What Will Happen If Trump Wins the 2024 Election?

And why it matters in 2024.

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In 10 cases during his presidency, a demand from Donald Trump that someone be investigated was followed by their facing major federal pressure.

Good evening! As former President Donald Trump threatens to prosecute his political rivals, my colleague Michael Schmidt, an investigative reporter, has an important look at how Trump deployed his power against his perceived enemies during his presidency. And we’re looking at the G.O.P.’s big bet on anti-trans ads. — Jess Bidgood

By Michael S. Schmidt

Former President Donald Trump has threatened a campaign of retribution if he returns to the White House, signaling that he will seek to prosecute rivals and enemies while stocking a second administration with loyalists who will carry out his wishes.

To underline the point, he has posted pictures on social media of political rivals like Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wearing orange jumpsuits.

Legal experts are deeply worried that he will follow through on these promises, as my colleagues at The New York Times Magazine have reported. His allies say that it’s all bluster and that he won’t try to carry out campaign-season threats if he were to gain control of the Justice Department and other government agencies.

The truth is, though, as president he demanded investigations of his enemies and often got them.

I’m an investigative reporter, and I spent the past several months trying to understand what a future Trump administration may hold by looking to the last one. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain what I learned — and how Trump’s open pledges to use the machinery of the federal government against his enemies make him an outlier among leaders around the globe.

A demand for investigation, and then federal pressure

I have been reporting on Trump’s attempts to weaponize the government since his first year in office. I knew that, while president, Trump had publicly and privately pressured the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to go after his rivals, because I had covered it.

But what I had failed to appreciate, in the blizzard of news, was that he had been far more successful than I thought in having the government’s most powerful arms directed at his enemies.

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