Political Retribution and the Rewriting of History Signal the Start of Trump’s Second Term.

​Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office have been a blitzkrieg of executive orders, policy pronouncements and personnel purges. Call it “shock and awe” or “flooding the zone “, but the barrage of trivial as well as consequential executive orders has had the desired effect. The Republican led Congress has ceded its authority to the executive branch, the Democrats are scrambling to mount any kind of opposition, and many Americans are just happy that someone is finally doing something about the “illegals”. 

​Trump is a mean-spirited man on a mission to punish his political enemies and to use the enormous resources of the federal government to rewrite the historical record to reflect his “facts and truths”. Trump has had four years to prepare for this moment and has not been shy about telling the country what he intended to do once back in office. None of his actions over the past few weeks should be all that surprising, except perhaps for the speed at which they are being carried out.

Many of his cabinet secretaries have not even been sworn in, proving once again that they are mere props. Most of the executive orders and personnel changes that Trump has already put in place come right out of the Project 2025 playbook, which he has previously claimed to know nothing about. As Trump continues to remake the federal government and rule through executive orders, the one thing I will never overlook or forgive is perhaps his most egregious act, that of pardoning the January 6 defendants.  

Pardons for January 6 Defendants: In one of his first official acts of his second term President Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to over 1500 individuals convicted of crimes related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump also commuted the sentences of fourteen others, including Steward Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
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With the stroke of a pen (sharpie) Trump ended the largest and most complex investigation ever undertaken by the Department of Justice. Trump has called the attacks on the police officers defending the Capitol on January 6, “very minor incidents”. He referred to those convicted and jailed as “political prisoners” and claimed that they were “absolutely innocent”. The proclamation announcing the pardons states “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation”. 

If there is one thing that most Americans agree on, it is that the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our country’s history, and that many who participated are violent criminals. There is no doubt, that as president, Donald Trump has the Constitutional authority to pardon anyone convicted of a federal crime. But it is morally repugnant to pardon the nearly 600 defendants convicted of violent crimes, including the assault on police officers.

More than 150 officers from the Capitol Police and the D.C. Police were injured on January 6. In the days and weeks following the Capitol riot several officers died from physical and emotional trauma received at the hands of the rioters. The pardon of violent criminals by Trump undermines the rule of law, is an outrage to the men and women in law enforcement and is an affront to common decency. 

Purges at the D.O.J. and F.B.I.: The pardon of the January 6 defendants was just the first step in Trump’s plans to rewrite the history of events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Last Monday about 30 federal prosecutors who had worked on Capitol riot cases were fired by Acting Attorney General James McHenry. According to a Justice Department spokesman these prosecutors could not be trusted to “faithfully implement” the president’s agenda.
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On Thursday Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove instructed the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors who had worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot. Then on Friday Mr. Bove ordered the acting leadership of the F.B.I. to compile a list of all agents and staff members from across the country who had worked on investigations and/or prosecutions relating to the Capitol riot.

​Eight senior F.B.I. officials along with the heads of 20 field offices have already been ordered to resign or be fired for working on January 6 cases. In a statement on Friday, the F.B.I. Agents Association called the moves “outrageous” and warned that the dismissal of potentially hundreds of field agents could weaken national security.

Revisionist History: It has been said that “history is written by the victors”, and Trump is doing his damnedest to do just that. If those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are innocent, so is Trump for sending them there. This feeds into the narrative that what happened at the Capitol that day was a legitimate protest against an election that was stolen from Donald Trump. Trump is unapologetic about spreading “the Big Lie” and uses it as a litmus test for loyalty to him. He will not stop until history records the outcome of the 2020 election in his favor, and he will use the power of the federal bureaucracy and a compliant Congress to do just that.
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Two days after Trump issued pardons to the January 6 defendants Speaker Mike Johnson announced that House Republicans would establish a new select subcommittee to counter the “false narratives” surrounding the Capitol riot. The Department of Justice has already removed from its website the database detailing the criminal cases and convictions of the January 6th defendants. 

Donald Trump is only at the beginning of his second term, and we have already witnessed what he is capable of doing. The Constitution prevents Trump from having a third presidential term, so he has little to fear from the electorate.  He will disregard any law and pardon any sin if it furthers his aims or rewards those loyal to him. If Trump’s ambitions are not checked it could result in many Americans losing faith in the rule of law and in government institutions, the pillars of a health democracy.

 
 
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Armchair American