How Trump uses presidential power to target both allies and opponents

In his world of high-stakes deals, President Donald Trump often sees allies and adversaries through the lens of a poker game. “We have much bigger and better cards than they do,” he has said of rivals.

Seven months into his second term, Trump is playing the hand he has amassed, wielding the vast power of the presidency to settle scores, reward loyalty and pursue his political agenda with few of the restraints that marked his first term.

The president who campaigned as the primary victim of a “weaponised deep state” is now systematically leveraging that same government machinery against a wide array of targets, from universities and media companies to law firms and political opponents. This aggressive use of executive power is not causing a backlash among his supporters; instead, they are cheering it on as a necessary battle in the nation’s culture wars.

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“Weaponising the state to win the culture war has been essential to their agenda,” explained David N. Smith, a University of Kansas sociologist who studies Trump’s voter base. “They didn’t like it when the state was mobilised to restrain Trump, but they’re happy to see the state acting to fight the culture war on their behalf.”

From promise to practice

In his second inaugural address, President Trump declared an end to the political targeting he claimed to have endured. “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponised to persecute political opponents,” he pledged. Weeks later, he reiterated the point at the Conservative Political Action Conference, stating, “We’ve ended weaponised government.”

Yet, the actions of his administration tell a different story. Just two days after that speech, Trump signed a sweeping order targeting a prominent law firm that represents Democrats. Shortly after, he directed the Justice Department to investigate two officials from his first administration, Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor, who had become critics.

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This pattern follows a series of threats made on the campaign trail. “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in August 2023. He later mused about indicting political rivals and famously told a Fox News interviewer he would not be a dictator, “except on day one.” The campaign rhetoric has now become the blueprint for governance.

A broad array of targets

The administration’s actions have been swift and wide-ranging, demonstrating a willingness to engage on multiple fronts simultaneously:

Political and Legal Adversaries: Attorney General Pam Bondi has appointed a special prosecutor to scrutinize New York Attorney General Letitia James and US Sen. Adam Schiff. The administration has also revoked security clearances for attorneys at disfavoured law firms and fired federal prosecutors who worked on cases involving the president.

In a move blending law enforcement with political strategy, corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams were dropped to secure his cooperation in a crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally.

Cultural and Academic Institutions: Elite universities have faced immense pressure, with the administration revoking billions in federal research funds. This led to Columbia University agreeing to a $220 million settlement, the University of Pennsylvania revoking records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, and the resignations of presidents at the University of Virginia and Northwestern University.

Media and Private Sector: Trump has successfully secured multimillion-dollar settlements from media organizations in lawsuits widely seen as legally weak. He also threatened to block a stadium plan for the Washington Commanders unless the football team reverted to its former name, which was dropped in 2020 due to its nature as a racial slur.

The White House rejects the “weaponisation” label. “What the nation is witnessing today is the execution of the most consequential administration in American history,” said spokesperson Harrison Fields, describing the president’s actions as “embracing common sense, putting America first, and fulfilling the mandate of the American people.”

The mechanics of power

Trump’s ability to wield this power so effectively in his second term stems from a confluence of factors. The guardrails that often frustrated him previously—tradition-bound officials, bureaucratic norms, and legal challenges—have been systematically weakened or removed. He now operates with a fiercely loyal base, a more compliant Congress and Supreme Court, and a cadre of aides willing to execute his vision.

Furthermore, institutions that have chosen to negotiate or settle with the administration—from universities to media outlets—have, in effect, ceded power and emboldened the strategy.

Steven Lukes, a professor emeritus at New York University and author of the seminal book “Power: A Radical View,” argues that Trump exemplifies power in all its dimensions: through intimidation, by controlling the public conversation, and by shaping people’s preferences. Lukes identifies Trump’s key innovation as “epistemic liberation”—a willingness to invent facts without evidence.

“This idea that you can just say things that aren’t true, and then it doesn’t matter to your followers… that seems to me a new thing,” Lukes said.

Ultimately, the weaponisation of government has come full circle. The man who portrayed himself as a victim of the system is now deploying it with an aggression and scope that his modern predecessors never attempted, remaking the relationship between presidential power and the institutions that are meant to check it.

With inputs from agencies