Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past

by Steve Benen

Asked in November 2023 whether he intended to use federal law enforcement to go after his perceived political foes if given a second term, the Republican replied, “Yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.”32 Notwithstanding the fact that he probably meant “bottle” and not “box,” Trump described a scenario in which he could exploit a new set of circumstances. If he won in 2024, he could prosecute Biden and other Democrats because Biden and other Democrats had prosecuted him. It was a new day in American jurisprudence, and Trump was prepared to exploit the opportunity and start using federal law enforcement officials as his own personal attack dogs. There were some rather obvious flaws in the argument. For one thing, Biden had nothing to do with Trump’s indictments. For another, the Republican’s logic was flawed: A car thief, caught in the act by the police, would not be justified in trying to later arrest the officer who caught him. The thief could not credibly go to court and argue, “Well, the cop released the genie out of the box.” But more important, Trump was rewriting his own story—erasing the fact that he’d already tried to use federal law enforcement officials as his own personal attack dogs.