The White House News

President-elect Trump’s vows to seek revenge have brought a renewed sense of alarm to those who have crossed ways with him now that he’s returning to the White House.

Trump routinely calls for adverse actions against his perceived enemies and often makes veiled threats – a dynamic present during his first term in office that accelerated as he battled for reelection.

After his inauguration, Trump will have new avenues to make good on those calls. He’s also assembling a team that would be well-positioned to carry out any vows for retribution.

Trump nominated former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to serve as attorney general and several lawyers on his criminal defense team to fill out other top leadership posts at the Department of Justice. 

And Trump is likely to be bolstered by his allies in Congress. House Republicans who kept their majority have also vowed to investigate Trump adversaries.

Their potential targets are nervous.

“I have heard from a number of organizational clients and some individual clients who are very scared that they may be targeted even though their conduct has been entirely lawful. They fear being targeted for their views, their statements, and for the causes and people they support. They’re very scared, and I think for good reason,” said Michael R. Bromwich, an attorney with Steptoe who previously represented former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe when he was investigated by the Trump Department of Justice.

“They are concerned that they could be audited by the IRS. They could be the subject of a bogus congressional investigation. There may be even a way to conduct, or at least initiate, a bogus criminal investigation. And all with the goal of, ironically, for the first time actually weaponizing the Department of Justice.”

Trump has issued a wide variety of threats, from saying special counsel Jack Smith should be arrested, to suggesting those involved with the Jan. 6 committee could be prosecuted. He said former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the panel’s vice chair, “should go to jail.” 

Trump has called some Democrats the “enemies from within” while also targeting Republicans who have criticized him.

One person fearful of being targeted said they and others similarly situated have been commiserating as well as “information sharing” ahead of potential investigations or other actions.

They hoped that if Trump has “smart people advising him,” he’d stay focused on broader policy goals.

“I just don’t know if he’ll be able to help himself and it just seems like he’s kind of consumed by all of it,” they said.

One former senior Republican aide noted Trump won’t be surrounded by many of the same people that pushed back against his inclinations during his first time in office nor may he be restrained by the courts the same way following the Supreme Court’s finding that former presidents retain broad criminal immunity. 

Those factors weighed heavily on their mind when it comes to the extent Trump will make good on his plans to follow through on any threats.

“It’s really unknown. Donald Trump is somebody that you need to take seriously and literally. He has proven that. Some of his supporters have claimed they take him seriously, not literally. There are some on the left who say, ‘Well, don’t take him seriously, but you have to take him literally.’ You have to take him both,” the former aide said.

“The fact that there are not guard rails this time; the fact that you do have to take him seriously and literally, I think all just raise the specter of alarm if you’re someone that’s been in his crosshairs in the past.”

Mark Zaid, an attorney who represents various figures who have angered Trump, has already had conversations with multiple clients.

“Some of my biggest concerns are actually not that the Trump administration would abuse the law, but that they would make use of existing law beyond the norms that we have seen at any time in the past,” said Zaid.

Zaid, who specializes in national security law, said those who work in the intelligence community have little recourse if they are fired or if their security clearance is stripped – a career damaging prospect even if one leaves government, since many work on contracts that require holding a security clearance.

In a few cases, he’s even advised “a very small number of people” to be prepared to leave the country or travel during the inauguration.

“Why? Because this is what they have said they’re going to do. I mean, I don’t understand why people aren’t willing to take Trump and [Vice President-elect JD] Vance and the sycophants surrounding them at their word. Yeah, lots of it is rhetoric, I get it, but they’ve telegraphed exactly what they’re going to do,” Zaid said of their vows to seek revenge.

“Trump has promised that his second administration is just that – fulfillment of promises. So it would be naive and foolish not to take that seriously, and if it doesn’t come to pass, fantastic. I mean, look, I’m not telling anyone: ‘Sell your house, panic, hide all your assets’…That’s ridiculous, because I can’t assess the seriousness of the risk. I can only assess the seriousness of what they say they are going to do.”

What most fear is a long-running investigation – something that could come from the Justice Department or Congress.

“I think that the Justice Department, if it makes shrewd decisions, it will leave the clown show largely to the House of Representatives,” Bromwich said.

“But I can easily imagine Trump, or somebody doing Trump’s bidding, calling over to the Justice Department and saying, ‘Look, I want so and so investigated who said nasty things about me.’ If an investigation is opened in response and materials are subpoenaed, being put through that kind of ringer is scary and costly and does great damage to not only the individual, but the individual’s family and associates.”

There were at least a dozen instances from Trump’s first term in which he pushed for some kind of investigation or prosecution of those he saw as enemies.

But few gained much traction and Trump would face similar pushback in a second administration, from possible apprehension at DOJ to grand juries or judges airing skepticism over investigations or any charges they might try and file.

In the case of McCabe, a grand jury declined to indict the former FBI official – countering expectations of panels that often greenlight charges.

“You had the very unusual situation where the grand jury refused to indict. That doesn’t happen very often. And so I think we did a very good job of representing Mr. McCabe, but he was lucky and he knows it,” Bromwich said. 

“And there’s no guarantee that somebody subject to the same kind of extremely factually weak investigation wouldn’t be pursued and that the grand jury wouldn’t, in such a case, go along with it. So I think you can only draw very limited comfort from what happened to him. And I think people are right to be afraid.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is cementing his place in President-elect Trump’s inner orbit, becoming not only a visible — if slightly out-of-place-looking — part of his entourage, but a key supporter of his no-holds-barred approach to his second term.

The dynamic is setting up the Speaker to be critical to Trump’s success in his first months in office, both in ushering through his agenda and putting implicit pressure on congressional Republicans to rubber-stamp Trump’s controversial nominees and legislative plans.

The Speaker’s importance in MAGA World was on full display at a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, when he was part of a parade of allies that accompanied Trump. The crew included Elon Musk; Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence; Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., his Health and Human Services secretary choice; and Donald Trump Jr. 

The contrast between the mild-mannered, conservative Christian, self-described “nerdy constitutional law guy” and the rest of the tough-guy Trump crew was stark. 

In response to a selfie Johnson snapped at Saturday’s UFC fight with musical artists Kid Rock and Jelly Roll — the latter of whom has face tattoos — internet jokers compared Johnson “sheltered evangelical kid who went to a secular concert with his public school friends,” and to “the chess club president who got invited to hang with the football team.”

But Trump and Johnson have the shared interest of quickly pushing through legislation to extend the tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term, among other priorities, which Johnson has been planning with Trump and Senate Republicans for months. 

“The President and Speaker are two very different personalities, but they have the exact same goal and passion to advance an America First policy agenda that will get our country back on track,” said Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chair of the House Budget Committee who is close with Johnson. “Mike is a committed Christian and policy wonk, but that doesn’t mean he just sits in his room all day praying and studying policy memos — he is one of the funniest guys I know and loves being with people of all walks of life.”

Arrington noted that Johnson’s sons were involved in martial arts.

“For the Speaker, however, the pen is mightier than the sword … or rear naked choke!” Arrington said.

Johnson’s skills are not limited to the pen. He has also proven to be a key messenger for Trump’s agenda on television and other media, which Trump highly values — and in doing so, planted a flag on the side of Trump in controversial legislative matters.

The morning after the UFC fight, Johnson was on the Sunday news shows, defending Trump’s positions and giving a lifeline to his controversial Cabinet picks, including former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice.

Johnson dug in on his opposition to the House Ethics Committee releasing a report on Gaetz since he is no longer a member of Congress. The panel had been investigating the Florida Republican for years over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz, whom the Justice Department declined to charge after investigating the same matters, has vigorously denied wrongdoing.

“I think that would be a Pandora’s box. I don’t think we want the House Ethics Committee using all of its vast resources and powers to go after private citizens,” Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

That was a shift from his initial statement when he was asked about the possibility of the report being released after Gaetz was announced as Trump’s pick for attorney general, saying that “the Speaker of the House is not involved in that, can’t be involved in that.” 

Johnson on CNN said that he initially meant that the Speaker can’t put a thumb on the scale of the initial investigation. And he denied that he had spoken to Trump about the possibility of the ethics report being released, despite seeing Trump at a gala at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club between saying that he would not get involved in the investigation and calling for the report to stay sealed.

On another show, Johnson left open the possibility of enabling Trump to appoint his Cabinet picks by recess appointments, bypassing the need for approval in the Senate. 

Because the Constitution dictates that neither chamber of Congress can adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other, the House — and therefore, its Speaker — has a say in whether it would be possible for Trump to recess appoint his Cabinet picks.

“We’ll evaluate that at the appropriate time, and we’ll make the appropriate decision. There may be a function for that; we’ll have to see how it plays out,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday” when asked about whether he would support recess appointments.

Despite trifecta Republican control, advancing high-stakes legislation will be no easy task due to slim GOP majorities in both chambers. 

But Johnson showing that he is close to Trump could help him navigate those legislative hurdles and manage GOP detractors that have caused chaos over the last two years, the most rebellious of whom are also staunch Trump supporters.

“We just need to have a UFC fight every weekend, and whoever walks out with Trump, we’ll know who’s on top in his orbit,” one Trump ally who requested anonymity due to job negotiations told The Hill, also mentioning how it would send a signal Trump’s support to rebellious House Republicans.

Johnson has positioned himself closer to Trump than perhaps any Republican Speaker. 

The two speak often. In addition to being part of the UFC entourage, since the election, Johnson has bounced between Washington and Mar-a-Lago. 

Johnson had a speaking slot at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally before the election — where Trump also praised Johnson: “Such a nice-looking guy. Just that little beautiful face with the glasses, got the little glasses.”

“Everyone said, ‘Oh, he’s so nice. He’s such a nice person.’ He’s not a nice person. He’s not nice at all,” Trump said, referencing a contentious interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which Trump said Johnson “decapitate[d]” the host.

There have been disagreements on strategy between the two over the last year. Trump publicly advocated for a government shutdown while Johnson warned such a move would have negative electoral consequences.

But that hasn’t kept the two from forging a strong alliance — complete with the president-elect going out of his way to talk to House Republicans in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill last week and show his support for Johnson.

House Republicans renominated Jonson to be Speaker later that evening in a unanimous vote.

Brett Samuels contributed.

When President-elect Trump left office in early 2021, the pandemic was at its height. Now he returns as American children and schools are struggling to overcome its lingering impact.

Learning loss and chronic absenteeism are proving to be stubborn problems, and education experts say Trump is currently more focused on culture war issues than raising test scores. 

“The first question is, do they want to deal with it at all? Do they have any interest at all in using the power of the U.S. Department of Education to actually improve schools? Or are they only interested in pursuing, you know, an expansion of school choice, a weaponization of Title IX and the expansion of culture war nonsense,” said Morgan Scott Polikoff, a professor of education policy as the University of Southern California.  

Despite the fact that schools have been fully open for years now, students have not been able to rebound completely from the closures and remote learning they experienced in 2020 and 2021.

Research from the nonprofit NWEA over the summer showed students going into high school are still a full year behind academically. The data showed that in almost all grades, test score gaps had widened compared to pre-pandemic numbers by an average of 18 percent in math and 36 percent in reading. 

It would take, on average, 4.8 months more of instruction in reading and 4.4 months in math for students to recover their pre-pandemic numbers, NWEA found. 

“Things got a lot worse during COVID, and we bounced back partially, but we haven’t bounced back fully on really any measure, except for high school graduation rates […] But the two main outcomes we would normally look at would be the test scores, and those have bounced back partially, college outcomes and educational attainment, generally speaking, and college enrollments are still down from pre-pandemic levels as well,” said Douglas Harris, a professor in economics at Tulane University and the Schlieder Foundation chair in Public Education. 

“So partial rebounds, partially good news, but definitely not back to where we would have been,” Harris added.  

Trump has not laid out any plans to fix those problems. His education platform instead focuses on conservative priorities including eliminating the federal Department of Education, creating a national school choice program and threatening funding to schools with “woke” policies such as diversity, equity and inclusion measures.  

But experts will be pushing for policies to tackle test scores, chronic absenteeism and mental health.

“The Trump administration put out some thoughts on education earlier this week, and they did touch on some things like project-based learning, which I think — there are some probably nonpartisan issues that I think folks could come to agreement on,” said Polikoff. 

Trump’s transition team did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

After-school programs have shown to be useful with both learning loss and socio-emotional development, with advocates hoping for more funding for such programs. 

“We have a responsibility, those of us in the field, to make sure we are educating the new administration now, because they haven’t necessarily followed what’s happened in the past four years and the impact after-school programs have made,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of Afterschool Alliance. 

One position Trump has made clear is wanting to tackle student behavioral issues since the pandemic and giving teachers more power to discipline their pupils.  

Last year, a poll found 70 percent of teachers thought student behavior was worse than in 2019. One-third said students were misbehaving “a lot more.”

“That’s one thing I think that [the Trump administration is] doing that I think does make sense. They need to rethink school discipline,” Harris said. “Teachers don’t really have as much power to control what’s happening in the classroom anymore.”

While the support of the federal government is important, experts emphasize local, state and congressional commitment is needed. 

“I think where the feds can really play a useful role, I would say, is in supporting states to do good things, right? So, again, supporting states to expand policies and programs that we know or think work to improve student engagement or drive up attendance. You know, encouraging states to actually monitor how schools and kids are doing and to hold them accountable or provide additional supports as needed. Those are the kinds of roles that I think the feds are well positioned to play,” Polikoff said.  

Regardless of what the administration does, Harris thinks learning loss and other issues related to the pandemic will naturally keep recovering.

“You’ve got students aging out to some degree of those problems, because some students graduated, and you’ll have next year’s third graders that […] weren’t even in kindergarten when COVID started, so they won’t be affected by COVID. So, I think there’s going to be a kind of natural bounce-back that has nothing to do with what the federal government does,” Harris said. 

“I think what’s going to happen, ironically, is that they’re going to get credit for gains that have nothing to do with their policies,” he added.  

Former senior Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli said Monday that President-elect Trump “using the military” will help drive migrant numbers at the border “down into the dirt.”

Cuccinelli told NewsNation’s Blake Burman in an interview on “The Hill” that he believes early next year, “you will see our military used between legal ports of entry, especially on the southern border, to finally gain control of that border” adding that “all immigration, all passage of any kind, will pass through legal ports of entry only.”

Burman said Cuccinelli’s words about all immigration and all passage of any kind moving through legal ports of entry “sounds aspirational,” asking him if he actually believes “that can happen.”

In his response, Cuccinelli said Burman was “right” and that “it’ll never be 100 percent, but it doesn’t need to be to drive the numbers coming to the border down into the dirt,” adding that Trump will “do that using the military between the legal ports of entry.”

Trump has previously discussed the military being used on the “enemy from within,” at the border and possibly versus cartels in Mexico. The president-elect’s platform, known as Agenda 47, called for “moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas” to the southern border.

“If you’re sitting in, pick a country in Central or South America, ‘cause they still have the biggest numbers coming into the United States, and you’re asking yourself the question, ‘Am I gonna spend my life savings on some coyote to get me into the United States, when what I see happening at the border is a complete blockage?’” Cuccinelli said on “The Hill.”

“The answer to that is no,” he added.

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.