The Hill reports:

Former President Trump’s campaign for the White House has been marked by several vows to go after his critics and perceived “enemies” if he wins in November.

Trump has in many ways ratcheted up that rhetoric as Election Day approaches, prompting figures on both sides of the aisle to sound the alarm about how the former president might use power to target his opponents.

“There’s never been a set of threats like this made by a candidate for president of the United States. Trump didn’t just let it slip out once; he talks about it incessantly. He has a vendetta against people that he believes have crossed him,” said Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Department of Justice.

“He’s talking about it and talking about it all the time. He’s naming specific people who he thinks are the enemy within. … So it’s a challenge that our system has never encountered before,” Bromwich said.

Worries that Trump might follow up on his threats are aggravated by the former president’s stated plans to stock a potential second administration with loyalists who wouldn’t challenge him the way some did in his first term.

He would also enter office in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that largely protects former executives like him from being prosecuted for core presidential actions. [Continue reading…]