When I was growing up and said something mean about someone, my mom would tell me to look inward and recognize my own shortcomings before criticizing someone else.
Just admit, here and now, that Trump has a ton of inward soul searching to do. Why? Let’s take a brief look at a small fraction of the people Trump has criticized, mocked, humiliated, or for whom he has sought revenge and retribution.
Ok let’s begin.
Politicians and States people. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, James Comey, Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken, Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, Liz Cheney, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Michael Cohen, Adam Kinzinger. (Trump has also moved presidential portraits of Obama and the two Bushes to a stairwell not visible to White House visitors. In place of the space where Obama’s portrait formerly hung, Trump placed a painting of himself surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, PA. Biden’s portrait has not yet been completed.)
Revoked Secret Service Protection. Dr. Anthony Fauci, John Bolton, Hunter and Ashley Biden, General Mark Milley, Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper.
Fired. More than a dozen prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against him; several senior justice Department officials; more than 12 inspectors general; the Kennedy Center Director; the Librarian of Congress; the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner, laid off more than 275,000 Federal employees not including contractors. (The Elon Musk dismissal deserves a whole separate column.)
Revoked Security Clearances. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Fiona Hill, Alexander Vindman, more than 50 intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan. Trump also issued executive orders to limit certain attorneys’ abilities to access government buildings at several large law firms that worked on cases against Trump in the past—firms like Covington & Burling and Perkins Cole–stopping any consideration for future employment with the government, canceling government contracts, and preventing any company that uses such a firm from obtaining federal contracts.
News Organizations. Trump kicked out AP reporters from White House briefings; ordered investigations into NPR, PBS, and Politico. Trump has called the press fake news, scum, dishonest, low-lifes, corrupt, dumb, clueless, and some of the worst human beings you’ll ever meet. Defunding of PBS and NPR is underway.
Performers, Writers, TV Personalities. George Clooney, Rosie O’Donnell, Taylor Swift, Jimmy Kimmel, Meryl Streep, Jimmy Fallon, Spike Lee, Anna Wintour, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Moore, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, Rihanna, Madonna, Stephen King, Snoop Dogg, Mark Cuban. Stephen Colbert.
Colleges and Universities. Trump has cut funding at several universities with charges of antisemitism and ideological indoctrination, forced universities to pay millions to settle such allegations, and frozen billions of dollars of research funding. Affected universities include Harvard, Brown, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Duke, George Washington University, Northwestern, University of Minnesota, University of Southern California, Johns Hopkins University, University of California Berkeley, New York University, University of California Los Angeles.
In no way is this a comprehensive revenge list. Such a list might resemble the length of War and Peace. Think about past presidents and how short most of those lists would be. Sure, they may have criticized their opponents or shot back at someone who criticized them, but never before has this country witnessed the vitriol that emanates from this administration.
Martin Luther King once wrote, “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
If Trump took King’s advice and put a little love in his heart, it might go a long way to helping the nation begin the healing process.
Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, music, and nature.
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