A lot of Americans have toyed with the idea of leaving the country if Trump won the election, but shit is getting real with the targets of the president-elect's vow of retribution. After all, Trump, a malignant narcissist, didn't hide his lust for revenge.
The Washington Post reports:
A retired U.S. Army officer who clashed with senior officials in Donald Trump’s first White House looked into acquiring Italian citizenship in the run-up to this month’s election but wasn’t eligible and instead packed a “go bag” with cash and a list of emergency numbers in case he needs to flee.
A member of Trump's first administration who publicly denounced him is applying for foreign citizenship and weighing whether to watch and wait or leave the country before the Jan. 20 inauguration.
And a former U.S. official who signed a notorious October 2020 letter suggesting that emails purportedly taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden could be Russian disinformation is seeking a passport from a European country, uncertain about whether the getaway will prove necessary but concluding, "You don't want to have to scramble."
All spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid undermining their own preparations. The planning, they acknowledge, responds to a hypothetical worst case in which a second Trump presidency ushers in systematic suppression of free speech and criminalization of dissent. Trump's victory alone has set off alarms among some of his most outspoken critics, as well as within parts of the intelligence and national security communities he denigrated as the "deep state" and accused of subverting his agenda.
Their anxiety has intensified amid the drumbeat of picks for critical Cabinet posts. Trump said Wednesday he would make Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Republican firebrand from Florida, his attorney general and Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and fervent critic of the foreign policy establishment who told world leaders to "embrace the spirit of aloha" after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, his director of national intelligence, a role overseeing the nation's 18 spy agencies.
"I feel like I've stepped through the looking glass," said the retired Army officer who considered Italian citizenship.
The orange dickwad ran a campaign on revenge, and as John Amato wrote, "Trump continues to fill his cabinet with unqualified asshole loyalists," including Matt Gaetz, who wants to kneecap the imaginary deep state. He will once again be an unserious president, but this time, we'll get whiplash from his authoritarianism. If you thought he was dangerous before, buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
