Bolton, James, Smith and Co. The retaliatory presidency of Donald Trump
The FBI search of John Bolton's house is just the latest example in a long series. Trump is mercilessly settling scores with people who have caused him trouble.
25.08.2025, 07:35
25.08.2025, 07:54
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- Es advisor John Bolton, public prosecutor Letitia James and Democrat LaMonica McIver: Donald Trump has his supposed enemies investigated.
- Critics from his own Republican ranks such as Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs are also being targeted.
- "Joe Biden used his government as a weapon": This is supposed to explain why Trump is now taking such rigorous action.
- "The number of people the Trump administration is targeting is astonishing to me," one lawyer marvels.
Donald Trump promised this during the election campaign - to use government power to take revenge on those who, in his opinion, have wronged him. And that is exactly what the US president seems to be doing right now. He is also prepared to extend his power far beyond Washington.
On August 22, the FBI raided the home of John Bolton, who was once Trump's national security adviser and then became one of his most vocal critics, recently denouncing the administration as a "retaliatory presidency".
Previously, Trump's team had launched investigations into Democrat Letitia James, the New York Attorney General behind the lawsuit against his company for alleged falsification of financial records, and current Democratic US Senator Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment trial against Trump.
The Department of Justice has also brought charges against LaMonica McIver, another Democrat, in connection with a protest against Trump's immigration crackdown.
Friend becomes foe
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, now one of the candidates for mayor of New York City, and two other former members of the first Trump administration are also under investigation.
One is Miles Taylor, who warned of Trump's autocratic tendencies in a book, the other Chris Krebs, who infuriated the president when he said that the 2020 election - in which Trump lost to Joe Biden - was completely safe.
All of these moves look exactly like the retaliation Trump announced after facing four separate criminal indictments during the four years between his first and second terms.
"Joe Biden used his administration as a weapon"
"Joe Biden has used his administration as a weapon to target political opponents - namely President Trump," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Aug. 23. Trump is "restoring law and order".
In addition to making good on his promise of revenge, Trump has deployed troops to US cities - ostensibly to fight crime or help arrest illegal immigrants.
All of this together has alarmed Democrats and others who fear that Trump is using his authority to intimidate political opponents and consolidate his power in a way never before seen in American history.
A reminder of dark times
Anyone who has read a history book is pretty clear "what kind of government we're dealing with," says Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
Trump began his second term in January by pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted of crimes in the wake of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Meanwhile, his Justice Department fired several federal prosecutors who had pursued these cases.
It is also scrutinizing how the investigation into possible ties between Trump's 2016 campaign team and Russia came about, and the president himself has called on the department to open an investigation into then-Democratic President Barack Obama.
"The number of people the Trump administration is targeting is astounding to me"
Investigations are already underway against special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election result and also investigated the case of the secret documents stashed at Trump's Florida estate.
"The number of people the Trump administration is targeting who all have in common that they have investigated or criticized Trump is astonishing to me," says law professor Stephen Saltzburg of George Washington University in Washington.
Bolton occupies a special place in the ranks of Trump critics. The longtime Republican foreign policy hawk wrote a book that was published in 2020 after Trump fired him the year before. The first Trump administration went to court to prevent its publication and also launched an investigation, but both proceedings were then halted by the subsequent Biden administration.
For Patel, Bolton represents the "Deep State of the executive branch"
Bolton ended up on a list of 60 former government officials compiled by current FBI Director Kash Patel, which he says represents the "Deep State of the executive branch" - by which Patel claims that these people were pursuing their own agendas behind the elected leadership's back. Critics spoke of an "enemies list".
When Trump returned to the White House in January, his administration withdrew the personal protection assigned to Bolton, who had been confronted with Iranian assassination threats.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating whether the former security adviser violated regulations on the handling of classified documents, according to sources close to the matter. Trump himself spat venom and bile when the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate for secret documents in 2022.
Lawyers and military personnel also targeted
He also targeted institutions that have caused him difficulties. These included several law firms that had been involved in cases against him or his allies, or had hired his opponents.
They were barred from working for the government unless they committed to tens of millions of dollars worth of free work in favor of causes supported by Trump. He also took action by cutting off government funding or threatening to do so against universities that he felt were not following government directives.
These are just some of the most prominent examples in a series of actions that seem to be intensifying. Trump's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired several senior members of the military who were deemed disloyal enough, and recently the administration stripped three dozen current and former national security officials of access to classified information.
"It's what he promised," says Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. "It's what tyrants do when no one tells them 'no.'"
