Go bags, passports, foreign assets: Preparing to be a target of Trump's revenge
Go bags, passports, foreign assets: Preparing to be a target of Trumps revenge
Some prominent critics of Donald Trump, and those he has vilified as deep state saboteurs, are taking seriously his vow of retribution.
Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
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By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Ellen Nakashima
November 14, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST
A retired U.S. Army officer who clashed with senior officials in Donald Trumps first White House looked into acquiring Italian citizenship in the run-up to this months election but wasnt eligible and instead packed a go bag with cash and a list of emergency numbers in case he needs to flee.
A member of Trumps first administration who publicly denounced him is applying for foreign citizenship and weighing whether to watch and wait or leave the country before the Jan. 20 inauguration.
And a former U.S. official who signed a notorious October 2020 letter suggesting that emails purportedly taken from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden could be Russian disinformation is seeking a passport from a European country, uncertain about whether the getaway will prove necessary but concluding, You dont want to have to scramble.
All spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid undermining their own preparations. The planning, they acknowledge, responds to a hypothetical worst case in which a second Trump presidency ushers in systematic suppression of free speech and criminalization of dissent. Trumps victory alone has set off alarms among some of his most outspoken critics, as well as within parts of the intelligence and national security communities he denigrated as the deep state and accused of subverting his agenda.
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By Isaac Stanley-Becker
Isaac Stanley-Becker is an investigative reporter on the national staff.follow on X isaacstanbecker
By Ellen Nakashima
Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter with The Washington Post. She was a member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning teams, in 2022 for an investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, in 2018 for coverage of Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and in 2014 for reporting on the hidden scope of government surveillance. follow on X @nakashimae