Trump Has Made More than 100 Threats

 

Donald Trump has been on a tirade, multiple tirades actually, unbefitting the president of the United States. You know that, and there is nothing good to be gained by focusing on the people he has singled out. It’s part of his ongoing pattern of abusing the powers of the presidency to publicly seek retribution or punish people he considers to be his enemies.

Trump doesn’t make us guess about this. He’s said the quiet part out loud on multiple occasions, like these:

• At CPAC March 4, 2023, midway through a rambling campaign speech, Trump explicitly promised “retribution” for his supporters—which, of course, meant for himself. He told the crowd, “In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice.’ Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.” He concluded, “I will totally obliterate the deep state.”
• In a Truth Social post in September 2024, Trump threatened to jail people who opposed his reelection, posting a warning on Truth Social to those “involved in unscrupulous behavior” this election, which he said would be under intense scrutiny. He posted, “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.” Trump’s track record suggests a willingness to mischaracterize electoral losses as fraud, even in the absence of any evidence. (Judges determine the length of prison sentences in cases where juries convict. None of that is something a president can—or should—promise or even weigh in on.)
• At Georgia’s Republican Party Convention on April 4, 2023, in a speech following his indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents, Trump told the crowd, “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you—and I’m just standing in the way. But that ends soon. We’ll take care of them.” Throughout, Trump talked about vengeance, positioning himself as a martyr for his supporters and vowing retaliation.

All told, during campaign season, Trump made over 100 threats to prosecute or punish people he perceived as enemies. We’ve seen him make good on that in a series of executive orders, some cloaked in the pretense of concern over anti-Semitism or discrimination (which now means failing to protect white Christians), that target individuals or institutions he thinks have done him wrong. His public directions, presumably to Attorney General Bondi, to investigate people or entities are part and parcel of it. As are the social media posts attacking people, often just for doing their jobs.

It’s no way for the president to run the White House. But elections have consequences, and this is among them following 2024, when just enough Americans stayed home, or bought fake concerns about Biden’s economy, or wanted a change. Some people are so inured to Trump’s bad behavior that they shrug their shoulders and pass it off as “just Trump.” When you hear people doing that, stop and remind them that this isn’t normal or innocent. He is literally on a revenge tour and abusing the powers of the presidency.

As for us, we have the opportunity to put a stop to this because we still have the right to vote—we need to prepare to exercise it while we can and take steps to protect free and fair elections ahead of 2026, which will be upon us sooner than you might think.

Our tradition of democracy is what makes us different. It’s instilled in us from a young age through classroom elections and developed in democratically elected city and county governments and with the opportunity to vote for our state and federal officials. Even if we take it for granted, democracy is the structure we build our lives upon, and that’s an advantage in a time like ours. It is much easier to insist upon maintenance of something you are used to having than to demand something you’ve never had…

-Joyce Vance