Cheriss May/NurPhoto via ZUMA
One of the impressive things about Donald Trump is his creativity in taking revenge on people. I mean, who else would have gotten the idea of using the presidential pardon power this way? And yet, it’s right there in the Constitution. He could write “Donald Trump Jr. is pardoned for everything” on a White House napkin and that’s all it takes.
Likewise, the president does have the power to remove someone’s security clearance, but I don’t think that even Richard Nixon ever came up with the idea of using it to get back at any of his enemies. But Trump has. It might not be the biggest deal in the world, but it’s a telling little humiliation for someone who’s accustomed to knowing all the little behind-the-scenes secrets.
Or, on the world scene, has any president refused to sign a pro forma communique with allies just because one of them said something he found slightly vexing?
Then again, what goes around comes around. Has any presidential aide ever roamed the White House routinely recording conversations in hopes of being able to use them for some kind of petty revenge against the president? Not that I know of.
It’s quite the telenovela we have going on here. But how will it do during sweeps week this November?
