Here is something offered as news, but it is not clear to me if it is actually new (since when is it new?). ABC states that
Administration officials have insisted that any such actions are, as Vice President JD Vance said, “driven by law and not by politics.” But they come after President Donald Trump vowed during his presidential campaign that he would seek retribution if reelected.
In light of the clear path of succession, it is important to pay attention to what Vance says. The issue of interest here is “driven by law”, what does that even mean? I believe it means “allowed”, and it does not mean “compelled”. It is clear that Trump does not believe that he is compelled to only do what is demanded by law, unless as is reasonably likely be also means “my word, my morality, defines the law”. Every executive has some degree of discretion. I don’t think we have had a president who has refused to act unless the action is mandated by law (not in my lifetime, at any rate). So it is a standard fact that every president does what he wants, if he thinks he can get away with it (allowed by law). Trump has one theory of what is allowed by law, so did Biden, Obama, and all of the jokers who preceded them. This is not new.
Whether an action is possible by political standards is harder to judge and requires post hoc testing. Trump 1.0 was wrong about what was politically allowed, and he got handed his ass in 2020. Of course, Biden was wrong about politics and his brain state, so he indirectly got handed his ass. In slightly less than a year we will test whether Trump 2.0 is wrong about the politically possible. Right now, the point of interest is that Vance and one may assume therefore Trump have made it clear that politics be damned, we’re gonna get retribution.
This retribution thing is 100% foreseeable in light of his campaign promises. It’s pretty disingenuous to imply anything surprising about this. The majority of voters have approved this message.