facts” to punish their enemies.
Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to Trump, wonders whether “every House Committee controlled by Republicans is using the subpoena power in every way it needs right now?” As if in response, the House issued criminal referrals for Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president’s brother, to the DOJ. If Attorney General Merrick Garland fails to act on them, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced, the next administration “certainly can.”
Stephen Bannon, former chief strategist for Trump, has called on “dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history.” Mike Davis, a close associate of Trump, said, “On Day 1, when he wins, President Trump needs to open a criminal civil rights investigation” of prosecutors who indicted the former president and his allies. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wants to defund the activities of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Fulton County Georgia DA Fani Willis and Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey advocates prosecuting Biden for trying to “buy votes” with his executive order on student loan forgiveness. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) posted on X that Biden is “a demented man propped up by wicked & deranged people willing to destroy our country to remain in power … It’s time to fight 🔥 with 🔥.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wildly claimed in a post that “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light. … What are Republicans going to do about it?”
Conservative law professor John Yoo wrote in National Review, “In order to prevent the case against Trump from assuming a permanent place in the American political system, Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents. … Only retaliation in kind can produce the deterrence necessary to enforce a political version of mutual assured destruction.”
Yoo — who advised the Bush administration in 2002 that “enhanced interrogation techniques,” often regarded as torture, were legal — is mistaken. Revenge breeds revenge, often accompanied by vigilante violence.
Ironically, moreover, Donald Trump has not been wronged. Trump did what he has been accused of doing: sexually assaulting and defaming a woman; committing business fraud; violating the Presidential Records Act and putting national security at risk by taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago; and conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
But even if he is a victim, two wrongs don’t make a right. As Americans cast their votes this fall, we would do well to heed the wisdom of Rev. Martin Luther King. “The old law about an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind,” King wrote. “History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals who perceived this self-defeating path of hate.”
Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.