Retribution Politics: Because Actually Governing Is Too Mainstream
Trump’s decided that the Department of Justice is actually just his personal Yelp review squad. Don’t like James Comey? One star. Letitia James getting too bold? Shut her down. And hey, why bother with impartial prosecutors when you can just install Pam Bondi, loyal foot soldier of MAGA Justice™, to keep the vengeance train on schedule?
But don’t worry, it’s totally not like what dictators do. Nooo. Putin goes after rivals, Erdoğan prosecutes critics, Orbán packs courts, and Maduro jails opposition leaders… but Trump is just “draining the swamp,” right? Sure. If by swamp you mean every independent institution that refuses to kiss the ring.
Meanwhile, the press? Fake news. Judges? Corrupt. Political opponents? Traitors. Honestly, if you put all of Trump’s rhetoric through Google Translate and swapped out the flag, you’d think you were reading a dictator’s playbook. The only difference is that America still has enough guardrails left to stop him from turning DOJ into his own little secret police—for now.
But hey, keep telling yourself this is just politics as usual. Because nothing says “healthy democracy” like a president openly promising retribution against his enemies while pretending it’s law and order. Totally fine. Definitely normal.
Eight months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s long-standing pledge to take on those he perceives as his political enemies has
