President-elect Donald Trump does not have any sort of blacklist of people that he is supposedly planning to punish after taking office, Florida Congressman Byron Donalds told Fox News on Sunday.
Several US officials and media outlets have been speculating that Trump has, as one described it, a “vendetta against people that he believes have crossed him” and that he plans to go after his critics and perceived enemies.
“There’s never been a set of threats like this made by a candidate for president of the United States,” Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the US Department of Justice told The Hill ahead of the November 5 vote, in which Trump beat his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
However, Congressman Donalds has dismissed these concerns, arguing that Trump has never said he would make it his mission to prosecute his detractors.
“For the American people who have been listening to these lies from the Democratic left, I will tell you: This is not something that Donald Trump has ever spoken to, or he’s committed to, whatsoever. There’s no ‘enemies list’,” Donalds told Fox News.
The Republican added that Trump does not intend to focus his attention on going after his detractors and is instead committed to helping the American people and addressing the country’s top issues, such as securing the US-Mexico border, deporting illegal immigrants and improving the economy and energy.
“His focus is the American people, not some ‘enemies list’,” Donalds insisted.
Throughout his rallies, press interviews and social media posts, Trump has regularly spoken about a group of “enemies” within the US government that he has defined as “radical-left lunatics” that allegedly have been acting against America’s best interests.
During a podcast interview with Joe Rogan, Trump has also stated that these “enemies within” pose a bigger danger to the US than some of its foreign adversaries.
However, Trump has dismissed concerns from the Democratic party that he would try to prosecute his political opponents and has pointed out that, after winning against Hillary Clinton in 2016, he ultimately chose not to go after his Democratic rival, arguing that it would have “looked terrible” for the country.
Trump has claimed that the Biden-Harris administration, on the other hand, has weaponized the US Department of Justice, and has been using it to shut down its opponents, including the former president himself.
Earlier this year, a Manhattan jury found the Republican candidate guilty on 34 felony counts related to alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and to his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots.