On Retribution. The Washington Post recently reported that Trump and his allies have been mapping plans to use the government to investigate former cabinet members who have criticized him, among other paths to pursue payback against critics and perceived enemies.
Trump was asked in his interview if, given his continuous accusations that the government was “weaponized” against him, he would pursue the same course against his opponents as president. He did not exactly rule it out, even raising the specter of ordering prosecutions in a future campaign (though Trump would be ineligible for re-election if he wins).
“Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” he said. “It could certainly happen in reverse. What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.”
He added later: “They have done something that allows the next party — I mean, if somebody, 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.’ They’d be out of business, they’d be out of the election.”
After the initial publication of this piece, a Trump aide said that the former president was not claiming that he was going to seek retribution against his political opponents, but attempting to make the point that a new precedent had been set by the Biden Department of Justice.