Trump's Revenge Is Focussed On YOU— He Wants Retribution Against The U.S.A.

"Central Casting" by Nancy Ohanian

Trump wants retribution and revenge— but against whom? That’s easy. His target is, first and foremost, the American people. Remember, in a super high-turnout 2020 election he was turned out of office by wide margins— 81,283,501 (51.3%) to 74,223,975 (46.8%). Since he was born, only two presidents had been denied second terms— Jimmy Carter in 1980 (Reagan won 50.7%) and George H.W. Bush in 1992 (Clinton won 43.0%). Trump hates being looked at as a loser… and was he ever a loser in 2020! So much so that he invented the Big Lie. And all this time he’s been plotting revenge… against the voters.

So what do we have coming at us: a neo-fascist Project 2025 regime he denied being involved with all through the campaign and a special interest cabinet stocked with billionaires eager for more tax breaks at the expense of the American people. If these people get confirmed— and they will— this will be the wealthiest Cabinet in history, an actual plutocracy, focused entirely on Wall Street and not at all on Main Street. Chas Danner wrote that the first time Trump wormed his way into the White House after losing to Hillary by nearly 3 million votes, “he assembled the wealthiest cabinet the country had ever seen, with a combined net worth of a little more than $6 billion. This time around, if all of Trump’s cabinet nominees are confirmed, their combined wealth will easily surpass $9 billion, and could in fact be much higher. Add in Elon Musk and members of the Trump 2.0 entourage who don’t require Senate confirmation, and the combined net worth jumps past $340 billion.” And the non-billionaires are the architects of Project 2025... and more sex pedators than any other cabinet in history.

Lately, we’ve been concentrating on how dangerous Pete Hegseth would be if he’s confirmed (as looks likely) to head the Pentagon. So let me share with you some timely reporting on RFK Jr by Mike Bloomberg via Sheryl Stolberg. Bloomberg addressed a told a public health conference that installing Kennedy as health secretary would be “beyond dangerous,” and tantamount to “medical malpractice on a mass scale.” If Republican senators can’t talk Trump into rethinking his choice (HA!), they should vote against confirming him (HA again!). “Parents who have been swayed by vaccine skepticism love their children and want to protect them, and we need leaders who will help them do that,” he said, “not conspiracy theorists who will scare them into decisions that will put their children at risk of disease.”

Bloomberg has spent billions of dollars promoting public health, both through his charity, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and through donations to the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, which now bears his name. The school and the charity hosted the health summit, with the theme of “advancing public health in uncertain political times.”

Like Kennedy, Bloomberg has fought battles against processed foods and has tried to promote healthy eating. But that, it appears, is where their like-mindedness ends.

Among other things, Bloomberg chided Kennedy for “nutty conspiracy theories,” including making the “outrageous false claim” that the Covid-19 shot was the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” He said Trump deserved credit for Operation Warp Speed, the fast-track initiative that produced coronavirus vaccines in record time, noting that studies have shown that the vaccines have saved an estimated 20 million lives around the world.

With experts warning of a possible bird flu outbreak in humans, Bloomberg said senators would face some hard questions: “With the nation facing a possible bird flu outbreak, are they really prepared to roll the dice on the lives of their constituents, by placing someone in charge of public health who has made it clear that he will prevent the approval of lifesaving vaccines?”

And then there’s Kash Patel, who many people think is the most dangerous of the Trump kooks of all. And that includes historian Garrett Graff, author of The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War and Watergate: A New History. He starts with the obvious lack of qualifications but wrote that Patel’s selection stands out as more concretely dangerous and worrisome than many of Trump’s other questionable choices. The true danger is almost less about Patel and more about what it says about Trump and his approach to his new presidency.”

To understand the full scope of the damage Patel could inflict, you have to understand how uniquely powerful and dangerous the FBI can be— and why a Patel directorship would probably corrupt and bend the institution for decades, even if he served only a few years.

… Unlike Patel, who has never been nominated for a Senate-confirmed position, every FBI director in modern times has been vetted and confirmed (often repeatedly) by the Senate to another position first. Three FBI directors were federal judges before being selected. Robert Mueller had been nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents and confirmed by overwhelmingly bipartisan votes in the Senate; James Comey, Barack Obama’s nominee, had been in front of the Senate twice for confirmation. Wray had been the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, a role that earned him the department’s highest award for leadership and public service.

…Trump has been clear in what he is trying to do with a nominee like Patel: He wants to bend and break the bureau and weaponize it against those he sees as his political enemies and domestic critics. Patel said last year that he hopes to prosecute journalists.

…The FBI can survive someone like Patel for a little while. Even beyond Hoover’s decades of leadership, when his agents abused the civil liberties of numerous Americans and a deputy sent a blackmail note to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. encouraging him to commit suicide, the FBI has had poor directors who have caused egregious scandals. Hoover’s successor, the acting FBI director L. Patrick Gray III, burned sensitive files about Watergate that he’d hidden in his closet rather than turn them over to investigators. In 1993, William Sessions was fired for cause, after abusing subordinates and the taxpayer’s trust, but only after a damning internal investigation.

The bureau came through those scandals stronger, in part because of the new, more rigorous oversight regimes installed by the Justice Department, the courts and Congress to monitor for and alert the public to abuses of powers.

The modern FBI is rigid in much of its adherence to what it may and may not do. As much as the Republicans crow about its lawlessness, the bureau is filled with nearly 2,000 lawyers— many of them agents— and it is scrupulous in its bureaucracy and careful documentation of investigative steps. It would take enormous, concerted effort to bend the bureau, but with time it could happen.

Nevertheless, a Patel directorship of even a few years could cause grave, lasting harm to the institution. One of the key ways a director shapes the bureau is through the promotion of top agents, from section chiefs to unit chiefs to special agents in charge to assistant directors and executive assistant directors. His choices of those leaders would shape the bureau for decades.

…That lasting impact— Hoover is only two generations removed from the bureau— and directing the unparalleled resources of the FBI should be more than enough to raise the alarm of the danger of Patel.

We wandered away from my point but it’s not hard to see that Trump’s cabinet choices (including RFK Jr) and plans for the FBI under Patel reveal a deeper truth about his motivations: his crusade is one of personal vengeance. It’s not just a vendetta against political elites, the media, or even his perceived enemies within government. It’s against us— the voters who denied him a second term in 2020, the majority who refused to buy into his authoritarian fantasies.

Every move Trump makes for 2025— whether it’s appointing conspiracy theorists to critical positions, dismantling oversight, or enshrining a billionaire plutocracy— targets the democratic will of the people. His vision isn’t merely about consolidating power for his own benefit; it’s about punishing those who dared to reject him. His revenge against the American people isn’t confined to rhetoric; it’s embedded in policies designed to erode democracy, perpetuate inequality and foster chaos. If he succeeds, his legacy won’t just be one of failure in 2020— it will be a scorched-earth campaign against the very foundation of the republic, leaving us all to pay the price for his wounded ego.