Is Trump signaling retribution agenda with Gaetz, other picks for his administration?

For President-elect Donald Trump, retribution time may be nearly at hand.

The incoming Republican chief executive's surprise picks for the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and national intelligence director —particularly his nomination of former GOP congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general — signal he is serious about going after political opponents.

Now those who have tangled with Trump in the past are contemplating what they may be facing in the coming months if he follows through on his campaign rhetoric and uses the full force of the U.S. government to go after them.

"He’s got a long list of people to seek retribution against," former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton said on CNN this week when asked if he was concerned about being targeted. "I don’t know where I am on the hit parade these days... but this is something we should stand against. You don’t prosecute your political opponents for disagreeing with you."

Trump's initial batch of job announcements and upcoming nominations have sent shockwaves through national security, legal and political circles, with experts telling USA TODAY they are ominous signs of what the next administration could bring.

Gaetz, like Trump, has said he believes the Biden Justice Department targeted him. The new AG nominee has made no secret of his desire to make changes in the justice system.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense, has used his perch at Fox News to share Trump criticisms of the military, especially generals who pushed back at the president during his first term.

Tulsi Gabbard, a military veteran and former Democratic member of Congress who is Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, has criticized the intelligence community for some of its actions, particularly with regard to Russia.

Trump made a lot of threats during the campaign to go after his perceived enemies. The question after he won was how much of it was just talk, and whether he would follow through. That question is now answered in the minds of many political observers. Picking Gaetz for the nation’s top law enforcement job is the surest sign that Trump wants payback against those he feels wronged by, observers say.

“The biggest signal from the Gaetz appointment is that Trump is serious about his retribution agenda,” said David Jolly, a former GOP congressman turned independent.

Gaetz has always been at the tip of the spear among Trump allies angling to go after opponents, and the former Florida congressman could soon have one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government to continue that crusade if he becomes attorney general, adding to fears about a retribution-focused presidency.

The list of Trump adversaries Gaetz has tangled with is long, from the incoming president’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, to former GOP congresswoman Liz Cheney and those involved in the legal cases against Trump.

“This is going to be a red alert moment for American democracy,” U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, said on CNN shortly after Gaetz’s nomination was announced Wednesday.

Responding to a question about the concerns surrounding Gaetz and other Trump nominees regarding retribution, transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the incoming president has a "mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail - and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First."

"President Trump will continue to appoint highly-qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again," Leavitt added.

Loyalists in key positions

Legal analysts said Trump is picking people for reasons of ideology, politics and uber-loyalty.

The three nominees for Defense, Justice and DNI "each have the ability to throw their departments into chaos and destabilize the institutions," said Bradley P. Moss, a Washington attorney who specializes in national security issues.

Gaetz stands apart, though, for his willingness to go a step further than others in tormenting Trump’s enemies.

Barb McQuade, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at the University of Michigan, said "Gaetz in particular is an astonishingly bad pick.”

“He’s completely unqualified and inexperienced for the position of attorney general, and has shown nothing but disdain for the Department of Justice and its employees,” McQuade added. “One can only conclude that the primary criteria were public displays of loyalty to Donald Trump."

Gaetz attracted attention in 2019 after posting a message on social media shortly before Cohen was set to testify in front of Congress. Cohen, a former longtime attorney for the Trump Organization and 2016 presidential campaign, had turned on Trump by that point and was preparing to expose damaging information about him.

Gaetz took to X, then known as Twitter, shortly before the hearing and wrote a post directed at Cohen.

“Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?" Gaetz wrote. "Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…”

Gaetz was accused of witness tampering and intimidation and faced a Florida Bar complaint. He shrugged it off and never received any discipline.

Contacted by USA TODAY, Cohen noted that Gaetz apologized.

“I accepted and the matter was closed and forgotten,” Cohen said in a text message, noting he only has communicated with Gaetz once since then to invite him to appear on his podcast, which Gaetz declined.

Asked if he believes he could be a target if Gaetz becomes attorney general, Cohen wrote, “I don’t have a crystal ball to determine what Congressman Gaetz intends to do or will do as Attorney General… Time will tell.”

Gaetz served on the House Judiciary Committee, which afforded him a prime position to interrogate those who angered Trump. He went after Attorney General Merrick Garland in one hearing, saying he was weaponizing the department amid Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and allegedly mishandling classified documents.

Smith is expected to resign before Trump takes office.

Gaetz’s efforts in Congress were matched by an equally tenacious defense of Trump on the campaign trail. In 2021 he flew to Wyoming to campaign against Cheney, who had earned Trump’s ire for criticizing his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop President Joe Biden's victory from being certified. Cheney lost her reelection bid.

This year Gaetz appeared outside the courthouse where Trump was on trial in New York City on charges related to hush money payments to an adult film actress to conceal on affair.

Gaetz called Cohen, who testified in the case, a “liar” and slammed the judge as “corrupt.” The former congressman has his own complaints about DOJ after he was investigated for alleged sex trafficking. The investigation was eventually closed without charges. He was still facing a congressional ethics investigation over the allegations, but it ended when he abruptly resigned from Congress this week and lawmakers are now wrangling over whether to release the report.

Jolly said he wondered if the prosecutor in Trump’s Manhattan criminal case, Alvin Bragg, and others who tangled with Trump in the legal and political spheres could be targets. He mentioned New York Attorney General Letitia James, who won a civil fraud case against Trump, incoming California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who led Trump's first impeachment while serving as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Cheney and former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who both served on the House Jan. 6 Committee.

Trump mused during the campaign about using the military to go after the “enemy from within,” and applied that label to Schiff and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He accused former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley of a “treasonous act” and wrote on social media that “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

Hegseth’s nomination has some defense experts alarmed. He has been critical of Milley and current Joint Chiefs Chair, Air Force General C.Q. Brown. He wrote in his book about his views on the Pentagon.

"The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," Hegseth wrote.

On a recent podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL, Hegseth said: “Well first of all you’ve got to fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs... but any general that was involved - general, admiral, whatever -that was involved in any of the DEI woke (expletive) has got to go."

Hegseth's assignment at the Pentagon could include what The Wall Street Journal described as "a draft executive order that establishes a 'warrior board' of retired senior military personnel with the power to review three- and four-star officers and to recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership."

Gabbard supports Trump’s call for an overhaul of the intelligence agencies, which he has deep antipathy for dating back to his 2016 campaign and first administration. He has labeled the intelligence community part of the "deep state." A CIA whistleblower triggered Trump's first impeachment, and the agency also drew Trump's ire over intelligence reports about Russia trying to influence the 2016 campaign.

Gabbard has been accused of parroting Russian talking points in her criticisms of intelligence professionals.

In a statement, the Democratic National Committee said: “It is a danger to the American people to place a person who has coddled conspiracy theorists, defended Vladimir Putin, promoted Russian-backed disinformation campaigns, and cozied up to fringe hate groups in our nation’s top intelligence post."

Jacob Ware, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that what Trump derides as the "Deep State" is actually a dedicated, professional civil service "staffed by people who have made a determination that they want to take lesser paid jobs, work long hours, relocate to the nation's capital because they're patriots and they want to help keep our country safe."

"They want to keep the train on the tracks," he said. "Those people are being demonized now."

The military and justice system have been particular targets for Trump, who was angered by what he saw as disloyalty from military leaders in his first administration and alleged “weaponization” of the legal system through the four criminal cases and other civil cases brought against him.

Mike Davis, a founder of the Article III project and close Trump ally, recently singled out James during a podcast appearance.

“I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump in his second term,” Davis said of James. “Because listen here, sweetheart: We’re not messing around this time, and we will put your fat (expletive) in prison for conspiracy against rights, and I promise you that.”

“The retribution agenda… this is an area where I think we have to take Donald Trump at his word,” said Jolly, who is now an MSNBC commentator.

“And so what does that look like?” Jolly added. “Does it look like first going after the state prosecutors like Alvin Bragg and Letitia James? Does it then look like going after Adam Schiff? Is it then Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger? And in that frame, you can see Gaetz with unquestioning loyalty to the president, saying: ‘Yes, sir, I'll do it.’ And that becomes his agenda.”

Entrepreneur Elon Musk, who is working closely with Trump to fill out his administration, praised Gaetz on X on Wednesday after his nomination was announced, saying "he will be great." Musk also wrote in another post that "The Hammer of Justice is coming."

"Is his name Matt?" responded David Sacks, another high-profile Trump backer in the tech world.

How real is the retribution threat?

Some Trump allies have argued that the incoming president’s retribution rhetoric won’t materialize into tangible action.

They point to the 2016 campaign, when he faced Democrat Hillary Clinton and led crowds in chants of “lock her up” but never followed through once he was president.

“I don't think that happens,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told USA TODAY before the election when asked about Trump going after opponents, adding: “He's going to be too busy governing with one term to do it... (to) waste around any time on retribution.”

McCarthy knowns more than anyone how vindictive Gaetz can be, though. He lost his speakership after Gaetz led a rebellion against him in the House. A McCarthy aide did not respond to a request this week for an interview with the former speaker about Gaetz's nomination.

For many, the Gaetz nomination is an ominous sign that Trump’s second administration could be much more aggressive against those who cross him.

“He’s a Trump puppet, his loyalty to Trump is the only credible reason he has been proposed,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, said on CNN Wednesday. “He will weaponize the Department of Justice for retribution – Donald Trump’s words.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's nominations fuel concerns over pursuit of revenge, retribution