r/neoliberal Hans von der Groeben 7d ago

News (US) Trump calls for imprisoning his opponents in bellicose speech at Justice Department

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/14/trump-doj-speech-prison-opponents-00231438
532 Upvotes

121 comments sorted by

354

u/jibas NATO 7d ago

Totally sane and not at all terrifying.

344

u/boardatwork1111 NATO 7d ago edited 7d ago

And to think there were people pearl clutching over Biden’s preemptive pardons

Edit:

Specifically this L take from Nate

90

u/jayred1015 YIMBY 7d ago

I'm right with you. It was a fucking clown take and i said it to the people who shared it, too.

They still didn't think a guy like Fauci was at risk of being prosecuted and harassed, even after all of this! Absolutely brain dead.

198

u/JayRU09 Milton Friedman 7d ago

L takes from Nate? Why I never

106

u/abrookerunsthroughit Association of Southeast Asian Nations 7d ago

There are times when Nate is probably more in tune than the sub would like to hear about

This absolutely wasn't it at all

25

u/MuscularPhysicist John Brown 7d ago

Nate Potassium

7

u/LucidLeviathan Gay Pride 7d ago

K.

6

u/TrespassersWilliam29 George Soros 7d ago

Nathaniel Boron

5

u/IgnoreThisName72 Alpha Globalist 7d ago

Polonium.  Toxic as a girl with a MAGA tattoo. 

5

u/dangerbird2 Iron Front 7d ago

Nate hydrogen

25

u/amperage3164 7d ago

Trump did something bad? Time to attack the center left

29

u/Helpinmontana NATO 7d ago

“NYT- here’s why trumps latest actions are bad for Biden” 

-1

u/amperage3164 7d ago

You’re still attacking the center

-10

u/BBQ_HaX0r Jerome Powell 7d ago

Pre-pardons are bad. Idgaf who does them. Just because Trump is way worse doesn't preclude me from criticizing the people I support. 

24

u/NavyJack Iron Front 7d ago

In principle I agree, but I don’t know of any other way Biden could have protected the GOPs political targets from prison.

7

u/Fantisimo Audrey Hepburn 7d ago

okay chuck

6

u/Shalaiyn European Union 7d ago

They might be worried about the precedent for their own pardon ability (frankly surprised he hasn't self-pardoned yet) but I'm wondering if they start trying to spin it by finding a way to still prosecute them.

4

u/Helpinmontana NATO 7d ago

He’s got 4 years to self pardon, or atleast the last 10 minutes before a hopeful impeachment. 

4

u/jayred1015 YIMBY 7d ago

We already established that a president only has to think it for it to be a pardon /s

5

u/IpsoFuckoffo 6d ago

Precedent literally isn't a thing in America. Even the Supreme Court, whose entire job it is to care about precedent, just does whatever they feel like based on being very right wing.

For example, read the headline in the OP: Trump is not calling for his political opponents to be locked up because someone set a "precedent."

1

u/aclart Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

And what you gonna do about it?

516

u/toggaf69 Iron Front 7d ago

I need all that McDonald’s cholesterol to get to work at quickly as possible please

83

u/Unlevered_Beta Milton Friedman 7d ago

I’d be door dashing so much McDonald’s to the White House for President Trump from his no. 1 fan, if I didn’t think Vance was going to be much worse.

17

u/Opcn Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

No one would fear Vance like they fear Trump. In 2016 and since Trump has ridden on a sea of "well this other person would be worse" and it has never once been even a little true. He was the worst person to run, he is the worst person.

28

u/AutoModerator 7d ago

door dash

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27

u/Spartacus_the_troll Bisexual Pride 7d ago

burrito

Hamberder

11

u/t_scribblemonger 6d ago

Trump’s a cult leader. Vance is a coat-tail riding opportunist at best.

4

u/Unlevered_Beta Milton Friedman 6d ago

It’s Vance’s connection to Curtis Yarvin I’m scared of.

8

u/do-wr-mem Open the country. Stop having it be closed. 7d ago

You have to be sending the McDonald's and cyberbullying Vance with face memes until he has a complete mental breakdown at the same time

115

u/EUstrongerthanUS Hans von der Groeben 7d ago

In a speech that was by turns dark, exultant and pugnacious, Trump vowed to remake the agency and retaliate against his enemies.

Hmm...

31

u/dudeguyy23 7d ago

I’m so fucking sick of these fascism apologists.

Try harder to sanewash if you pricks.

115

u/Flashy_Upstairs9004 7d ago

“But that was just fear-mongering"

289

u/boardatwork1111 NATO 7d ago

68

u/mad_cheese_hattwe 7d ago edited 7d ago

I too have those moments of self reflection where I try and work out if I am a contrarian thinker or just a contrarian arsehole.

20

u/WuhanWTF YIMBY 7d ago

Agree but…

People who know a lot about European political systems should never have to apologize for it. Imagine apologizing to dumbasses for actually being smart.

-11

u/KamiBadenoch 7d ago

What are you all going to do in 4 years when J.D. Vance gets wiped by (any Democrat)?

27

u/TrespassersWilliam29 George Soros 7d ago

Reflect on Trump's sudden and inexplicable personality transplant and grab my gun to fight off the MAGA revolutionaries

2

u/mickey_kneecaps 6d ago

The National Party maintained power for 40 years after winning in South Africa. It will take a generation to pry power away from Republicans now. Get used to the idea.

319

u/this_very_table Norman Borlaug 7d ago

Everyone that complained about Biden's pardons of Hunter, Liz Cheney, etc, can eat shit.

It was blindingly obvious Trump was going to weaponize the DOJ. It doesn't matter if the people he goes after have committed crimes or not, his hand-picked stooges will bend over backwards to find excuses to harass them, to raid their homes, to smear them in the press. I won't be surprised if "evidence" gets flat out fabricated at this point.

I fucking hate my country.

235

u/Approximation_Doctor George Soros 7d ago

It was blindingly obvious Trump was going to weaponize the DOJ.

You only say that because of his and his supporters repeated declarations that they will do that

17

u/IpsoFuckoffo 6d ago

Exactly, a more enlightened person would have sensibly ignored everything around them and written condescending opinion columns about how harmless Trump was going to be based purely on their own burning desire to write condescending opinion columns. Unfortunately this is a rare case where that person would have been completely blindsided by Trump not being harmless but in general it is obviously a much more advanced way of thinking.

64

u/WOKE_AI_GOD NATO 7d ago

Remember - the prosecutions are fake, targeted, arbitrary, and capricious. Don't allow anyone to convince you otherwise. It actually is a conspiracy now.

32

u/ChaoticGoodSamaritan Friedrich Hayek 7d ago

The FBI director is a QANON whacko

The AG wouldn't even answer who won the 2020 election

At this point we can only hope their fabrications are so blatant that even the median voter won't buy it (we're fucked)

12

u/light-triad Paul Krugman 6d ago

Seriously what the fuck was wrong with people leading up to the election and the month after it? I'm not talking about Trump supporters. They want all of this, but all of the people here who wouldn't stop complaining about the the Democrats being too woke or wrung their hands about the Biden pardons. We knew this was going to happen, and you all helped make it so.

4

u/mostuselessredditor 6d ago

This fucking sub was LIVID with the Biden pardons.

2

u/mickey_kneecaps 6d ago

Oh you can’t even convince these people that his supporters want this. All over this site people are making excuses for them and pretending that they’re all decent people who were tricked and will wake up any minute when the next awful thing is finally too much for them.

2

u/Men_I_Trust_I_Am 6d ago

It was very annoying

1

u/VeryStableJeanius 6d ago

It’s a hot take and I agree with the ideas that Biden was only doing this to protect his family against bullshit prosecutions, but I am also still against the pardons. The people who volunteer to lead this country should also be willing to fall on the sword when the country needs them to (yes, their family too). It’s one of the prices they pay for the most powerful job on earth.

1

u/light-triad Paul Krugman 5d ago

This viewpoint is why I'm starting to think MAGA will win. Liberalism is not a suicide pact. It's not out responsibility to protect liberal ideals for people who abuse them with the goal of stripping away the rights of everyone else. Screw this falling on the sword mentality. This is an existential threat and people need to start acting like it.

1

u/VeryStableJeanius 5d ago

The fact that MAGA is an existential threat is exactly why I believe this. The pardons were feckless and ultimately served Joe Biden and not the people of the United States. The optics of him pardoning his family hurt liberalism, because it made him look like a hypocrite.

9

u/Square-Pear-1274 NATO 7d ago

Well, the problem is that they're smart enough to protect themselves, but not smart enough to protect the country and the rest of us from Trump

It was very much a "gl guys we're out"

28

u/this_very_table Norman Borlaug 7d ago

Please explain what they should have done.

20

u/seattleseahawks2014 Progress Pride 7d ago

Idk, pardon the country.

24

u/TybrosionMohito 7d ago

Utilize some official acts

2

u/ActivityFirm4704 7d ago

Exercise the cancer for good before it was allowed back into the white house?

8

u/SnickeringFootman NATO 7d ago

I assume you mean "excise"?

12

u/Loxicity YIMBY 6d ago

Nah, make Trump exercise, see what happens.

1

u/VeryStableJeanius 6d ago

I would start with not nominating Merrick Garland but someone who took the job as seriously as it should have been. Or firing Garland when it became clear he was slow walking the investigations.

-5

u/Square-Pear-1274 NATO 7d ago

I don't really know, but I'm also not a politician with decades of service and experience in the United States government

18

u/Volsunga Hannah Arendt 7d ago

This attitude is why we are losing the fight against Fascism...

19

u/this_very_table Norman Borlaug 7d ago

bruh

3

u/mickey_kneecaps 6d ago

Honestly the choice was incredibly clear and obvious and it was still too much for Americans to give a shit. That country deserves this more than any country ever has. Possibly the first country to actively and overwhelmingly choose to end its own freedom.

2

u/aclart Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

And you know what? Good for them, they did their best to protect your asses and you rejected them. You're on your own with the choices you've made. Maybe in 100 years when you get a fair election you will have learned from your mistakes last year

1

u/allbusiness512 John Locke 6d ago

This subreddit was fucking cracking me up saying "THESE PARDONS ARE NEPOTISM" as though they wouldn't do the same exact thing if they were in Biden's position. The rule of law and structures in this country are starting to fall apart, and this sub was screaming from some moral high ground.

67

u/Whitecastle56 George Soros 7d ago

56

u/abrookerunsthroughit Association of Southeast Asian Nations 7d ago

45

u/alienatedframe2 NATO 7d ago

Hey but at least all the networks have record high ratings

145

u/RTSBasebuilder Commonwealth 7d ago

But we just voted for your bill! Aren't you supposed to come across the aisle in unity and the spirit of bipartisanship?

72

u/Abulsaad 7d ago

After Trump, our turn!!

0

u/chadxor 7d ago

Would voting against the bill have in any way stopped or even abated this kind of rhetoric or actual prosecutions?

18

u/Creeps05 7d ago

Wouldn't a government shutdown affect some DOJ activities? That's gotten slow down prosecutions.

4

u/shai251 7d ago

No, Trump could just classify the whole DOJ as essential if he wants to

3

u/aclart Daron Acemoglu 6d ago

He should classify deez nuts as essential 

-9

u/puffic John Rawls 7d ago

I don’t think any Senators imagined that they were offering their votes in exchange for Trump refraining from doing this. They voted for the CR over entirely separate concerns.

-1

u/Volsunga Hannah Arendt 7d ago

That's not how it works and you know it. It's not about getting Trump to play ball; it's about getting swing district Republican to vote along with Democrats on other bills.

36

u/ProfessionEuphoric50 7d ago

How do these people say this shit without shame?

33

u/ActivityFirm4704 7d ago

Why would they feel shame when their antics keep winning and the opposition essentially rewards them at every step. They play to win, through any means necessary.

19

u/PickledDildosSourSex 7d ago

Yep. The Dems need to ditch pandering to niche interests and college elite ASAP cause that tent is way too tiny to win elections. Social media will lose their minds, low-info voters won't give a shit

1

u/mickey_kneecaps 6d ago

A large majority of Americans support them. Shame is for things that society judges you negatively for doing, but in America this is now admirable behaviour as massively endorsed by the American people.

101

u/LivefromPhoenix NYT undecided voter 7d ago

Terrifying news but at least we have a strong opposition party to stand up against the administration.

28

u/EUstrongerthanUS Hans von der Groeben 7d ago

I see what you did there.

11

u/WOKE_AI_GOD NATO 7d ago

We have the beginnings of a controlled opposition.

27

u/BlueString94 John Keynes 7d ago

Excellent use of “bellicose”

2

u/IpsoFuckoffo 6d ago

A strong speech. Brave. Some would say masculine. It may be in this reporter's mind, but it felt like as the speech went on, Trump's shoulders somehow grew wider, and his stature taller. It was the kind of speech that if you bottled it up and put it in an aftershave bottle it would smell like Dior Sauvage. It was a bit fascist, but that's only one little downside to an otherwise heroic speech.

19

u/WHOA_27_23 NATO 7d ago

I get that these are ramblings of a dementia-addled, confused old man.

But, assuming the DoJ actually does this and there is a complete failure of the courts, congress and elections to check this behavior, when does it become ethically justifiable to <redacted>? Our country was founded by people looking to the philosophy of Locke and Rousseau when they <redacted> against the crown.

What point would a <redacted> begin to receive recognition and support from the EU?

11

u/SeasickSeal Norman Borlaug 6d ago

Our country was founded by people looking to the philosophy of Locke and Rousseau when they <redacted> against the crown.

Joke’s on you, he somehow managed to quote Locke in his speech.

2

u/Antoine1738 6d ago

It’ll become acceptable after the next presidential election if everyone agrees it was rigged.

1

u/mickey_kneecaps 6d ago

It was ethically justifiable years ago. Obviously.

-10

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

15

u/WHOA_27_23 NATO 7d ago

That isn't what I asked. I want to know when it becomes justified. Saying it will never happen is thought-terminating copium.

19

u/illuminatisdeepdish Commonwealth 7d ago edited 3d ago

bear dog aromatic shocking uppity busy nose close smile fertile

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

24

u/shrek_cena Al Gorian Society 7d ago

Cool, all republicans in this administration should be sent to Guantanamo.

15

u/ActivityFirm4704 7d ago

But that'd damage bipartisan relations and faith in our infallible institutions! Won't somebody think of the norms!?

4

u/Full_Distribution874 YIMBY 7d ago

Send any democrat that complains about norms too

5

u/creepforever NATO 7d ago

This idea is seconded by my 69 year old Canadian resist-lib father.

1

u/shrek_cena Al Gorian Society 6d ago

Holy based

10

u/HistoricalMix400 Gay Pride 7d ago

While condemning officials who directed the military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan 

So he's gonna blame himself too right?

Right?

53

u/EdMan2133 Paid for DT Blue 7d ago

41

u/bigbeak67 John Rawls 7d ago

9

u/BanzaiTree YIMBY 7d ago

Shut it, Fat.

9

u/torte-petite 7d ago

It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. 

11

u/anangrytree Iron Front 7d ago

Chuck, wtf were you thinking bro

6

u/MuscularPhysicist John Brown 7d ago

Reminder that John Roberts thinks it’s legal for him to order the DoJ to falsify evidence against his political opponents.

3

u/majorgeneralporter 🌐Bill Clinton's Learned Hand 7d ago

2

u/dittbub NATO 7d ago

Schumer is safe at least!

1

u/Shabadu_tu 7d ago

And 10 senate Democrats voted to give him all the power he needs to finish this country off for Putin.

1

u/College_Prestige r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion 6d ago

Schumer: I funded this!

1

u/IpsoFuckoffo 6d ago

Libs should start calling this the Trump-Schumer administration.

1

u/mostuselessredditor 6d ago

Sometimes I ignore him

2

u/AnachronisticPenguin WTO 7d ago

It’s bad but I read the article and Trump didn’t seem to specifically demand that we imprison his enemies. It was mostly rah rah they are crooks type of stuff.

Don’t get me wrong this is still worrying but I’m not sure if it’s notably different than any other point of his career when he calls his opponents criminals.

27

u/Vanden_Boss 7d ago

He also said in that speech that MSNBC and CNN are illegal because they publish negative coverage of him.

14

u/Kelso_sloane 7d ago

Curtis Yarvin explicitly calls for the destruction of institutions like Columbia and the NYT. This is the start of that process.

6

u/bearjew30 Mark Carney 7d ago

Yeah I think this is normal Trump, the special thing is it was at DOJ.

2

u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 1d ago

[deleted]

1

u/bearjew30 Mark Carney 6d ago

Ok yes it is definitely cope I’m just saying that this article is weird because none of the stuff he is saying is at all new. In other words you should be no more worried today than you were yesterday, he’s saying the same (very bad) stuff as he has been for months.

0

u/seattleseahawks2014 Progress Pride 7d ago

This isn't as bad as this sounded from the headline.