Donald Trump Promises Terrifying ‘Purge’ on Day 1 in Office
Former President Donald Trump is hard on the campaign trail, trying to secure the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential
Ivy Griffith
Former President Donald Trump is hard on the campaign trail, trying to secure the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
While it’s not a guarantee at this point, chances seem good that the former POTUS will again wear the Republican mantle of GOP nominee, and could face off against President Joe Biden again in an almost comical repeat of the 2020 election.
This time, though, Trump has a bone to pick, a chip on his shoulder, and an appetite for revenge.
The former POTUS promised a terrifying purge if he regains the presidency, and he’s starting on day 1.
In the past few months, Trump has been pushing his legal team and inner circle to find someone he thinks may be a “mole” reporting on him to the FBI and DOJ.
Additionally, according to sources close to the situation, Trump has asked his team if “we know” the names of all senior FBI agents and Justice Department personnel who have worked on the federal probes focused on the former POTUS.
See: DONALD TRUMP HONORS MEMORIAL DAY: YELLING REFLECTIONS ON PATRIOTISM AND REMEMBRANCE
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Rolling Stone reports, “The former president has then privately discussed that should he return to the White House, it is imperative his new Department of Justice ‘quickly’ and ‘immediately’ purge the FBI and DOJ’s ranks of these officials and agents who’ve led the Trump-related criminal investigations, the sources recount. The ex-president has of course dubbed all such probes as illegitimate ‘witch hunts,’ and is now campaigning for the White House on a platform of ‘retribution’ and cleaning house.
Separately, the twice-impeached former president has been saying for many months that on ‘day one’ of his potential second term, he wants FBI director Christopher Wray ‘out’ of the bureau, according to another source familiar with the matter and two people close to Trump. It’s an ironic turn, given that Trump appointed Wray in 2017.”
Trump’s desire to purge high-level law enforcement is both concerning and predictable.
Ever since the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence late last summer, Trump has been on the warpath, accusing the FBI and DOJ of playing partisan politics against him.
Trump’s team is working hard to figure out who is investigating him, but the federal agencies working on the process are not cooperating easily – and for good reason. Government officials that Trump outs are often the targets of violent threats and intimidation by his supporters, so there’s valid reason to keep their identity secret.
Rolling Stone adds, “In December 2022, the conservative nonprofit Judicial Watch — run by prominent Trump ally Tom Fitton — filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding information about ‘all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith.’ In April, the Justice Department denied the request on the ground that it was an ‘unwarranted invasion of personal privacy’ and that it would “interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
‘One can only conclude, after seeing the uproar over the anti-Trump, partisan Mueller operation, that the Garland Justice Department has something to hide about Jack Smith and his prosecutors again targeting Trump and other Republicans with unprecedented investigations,’ Fitton said at the time.”
Trump’s greatest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is also on the warpath against law enforcement agencies, and has promised to fire Wray on “day 1” if he’s elected.
Their dueling campaigns promise a new era of unprecedented attacks on law enforcement from the highest office, should either of them win, and set up a situation where there’s no one who can hold a president accountable.
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Both Trump and DeSantis often execute their positions along the fringes of what’s legal, and if they kneecap agencies like the DOJ and FBI it will be much easier for them to tip fully into “illegal.”
While “purging” the FBI and DOJ may be a rallying cry for the hardline MAGA supporters, it may not play so well in the general election. In general, American voters are in favor of holding politicians accountable who break the law – something Trump will have to grapple with as his reputation precedes him into 2024.
On March 31, Forbes released a series of polls that showed that a majority of Americans both believed Trump’s Manhattan indictments were politically motivated and appropriate (even as a majority of Republicans said they will still support him), and a majority believe they should disqualify him from running for President.
What that could mean is that a majority of Americans believe there should be some system of accountability for Presidents who break the law – something Trump and DeSantis clearly mean to abolish.