From the Cities of America to John Bolton: Trump’s Vendetta Campaign against Opponents Reaches New Heights

The FBI raided the home of a former senior White House adviser who had become a harsh critic. A Supreme Court justice is accusing her conservative colleagues of changing the rules of the game in favor of the president. The White House announced it is arming 2,000 troops that Trump is sending to Washington, D.C., and the president indicated he will expand the policing of more cities.

Donald Trump is at the height of an intensive vendetta campaign against his political opponents. We are discovering each day how limited the power of the U.S. Constitution is in holding back the power of a president who has no desire to accept restrictions.

At 7 a.m. Friday morning, FBI agents raided the home of John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor whom he fired during his first term. Bolton , a military and political hawk, belonged to the pre-Trump Republican Party.

Bolton wrote a book attacking Trump on the eve of the 2020 presidential election. The White House unsuccessfully tried to prevent the book’s publication, and since then, Bolton has been a constant source of first-hand criticism of Trump’s logic and his conduct. In recent months, Bolton has experienced a media boom, and is a regular contributor to the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal.

The FBI raided Bolton’s home seeking classified documents relating to Trump’s first term. Trump accused Bolton of breaking laws and stealing secrets five years ago. However, there were people in the administration at the time who were considered the grown-ups in the room. They blocked Trump’s efforts to bend law enforcement to his desires or whims. No longer. Trump is finally fulfilling his desire revenge dating back to 2020.

The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial columns take a hard-right line, condemned the raid, describing it as “worse than we imagined” and concluded that revenge now stands at the center of Trump’s presidency.

The Next Cities in Line

The vendetta against Bolton is not the first shot in Trump’s war against people he accuses of slander and certainly not the last. The elderly president, vengeful and bearing a grudge, is conducting an all-out war against individuals, private and public institutions, cities and U.S. states.

Over the weekend, the White House announced it will arming 2,000 National Guard troops that Trump sent to the streets of Washington, D.C., two weeks ago. He claimed from the start that local police cannot keep law and order. However, the troops were sent without weapons. Several hours after visiting the Guard troops Thursday, the administration announced the National Guard troops would be armed. The practical significance of this is not clear, but the symbolically, it is absolutely clear. This is a president who placed law and order at the center of his election campaign; this is the president who repeatedly claims the Democrats cannot ensuring peace in the cities and states where they govern.

The deployment of the military in Washington has a time limit. The law allows the president to declare a state of emergency in the capital for 30 days. What happens after that? The president can extend the state of emergency, but this would be unprecedented. He can also place all of Washington under direct administration by the federal government and thus practically if not legally terminate Washington D.C.’s self-rule. This happened 30 years ago, under Bill Clinton when the district’s finances spiraled out of control.

The president said he intends to extend policing other cities under Democratic control. Two immediate candidates are quite large: New York, and Chicago, the country’s third largest city. In contrast to Washington, D.C., these cities are in states where the president has no authority to control the district’s business. However, Trump’s recent conduct has breached U.S. law, something he is exploiting to expand his power.

The political demography of the United States is simple: the urban population supports the Democratic Party by a large majority; the population residing in small cities, suburbs and rural areas supports the Republicans and Trump in particular. Democrats lead in two-thirds of American cities, some 42 of the 50 largest cities. In the United States, local government controls police services. We can expect that the effort to change this will lead to a legal battle.

Clashes such as these are beginning in the lower federal courts, similar to the district court in Israel. They may proceed on appeal and could ultimately end up at the Supreme Court. Trump appointed three of the nine Supreme Court justices during his first term, and two-thirds of the justices are considered conservative. Experience shows they tend to rule in favor of Trump whenever there is a question on presidential authority.

‘Calvinball’

One of the three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the newest justice on the Supreme Court, on Thursday launched an unprecedented attack on the conservative majority saying they are playing according to the rules of “Calvinball,” which refers to the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes.” “Calvinball” is a game where the rules change constantly.

She aimed this barb at the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of the administration on the issue of cuts in research grants for the most important scientific research institute in America, the National Institutes of Health. In the Supreme Court’s Calvinball, “the administration always wins,” Jackson wrote.

She, in fact, went further and angered two of her liberal colleagues, but she pointed to the widespread assessment that the Supreme Court is the primary enabler of the president’s conduct. The court reverses the lower courts when they restrict the administration. Judicial revolutionaries in far-off lands are green with envy.

Another example of how partisan politics are exploiting law enforcement occurred over the weekend when the Justice Department published the testimony of Ghislaine Maxwell, female friend and aide to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison three years ago on sex trafficking charges related to providing sexual services for Epstein.

Her recent testimony, allegedly given a month ago, apparently taken unnecessarily by Trump’s deputy attorney general. Now it is clear why. Maxwell praised Trump; she described him as a “gentleman”; she said that he was never connected to Epstein’s sex business; and expressed admiration for Trump’s political successes.

Immediately after her testimony, she was moved to a minimum security prison, which was described as “the equivalent of a student dorm.” Trump did not rule out a pardon for Maxwell. Her testimony helps him shake off the suspicion that he is hiding the truth of his connections with Epstein.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which has enjoyed a remarkable degree of independence for 50 years, is functioning now as the president’s private attorney. Who said there aren’t any good attorneys general in the world?

Last weekend, Trump’s attorneys successfully won a New York appellate ruling canceling the roughly $500 million civil penalty levied against Trump 18 months ago after he was found liable for fraud in connection with his real estate business. The appellate court found that the fine was excessive, but upheld his liability for fraud.