WASHINGTON – For those who may have encountered President Donald Trump: the message penetrates: the payback time is coming, and fast.
John Bolton, a former national security adviser of the White House who wrote a destructive book about Trump's first term of office, lost the detail of the secret service that was assigned to protect him against murder threats from Iran.
Anthony Fauci also lost his details, the public health scientist who called Trump a 'disaster' because of his approach to the COVID-19 Pandemie and who has since been the target of extreme right-wing anger. (Fauci has hired his own private security team in response.)
A portrait of Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who broke with Trump during a photo-up in a church during the George Floyd protests against racial justice, was abruptly removed from the walls of the Pentagon. Defense officials said they have no idea who has ordered their removal and why.
And Trump advanced the security authorizations of dozens of former national security officers who had signed a letter during the 2020 campaign in which they stated that e-mails from a laptop by Joe Bidens son Hunter had the 'classic characteristics of a Russian information operation'.
That all happened within a few days of the inauguration of Trump – and in some cases even hours.
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A question that appeared during Trump's campaign in 2024 was whether he would use presidential powers as a retribution against his alleged political enemies. For some, the answer has come.
“There are numerous early warning signals that confirm the worst fears of people who were concerned about a second Trump government and what this would mean for the rule of law,” says David Laufman, a former High Officer of the Ministry of Justice under Republican and Democratic governments. said in an interview. “The real question remains which checks and balances will be to prevent the creeping branch of an authoritarian state in the United States.”
The White House did not respond to the question of whether Trump had personally ordered these actions, or whether the motive was reprisals. In a conversation with reporters in recent days, Trump defended the cancellation of details of the secret service for Fauci, Bolton and others.
Former national security adviser John Bolton had his data removed from the secret service as soon as Trump took office.
“I thought he was a very stupid person,” Trump said about Bolton, adding that the government cannot pay for the protection of people's secret service forever. (Ex-presidents receive lifetime security data.)
“If you work for the government, your security data will fall away at some point,” he told reporters. “And you know, you can't have them forever.”
In the meantime, a spokesperson for the White House said that the former national security officials deserved to lose their security authorizations.
“By abusing their earlier positions in the government, these individuals helped to sell PR fraud to the American people,” says Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House. “They have seriously damaged the credibility of the intelligence community by using their privileges to interfere with presidential elections. President Trump's action restores the credibility of the institutions of our country. “
Trump's comments about whether he would undertake retaliation actions can give an observer a whiplash. In an interview last month with Kristen Welker, moderator of NBC News, Trump was asked if he would like to punish his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“I don't want to go back to the past,” he said. “I want to make our country successful. Retribution will take place through success. ”
However, he is clearly offended about the way he thinks he was treated by the courts, prosecutors and democratic officials.
In an Oval Office interview with Fox News presenter Sean Hannity last week, Trump said: “I went through hell for four years because of this scum we were dealing with. I have experienced a hell for four years. I have spent millions of dollars in legal costs and I won, but I did it in the difficult way. It is very difficult to say that they should not experience this either. It is very difficult to say that. ”
The steps of the Trump government so far ensure different levels of hardships for those on the receiving side. The portrait of Milley was unveiled ten days before Trump's swearing. The abrupt disappearance of a wall dedicated to the Joint Chiefs of Staff could serve as a warning for future chefs that they too can be deleted from the history of the Pentagon if they get out of favor with the supreme commander.
Bolton said he is taking private safety measures now that he has lost his secret service agent. In 2022, the Ministry of Justice accused a member of the dreaded Iranian Islamic revolutionary guard of a conspiracy to kill Bolton, probably in retaliation for the murder of an Iranian general by the Trump government two years earlier.
Biden for the first time provided Bolton with security data in December 2021, and since then it has been extended every six months – for the last last month, Bolton told NBC News.
“This is part of the retaliation campaign,” said Bolton.
“It doesn't really matter to him [Trump] The level of severity, “he added. “Everything he can do ensures that he feels a little better.”
A portrait of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, was abruptly removed from the walls of the Pentagon.
Members of the American intelligence community told him in the days before Trumps sworn that the threat of murder remained unchanged and not disappeared, he said.
“They play with his life and not only damage his professional opportunities, but also endanger the life of a man to punish him for criticizing Donald Trump,” says Rosa Brooks, a former High Officer of the Ministry of Defense The Obama government. and fellow leader of the Democracy Futures Project, organized by the Brennan Center for Justice.
If Iran Bolton in one way or another causes damage, then that could force the US to respond militarily, so that the tensions would escalate and the two nations would come closer to a war.
Refusing security authorizations to those who have also signed the Hunter Biden letter can cause financial problems for some people who are now in the private sector and need them to meet government contracts.
One person whose security authorization was withdrawn, said in an interview: “They are now being hurt financially – and the country is also hurt – because these are people with decades of experience that the government continues to serve after they have retired.”
“There is no legitimate policy objective that is served,” continued this person, on condition of anonymity. “From the position of freedom of expression and our rights as American citizens, we have the full right to warn the American people that the Russians will continue to deal with these information operations to influence American politics and elections.”
Yet it is not clear how much attention the new government paid to announcing the punishment. Mark Zaid, a lawyer who represents some who signed the letter, said in an interview that most people no longer have a security authorization.
The implementation order that moved into the security authorizations also related to Bolton and said he was being taken away because he had published “sensitive information from his time in the government” in his memoirs “The Room Where it Happened”.
Bolton said he doesn't know if he even had to lose a security authorization.
“It has no effect for me,” he said.
This article was originally published on nbcnews.com
