Trump has so far used his second term to make good on his promise, enacting what in many cases appears to be payback against a wide swath of critics and perceived political enemies.
During the last presidential campaign, Donald Trump made clear his motivations in trying to retake the White House.
“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,” Trump said at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference.
More than two years later, Trump has so far used his second term to make good on that promise, enacting what in many cases appears to be payback against a wide swath of critics and perceived political enemies.
Through a mix of presidential powers including executive orders and federal investigations, Trump has sought retribution on a number of fronts, targeting those involved in the multiple legal cases against him, including his indictments forhoarding classified documentsand attempting tooverturn the 2020 election, as well as the probe into Russia’selection interferencein the 2016 election.
On November 24, a federal judgedismissedtwo of the Trump administration’s most high-profile indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge found that the appointment of interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, a former White House adviser, was invalid.
Judge Cameron McGowan Currie wrote in her Monday order that “all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment” including the indictments against Comey and James “were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.” Currie tossed out the cases “without prejudice,” leaving open the possibility that the cases against Comey and James can be brought again alleging the same conduct.
Comey had been among the first former government officials to face federal charges in one of Trump’s largest grievances: the 2016 investigation into whether his first presidential campaign colluded with Russia. James led the successful civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, three of his children and a pair of business associates.
On October 16, a federal grand jury indicted Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton,two sources told CNN— marking the third time in less than a month that an adversary of the president faced legal consequences. Bolton has been under investigation for alleged unlawful handling of classified information. The FBIsearchedBolton’s home on August 22.
Trump told reports following Comey’s now-dismissed September 25 indictment that he expects other political opponents to be prosecuted.
“It’s not a list, but I think there will be others,” Trump said.
Trump also moved tocanceled the Secret Service detailof former Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent in the 2024 election. The president also previously canceled the security details ofBoltonandGen. Mark Milley, an official from his first term.
Trump has also revoked the security clearances of more than 100 people so far, including high-ranking officials from the Biden administration, and many other long-time government officials. He’s also fired scores of people, and sought to investigate many of his public critics, including former members of his own prior administration.
Several of Trump’s actions have faced legal challenges — with mixed success. Among the people targeted by Trump, several have yet to comment, while others have remained defiant. Some have also slammed his moves as being politically motivated.
In a statement to CNN, the White House said: “Joe Biden weaponized his Administration to target political opponents – most famously, President Trump.”
“President Trump is restoring integrity to our government,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in the statement. “Anyone who engages in criminal activity should be held accountable. No one is above the law. President Trump’s only retribution is success and historic achievements for the American people.”
Here are some of the people Trump and his administration have targeted:
Trump faced four indictments and oneconvictionduring his time out of office, along with a loss in a civil case involving his business. The president has since decried that all the probes were politically motivated weaponization of the Justice Department.
Prior to her now-dismissedOctober indictment, New York Attorney General Letitia James was under investigation since May over a 2023 mortgage she took out to help her niece buy a home in Norfolk, Virginia. In August, theJustice Department subpoenaed James’office, seeking information about her investigations into the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, sources told CNN.
“Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution,” a spokesperson for James said in a statement to CNN. “She will not be intimidated by bullies – no matter who they are.”
Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led criminal probes into Trump’shandlingof classified documents and alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election, is also under investigation. The Office of the Special Counsel — which is distinct from special counsels, like Smith, who are appointed to oversee politically sensitive Justice Department investigations — isprobing Smith for allegedly violating the Hatch Act, which limits certain political activities of government workers.
Attorneys for Smithsaid in a letterobtained by CNN that the investigation is based on “imaginary and unfounded” accusations.
“Mr. Smith followed well-established legal principles in conducting the investigations into President Trump, and the courts presiding over the resulting prosecutions have already rejected the spurious allegations that the manner in which Mr. Smith prosecuted these cases was somehow improper,” his attorneys Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski wrote.
Trump also took aim at the National Archives, a historically non-political agency that became embroiled in Trump’s legal cases after it asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office in his first term.
Soon after returning to the White House, Trump firedColleen Shogan, the archivist of the United States, and forced out deputy archivistWilliam Bosanko. A source told CNN that Trump officials made it clear to staff at the National Archives that the White House wanted to remove the leadership team and replace top officials with Trump loyalists.
Shogansaid on LinkedInat the time that she wasn’t given any reason for her firing, adding, “I have zero regrets.”
In August,Brian Driscoll— the former acting FBI director before Trump’s nominee Kash Patel was confirmed — was also fired. Driscoll said in a letter to his colleagues that he was not given a reason for his firing either, adding, “Our collective sacrifices for those we serve is, and will always be, worth it. I regret nothing,”
A source told CNN that among the issues that caused discord with top officials in the FBI was Driscoll not disciplining an FBI pilot for Patel after it was discovered he was involved in issuing a subpoena in the Mar-a-Lago investigation into Trump and associates.
In his effort to shrink and overhaul the federal workforce, Trump directed agencies to fire employees en masse. Then, the president fired two officials who were tasked with protecting federal employees.
In February, Hampton Dellinger — the former head of the Office of Special Counsel who protected whistleblowers from retaliation — and Cathy Harris — former chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which reviews federal employee firings — were removed from their jobs.
Dellinger sued the Trump administration but after some legal back and forth, he ultimatelydropped his case, citing long odds of winning at the Supreme Court after the federal Circuit Court in Washington, DC sided with Trump’s Justice Department to keep him out of the special counsel role.
Dellinger said in a statement at the time, “The harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable.”
A federal judge in March ruled thatHarris can keep her job, finding that Trump unlawfully fired her. Harris celebrated the ruling at the time, saying “I’m glad the Court has ruled on just how illegal Donald Trump’s action here has been.”
Trump also fired a high-ranking official critical of his efforts to reshape the federal government.
Cameron Hamilton, acting director of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), wasremoved from his jobin May — a day after he broke with the administration and told lawmakers that he does not support dismantling the agency.
And in August, FEMAplaced several employees on administrative leaveeffective immediately, just one day after theysigned an open letter warning Congressthat the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in disaster response.
In the letter, more than 180 current and former FEMA employees — most signing anonymously — asked Congress to make FEMA a Cabinet-level, independent agency – insulated from political meddling and empowered to respond swiftly when disaster strikes.
The authors warned in the letter: “we hope (these changes) come in time to prevent not only another national catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina, but the effective dissolution of FEMA itself and the abandonment of the American people.”
Trump has defended rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, since the end of his first term. Once he returned to office, he gave broad clemency to the rioters and targeted those who investigated and brought charges against them.
Michael Gordon, the former assistant US Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, was fired in June. In a lawsuit with two other former Justice Department officials, Gordonclaimsthat his dismissal was a “retaliation” because he prosecuted high-profile January 6 cases.
Similarly,Steve Jensen— the former acting director of the Washington Field Office for the FBI, who played a role in the investigation of January 6 rioters — was also dismissed from his role in August.
Trump has also gone after James Dennehy, the head of the FBI’s New York division, who vowed to support FBI employees who were asked to explain their involvement in the agency’s investigation of January 6. After saying that he’s preparing to “dig in” to defend those FBI employees, Dennehy wrote in an email to colleagues in March that he was told he“needed” to retire.
Four officials from Trump’s first term are currently under investigation after speaking out against the president.
Bolton’s indictmentby a federal grand jury in Maryland is part of a renewed investigation into his handling of classified information, which included an FBI search of his home in August. Sources told CNN that Bolton allegedly shared highly classified information with his wife and daughter over email.
Bolton was previously investigated by the Justice Department during Trump’s first term, and the president has threatened to jail his former adviser over his 2020 book that was critical of Trump’s foreign policy knowledge.
Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also been a critic of his former boss and even called him a fascist. Just days into Trump’s second term, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethordered an investigationinto Milley to determine whether a review of his rank is necessary.
Meanwhile,via executive orders, Trump called for an investigation into former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs.
Taylor anonymously wrote a 2018 New York Times op-ed claiming he was part of the “resistance” to Trump’s presidency. In the op-ed, Taylor said “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” Taylor, who subsequently wentpublic as the author of the op-edin October 2020, went on to write a book, “Anonymous,” that was critical of Trump.
Speaking at the White House after the executive order, Trumpclaimedthat Taylor was “guilty of treason.”
Taylor responded to the executive order in apost on X, saying, “I said this would happen. Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path. Never has a man so inelegantly proved another man’s point.”
Krebs was firedduring Trump’s first term after he rejected the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election.
“He’s the fraud. He’s a disgrace,” Trumpsaidof Krebs in April.
Following the executive order, Krebs resigned as the chief intelligence and public policy officer at SentinelOne, and referenced the investigation in hisletter to colleagues, which he posted on LinkedIn.
“For those who know me, you know I don’t shy away from tough fights. But I also know this is one I need to take on fully — outside of SentinelOne,” the letter read. “This will require my complete focus and energy. It’s a fight for democracy, for freedom of speech, and for the rule of law. I’m prepared to give it everything I’ve got.”
The Trump administration has also gone after at least three other Justice Department employees, firing them for separate reasons.
In April, Trump’sDOJ fired Erez Reuveni— an immigration lawyer who argued for the government in the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — accusing him of sabotaging its legal case. Reuveni was initially placed on administrative leave and then fired after he expressed frustration with the government’s inability to provide answers to questions from a judge in the case.
As the Trump administration faced mounting scrutiny over its handling of documents related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department in July firedMaurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in the Epstein case and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, who has been critical of Trump. James Comey was fired by Trump in his first term.
The Justice Department in July also fired prosecutor Desiree Leigh Grace after she was chosen by federal judges in New Jersey to replace Alina Habba, Trump’s pick for US attorney in the state, whose interim appointment was set to expire. Following her firing, Grace posted amessage on LinkedIn, in which she pushed back that politics played any part in her job performance and vowed to assume the position she was appointed to by the judges.
Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wereplaced on administrative leavein July.
Both officials — Steve Volz, who heads NOAA’s satellites division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel —led the investigationinto whetherNOAA’s scientific integrity policieswere violated during theso-called Sharpiegate scandalof Trump’s first term.
A copy of a letter informing Volz he was being placed on leave references an “investigation” into his “recent conduct,” though NOAA sources did not know what that may refer to. The letter came from acting NOAA administrator Laura Grimm.
It is not clear if Dillen’s letter also referenced an investigation. The Sharpiegate scandal appears to be the only significant event that links the two men, though the personnel moves could be coincidental.
In 2019, Trump modified the National Weather Service’s forecast cone of Hurricane Dorian — with a sharpie — to suggest that the storm might hit Alabama.
Volz and Dillen’s investigation found that then-acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs and another NOAA official violated the agency’s scientific integrity policy by backing Trump’s hand-drawn version of the forecast. Jacobs has been nominated to become NOAA administrator in Trump’s current term.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Volz questioned the move to put him on leave, asking, “Why now?”
“Maybe the desire here is to get anybody who might slow down their ability to execute their plan out of the way. I think I’m one of those people,” he told the Post.
Trump has also sought retribution against two men connected to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election: former FBI directorJames Comeyand former CIA directorJohn Brennan. Both areunder investigationby the FBI.
Comey latertestified to Congressthat he orchestrated the leak of accounts of conversations with Trump because he thought it might lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor to lead the Russia election probe.
Meanwhile, Brennan — who was the CIA director under former President Barack Obama —told House investigatorsin 2017 that Russia “brazenly interfered” in US elections, including actively contacting members of Trump’s campaign. However, he stopped shy of dubbing it a “collusion.”
The investigation into Russian election interference ultimately did not find that Trump’s campaign or associates conspired with Russia or that Trump committed a crime. But the investigation also did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice.
When news broke of the investigation, Brennan told MSNBC that he was not contacted by the FBI, Justice Department or CIA.
“I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for,” Brennan said.
Following a weaker-than-expected jobs report in July, Trump firedErika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accusing her, without evidence, of manipulating the monthly jobs reports for “political purposes.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Defense went afterJen Easterly, a former top national security official in the Biden administration. The Army secretary in July ordered the US Military Academy at West Point to rescind an offer of employment to Easterly after far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has a direct line to Trump, criticized her appointment.
Easterly responded in a LinkedIn post, saying the move was “a casualty of casually manufactured outrage that drowned out the quiet labor of truth and the steady pulse of integrity.”
“The Warrior Ethos was forged into me long ago, and it does not waver now,” she added.
Lt. Gen.Jeffrey Kruse, who served as head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, was also fired. Sources told CNN that the DIA’sinitial intelligence assessment of damageto Iranian nuclear sites from US strikes angered Trump.
Since taking office, Trump has revoked security clearances for more than 100 former government officials, including many high-ranking members of the Biden administration.
Trump in February revoked former President Joe Biden’s security clearance, though former presidents typically do not have security clearances.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former national security advisor Jake Sullivan and former US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco have also had their security clearances revoked, with Trump arguing that it is “no longer in the national interest” for them to have access to classified information.
Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential election, also had her security clearance revoked.
New York AG Letitia James faced the same consequence, along with Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who led the hush money case against Trump.
The following Trump critics, who are under investigation, have also had their security clearances revoked: Bolton, Milley, Taylor and Krebs.
Similarly, former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — the two Republicans who sat on the House select committee that investigated the Capitol riot — have lost their security clearances, as have some people involved in Trump’s first impeachment inquiry. That includes Alexander Vindman, a former top Ukraine expert for the National Security Council who was a witness in the inquiry; Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser who also testified; Mark Zaid, who represented the whistleblower whose complaint led to the inquiry; and Norman Eisen, who served as counsel to House Democrats during the inquiry.
Vindman said in apost on X, I’m not a weak-kneed billionaire or a massive spineless law firm, so I don’t care what noises @realDonaldTrump makes about a security clearance that hasn’t been active for five years.”
“Revoking my security clearance constitutes an attack on the rule of law and destroys decades of established due process precedent,” Zaid said in a statement to CNN.
Norm Eisen said in apost on X, “It’s like the third time (Trump’s) announced he’s revoking my security clearance … Who does he think I am, a big law firm or a billionaire who’s gonna back down? It just makes me file even more lawsuits!”
Kinzinger commented at the time on the revocation with avideo on Instagram, saying: “Here’s the funny thing, dude, I retired a year ago from the military. I don’t even have a security clearance.” He captioned the post: “Living rent free in orange man’s head.”
Trump has also revoked the security clearances of Andrew Weissmann — a former prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
A bulk of the revocations are tied to a 2020 letter arguing that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden carried “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” More than50 former intelligence officials signedthat letter and on his first day back in office, Trump revoked all their security clearances — though many of the former officials are long retired and did not hold active clearances. Those who signed the letter include Brennan, former director of national intelligence Jim Clapper, and former acting CIA directors John McLaughlin and Michael Morell.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, at Trump’s direction, issued another round of revocations in August, moving to cancel the security clearances of37 current and former national security officials. The group includes people who were involved in conducting an assessment of Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election as well as members of Biden’s National Security Council, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.