As many of you know, I’ve been checking the New York Times catalog of Trump’s actions to date against Project 2025 objectives. In doing so, I created two additional objectives. One relates to tariffs. The other I’ve labelled revenge.
So, let’s have a look at the topic of revenge. In a March article titled Trump’s Appetite for Revenge is Insatiable, Peter Wehner writes of a 1992 interview Donald Trump had with American journalist Charlie Rose. Rose asked Trump “if he had any regrets.”
This was Donald Trump’s reply: “I would have wiped the floor with the guys who weren’t loyal, which I will now do. I love getting even with people.” When Rose interjected, “Slow up. You love getting even with people?” Trump replied, “Absolutely.” Peter Wehner also suggests that “Trump is having a corrosive effect on the public’s civic and moral sensibilities.” In other words, it’s OK for others to seek revenge too.
So, what has Donald Trump done on the revenge front since taking office? Every day – even as I draft this post – we hear of other actions.
- Fired Biden appointees from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s board which included Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’ husband (April 29)
- Ordered an inquiry into ActBlue, the main Democratic fund-raising platform (April 24)
- Resumed attacking Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve (April 21)
- Assailed the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome H. Powell, and suggested that he could force him out (April 17)
- Decided not to label an arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s residence as domestic terrorism (April 16)
- Began to scrutinize the real estate transactions of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James (April 16)
- Threatened Harvard University’s tax-exempt status (April 15)
- Announced that the administration would freeze $2 billion in funding for Harvard University (April 14)
- Railed against ‘60 Minutes’ on social media and called for its license to be taken away (April 13)
- Called Letitia James, the New York attorney general who led a civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, ‘a totally corrupt politician’ and called on social media for her to resign (April 13)
- Moved to cut off all federal funding for Maine’s public schools (April 11)
- Reached deals with five additional prominent law firms to provide a total of $600 million in free legal services to causes supported by President Trump (April 11)
- Had the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, attend a Ukraine defense meeting remotely instead of in person (April 11)
- Asked a federal judge to release a former F.B.I. informant from prison pending the appeal of his conviction on charges that he peddled misleading claims about the Biden family (April 10)
- Directed the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey to investigate the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general (April 10)
- Removed the commander of U.S. military base in Greenland who distanced herself from Vice President JD Vance’s visit on March 28 (April 10)
- Suspended the security clearances of lawyers at Susman Godfrey after it took on a case President Trump did not like (April 9)
- Signed executive orders punishing two officials from his first administration for opposing his 2020 election lies (April 9)
I’m exhausted by this list already, aren’t you?
- Froze more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern (April 8)
- Threatened to cut funding at more universities (April 3)
- Cut a deal with the law firm Milbank after accusing the firm of ‘illegal D.E.I. discrimination’ in hiring (April 2)
- Undermined President Biden’s pardons by questioning his mental acuity (April 1)
- Planned to target another law firm that brought lawsuits against President Trump and his allies (April 1)
- Paused dozens of federal grants to Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and University of Maine (various dates in March and April)
- Said President Trump had commuted the sentence of another former business associate of Hunter Biden’s (March 31)
- Made a deal with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, a law firm, after threatening an executive order that would have punished the firm for its past work against the president (March 28)
- Issued an executive order to punish WilmerHale, the law firm where Robert S. Mueller III worked before and after he served as special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation (March 27)
- Added another law firm, Jenner & Block, to the list of those he targeted with executive orders (March 25)
- Attacked Democratic leaders in New Jersey (March 24)
- Broadened campaign of retaliation against lawyers he dislikes (March 22)
- Revoked security clearances for a slew of opponents including Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (March 21)
- Dropped an executive order against a targeted law firm after it agreed to a deal (March 20)
- Called for the impeachment of Judge James E. Boasberg on social media (March 18)
- Fired the two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission (Mar 18)
Yes, there’s more.
- Pulled Secret Service protection from former President Biden’s son and daughter (Mar 17)
- Restricted the actions of a law firm in a move seen as retribution for the firm’s past work against Jan. 6 rioters and its diversity policies (Mar 14)
- Attacked a Republican congressman in a post on social media after he voted against party lines (Mar 11)
- Revoked the security clearances of several Biden administration officials and law enforcement figures (Mar 10)
- Promised to target more perceived foes at law firms (Mar 9)
- Punished a law firm that worked for Democrats (Mar 6)
- Stripped security clearances of lawyers who helped Jack Smith, a former special counsel who investigated Trump (Feb 25)
- Fired directors of the Office of Special Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics (Feb 10)
- Announced he would strip security clearances of top Biden officials and prosecutors who brought cases against him (Feb 8)
- Announced he would soon ‘surgically’ fire F.B.I. agents (Feb 7)
- Revoked Biden’s security clearances (Feb 7)
- Fired the nation’s archivist (who alerted Biden govt of classified documents taken by Trump) (Feb 7)
- Removed security protection and security clearance for Gen Mark Milley (Jan 28)
- Ended security protection for Dr. Anthony Fauci (Jan 24)
- Revoked secret service protection for John R. Bolton (Jan 20), Mike Pompeo (Jan 22)
- Stripped security clearances from some former intelligence officials (Jan 20)
The New York Times has also created a list of who Donald Trump has targeted for retribution – many of those people, of course, are the targets of the actions above. Broadly speaking, these categories include Biden administration members and other Democrats, members of the first Trump administration especially those who have spoken out against him, people involved in court cases against him, Department of Justice and other government officials, law firms, universities, news organizations (covered in an earlier post), and public and cultural institutions.
Beyond revenge, many of these actions undermine the rule of law, societal norms, the purpose of universities, and freedom of the press.
Why does Donald Trump take such actions?
Well, for one thing, retribution sends a powerful message to dissenters and the resistance. The actions noted above suggests that this administration targets cities that don’t cooperate fully with ICE, universities that defend their DEI initiatives or resist dismantling them, judges that rule against the administration, former members of Donald Trump’s first administration who did not support his claims about the 2020 election, and anyone who’s spoken out against Donald Trump. (See a CNN article by Zachary Wolf for further explanation.)
Various media discuss this topic: In Trump’s Second Term, Retribution Comes in Many Forms; Trump has Targeted more than 100 Opponents and Institutions; Trump Promised to get revenge; Here are his Targets.
In a Globe and Mail article from March 11, 2025, columnist Debra Thompson suggests that “Presidential power can no longer be understood … as the power to persuade. The [Trump] presidency is now an instrument of political payback … [to] exact vengeance on those who he believed wronged him.
Taken to the extreme, such actions create a climate of fear amongst ordinary citizens, a fear that might ultimately be used to ensure compliance.
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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.
