What happens when Trump is finished going after his high-profile enemies like John Bolton? What about everyone else, like us?
Republished with permission from Lucian K. Truscott IV
Trump’s retribution campaign has clearly begun. Even though Trump denied knowledge of the search of Bolton’s house and office—I will allow you to judge the truth or falsity of that claim—Vice President Vance gave the game away with his use of the word “we” in describing the investigation of Bolton. “If we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come,” Vance told Kristen Welker.
This is what the military refers to as “command influence,” when a unit commander uses his rank and power to prosecute an underling, not for violating a regulation or a law, but because he or she doesn’t like the person charges are brought against. The power of a commander in the military over his or her unit is so absolute, command influence of criminal proceedings is forbidden. Lower ranking officers or non-commissioned officers are likely to think that if they sit on a court martial and fail to convict someone in disfavor with the commander, it will affect their careers.
With Trump, his “command influence” over his MAGA followers is almost as absolute. That’s why Trump is out there calling Bolton a “low life” and why Vance is telling a reporter with a national audience what “we” think about Bolton, and why “we” are investigating him. The signal is clear. Bolton is a bad guy. The FBI wasn’t even finished going through Bolton’s home and office when Trump gave his interview at the museum. Vance didn’t need to know what the FBI had found, or not found, to let Welker know that prosecution of Bolton was the aim of the Trump administration. It doesn’t matter what the FBI finds. We’ll get him.
The influence being exercised by Trump and Vance is vertical—from the White House to the Department of Justice, to the FBI. Get the search warrant, find something to charge Bolton with, and get on with it. The influence of the Trump political machine keeps right on going. If a Trump judge gets the case, he or she will know what to do. If the judge isn’t one Trump appointed, the judge will know that attacks will come; he or she will be doxed, attacked on Truth Social by Trump, slammed on podcasts by Trump’s political puppets.
Not to mention the influence Trump exercises over potential MAGA jurors. If Trump and Vance say Bolton’s a bad guy, that will be enough. It hardly matters what the charges are or what the evidence is. To the MAGA faithful, Bolton is guilty of something, or the president wouldn’t be unhappy with him.
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Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives in rural Pennsylvania and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better.
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