Trump retribution begins: firings, targeted executive orders, and lawsuits

President Donald Trump started his promised retribution soon after his inauguration. He signed targeted executive orders and started investigations and terminations.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order removing the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a dissenting letter during the 2020 Hunter Biden investigation.

According to CNN, his new Department of Justice directive reassessed over 20 career officials, sidelining them from reaching senior positions.

President Trump also terminated the security detail assigned to his former national security adviser, John Bolton. Mr. Bolton required protection because he received Iranian threats.

President Trump’s ire toward Mr. Bolton is related to frequent clashes during his administration and to a book the former intelligence chief published last year detailing conversations with him.

Still, even before his inauguration, Mr. Trump offered some early indications of what his retribution plans could entail by targeting Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and former House Rep. Liz Cheney.

Ann Selzer made a notably wrong prediction near the November elections when she calculated that Kamala Harris would win the state by 3 points.

Donald Trump won the state by over 13 points. According to the New York Times, the mistake is not a first but certainly uncommon in the clean career of the Iowa pollster.

The consequences, however, are unprecedented. Mr. Trump's lawyers filed a lawsuit accusing her of attempting to "interfere" with the election and "create a false narrative."

Former House Rep. Liz Cheney was the target of a House subcommittee report. The document recommended a Federal investigation against her for her work in the committee that investigated the January 6 assault on Congress.

The subcommittee accused Ms. Cheney of tampering with a witness and delineated a distinct roadmap for prosecutors to start a Federal investigation against her.

The document was not conclusive, but it laid out the intentions against Ms. Cheney. Former President Biden issued an extraordinary preemptive pardon for her and the other member of the Jan. 6 committee.

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