Trump critics brace for retribution
Members of Congress and other US public officials targeted for “retribution” by Donald Trump say they are taking extraordinary security precautions for themselves and their families and are now bracing for scenarios as extreme as the possibility of being rounded up and arrested, after Trump returns to the White House.
Two Democratic House members who have been vocal in their criticisms of Trump and his policy agenda told the Guardian they and their colleagues are preparing for “some pretty surreal and dystopic scenarios”. They range from bogus investigations or tax audits of present and former members of the federal government to out-and-out violence inspired by Trump’s rhetoric of revenge.
“I hope none of my Democratic colleagues become American corollaries to Alexander Navalny,” said the congressman Jared Huffman of California, referring to the Russian opposition leader and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin who survived being poisoned before dying in an Arctic prison.
“[My colleagues in the House] are thinking about legal defenses against a weaponized Department of Justice,” Huffman added. “They may have to be ready to be arrested and rounded up. They have to have family plans protecting themselves in ways I don’t even like to talk about publicly …
“I have so many colleagues living under constant violent threats toward them and their families and their staff … These are dark times. We all have our eyes wide open.”
