“If there’s an advantage to electing a vapid, petty, thin-skinned, whiny, vindictive, empty-headed, ridiculous, mischievous bully” to the White House, I wrote in November 2016, “he may be prompting a reexamination of the absurd hopes and cultic reverence that surrounds the presidency.” I suggested that “a ridiculous president will encourage Americans to take the presidency less seriously.”

It didn’t quite go as I had hoped. Although Trump was predictable ridiculous as president, comedy turned to tragedy at the end of his term, when rioters outraged by his stolen election fantasy stormed the US Capitol and interrupted congressional ratification of Joe Biden’s victory. To this day Trump insists, against all evidencethat he actually won re-election in 2020. The voters who returned him to office this week either agree with him or think it doesn’t matter if the president is dishonest or deluded enough to cling to that absurd story four years later.

In addition to his claim that systematic election fraud robbed him of his rightful victory in 2020, Trump has accumulated many other complaints over the past eight years. The question now is whether and how he will use the powers of the presidency to act on his grudge. Trump has floated various ideas that should worry libertarians, including wide, heavy duties and mass deportation by unauthorized residents of the United States. But his authoritarian impulsesexemplified by his repeatedly expressed desire punishing his political opponents once he is back in power should trouble anyone who values ​​civil liberties and the rule of law.

Trump is still angry at the Democratic operatives who allegedly helped install an illegitimate president. “If we win, and when we win, we will prosecute people who cheat this election,” he said in September. “And if we can, we’ll go back to the last one too.” Considering everyone wild fraud allegations as Trump embraced in 2020, who knows what that means?

Trump is furious with Biden, whom he accuses not only of stealing an election but also of instigating two federal indictments against him. Trump has repeatedly promised to investigate Biden for alleged corruption. “I’m going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president (in) the history of the United States, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump promised at a rally in June 2023. “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to investigate the Biden bribery and crime ring,” he repeated at another rally later that month.

After Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Trump was angry about the sudden change, and he began to imagine criminal penalties for her. Harris “should be impeached and prosecuted” for his complicity in the Biden administration’s border policies, Trump said at a rally in September.

Trump is angry with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In his book from 2024 Save AmericaTrump complained that Zuckerberg “steered (Facebook) against me” during the 2020 election. He added a warning: “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Trump is mad at everyone who supported his second impeachment, which was well motivated of his reckless behavior before and during the Capitol riot. He is particularly angry with the parliamentary committee that investigated the riot and issued a scathing report recommended charges against him. In March 2023, Trump said committee members “should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, BETRAYAL!” A year later, Trump declared that before this rep. Liz Cheney (R–Wyo.), who served as the committee’s vice chair after joining nine other Republicans in supporting his impeachment, “should go to jail with the rest of the Unselect Committee!”

Trump is angry with special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against him: one assert that he illegally tried to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, the other charge him with improperly retaining classified records after leaving the White House. Trump has said Smith, whom he accuses of “illegally leaking to the press,” “should be prosecuted for DIFFERENCE.”

Trump is more justifiably angry about his 34 criminal convictions in New York, which were based on a vague, convoluted and legally uncertain theory aimed to punish him for paying a porn star to keep her from talking about a sexual encounter with him. He thinking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, like Smith, should be prosecuted for the leaks.

Trump is furious over New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against him, which resulted in a staggering (and baffling) $364 million disgorgement order issued by Judge Arthur Engoron. At a meeting in January, Trump said James and Engoron “should be arrested and punished accordingly.”

Trump is angry at news organizations for covering these and other controversies in a way that made him look bad. They are “enemies of the people”, he saysand their sins against him are so grievous that they should have to pay him damagesrenounce theirs broadcasting licencesor suffer from others, ill-defined penalties for “fake” news coverage, “election meddling” and “illegal political activity”. Trump has said that too protesters which burns the American flag and Supreme Court Critic who try to influence its decisions should go to jail.

Is Trump serious about any of this? “If you’re president again,” conservative talk show host Glenn Beck asked him in August 2023, “are you going to lock people up?” Trump’s response: “The answer is you don’t have a choice, because they’re doing it to us.”

Last June on Fox News, Sean Hannity practically begged Trump to give a different answer. “People claim you want retribution,” Hannity said. “People claim that you want what has happened to you to be done to the Democrats. Would you ever do that?”

Trump responded by complaining that “what has happened to me has never happened in this country before,” adding that “it has to stop.” Hannity took that as distancing himself from retaliation, and Trump seemed to confirm that interpretation by saying his critics were wrong to think “you’re going to use the legal system to go after your political enemies,” as Hannity put it. Then Trump trashed the assurance by adding, “I would have every right to go after them.” Although “I know you want me to say something so nice,” he said, “I don’t want to look naive.”

As Trump sees it, he has been the victim of “scams” and “witch hunts” throughout his relatively short political career, all orchestrated by a Democratic cabal dedicated to his destruction. The conspirators, whom he variously describes as “communists,” “Marxists,” “fascists,” “left-wing lunatics,” “sick people“” and “pest“constitute”the enemy from within“, a category like Trump defines broad enough to include political opponents such as Rep. Adam Schiff (D–Calif.) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.).

Will Trump’s angry, vengeful rhetoric amount to anything? There are several reasons to believe that it might.

During his first term, Trump was held back by calmer, more experienced officials who pushed back against hot-button proposals such as withdraw broadcasting licences from news media offending him and shooting protesters or migrants in the legs. But Trump didn’t like being told what he couldn’t do. According to John Kelly, Trump’s second chief of staff, his former boss didn’t even get it the idea that his subordinates had a higher duty than obedience to his will.

This time, Trump is likely to rely on advisers who are less likely to question his instincts. To give you a sense of what that might mean, Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who played a key role in Trump’s attempt to reverse the 2020 election results, is reportedly a challenger for the White House counsel. Former Vice President Mike Pence, who resisted Trump’s push to intervene in the January 2021 electoral vote count, has reprimanded his former boss for asking him to subvert the constitution. In contrast, Pence’s replacement, Sen. JD Vance (R–Ohio), says he would have gladly done Trump’s bidding.

Trump may also be emboldened by the Supreme Court in July 2024 ruling which included a broad version of presidential immunity from criminal liability for “official acts.” The court specifically said the shield covers communications between the president and the Justice Department, one of the primary ways Trump could make life uncomfortable for his critics.

In his second term, Trump will not have to worry about jeopardizing his re-election by openly targeting his political opponents. However, if he is still concerned about the potential political consequences, there are more subtle ways of punishing his enemies, such as using his great review to impose tariffs and selectively relieve benefited the companies from their burdens.

Perhaps Trump will give up his grudge and let bygones be bygones in the interest of bipartisan compatibility. But that would require self-restraint, charity and thoughtful judgment – ​​qualities he has rarely displayed.