Trump Is Weaponizing the Government Against His Enemies. It Doesn’t Mean He’ll Succeed.

The FBI’s search of John Bolton’s home and office last week shook much of official Washington. It was the most intrusive and aggressive law enforcement action taken by the Trump administration against the president’s critics and political opponents to date. Many in the political press corps certainly treated it as a milestone: Donald Trump’s much-anticipated prosecutorial revenge tour was upon us.

In fact, the news concerning Bolton was just the latest in a string of attacks on Trump critics and former career government officials who became enemies of the administration simply by doing their jobs. Aside from the bold face names like Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor in the first administration before turning against him, the targets include the prosecutors and federal agents who were forced out of the DOJ and FBI because they investigated the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.