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A group calling themselves the Trump Accountability Project has sprung up to answer AOC’s call.
“Remember what they did,” says the band’s sparse website. “We must not allow the following groups of people to benefit from their experience: those who elected him. Those who led his government. Those who funded it.
Rarely a healthy sign in a democracy, the enemy lists have started to frighten some normally unperturbed Trump officials in the White House.
“At first I thought it was ridiculous, but the scary thing is that it is serious,” a White House official said of AOC’s tweet. “It’s terrifying that a sitting member of Congress is calling for something like this. I believe there is life after that in politics for Trump officials, but the idea that a sitting member of Congress wants to purge himself of society and ostracize us should scare the American people away. That should certainly scare the American people more than I do. This type of rhetoric is terrifying as 70 million Americans voted for this president. It could start with Trump officials, but what if they go deeper?
Ahead of the election, when polls suggested an anti-Trump rout, some current and former Trump officials appeared to be positioning themselves for a new era where they would be forced to relinquish their association with the president. A senior White House official has become a bit of an internal joke among Washington reporters for sending out notable private texts that scoured the administration and claimed to be thirsty for a post-election life without Trump.
And some Republicans found it curious that a recent RNC official tweeted his support for Biden on the eve of the election. Was he having trouble finding a new job? Did he move to Silicon Valley or Portland, Oregon?
But the results, at least for now, have changed that conversation, with more Republicans on the Hill and Trump officials now insisting there may be less of the penalty for serving Trump.
Many of Trump’s senior advisers now say they are not worried, and they are flagging the consequences of also controversial administrations as insurance. They argue that if the Bush-era politicians and staff who led the country to war in Iraq survived without being purged of American politics, media and business, then Trump’s advisers cannot neither will.
“The Bush people have faced this,” said one of the president’s closest advisers. “Bush left his post very unpopular, people thought thousands of people had died in an unnecessary war and he was responsible for it. Everyone forgets that now that he’s an artist who doesn’t play partisan politics.
This person pointed to the wealth accumulated by the two main architects of the war since Bush left office. “Don Rumsfeld did very well when he left government,” said close advisor to Trump, who already has an unannounced book deal in hand. “Dick Cheney? I went to his home in Wyoming!
Trump’s close adviser has allowed some staff to have problems in the pockets of U.S. companies or Hollywood, but the adviser is not personally concerned about finding work. “For someone like me, I’m writing a book, I’m going to write a sequel,” Trump’s close advisor said. “I am paid generously to give speeches. I have my business advice. It may not be everyone. But I can’t imagine I’m alone this way. Are people going to say, “Oh shit, Mike Pompeo, you’re not Secretary of State anymore so we can’t talk to you anymore!” Even the youngest members of the staff – people still want people who worked in the White House. You breathed thin air.
Interviews with many current and former Trump officials reveal that while the list talks and permanent cancellation are bubbling up on social media is worrying, few take it seriously. Most Trump officials believe that the president’s better-than-expected election performance, the history of Bush-era “warmongers” (as one Trump official called them) easily re-integrated into polite society and myopia. of the two news media and the strongest voices on the left will all conspire to allow Trump’s most controversial aides to continue working in politics and the private sector.
None of the Trump officials interviewed for this story seriously believed Trump would win in the election, and it was taken for granted that they would all soon be looking for work outside of the administration.
“There were a lot of people in Trump who were afraid of this,” an administration official said. “If there was a massive defeat and we lost the Senate and it lost in a landslide, there would be this purge, by both the Republican and Democratic establishment. A job and maybe even a legal purge against the people who worked for the president. Obviously, they can’t do this now.
He added: “I think there is a sense of relief that because the election was so close and win or lose it was clearly not a repudiation of the president, so I think it gives a lot of comfort. to people. Despite left-wing comparisons of Saturday’s jubilant celebrations in American cities across the country resembling the overthrow of a dictator in a foreign country, this person insisted that Trump’s loss was no different from that of former incumbents who lost.
Most Trump officials saw the lack of massive repudiation as a powerful retort to any Never Trumpers argument that they should be banned from GOP policy or from American business.
“The general opinion is that people are really hopeful about the GOP’s trajectory because it was so close, so even if the president loses, it shows that there are a lot of people like us, or at least who support what we have done. . So I think people feel better about employment opportunities, ”said a senior administration official.
Some people in MAGA-world almost rejoice in what they see as the possibility of avoiding overwhelming loss. “At the end of this, he’s going to get 69 million to 70 million votes, give or take,” a Trump adviser said. “He broadened the Republican electoral base, so I think Trumpism is here to stay.
While this may sound illusory, it is not inconceivable that these Trump aides are right. The left will soon have bigger priorities for Biden White House policy and accountability. And it is true that at the height of the Iraq war, many anti-war liberals swore they would make sure those responsible for this quagmire never worked in politics again.
Not only have most of them prospered, but many of them have become the left’s best allies in their fight against Trumpism.
While Trump officials with good reputations and bipartisan connections are likely to land well in the private sector, other mid-level Trump aides may need to launder their experience by working on one or two other campaigns or finding employment at Capitol Hill.
“The easiest path for some people might be to go work on a campaign or go to work for another official and then you have another line on your resume,” a Senate GOP aide said, adding that his LinkedIn page “lighted up” with Trump aides seeking to discuss potential jobs.
Some Republicans have suggested that even for those on the right who might have been receptive to banning certain people from Trump from politics, the lists themselves might have the opposite effect – making former Trump officials more sympathetic.
“Democrats will face significant backlash for this and, as usual, they have gone way too far,” a former senior administration official said. “To make a list of your political enemies and promise that they will be reimbursed and that people will go after because they worked for a different political party is literally fascism.”
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