Trump's Revenge Tour Combines Malevolence and Incompetence: Dangerous Even When It Fails
Source: Ian Prasad Philbrick. "Donald Trump is on a revenge tour. Cassidy Hutchinson and Lisa Cook are his latest targets.." October 9, 2026. slate.com
The Gist
The author argues that Trump is using the government to go after people who crossed him, like Cassidy Hutchinson and Lisa Cook, but he's often bad at it and keeps getting blocked by courts, grand juries, and reluctant prosecutors. Even so, the author warns that the attempts still hurt people and scare others into staying quiet, and may get worse later in his term.
Conclusion
Trump's efforts to use federal power against political enemies, including the new actions against Cassidy Hutchinson and Lisa Cook, are driven by malevolent intent but are frequently thwarted by incompetence and legal constraints. Even so, they are not benign and remain dangerous.
Premises
- Trump's efforts to punish political enemies show both malevolence and incompetence, a pattern Benjamin Wittes described as 'malevolence tempered by incompetence'.
- The Justice Department is reportedly trying to get a grand jury to indict Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified against Trump about January 6, and no public basis for any alleged lie has been identified. This looks like an attempt to intimidate a former subordinate and rewrite history.
- Many of Trump's earlier attempts to prosecute enemies have failed: grand juries have refused to indict, the cases against Letitia James and James Comey collapsed under judicial scrutiny, and career prosecutors are leaving the DOJ rather than join political investigations.
- Trump's attempt to remove Fed governor Lisa Cook has already been temporarily blocked by the Supreme Court, and his new Trump-appointee-stocked committee is a repackaged effort to reach the same result by other means.
- The revenge tour keeps failing largely because it is built on Trump's delusions, which collide with legal and factual reality.
- Failure does not make the campaign harmless: being investigated imposes stress and legal costs, and watching Trump nearly succeed or merely persist can deter others from opposing him.
- Trump is now surrounded by true believers rather than reluctant aides, and the late stage of his term, especially if Democrats win Congress, may make him more inclined to lash out.
Assumptions
- The reported DOJ efforts against Hutchinson and others are politically motivated retaliation rather than legitimate law enforcement.
- Trump's January 6 conduct amounted to a 'coup attempt' and his fraud claims are delusional.
- Grand jury refusals and judicial dismissals are reliable indicators that the underlying cases were weak or pretextual.
- Institutional checks (courts, grand juries, career staff) will continue to constrain Trump, though not perfectly.
- The process itself (investigation, legal fees, chilling effects) is a meaningful harm independent of outcomes.
- Past patterns (first-term dynamics) predict future behavior in his second term.