Courts halt some of Trump’s vengeance against enemies

Donald Trump campaigned on vengeance and retribution for enemies. But as he weaponizes government to take vengeance on media outlets, nonprofits and Democratic officials, federal courts are calling his bluff.

The Reformed Journal said Trump’s demagoguery and shamelessness “lowers resistance to forms of power that should alarm a healthy republic and a healthy church alike.”

The Department of Justice has launched 22 “retaliatory arrests, prosecutions and investigations” that are designed to “punish political opponents, chill dissent or pretextually achieve political objectives,” said Protect Democracy, which tracks them.

So far, the DOJ has gone after:

• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Minnesota Democrats and Minnesota protesters, including journalist Don Lemon
• Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
• Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who joined others last November to tell military members they could refuse illegal orders, leading to Trump calling for Kelly to be “hanged”
• John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Adviser
• California U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, who has investigated Trump
• Former FBI Director James Comey, whose social media post featuring seashells reading “8647” led him to be indicted for threatening the president
• Former CIA Director John O. Brennan
• New York Attorney General Letitia James
• Miles Taylor, who as “Anonymous” critiqued the first Trump administration from the inside through an article and a book
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has become the public face of Trump’s campaign against immigrants

The DOJ isn’t working alone to exact revenge and punishment. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went after Sen. Kelly, a former U.S. Navy captain and NASA astronaut. But last Thursday, a federal appeals court questioned Hegseth’s efforts to reduce or eliminate Kelly’s retirement benefits.

The Federal Trade Commission has gone after Trump’s enemies, too, but Media Matters for America recently won “a complete and total victory” over the FTC. The group said its win shows “that the rule of law matters” and “that courts can and do hold this government accountable.”

A district court said, “Media Matters engaged in quintessential First Amendment activity when it published an online article criticizing (Elon) Musk and X.” Media Matters says its win will “establish precedent that will protect others targeted with retaliatory investigations in nakedly unlawful ways.”

And the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which traditionally monitored cases of racial discrimination against racial minorities, has sued The New York Times claiming the paper violated civil rights law by hiring a nonwhite employee over a white candidate.

Trump and Hegseth also have personally sued media outlets that offended them. Trump sued The New York Times over reports on his business failures and illegal tax schemes. And he sued the Wall Street Journal over its report on a birthday card Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein, but a federal judge threw that suit out.

More recently, the FBI and FBI Director Kash Patel have gone after reporters from The Atlantic, The New York Times and the Washington Post for unfavorable coverage.

Patel sued The Atlantic for $250 million over Sarah Fitzpatrick’s deeply reported story, “The FBI Director Is MIA,” about Patel’s excessive drinking, unexplained absences and erratic behavior.

In an unprecedented move, the FBI also launched an investigation of Fitzpatrick. Undaunted, Fitzpatrick reported a follow-up story, “Kash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stash,” which tells how Patel travels “with a supply of personalized branded bourbon” that he gives to FBI staff and civilians.

The personalized bottles of Woodford Reserve bourbon are engraved with the words “Kash Patel FBI Director” and feature a rendering of an FBI shield. His first name is spelled “Ka$h” on some bottles. The bottles traveled with him on a DOJ plane to the Winter Olympics in Milan, where Patel drank beer and celebrated with athletes.

The FBI also is investigating Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson, claiming her reporting of Patel was “stalking.”

Williamson’s February article, “Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Seeks Fame and Fortune, Escorted by an FBI SWAT Team,” describes how FBI agents and SWAT teams were being used to transport and protect Alexis Wilkins, a country music singer. Agents reportedly accompanied Wilkins to an appointment at a Nashville hair salon.

The FBI also instigated a controversial raid at the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who has reported on the impact of Trump administration efforts to cull the federal workforce and cut programs.

Natanson, who won a Pulitzer Prize last Monday, is concerned that the raid will endanger the 1,169 former and current federal employees who assisted her reporting.

Meanwhile, philanthropy experts say the DOJ’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center is highly unusual and unusually weak. The DOJ accused SPLC of aiding the work of extremist groups it sought to prosecute. Among the problems with the case:

• SPLC has received no government grants
• State attorneys, not the DOJ, general normally handle charitable fraud cases
• The DOJ cited no examples of extremist groups exploiting SPLC funds and no names of donors injured in the alleged fraud

Under Trump, nonprofits are being targeted not for crimes but for “viewpoint discrimination” politics, said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “The exact kind of IRS weaponization Republicans have been upset about for years is now basically happening in front of their eyes,” reported The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

“Trump is not the antichrist, but he may be preparing people to welcome one,” warned Reformed Journal. “He does not merely fight enemies. He redefines public life around enemy logic. Opposition becomes treachery. Accountability becomes persecution. Constraint becomes proof that dark forces are trying to destroy the chosen leader.”