Donald Trump has spoken about the ‘enemy within’; he has hinted a prosecuting US President Joe Biden, ‘impeaching’ Vice President Kamala Harris and putting others in jail. Who else has he vowed to target?
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 "Will Donald Trump seek revenge against his critics? From Kamala Harris to Zuckerberg, a look at his ‘enemy list’")
Donald Trump looks on as a screen shows Kamala Harris during a campaign rally at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, US, November 1. Trump defeated Harris and has returned to power in the US. Reuters
Donald Trump is back after a thumping victory against his Democratic rival Kamala Harris. During a vitriolic campaign, he vowed revenge against his political opponents, critics, and some members of the media. Now as the most powerful man in the country… the world… there is growing fear that he could act on his threats.
For years, even after he was voted out of power, the Republican politician warned that he would imprison and even prosecute his rivals. He spoke about it in his speeches and wrote about it in his social media posts. As the US inched closer to Election Day, he emphasised revenge and retaliation. The Trump “Nixon-style enemy list” became a talking point, as Harris made a mention of it.
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On the Sunday before the country went to polls, the now-president-elect said in a rally in Georgia, “We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. You watch. It’s going to be so good. It’s going to be so much fun.”
“It’ll be nasty, a little bit at times and maybe at the beginning in particular. But it’s going to be something,” he added.
Who is on Trump’s list? And will he target them when he takes charge in January?
US President Joe Biden
Donald Trump has accused US President Joe Biden of being corrupt. In June, he re-shared a post on his social network Truth Social that “crooked” Biden should be “arrested for treason”. In a speech last year, Trump said, “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family.”
US Vice President Kamala Harris
In September, while campaigning in the
swing state of Pennsylvania, which Trump has now won, he baselessly called for Vice President Kamala Harris to “be impeached and prosecuted for her actions” while talking about illegal border crossings, which he dubbed as an “invasion”.
Former US President Barack Obama
Trump has gone after former US President Barack Obama. In August, the president-elect reposted a message on Turth Social which demanded “public military tribunals” for the Democrat.
In 2020, Trump accused Obama of “treason” for what the president-elect claims was surveillance of his 2016 presidential campaign over its links to Russia.
Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
In September, Trump demanded that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should be “prosecuted”. He said that Pelosi should face criminal charges in a case linked to her husband.
Paul Pelosi reportedly sold over $500,000 worth of Visa stock just before the company faced serious federal antitrust charges.
In a speech earlier, he said that Pelosi “could’ve gone to jail” for shredding apart a copy of Trump’s State of the Union address while sitting behind him in the US House in 2020.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. During the campaign rallies, he would often say, “Lock her up” as he hinted at her use of a private email account while she was US secretary of state. The FBI probe into the case did not lead to any charges, according to a report in Politico.
Now years later, the president-elect continues to target Clinton. In an interview in June, he said that the former administrator should face criminal prosecution. “Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the President’s wife and the former Secretary of State into jail?… It’s a terrible, terrible, path that they’re leading us to & it’s very possible that it’s going to have to happen to them,” he told a media channel.
TRUMP ON HILLARY: “Wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the President’s wife and the former Secretary of State into jail? Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing? But they wanna do it! It’s a terrible, terrible, path that they’re leading us to & it’s very possible that it’s going to have… pic.twitter.com/809sTkf9wM
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 5, 2024
Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney
Donald Trump and
Liz Cheney have been at each other’s throats throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. The former Congresswoman endorsed Kamala Harris ahead of the elections.
She has been Trump’s target for her role on the January 6 committee, which investigated the US Capitol riots. He has accused her of treason and hinted at violent retribution. At an event last week in Arizona, Trump hit out at Cheney calling her a “deranged person”. “The reason she couldn’t stand me is that she always wanted to go to war with people. If it were up to her we’d be in 50 different countries.”
In March, he said on Truth Social that Cheney “should go to jail”.
Special Counsel Jack Smith
Special Counsel Jack Smith brought two federal criminal charges against Trump and has been facing his ire for it. In a radio show last month, the president-elect called Smith “mentally deranged” and said he should be “thrown out of the country”.
He reposted a message in August which referred to the special counsel as “Jackal Smith” and a “career criminal”.
After Trump’s win, Smith is reportedly talking to US Justice Department leadership about how to end the federal cases against Trump, a DOJ official familiar told CNN.
Trump has accused Meta of election interference. He claims that the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, suppressed information that was harmful to Biden during the 2020 US presidential election.
The president-elect has also criticised CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscila for donations to improve election infrastructure. “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison,” he wrote in his book released in September.
Former Trump lawyer Micheal Cohen
Trump claims he is not going to spare former allies who turned against him. One among them includes Micheal Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, who has become a key witness in the
hush money trial against the president-elect.
“Cohen should be prosecuted for lying and all of the tumult and cost he put the D.A.’s Office through,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last year.
Trump’s list of the “enemy within” is exhaustive. The others include New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a lawsuit against him alleging fraud in his business empire, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case that led to his conviction in the hush money case, former FBI director James Comey, whom he fired in 2017, and Biden’s son
Hunter Biden, among others.
While some supporters say that the threats were just part of campaign rhetoric, there is fear that Trump could take the “revenge” he promised. He will not be running for office again and a Supreme Court ruling now grants former presidents broader immunity from criminal accountability once they leave, reports Politico.
But is this enough to embolden Trump? Only time will tell.
With inputs from agencies
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