Before any of the officials said a word in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, the visual alone was striking: The public saw the president standing alongside the nation’s three most powerful federal law enforcement officials — the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the director of the FBI — ostensibly to announce something called “Operation Summer Heat,” which was never really explained in meaningful detail.
There was no pretense that the Justice Department and the FBI are independent of the White House. On the contrary, as Donald Trump seizes control over federal law enforcement and starts calling the shots at the DOJ, The New York Times reported that the White House event became “a diorama of power dynamics.” From the article:
[Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche and Kash Patel] left about an hour later, after President Trump tossed out, offhandedly, three names of people he wanted prosecuted: Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two criminal indictments against him; Andrew Weissmann, a former F.B.I. official who was a lead prosecutor for the team investigating the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in the 2016 election; and Lisa Monaco, the deputy attorney general under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The Oval Office press conference was, by any fair measure, bizarre. The public saw not only the elimination of the lines that separate the White House from prosecutorial priorities, Americans also watched a conspiratorial president throw a series of self-pitying mini-tantrums, while adding fresh names to his growing enemies list.
Trump, at a press conference with the U.S. Attorney General and the Director of the FBI, lists which of his political opponents he thinks the DOJ and FBI should go after:
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2025-10-15T21:50:41.201Z
“What they did was criminal,” the Republican whined, pointing to vague illegalities that only exist in his imagination. “Deranged Jack Smith, in my opinion is a criminal. … I hope they’re going to look into Weissman, too. Weissman is a bad guy. And he had somebody in Lisa who was his puppet, worked in the office really as the top person. And I think that she should be looked at very strongly. There was tremendous criminal activity.”
Again, the context matters: Trump wasn’t just peddling complaints via social media or during an interview on a conservative media outlet; he was endorsing prosecutions against his perceived political foes while standing alongside the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the FBI director.
For good measure, the president soon after added, in reference to Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, “I hope they’re looking at ‘Shifty’ Schiff. I hope they’re looking at all these people,” before also endorsing a federal investigation into his election defeat in Georgia five years ago.
It was about four weeks ago when Trump posted an item to his online platform that directed Bondi to go after three of the president’s perceived political enemies, whom he said were “guilty as hell” of unidentified crimes. The online directive was, for all intents and purposes, a confession in which he freely acknowledged his intent. “Yes, I admit that I’m pressuring my attorney general to prosecute my political foes,” the president effectively declared. “And I’d prefer it if she hurried up and satisfied my hunger for revenge sooner rather than later.” As scandalous as the missive was, it wasn’t an isolated incident. Trump continues to lobby leading federal law enforcement officials — brazenly and publicly, without regard for appearances or traditional American guardrails — driven by an apparent sense of grievance and entitlement. What’s more, the ongoing corruption of the process, unfolding before our eyes, is likely to get worse before it gets better. As the ridiculous Oval Office event neared its end, Trump claimed that he and his team have been, in his estimation, “very, very soft” in pursuit of his political opponents, and he’s prepared to become even more involved in targeting his foes at a time of his choosing. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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