Seven months into his second term, President Donald Trump is actively using the machinery of the federal government to pursue political retribution, delivering on a campaign pledge to “get revenge” on perceived adversaries. The Justice Department has ordered the FBI to search the Maryland home of former national security adviser John Bolton and opened criminal inquiries into ex-aide Miles Taylor, former cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Representative Adam Schiff and other Trump critics. Attorney General Pam Bondi has also convened a grand jury to revisit the origins of the 2016 Russia investigation, while pardoning more than 1,500 people convicted for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and dismissing several prosecutors who handled those cases. Beyond the investigative dragnet, Trump has expanded the domestic use of military force, dispatching thousands of National Guard troops and federal law-enforcement officers to patrol Washington and earlier this year activating Guard and Marine units in Los Angeles. His administration has barred law firms involved in litigation against him from federal contracts, threatened universities with funding cuts and revoked security clearances for dozens of current and former national-security officials. Scholars and opposition lawmakers say the combined measures represent an unprecedented concentration of presidential power. The hard-line stance is most visible in immigration enforcement. On 25 Aug, immigration agents in Baltimore detained Venezuelan national Kilmar Abrego Garcia—re-arresting him just days after his release from a Tennessee jail. Video released by the Department of Homeland Security shows Abrego Garcia labeling the government “corrupt” as agents took him into custody. Democratic members of Congress condemned the move as retaliatory and an abuse of due-process rights, while Republican lawmakers said deportation is appropriate for someone who entered the country illegally. The episode follows a series of high-profile detentions, including that of Massachusetts legal resident Jemmy Jimenez Rosa earlier in August, underscoring the administration’s escalating mass-deportation campaign.