The list of potentially problematic and hard-to-undo policies that are starting to trickle out of the next Trump administration is vast, but for today let’s focus on one that hits especially close to home for those of who might find Putin’s jail-your-enemies strategy less-than-ideal. 

Donald Trump has never made any bones about his desire for retribution against those who publicly disagree with him. Over and over and over again, he has spoken of his desire to see everyone from Hilary Clinton to Nancy Pelosi to Liz Cheney “locked up.” He repeated this intention over the weekend, on NBC’s Meet the Press.

TRUMP:

Scary stuff. Because soon, he will have the means to do…more or less what he wants. And – in true Trump fashion – he won’t even have to do it himself. Because, see, Trump has tapped former Defense Department official and hard-line MAGA loyalist Kash Patel to be the Director of the FBI. 

Kash Patel, to refresh your memory, is the author of a book called “Government Gangsters” that calls for a “comprehensive housecleaning” of the Justice Department by prosecuting to the, quote “fullest extent of the law” anyone who “in any way abused their authority for political ends.” Trump has said that this book will be used as a “roadmap” for the new administration. 

Patel has made a list – an actual list – of people whom he believes should be jailed, and it includes a lot of people who are guilty only of refusing to bend the knee to Trump. 

It’s entirely possible that Biden will have issued blanket pardons to some of the names on Patel’s list by the time this goes to air – and this is an issue on which Biden very literally cannot win. Because of course, by pardoning these members of Congress what gets through to the general, non-political-junkie public is a reinforcement of the corruption of government, and a belief that they must have done something wrong to receive pardons. 

They did not. These are innocent people in danger of serious political persecution, and Biden absolutely has a responsibility – an imperative, even – to ensure their safety.

Trump has said – out loud, over and over – what he is going to do, and nothing that he has done since the election has brought any of that into question. And now Trump is installing a loyalist who has no compunction against weaponizing the government as a tool of retribution…at the FBI. The question as to whether our intelligence agencies will be able to retain standards of professionalism and apolitical intent is an increasingly fraught one. 

I’m going with no, they won’t. They will become arms of the Trump revenge machine, and with just over a month before unthinkable policy after unthinkable policy starts being put into place, this is Biden’s chance to do whatever he can. 

I hate this, to be clear. This is some crazy-making stuff, the idea that our next president will be someone who tried to overthrow the government and then will try to toss those who spoke out against him in jail, but again: here we are.