Feeling liberated after the corrupt and cynical Dear Leader-before-Country Senate Republicans voted to let him off in the Senate impeachment trial, vengeful autocrat Donald "Impeached Forever" Trump is sending the message that exposing his crimes and misdeeds will have consequences.
There was the immediate action of firing people that have told the truth about his illegal actions, like former Trump contributor and Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alex Vindman and his brother Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman. Earlier, Ambassadors Marie Yovanovich and William Taylor were hustled from their posts. Now, he's sought to punish those that exposed or prosecuted the crimes he and his henchmen were guilty of. The four prosecutors who resigned in protest over Trump's interference in his henchman Roger Stone's sentencing have already been labeled by Trump as "rogue prosecutors" for daring to seek justice against his criminal associate. Their careers are in peril as a result, and the raging would-be dictator isn't done:
"More axes are sure to fall. A senior Pentagon official appears in danger of losing her nomination to a top Defense Department post after questioning the president’s suspension of aid to Ukraine [ed., namely Elaine McCusker]. Likewise, a prosecutor involved in Mr. Stone’s case has lost a nomination to a senior Treasury Department position [ed., namely Jessie Liu]. A key National Security Council official is said by colleagues to face dismissal. And the last of dozens of career officials being transferred out of the White House may be gone by the end of the week.
The war between Mr. Trump and what he calls the 'deep state' has entered a new, more volatile phase as the president seeks to assert greater control over a government that he is convinced is not sufficiently loyal to him. With no need to worry about Congress now that he has been acquitted of two articles of impeachment, the president has shown a renewed willingness to act even if it prompts fresh complaints about violating traditional norms." (our emphasis)Trump's paranoia and consciousness of guilt has led him to purge those whom he feels have betrayed him by enforcing or following the law that he feels he is above. It's also his way of stifling whistleblowers and dissenters by sending them the message that "I'm going to come after you if you speak up," not unlike the vow of omertà that members of the Cosa Nostra must swear.
BONUS: Now, Trump's going after the Stone trial judge, who has the final say in sentencing Stone. He must sense she's not going to be intimidated by Trump and his thugs.
