It’s one thing when an untrained dude like me says it, it’s quite another when someone with the right letters after their name shouts it from the rooftops, like Scott R. Anderson on Lawfare:
But the president is already pushing up against the legal and practical limits on his control over federal employees. While Trump may be able to remove officials from certain political positions with limited repercussions, there are far more constraints on what he can do to career civil servants. And pushing against those limits is likely to place Trump back in the same difficult position he only recently escaped: with his efforts to solicit political favors from Ukraine back under independent scrutiny. As a result, the president may not have much more leeway with which to continue his campaign of vengeance.
It only makes sense, so if Trump tries to take too much revenge – and it hasn’t been much so far – he could find himself in yet another awkward position. His base won’t care – they’ll just take it as persecution, and in fact if he doesn’t engage in public revenge, his base might start questioning him.
But the independents, who might hang around long enough to find out that the whistleblowers are the real persecution victims, may care. So can Trump restrain himself? Can his handlers restrain him? Time will tell.
