Trump’s Lust for Revenge Spreads Through the GOP

By David Corn  April 26, 2022

Senate candidate J.D. Vance greets Donald Trump at a rally in Delaware, Ohio, on April 23, 2022. Joe Maiorana/AP

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but we truly need to worry about Donald Trump regaining the presidency and destroying American democracy. And a first step could be Republicans winning control of Congress in the coming midterm elections.

Of course, you’ve heard this before...if you’ve been reading this newsletter. But I was reminded the other day of why we should be profoundly concerned, and it’s a reason I’ve highlighted in the past: revenge. In a column for The Bulwark headlined “Bonfires of Vengeance,” Charlie Sykes, the site’s editor-in-chief and a once-conservative-radio-host who became a Never Trumper, covered some of the ground I’ve been shouting about for the past six years. Namely, there are three things that motivate Trump: revenge, revenge, and revenge. But Sykes pointed out a passage from a recent Vanity Fair article that ought to scare you out of your knickers. The piece by James Pogue focused on a weird slice of the right associated with the weird tech billionaire Peter Thiel—a nationalist, authoritarian-leaning strain—and noted Thiel’s $10 million donation to boost the campaign of J.D. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author who is a Trump-endorsed candidate in Ohio’s GOP Senate primary.

Pogue highlighted Vance’s appearance on the podcast of Jack Murphy, the head of the Liminal Order, a private “men’s organization” that decries “cancel mobs” and  “corporate media” and hyperbolically claims that all societal institutions “are overrun with Marxists, tyrants, and enemies of the common man.” (Its site assails wokeness and anti-racism and exclaims, “Your Enemies Want You Dead.”) From Pogue’s piece:

“I tend to think that we should seize the institutions of the left,” [Vance] said. “And turn them against the left. We need like a de-Baathification program, a de-woke-ification program.”

“I think Trump is going to run again in 2024,” he said. “I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people.”

“And when the courts stop you,” he went on, “stand before the country, and say—” he quoted Andrew Jackson, giving a challenge to the entire constitutional order—“the chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.”

This is a description, essentially, of a coup.

Pogue is correct. A real coup, not a half-assed attempt at overturning an election. There are more than 2 million people in the federal civil service. To remove them—which would be illegal—a government would have to use force. This means troops or paramilitary units storming into, say, the EPA and violently hauling people out. Vance indicated he realizes this. Later in the podcast, he remarked, “We are in a late republican period. If we’re going to push back against it, we’re going to have to get pretty wild, and pretty far out there, and go in directions that a lot of conservatives right now are uncomfortable with.” As if the right needs a Caesar to take over and restore order. Jack Murphy got it. He replied, “Indeed. Among some of my circle, the phrase ‘extra-constitutional’ has come up quite a bit.” Extra-constitutional? An illegal seizure of power? Are these guys yearning for an authoritarian takeover of the United States to own the libs?

A credible, Trump-backed Republican candidate for the US Senate who is underwritten by a billionaire was talking about an all-out Stalinistic purge against the left and “woke” institutions. Now that’s vengeance. Wouldn’t Vance have to swear to defend the Constitution if he’s elected senator? A minor technicality, it seems.

As I’ve previously warned, Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and Palantir Technologies, a controversial software firm that specializes in big data analytics and receives much of its revenue from government contracts, is a dangerous man who seems enthralled with nationalism and perhaps even authoritarianism. He’s also put up $10 million to help Blake Masters, the chief operating officer at Thiel Capital and the president of the Thiel Foundation, grab the Republican Senate nomination in Arizona. Masters is a proponent of Trump’s Big Lie and has said that Thiel has been “instrumental in forming my political outlook and beliefs.” That’s worrisome, given that Thiel’s biographer, Max Chafkin, who wrote The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power, has described Thiel’s political and economic philosophy as “bordering on fascism.”

Sykes smartly points out that Trump’s obsession with revenge is now animating the entire conservative movement. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his rubber-stampers in the state legislature punish Disney for daring to object to their “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and the right has an orgasmic reaction. Richard Lowry, Ben Shapiro, The Federalist all go goo-goo for the Gov. Whatever happened to the right-wing’s aversion to Big Government and its purported affinity for the free market? No, vengeance is more important. If a corporation criticizes a Republican policy, screw them! (This measure likely violated Disney’s civil rights, and remember it’s been conservatives who have advocated that corporations possess rights like people.) As Sykes notes, “Much of the right-wing media has enthusiastically rallied around DeSantis as the tougher, more competent version of Trump...For American conservatives, if that means abandoning fusty principles like free markets, free speech, and limited government, then so be it. Revenge, apparently, will be so much sweeter.”

This is the great fear. Trump is not that competent, despite his success in winning the White House. Imagine a GOP president and congressional leaders as committed to retribution as Trump but who are more skilled and better able to get things done. DeSantis, Vance, Masters—these are not narcissistic and erratic pikers with limited attention spans. They could show Trump a thing or two about implementing revenge. And a Republican orgy of vengeance could begin in less than a year if Trump’s party takes either house of Congress. In that case, you can expect scores of investigations targeting the GOP’s real or perceived enemies. What do you think Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has planned? Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden ought to make sure they have plenty of traveler’s checks. Ditto for anyone whom the Republicans believe was associated with the so-called Deep State during the Obama years. Expect QAnonish probes of purported pedophilia. The technical term for all this: a real shit storm. It will be merely a prelude to what might occur should Trump, DeSantis, or another Republican reach the White House two years later.

The problem is not just Trump. Vance has signaled he fancies an autocratic assault on the US government. Republicans and conservative “thinkers” are cheering DeSantis’ use of government power to silence a corporate critic. And regarding Trump, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele put it rather plainly:

[I]f Donald Trump wins reelection, his four years would be consumed with revenge. His four years would be consumed with validating his lie. His four years would be consumed with retribution against those who, in his view, wronged him, and [he] would then corrupt…the various institutions that would be required to execute his revenge.”

That’s what I’ve been saying, and I don’t believe this message has reached enough people. Trump has stated many times that his number-one rule is to screw people who screw him—but more so. Believe it. And now that principle is propelling the entire Trump cult. The Trumpists are open about their intentions: they are engaged in a holy crusade to smite their enemies. Heathens take note before it’s too late.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.

The Watch, Read, and Listen List

The Batman. Batman is supposed to brood. He’s a vigilante who every day deals with the scum of the world, while grappling with the trauma of the past and a split identity divided between a rich society swell and a gritty crime-fighter. And he doesn’t get enough sleep. You’d brood, too. But in The Batman, the latest reboot of the 73-year-old franchise, Robert Pattinson (of Twilight  fame), who plays the Caped Crusader, is a super-brooder. With a long lock of his auburnish hair constantly dangling in front of his emo-handsome face, Pattison sulks through the nearly three-hour long film, a tormented prisoner of his decision two years prior to become the avenging angel of Gotham City, where, according to director Matt Reeves, a gloomy rain falls 24/7. Yes, Batman is dark. He’s a superhero without a superpower. After the murder of his parents, he willed himself into an ubermensch and separated himself from mere humans. He's stronger and smarter—and, oh, all those devices! Alienation comes with the territory. But in previous iterations, it was intriguing to watch Batman’s relationship with the rest of the world, including his alter ego Bruce Wayne. In this outing, Batman/Bruce is more of a loner than usual. There’s not even much meat to his relationship with loyal manservant Alfred (Andy Serkis). It seems that if he weren’t out in the dank streets of GC battling miscreants, he’d be sitting alone in his room listening to The Cure.

The movie is mostly a crime procedural, as Batman—or, as he’s called in this flick, The Batman—teams up with Detective James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) to track down a serial killer who will come to be known as the Riddler. This mysterious villain is bumping off the powerbrokers of Gotham, starting with the mayor, for what appears to be a highly personal reason. And Batman must slog through a series of riddles to sort it all out. Along the way, he’s assisted by Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz). The love child of the city’s Numero Uno mob boss (John Turturro), she is a party girl who can fight like a UFC champ, who loves cats, and who looks fab in a skin-tight black leather outfit. No one is yet calling her Catwoman, but you know it’s coming.

Reeves choreographs a fun ride, though I could’ve used more Batmobile. The stakes are high. Gotham is corrupt to the core, and the Riddler has resolved to clean it up by both exposing the sleaze and destroying the whole damn place. (No surprise, his backstory intersects with Wayne family history.) It’s a pity not more is seen of Paul Dano, who plays this new-to-the-scene criminal mastermind. He’s a wonderful actor. You might recall him as Dwayne, the son in the dysfunctional family of Little Miss Sunshine, and he was superb as Beach Boy Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy. In The Batman, Dano is wrapped in a ratty DIY costume and wears goggles for the first two-thirds of the film. He could be CGIed for all of that. But the movie is supercharged when the unmasked Riddler interacts with (The) Batman. There’s the obligatory encounter in which the anti-hero does the you-and-I-are-the-same bit and tries to persuade Batman. It never works. But Dano’s performance leaves a viewer wanting more. And I’m eager to see what happens to Batman after he grows out of this phase and stops moping.

Los Saicos. Who invented punk rock? There’s no person or group who can claim full credit. But I thought I knew the general answer: The Velvet Underground, the MC5, the Stooges, the Dictators, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones all played a part, with a host of 1960s garage rock bands providing inspiration. (Think “Louie, Louie” by the Kingsmen.) And you can toss in the bad-boy attitude of the early Rolling Stones and the Who. (Smashing guitars on stage was pretty punk.) It seems straightforward. But recently my pal Larry Nittler (the drummer in my basement band and a leading  cosmochemistry expert) told me he had attended a tribute concert to a band called Los Saicos that has been hailed by musicologists as the true architects of punk. And the hailers may be right.

I’d never heard of this group that formed in Lima, Peru, in 1964 and lasted about two years. Los Saicos—it’s pronounced “psychos”—combined fast tempos with aggressive (sometimes shouted) vocals, and their tunes had a touch of a surf-rock sound. The group produced six 45s (12 songs) and became a Peruvian phenomenon. It may have been the first South American band to only record its own material. One hit, “Demolición”, was an anarchistic anthem about destroying a railway station. (“Let’s tear down the train station.”)

That’s about as punk as it gets. In 2013, Vice produced a 13-minute-long documentary on Los Saicos.

In the film, founding member Erwin Flores says, “Punk rock music is a piece of shit. It’s music made by musicians who have no idea what they’re doing.” Which is exactly what a punk rocker would say. After the band broke up, Flores moved to Washington, DC, received a degree in physics, and worked for NASA. He also sang salsa for a local cover band. He went on to become an executive at a pharmaceutical firm. Flores eschews the punk label for Los Saicos: “Never in my life would it have occurred to me to call our music punk. We were proto-punk, not exactly punk. But how Lucy was predecessor to the human race we were predecessors to punk.” That’s still quite a legacy. Perhaps the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame should honor it.

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Got suggestions, comments, complaints, tips related to any of the above, or anything else? Email me at ourland@motherjones.com.