VENGEANCE TOUR

White House Marks Presidents Day With Dark Threat to Trump’s Enemies

The phrase stems from Trump’s second term efforts to exact revenge on political foes.

The White House has marked Presidents’ Day with a dark message highlighting Donald Trump’s grievance-fueled retribution campaign.

As Americans woke up to a federal holiday on Monday officially honoring U.S presidents and George Washington’s birthday, the Trump administration put out a social media post with a far more sinister tone.

The image featured Trump on the cover of Time Magazine, above the words “I was the hunted, and now I’m the hunter” — a phrase he has repeatedly used to describe his second term in office.

“Happy Presidents’ Day, Mr. President,” the post read.

The “hunted/hunter” phrase originates from the president’s efforts to cast his first administration as besieged by critics, media, and political foes—and his second as a time to exact revenge on them.

Trump has drawn that contrast explicitly in multiple interviews and appearances, describing any opposition figures as “bad people” who once pursued him. Now, he boasts about being a “hunter” out for blood.

“My first term was one of the most successful presidencies, but literally I was hunted by these horrible people,” he lamented last month in an interview with AOL.

He also noted in relation to his second term: “This is more pleasurable. There’s no question about it.”

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Trump made it clear shortly after announcing his bid to return to the White House that he would be seeking revenge against anyone who wronged him.

“In 2016, I declared, I am your voice,” he told supporters at a Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023.

“Today I add, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution”.

Since then, he has made good on his pledge, targeting everyone from former FBI director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and his former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Beyond criminal investigations by Trump’s department of justice, the administration’s revenge tour has also included efforts to remove government watchdogs, dismiss federal employees, revoke security clearances and target the press.

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Earlier this month, for instance, the justice department charged former CNN host Don Lemon and eight others for interrupting a church service to protest immigration raids in the state.

“The events before my arrest, and what’s happened since, show that people are finally realizing what this Administration is all about,” Lemon said last week.

“For them, the process is the punishment. Like all of you here in Minnesota, I will not be intimidated, I will not back down, and I will fight these baseless charges.”

The imagery and tone of the White House’s Presidents’ Day post were at odds with the holiday’s traditional emphasis on civic unity and historical commemoration.

The annual holiday traces its roots to the 1880s as a celebration of the nation’s first commander-in-chief, George Washington.

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Over time, it became a catch-all observance commonly called “Presidents’ Day,” informally honoring both Washington and Abraham Lincoln as well as successive presidents.

Social media users reacted to the post with their own memes.

Several included images of Trump with his former party pal, child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Another included Trump’s face superimposed on the body of the main character from the hit film Weekend at Bernie’s. The character is a dead perpetrator of fraud who spends the weekend being propped up as though he were alive.

Others, such as the Department of War, doubled down, putting out a post featuring Trump flanked by Washington and Lincoln.

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Farrah TomazinPolitical Correspondent

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