The dynamics of retribution: How Trump plans to use Kash Patel to stage a political comeback.
In an August 2024 campaign rally Trump made a speech that was rife with threats, especially when the menacing tone of his action verbs is considered:
With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the war mongers… We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists. We will throw off the political class that hates our country … We will rout the fake news media. We will expose and appropriately deal with the RINO’s [Republicans In Name Only]… And we will liberate America from these villains and scoundrels once and for all (my emphasis).
Seeking to make Trump seem less dangerous than he continues to reveal himself to be, his supporters claimed that he was just spouting hyperbole. But that wasn’t hyperbole. During his 2024 campaign, Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, which included political opponents and private citizens, whom he called “the enemy within.” His supporters countered that by “enemies” he only meant immigrants. But this was a lie, of course: Trump specifically identified as a target no less than Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, former chair of the House Intelligence Committee that had recommended Trump’s impeachment for multiple betrayals of his oath of office. Moreover, in a previous speech, draft dodger Trump, posturing as the political tough guy he wants to be seen as, had already vowed to exact vengeance on those who opposed his MAGA movement for its dishonesty and extremism. “I am your warrior, I am your justice,” he told his followers. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.”
In a televised interview the psychologist and talk show host, Dr. Phil McGraw, tried to temper Trump’s vitriol by suggesting that Trump should use all his presidential time constructively by serving the nation’s good, rather than wasting his time on revenge. But Trump was unmoved. “Well,” he responded, “revenge does take time … but sometimes revenge can be justified.”
Trump and his christo-fascist MAGA cult make much of his supposedly deep Christian faith. One of the hallmarks of Christian teaching is the admonition to resist the urge to exact vengeance. “Do not take revenge,” admonished the Apostle Paul, “… for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19; cf. Deuteronomy 32:35). But Trump acts as if this basic biblical admonition is for suckers. He proudly and unabashedly embraces revenge as a core principle, boasting, “I love getting even.” To one audience he advised that when they are mistreated, “You need to screw them back fifteen times harder … go for the jugular, attack them in spades!” In his 2007 book, Think Big, he devotes sixteen pages to the glories of revenge. “My motto,” he writes, “’Always get even.’”
As a primary instrument of his revenge and retribution, Trump has chosen MAGA loyalist, Kash Patel. Presidential historian Steven Beschloss describes Patel as “a particularly determined, aggrieved and unprincipled henchman who is champing at the bit to execute retribution on behalf of Trump.” Patel expressed his malign intentions in a podcast last year with his fellow christo-nationalist extremist and Trump loyalist, Steve Bannon. Note
in the quotation below from that podcast that Patel isn’t declaring war on criminals and street crime. Rather, he is talking about opponents who have dared to oppose the election lies of Donald Trump:
We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly—we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice…
So obsessively devoted to Trump is Patel that he even took the time to pen and publish a three(!)-volume children’s book to inculcate America’s youth in Trump’s widely discredited claims. (The book, The Plot Against the King, features a villain named Hillary Queenton, a wizard named Kash (of course), and a hero King –- yes, a King — named Donald). Trump shamelessly admits that it is Patel’s extremism that makes him useful. “A lot of people say he’s crazy,” Trump says of Patel. “But sometimes you need a little crazy.”
Predictably, Trump’s supporters have mounted a campaign to ensure Patel’s confirmation. They cite what they praise as his capable handling of various roles in the first Trump administration, calling him “one of the most experienced people ever to be nominated” to lead the FBI.
But it is not Patel’s capability that is the point of such excruciating concern by clear-eyed Republicans and Democrats alike. It is his character that is so alarming, his history of hateful, extremist rhetoric, his apparent lack of moral constraints and boundaries when it comes to serving even Trump’s most lawless whims. As one observer put it, he is “the man who will do anything for Donald Trump.” As for his capability to carry out Trump’s wishes, that is what makes him even more dangerous. For America has seen that Trump himself has no moral compunction against lawlessness and moral degeneracy. That is why he is so adamant that Kash Patel should head the FBI: because he is essential to Trump’s plan to totally dominate the government with his messianic, dictatorial, fascistic ideations. With Patel at the head of the FBI, Trump will be able to utilize its full force against anyone who stands in the way of his extreme authoritarian goals.
It cannot be emphasized enough that Donald Trump is dangerously malevolent. The spirit of revenge and retribution that he embraces with such relish, clearly is so deeply ingrained in his character that there is no doubt he will follow through on his threats, perhaps even to such a degree that the repression under past FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s horrific “Cointelpro” program, which he waged against the civil cights and anti-war movements from 1956 to 1971 with often deadly results for both, could well look tame in comparison. But because Hoover was at least officially answerable to the presidents he served, he did have limits on his power, albeit relatively few, as we now know. But in the malign partnership of Trump and Patel, both president and FBI head will be operating out of the same repressive, vindictive mind – Trump’s. As the FBI’s director, there is no question that Kash Patel will be Trump’s unchained attack dog, his unsheathed sword of retribution, virtually free to strike anyone with the misfortune to earn Trump’s hair-trigger ire.
https://oberymhendricksjr.substack.com/p/the-sword-of-trumps-vengeance
#TrumpVengeance #KashPatel #PoliticalStrategy
