For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.
Trump’s presidency has seen this credo play out with elected officials (and others) of both parties, mostly Republican friends on the one hand and Democratic enemies on the other.
Enemies
Let’s begin with the enemies. “I am your retribution,” Trump pledged during his 2024 campaign.
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla of California was forcibly removed from a Kristi Noem press conference last week:
New York City Comptroller (and candidate for mayor) Brad Lander was arrested at an immigration courthouse yesterday — by men, some masked, without any uniforms or visible badges:
In each case, there was a theatrical show of force. This, for the pleasure of Fox News Channel (and conservative media), Twitter trolls, and the MAGA base. And — of course — to intimidate the ‘enemy’ camp.
Less prominent political enemies who have found themselves targeted by the Trump 2 administration are mostly Democrats, but include Republicans who have displeased Trump.
In April 2025, Trump directed DOJ to investigate Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs., who both served in the first Trump administration, but who have become critics. The next day, the U.S. attorney announced investigations of both the governor and the attorney general of New Jersey. So far, in the first five months of Trump’s second term, more than 100 perceived enemies have been targeted by federal officials doing his bidding.
Trump has grabbed the authority to govern from California Governor Kevin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both of whom are in place because they won elections. After Trump’s border czar threatened to arrest Newsom, Trump endorsed the idea. The grounds for arrest? Trump: “I think his primary crime is running for governor because he’s done such a bad job.“
Trump has also targeted law firms and prominent universities, with clients or constituents viewed as enemies of MAGA. And, of course, hundreds of immigrants in Democratic cities and states have been detained and many have already been deported.
Friends
Second, Trump’s friends — who have received pardons and commutations:
More than 1,500 so far in the first half of 2025. That total includes the January 6 crew, including Trump supporters who brutalized police officers, men convicted of seditious conspiracy, and a slew of men with felony convictions in their past.
Seven federal elected officials and nine state and local officials — convicted of corruption, ranging from bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent, and insider trading — received pardons or commutations from Trump. Some of these crooks had already served their prison sentences, but eight of them dodged roughly 50 years of prison time collectively. In addition, a couple of miscreants, including Democratic NYC Mayor Eric Adams (who attended Trump’s inauguration), were let off the hook before prosecution. Trump has also let several drug kingpins off.
The pattern is so obvious that convicted felons have begun “modeling themselves after Trump to increase their chances of winning his favor.” Politico reports:
After Trump pardoned his longtime supporter and former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, of conspiracy to commit bribery at the end of May, the Department of Justice pardon attorney, Ed Martin, took to X to make clear the administration’s priorities: “No MAGA left behind.”
We’re not quite halfway through Trump’s first year back in the White House. What he is dishing out is hardly justice. It’s exactly what Trump promised: retribution.
The Republicans in the majority of both houses of Congress haven’t moved to put a stop to it, while the Republican majority on the Roberts Court has egged on Trump’s authoritarian binge by siding with him, and against the Constitution, in a string of key decisions.
Welcome to government by and for the contemporary Republican Party. And against the rest of us.