Donald Trump relished the idea that his return to the White House would give him the power to bring down “deep state” actors who once opposed him — and nearly sent him to prison.
Just hours after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, his revenge campaign was underway.
Among the first targets was John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and one of the president’s harshest critics. Bolton’s security clearance was initially revoked. Then, Trump ordered the removal of protective elements assigned to Bolton in 2019 after death threats from Iran.
“We won’t have security detail on people for the rest of their lives – why should we?” I thought he was a very stupid person,” said Asset Tuesday.
Bolton said he was “disappointed but not surprised”.
This may be just the beginning as Trump prepares to crush perceived opponents within the government, focusing on targets ranging from intelligence agencies to military, financial and business regulators, and within of the law enforcement apparatus.
It could mark a new era for the United States — and for the way it is governed, with favors and sanctions dispensed according to the whims of a leader, not the judgments of career officials guided by the rules of their long-agreed institutions.
For Trump, it is a moment of vindication as he removes officials who thwarted his agenda during his first term or escalated his legal threat as federal criminal charges intensified against him in 2023.
“Never again will the immense power of the state be used to persecute political opponents,” he said in his inaugural speech at the Capitol on Monday.
A few hours later, he signed a decree on the “militarization” of government, authorizing sweeping reviews of U.S. intelligence and other agencies to correct “past misconduct” with “appropriate actions.”
“This is an unrestricted anti-resistance movement,” said Yuval Levin, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, referring to the order.
He said it was “too early to tell” whether Trump was simply sending a message to civil servants to “stay away” from his radical agenda or “to reorganize the bureaucracy so that it is more completely at the service of the president. .
Intelligence agencies are a particular target for Trump. In another executive order signed during Monday night’s blitz, Trump revoked the security clearances of 50 former intelligence officials, saying they coordinated with former President Joe Biden’s campaign to discredit reporting on his scandal-prone son Hunter Biden.
The order echoes language used by Kash Patel, Trump’s controversial pick to lead the FBI who is awaiting Senate confirmation.
Patel has long advocated for removing security clearances in order to eradicate the “deep state.”
A former US intelligence official said the move would have a “chilling effect” within agencies. “This is a clear sign that Trump will use the authorizations for political reasons. This will make people hesitant to express their opinion.
“Anything that suggests that clearances are being manipulated for political purposes will harm trust in the intelligence community,” said Emily Harding, director of the Intelligence, National Security and Technology Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. .
Trump also sent a clear message to the Pentagon, where just minutes after his inauguration, officials removed the portrait of his former military adviser — and ultimately nemesis — retired Gen. Mark Milley. On Monday, Trump also fired Coast Guard Commander Linda Fagan, with a top official saying she had “focused too much on diversity, equity and inclusion” and mismanaged security borders.
But Trump’s plans go far beyond the US security apparatus. The “weaponization” executive order called for greater oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as other law enforcement agencies such as the Justice Department.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general, promised that “the investigators would be investigated” and that “the bad” prosecutors would be prosecuted.
“I worry that this will allow the militarization of government itself against perceived enemies,” said Ryan Goodman, a professor at New York University Law School.
“Usually, there is nothing wrong with conducting retrospective investigations into possible government wrongdoing,” he added. But this order “was designed with candidates in mind who would enter government with a list of enemies. This is a very worrying combination for the state of democracy in the country.”
Trump had previously called for charges against his opponents, including former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he defeated in the 2024 general election. He also threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden.
Biden himself took this threat – and others – seriously enough to issue preemptive pardons to members of his own family and to key potential targets such as Milley and members of the panel that investigated the attack on 6 January 2021 against the Capitol, including a former member of Congress. Liz Cheney, just before leaving office.
Trump is also targeting federal workers, pledging to eliminate job protections, which were strengthened under Biden, for tens of thousands of career civil servants in “policy-related” jobs – a way to lay off easily civil servants who balk at his program.
Meanwhile, as he removed security clearances from his perceived enemies, he issued a separate executive order to immediately grant temporary clearances to “qualified and trusted personnel” of his choosing.
“Our foreign adversaries are salivating over this Trump executive order that immediately grants Top Secret clearances to individuals without the proper reviews and background checks,” Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration official turned critic of the president, wrote on x.