As Donald J. Trump returns to office, the critics, prosecutors and perceived enemies who sought to hold him accountable and banish him from American political life are now facing, with considerable trepidation, a president who is assuming power having vowed to exact vengeance.
Mr. Trump has promised to investigate and punish adversaries, especially those involved in his four prosecutions and the congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Those threats, along with his stated intention to grant clemency to at least some of those who carried out the Jan. 6 assault, have many in Washington and elsewhere on edge, fearing not just government action against them but that the telegraphing of his wishes has created an environment of unpredictable, free-range retribution by his supporters.
Michael Fanone, a former police officer who was among those attacked by the pro-Trump crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump. He said he feared that the violence and threats that have already been directed at him and his family — including his mother — will only get worse after Mr. Trump returns to office.
“I’m most concerned about the potential for violence and acts of violence that will continue not just against me but members of my family,” he said. “My concern is that people are going to believe that if they attack me or members of my family physically that Donald Trump will absolve them of their acts, and who is to say he wouldn’t.”
Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer, at the Capitol in 2023. He was assaulted in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
