Beware What You Wish For

Susan Estrich on Sep 27, 2025

President Donald Trump wants revenge. He has made getting even the centerpiece of his administration, as if vengeance is a popular or attractive response. It isn't.

Over the weekend, Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi on Truth Social why "nothing is being done" about James Comey, California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. What's to be done. Schiff's only offense was his leadership of the Trump impeachment effort; James' offense, if you can call it that, was successfully prosecuting Trump. Since when is that a crime? Since when does a member of Congress deserve the attention of the attorney general for doing his job?

"They did it with me for four years," Trump said Friday, repeating his familiar criticism that the Biden Justice Department was weaponized against him. "They went after me." Frankly, the most troubling criticism I've heard of my friend Merrick Garland is that he was too cautious and waited too long before appointing Jack Smith to independently investigate the president, leaving no window for a trial on the Jan. 6 charges before the election. Garland did everything he could as attorney general to protect the independence of the Justice Department. The Trump Justice Department doesn't even make a pretense of independence. Trump says, "Jump" and the only acceptable answer is, "How high?"

That is precisely what happened in Comey's case. Two career prosecutors, experienced in applying the accepted Justice Department charging guidelines, found insufficient evidence to justify an indictment of Comey. So Trump brought in a new U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, a woman who was his personal lawyer and has zero prosecutorial experience. So much for the judgment of the career prosecutors.

The Justice Department, acting in response to more bullying demands from Trump, has reportedly launched an investigation of George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who has long supported Democratic efforts around the world. He has also contributed generously to Democrats. For this he should be prosecuted? Trump has demanded that Soros be thrown in jail.

Comey was indicted Thursday on one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding in connection with his testimony before a Senate committee in September 2020.

"He's a dirty cop," Trump said of Mr. Comey. "He's always been a dirty cop." The flimsy two-page indictment, signed only by Trump's personal lawyer and not, as usual, also by the prosecutors who gathered the evidence, hardly reads like an indictment of a "dirty cop." What an irony. Ask any Hillary Clinton supporter about James Comey and they'll probably remind you that Comey's handling of Hillary's email server, particularly in the closing days of the campaign, cost her the election. We all thought that Trump should thank him.

Comey is going to be tough to beat. He seemed almost to welcome the opportunity to take the fight to Trump. "We will not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either." He referred to his daughter, who was removed from her own post at the Justice Department last summer: "Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she's right, but I'm not afraid, and I hope you're not either."

The younger Ms. Comey is right. Trump turned the Eastern District of Virginia into the "tool of a tyrant" just as he is doing to the Justice Department. Being a tyrant is clearly what Trump wants and relishes. But whether it will wear well politically remains to be seen. Trump clearly does not believe that living well and outlasting the James Comeys is the best revenge. His taste for pure vengeance is insatiable, and he is willing to dwell in the gutter to get it. Trump was reportedly elated by the charges against Comey and insisted that there would be "others." Beware what you wish for. Whether the public wants to dwell in that gutter with him -- rather than address the people's many legitimate worries -- remains to be seen.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.