Potential Trump Cabinet appointees are trying to get into the president-elect’s good graces in disturbing ways.
Mike Davis, a right-wing activist considered a leading candidate for Trump’s attorney general, on Wednesday threatened to (legally) “drag their dead political bodies through the streets” and burn them, referring to enemies of Trump and the right.
The violent threat came after Davis appeared to blame Democrats for the assassination attempts on Trump.
Davis, a former clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch who calls himself “Trump’s viceroy,” is not likely to show any restraint in exercising retribution on behalf of the president. He’s already threatened special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the investigation and prosecution of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election as well as his mishandling of classified documents, to “lawyer up.”
The fact that a legal troll like Davis is considered a front-runner to head the Justice Department reveals how many conservative lawyers Trump burned through during his first term and after his attempts to cling to power following his 2020 election loss. Many of these lawyers either want nothing to do with him now, or are facing disbarment and criminal charges for their efforts to help Trump. The lawyers who have stuck around are more MAGA true believers than top conservative legal minds.
These lawyers will be tasked with tearing down any legal obstacles to Trump’s agenda as well as that of his far-right allies. These include whatever checks on the presidency exist in law, and whatever regulations stand in the way of business leaders tied to conservatism. As Davis’s post demonstrates, they will also help to bring the full force of the DOJ against Trump’s enemies.
Even if Davis isn’t picked to be the next A.G., he will undoubtedly be a part of Trump’s legal army, which will have a big agenda. There’s already talk of a mass pardon of January 6 rioters, and other Trump allies have enemies lists of their own. A plan to purge the federal workforce of those who would oppose him has already been devised, too. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Trump faces few, if any, legal constraints, and we’re about to find out what still stands in his way.
