How Trump moved swiftly to punish perceived foes in his first 100 days

April 22 (Reuters) - Hours after swearing an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution on January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his attorney general to scour the Justice Department and other agencies for evidence of political "weaponization."

The same day, Pentagon staff took down a portrait of Mark Milley, a Trump critic who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been the highest-ranking military officer during Trump's first term. That evening, Trump stripped his former national security adviser, John Bolton - who wrote a memoir critical of Trump - of the protective Secret Service detail he had been given after the Justice Department said Iran had threatened Bolton's life.

In his first 100 days, Trump has wielded the levers of presidential power against a panoply of perceived enemies. These include former intelligence officials who investigated alleged Russian ties to his 2016 election campaign and major law firms as well as former Biden administration members and prosecutors who worked on criminal cases against him while he was out of power.

Trump's actions served notice that his campaign promise of political retribution was anything but rhetorical, after he repeatedly telegraphed his intentions as a candidate. But the speed and sweep of his actions have caught many by surprise, with even the smallest slights drawing reprisals.

The Republican president has used the machinery of the state and the power of the presidency to go after people and institutions that have aggrieved him in more expansive ways than any of his predecessors, historians said.

"It's not unusual for presidents to have enemies," said Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin. "What is unusual is for the president to use the entirety of the federal government, not simply to exclude someone, but to directly punish them."

Trump has made particular use of executive orders - typically used by presidents to direct policy priorities - to target perceived foes by stripping them of security clearances, blocking them from government buildings or directing agencies to probe them for wrongdoing.

He has launched multiple federal probes into Maine after a verbal spat with the state's governor, reached deep into the traditionally independent Justice Department to fire those he views as disloyal, pul...
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