How Trump moved swiftly to punish perceived foes in his first 100 days

Hours after swearing an oath to defend the US Constitution on Jan 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his attorney general to scour the Justice Department and other agencies for evidence of political "weaponisation."

The same day, Pentagon staff took down a portrait of Mark Milley, a Trump critic who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been the highest-ranking military officer during Trump's first term. That evening, Trump stripped his former national security adviser, John Bolton - who wrote a memoir critical of Trump - of the protective Secret Service detail he had been given after the Justice Department said Iran had threatened Bolton's life.

In his first 100 days, Trump has wielded the levers of presidential power against a panoply of perceived enemies. These include former intelligence officials who investigated alleged Russian ties to his 2016 election campaign and major law firms as well as former Biden administration members and prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against him while he was out of power.

Trump's actions served notice that his campaign promise of political retribution was anything but rhetorical, after he repeatedly telegraphed his intentions as a candidate. But the speed and sweep of his actions have caught many by surprise, with even the smallest slights drawing reprisals.

The Republican president has used the machinery of the state and the power of the presidency to go after people and institutions that have aggrieved him in more expansive ways than any of his predecessors, historians said.

"It's not unusual for presidents to have enemies," said Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. "What is unusual is for the president to use the entirety of the federal government, not simply to exclude someone, but to directly punish them."

Trump has made particular use of executive orders - typically used by presidents to direct policy priorities - to target perceived foes by stripping them of security clearances, blocking them from government buildings or directing agencies to probe them for wrongdoing.

He has launched multiple federal probes into Maine after a verbal spat with the state's governor, reached deep into the traditionally independent Justice Department to fire those he views as disloyal, pulled protective security details from his critics and ordered investigations into former officials who challenged his false claims that his 2020 election loss was rigged.

On his first day in office, he removed clearances for 50 former national security officials who had signed a letter suggesting Russia was behind a story about salacious material found on a laptop belonging to President Joe Biden's son Hunter. No evidence of Russian involvement has emerged.

He has also taken away clearances for all three Democrats who ran against him in presidential contests: Biden, Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.

Trump has focused much of his attention on the criminal justice system after claiming during his 2024 presidential campaign that his four indictments were motivated by politics. Then-President Joe Biden's administration denied the accusations.

In Trump's first 100 days, his Justice Department has fired or demoted dozens of officials, prosecutors and FBI agents, including rank-and-file employees who worked on investigations into Trump and the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

In a speech at the Justice Department's headquarters in Feb, Trump denounced the "lies and abuses" that he said had led Special Counsel Jack Smith to charge him with illegally retaining classified documents after leaving office and plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

"Traditional presidencies have failed to bring meaningful change to the ways of Washington, and the President is committed to upending the entrenched bureaucracy," a White House spokesman, Harrison Fields, said in response to questions about Trump's retribution efforts and whether they represent an abuse of power.

"Utilizing every tool afforded by the Constitution, the Trump Administration is prioritising efficiency; eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse; and fulfilling every campaign promise."

'THE FEROCITY AND THE SCOPE'

During his first term, Trump's instincts for revenge were sometimes thwarted by his own appointees, many of whom were experienced government hands or establishment Republicans.

By contrast, Trump has filled his second-term administration with steadfast loyalists more likely to back his directives than caution against them. Meanwhile, the Republican majority in Congress has shown little interest in opposing his actions.

Trump has taken steps as well to eliminate internal watchdogs who might seek to constrain him, purging inspectors general and firing government ethics officials.

"All administrations, particularly when you see a switch from one party to another, seek to control the executive branch," said historian Timothy Naftali, the former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. "It's the ferocity and the scope of what he's done that makes it unprecedented."

The Republican Nixon famously had a list of enemies, but he plotted against them in secret. His most aggressive ideas, such as using the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service to audit his foes, were often blocked by his own officials.

Other presidents have used their power to penalize rivals in more muted ways, Suri said. Democrat Lyndon Johnson sought to discredit his political rival, Robert Kennedy, in the news media, and Republican George W Bush banned Brent Scowcroft, a former national security adviser, from the White House after Scowcroft wrote a column opposing the Iraq War.

"That's often how presidents use their power to go after enemies: they keep them out of their administration and spread rumors about them," Suri said.

'ONLY THE BEGINNING'

Trump has frequently intertwined his personal animus against political opponents with his administration's ideological and policy objectives.

In Feb, Trump digressed from remarks during a White House meeting with governors to address Maine Governor Janet Mills, warning her to comply with an order banning transgender athletes.

"See you in court," Mills, a Democrat, replied defiantly.

Within a day, three separate federal departments had initiated inquiries into whether the state was violating civil rights law, imperiling millions of dollars in federal funding. The Justice Department sent Mills a letter telling her Maine was "on notice" while Trump demanded a "full-throated apology" before the "case can be settled."

In early April, Trump's agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, wrote Mills to confirm that some school funding had been frozen.

"This is only the beginning," Rollins warned her.

Nine days later, the Education Department said it was taking steps to cut off all federal school funding to the state, and last week Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Justice Department had sued Maine in federal court.

In recent weeks, Trump has attacked law firms that once employed attorneys he views as enemies, arguing they undermined the judicial process by doing so.

In Feb, he suspended security clearances for attorneys at the law firm Covington & Burling who had represented Smith, the former special counsel investigating him, and sought to cancel any government work the firm had. Making little effort to hide his primary motivation, Trump suggested sending the pen he used to sign the order to Smith as a souvenir.

Trump has signed executive orders targeting five other law firms, in each case indicating that revenge was an essential factor. His order punishing WilmerHale, for instance, noted that it once employed Robert Mueller, who investigated whether Trump's 2016 campaign had improper connections with Russia.

Nine law firms have cut deals with Trump to avoid punishment, promising nearly $1 billion in pro bono work on mutually agreed projects backed by the administration.

In some cases, Trump simply appears determined to get even with former members of his 2017-2021 administration who irked him.

This month, the president ordered the Justice Department to investigate Christopher Krebs, his former cybersecurity chief who disputed Trump's false claims about election fraud in 2020, and Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official who anonymously wrote a 2019 book critical of Trump.

Signing the executive order targeting the two former officials, Trump called Taylor a traitor.

"I think he's guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we'll find out," he said.

"Dissent isn't unlawful," Taylor responded on X. "It certainly isn't treasonous."