He says he is doing this for others. But his vindictive acts seem to spring from a persecution complex that turns the idea of a unifying president on its head.
Donald Trump has noted many times that his administration is organized to seek retribution for words or actions used against him and others who share his views. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he told supporters in March 2023. He warned the nation that this would be his guiding “principle” for governing, and he has kept that promise. In a stunning break with the norms of past presidents, Trump makes it a point almost every day to use his office for payback to group and individuals he sees as oppositional. Hence he has taken away security protection for former officials who have criticized him, including Anthony Fauci and John Bolton. And ostensibly “woke” safety net and federal aid programs that have offended him have been unfunded. Stripping people of their employment or protection is cruel and easy; doing the hard work of governing is mostly beyond him. Given this logic, only the completely synced vice president could imagine that George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan were “placeholders” rather than true “men of action.”
Retribution is a behavioral outlier that turns the long settled idea of a unifying president on its head. Instead of looking for transcendent themes, Trump cites injustices—often against him personally—most of his time is spent on proclamations of denial and repudiation. This attitude has its own lexicon; reckoning, redress, reprisal, retaliation, revenge, and vengeance are among the many terms at the bottom of a dark pit of dystopian motives. Normally these play out in criminal narratives, such as The Sopranos or the Godfather films. Most Americans would not want to be ruled by these impulses. But Trump has a sociopathic streak. Hiding his ire behind a reality show smile, he seems to think that the enactment of flamboyant public reprisals gives him stature.
In truth, there’s no normalizing these pitiful attacks. Consider the vast range of civil society institutions denigrated or defunded:
Universities- Federal and state courts
- Political opponents
- Former NATO allies
- News organizations
- Businesses
- Trading partners
- Election volunteers
- Former presidents
- Law firms
- State leaders
- Equal rights groups
- Museums and libraries
- the United Nations
- Immigrants
- Aid agencies
- Funded medical and academic research
NPR has tallied over 100 targets picked because of some slight against the President, or one of his questionable assertions. The New York Times has a more detailed catalogue. Most, he believes, are guilty of what he sees as personal slights against him, some ginned up to be “treasonous” crimes.
Its an old trope of our species to feed off the familiar cycle of hate, victimage, and punishment. Think of Puritan trials, male oppositional rituals in violent “sports,” or Shakespeare’s historical plays that display brooding quests for revenge. We have mostly tamed these impulses, giving the formal function of retribution to the criminal courts. Who else is interested in building a national movement around so aggressive and brutal an idea? As a collection of scholars writing in the journal Law and Human Behavior note, “Retributive justice essentially refers to the repair of justice through unilateral imposition of punishment,” but courts can also take the different route of “restorative justice, meaning “the repair of justice through. . . a shared. . . bilateral process.” Requiring a defendant to make good on an earlier promise to a plaintiff would fit the restorative model, which can be adapted to policy-making. But seldom does Trump take this more coactive stance.
Who builds a national movement around so brutal an idea?
Retribution is easily paired with the idea of hate, the engine that powers the desire to give a wounding response. In turn, this adds a level of worry within targets fearful of the negative consequences that may result. Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski recently reported her own fear of the consequences for doing her legislative duties. That is a terrible omen, and surely the reason we have a servile GOP.
It is apparent that Donald Trump has obviously banked a lot of the personal and professional slights that have eaten away at his judgment. The result is that we’ve ended up with endless executive actions against individuals and groups that have verge into the pathological.
