Donald Trump during his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. Photo / AFP
President-elect Donald Trump believes he has been wronged by current and former officials, members of the media and more.
Donald Trump has promised at times to use the vast powers of his office to seek revenge against politicians and officials who he contends have wronged him. Over the past several years, he has publicly named a range of those people and specified what he believes should happen to them.
“I am your warrior, I am your justice,” Trump told supporters in 2023. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
Here are some of the officials who have been targets of his ire.
— Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel who oversaw two indictments of Trump, related to election interference and mishandling of classified documents.
“Jack Smith should be considered mentally deranged, and he should be thrown out of the country,” Trump said in October 2024.
— Letitia James, the New York state attorney general who sued Trump over the valuation of his real estate properties, costing him hundreds of millions of dollars.
James “should be prosecuted”, Trump said in November 2023.
— Arthur Engoron, the New York Supreme Court judge who oversaw that case.
Trump said at a campaign rally last January that both Engoron and James “should be arrested and punished accordingly”.
— Alvin Bragg, Manhattan district attorney who led a prosecution against Trump that resulted in a felony conviction.
“Alvin Bragg should be held accountable for the crime of ‘interference in a presidential election’,” Trump said in March 2023.
— Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who indicted Trump in Georgia in an election interference case.
In August 2023, Trump said Willis “should be impeached for many reasons”.
— Liz Cheney, Republican vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Cheney “should be prosecuted for what she has done to our country”, Trump said in a social media post last March, adding: “She should go to Jail along with the rest of the Unselect Committee.”
— The other members of the committee, which included one other Republican, Adam Kinzinger, and seven Democrats.
The whole Jan. 6 committee “should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, TREASON!” Trump wrote in March 2023.
— General Mark Milley, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trump called Milley a “woke train wreck” who committed a treasonous act for calls he made to his Chinese counterpart as Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” Trump said in September 2023.
— Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, who pleaded guilty during Trump’s first term to paying to silence a woman who contended that she had sex with Trump.
“Cohen should be prosecuted for lying and all of the tumult and cost he put the DA’s Office through,” Trump said in March 2023.
— John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, who wrote a critical book about Trump published during the 2020 election.
“Washed up Creepster John Bolton is a lowlife who should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information,” Trump said in 2020.
— James Comey, FBI director whom Trump fired after he investigated ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Trump repeatedly attacked Comey in public during his first term, including calling him a traitor and accusing him of breaking the law. “He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted,” Trump said in 2018.
— Andrew McCabe, deputy FBI director under Comey.
Trump has suggested McCabe committed treason and broke the law. Most recently, on June 18, 2024, he posted an article in which Steve Bannon said, about McCabe, “we’re going to come and get you”.
— Peter Strzok, lead agent who investigated ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump has on multiple occasions accused Strzok of treason, including in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2018.
— 51 former top intelligence officials, including former Obama administration officials John Brennan, James Clapper Jr and Leon Panetta, who signed a letter before the 2020 election claiming that the laptop of Hunter Biden obtained by Republican operatives was potentially Russian disinformation.
“They should be prosecuted for what they did,” Trump said last June.
— The media
“CBS gets a license,” Trump said on October 11, 2024. “And the license is based on honesty. I think they have to take their license away.”
At a November 7, 2022, rally, Trump discussed jailing reporters who refuse to give up their sources: “You tell the reporter, ‘Who is it?’ and the reporter will either tell you or not. And if the reporter doesn’t want to tell you, it’s bye-bye. The reporter goes to jail,” Trump said.
— Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.
“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison,” Trump wrote in his latest coffee table book, Save America, released last September.
Since Trump won, Zuckerberg’s company, Meta, has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, Zuckerberg has met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and he ended Meta’s fact-checking programme, a move widely applauded by Trump’s supporters.
— President Joe Biden and his family.
“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family,” Trump said in June 2023.
— Former President Barack Obama
Trump accused Obama of “treason” in 2020 and reposted an image on August 28, 2024 that called for a military tribunal for Obama.
— Vice President Kamala Harris
Harris should be “impeached and prosecuted” for her handling of the southern border, Trump said at a campaign rally on September 29, 2024.
— Hillary Clinton
“I could have put her in jail,” Trump said at a rally on August 21, 2024. “Wouldn’t it be terrible to put the wife of the president of the United States in jail?”
— Adam Schiff, California senator who, as a House member, led the first impeachment of Trump.
“Schiff is a sleazebag and traitor, and should be prosecuted for the damage he has done to our Country!” Trump said in January 2023.
— Nancy Pelosi, former House speaker who authorised the impeachment inquiry.
Trump said in September 2024 that Pelosi “should be prosecuted” for selling Visa stock before the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company. He also said Pelosi should be prosecuted for security lapses at the Capitol on January 6.
“I think Nancy Pelosi is an enemy from within,” Trump said in October 2024.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Michael S. Schmidt and Matthew Cullen
Photographs by: AFP, Doug Mills, Haiyun Jiang, Sarahbeth Maney and Pete Marovich
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Cambridge graduate and rower is a career intelligence officer.