Donald Trump’s fixation on the “big lie” of the 2020 election is the organizing principle of his political life. After the Jan. 6 insurrection, he campaigned against Republicans who dared to hold him accountable. Since returning to office, he has set out on a revenge tour so obsessive and self-defeating that it is now consuming the very people who carried him back to power.
From the start of his second term, the president has used the levers of government to reward loyalty and punish perceived betrayal. Universities that failed his ideological loyalty tests were threatened with investigations or funding cuts. Media companies were sued and harassed. Law firms that represented his opponents were singled out for retribution.
