Trump’s recent actions show his revenge tour isn’t slowing down

President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb 7. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — Nearly three weeks into Donald Trump’s second term in office, the president is continuing to dramatically reimagine and expand his use of executive authority — and to use that authority to carry out retribution against his perceived political enemies.

The president spent his first days in office pushing the levers of government — and his unique powers as commander in chief — to target his perceived enemies both inside and outside the government. But it didn’t stop there. His actions in recent days — including revoking former President Joe Biden’s security clearance, announcing plans to gut the Kennedy Center board, and dismissing the national archivist — have only expanded on those themes.

Trump’s actions over the past few days underscore a president who remains intent on settling scores new and old — and his implicit confidence in his administration’s ability to fight and win subsequent legal challenges.

Trump claimed during a January 2024 Fox News town hall that he would not “have time for retribution” because he would be too busy making the country successful, but revenge was still a common theme during his campaign for reelection.

Over the summer months, it became clear that Trump and his top allies were bracing for an opportunity to exact revenge, escalating calls for retribution after a Manhattan jury convicted the former president on 34 felony counts in a hush-money trial. Trump repeatedly suggested that his perceived enemies should be jailed, from the prosecutors in the Biden administration Justice Department who indicted him to members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Emboldened by a sweeping November victory, the president is now using his mandate to air grievances and retaliate — and installing loyalists in key agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Retribution agenda continues

These efforts began in earnest during the first week of Trump’s second term as he pulled security details for top officials from his first term; reassigned and dismissed career DOJ officials; issued executive orders weakening protections for federal workers; and directed his Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence to open broad investigations into Biden administration “weaponization” of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The president also issued an order pardoning more than 1,000 people charged in the Capitol attack, and his Justice Department fired officials who worked on the federal criminal investigations into Trump.

While the initial fast and furious pace of his Week 1 actions has slowed somewhat, a new batch of actions over recent days has only intensified Trump’s grievance tour.

Trump announced Friday that he was removing Biden’s access to classified information by revoking his security clearance and stopping his daily intelligence briefings, a move that Biden took against Trump after January 6. In the social media post announcing the move, Trump recalled a tagline from his reality television era, saying, “Joe, you’re fired.”

In an interview with the New York Post published Saturday, the president said he intended to target other political rivals with the same measures, restricting New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a symbolic move that Trump warned would “take away every right they have.”

The New York Post interview also cited others whose clearances Trump intends to strip, including former Secretary of State Antony Blinken; Andrew Weissmann, a top prosecutor for then-special counsel Robert Mueller; Mark Zaid, the lawyer who represented a whistleblower whose complaint sparked the first impeachment inquiry into Trump; and Norm Eisen, who served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for Trump’s first impeachment and trial.

Trump initiated a number of dismissals Friday night that also appeared to focus on revenge.

He announced aggressive plans to gut the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center, removing multiple members who he said “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” as well as ousting its chairman, the billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein, an ally of Biden.

And the administration announced it had dismissed the archivist of the United States, Colleen Shogan, at Trump’s direction. While Trump had said he wanted to replace the archivist, it still amounted to a shocking move targeting Shogan, who had largely been loyal to Trump.

The role of the National Archives took on new prominence in recent years, coming under scrutiny from Republicans in the wake of the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents. Shogan, who has enjoyed a personal relationship with first lady Melania Trump, was not at the National Archives when FBI agents searched Trump’s home in 2022.

Trump stripped more former officials of their security details, even those who are facing credible threats. Last week, Trump revoked the security detail assigned to his former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, adding to the growing list of officials who have faced retribution from their onetime boss. Esper is one of several top aides who continued to have security after leaving office because of threats from Iran for actions they took while serving in Trump’s administration. Gen. Mark Milley, former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have all had their details pulled in the first few weeks since Trump took office.

Also last week, the FBI provided the Justice Department with names of employees who worked on January 6-related cases after a demand from the acting deputy attorney general, capping a weeklong back-and-forth between bureau leadership and the department. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the information was not gathered to retaliate against agents, but FBI employees feared it was meant to amass a list of personnel for possible termination by the Trump administration.

DOGE takes center stage

Many of the recent actions have been expedited and executed by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

DOGE has moved quickly to dismantle the US Agency for International Development. Trump issued a Day 1 executive order freezing most foreign aid, and many of USAID’s programs were subject to stop orders in the weeks that followed. The agency’s acting leadership announced all direct hires would be placed on leave just before midnight on Friday, gutting the 10,000-person workforce to about 300 essential personnel. But a federal judge issued an order temporarily blocking more than 2,000 USAID officials from being placed on administrative leave. Still, the agency, which Trump has said is run by “radical lunatics,” faces much uncertainty.

A similar effort appeared to be taking effect this weekend at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, where Trump loyalist Russell Vought took over as acting director on Friday night. The bureau has long been a target of conservatives.

“CFPB RIP,” Musk said in a social media post, adding a tombstone emoji.

DOGE is also moving to cancel a $168,000 contract through the Department of Health and Human Services to build a museum exhibit honoring Dr. Anthony Fauci, a frequent target of Trump’s ire. Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, confirmed the cancellation of the project, which would have been housed at the National Institutes of Health. News of the cancellation was first reported by SAN.