'Scared little boy': Former RNC chair unleashes on Trump over his latest 'petty' threat

07 March

U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

President Donald Trump's recent executive order targeting a law firm that represented one of his chief political opponents is now drawing outrage from the former head of his party.

The Washington Post reported recently that Trump issued a new executive order explicitly targeting employees of the law firm Perkins Coie, which represented former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Under the order, all of the firm's employees are prohibited from entering federal buildings and any security clearances held by its attorneys are suspended.

In a Friday interview on MSNBC, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele tore into Trump for the order, which he called "the musings and actions of a petty, afraid little man who is sitting behind a very big desk and wielding a lot of power." He likened Trump's gesture to a business refusing to serve customers that purchased products from a competitor.

"I think every law firm in this town and around the country should stand together and say, 'go ahead, try it, try it.' I mean, are you serious?" Steele said. "At the end of the day, he's a scared little boy who feels that this is the only way he can get payback is to go after the law firms who just did what they're supposed to do, what they were hired to do."

Trump's order comes on the heels of him singling out the law firm Covington & Burling in February, which represented former Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith on a pro bono basis. Like his Perkins Coie executive order, Trump stripped Covington & Burling attorneys of their security clearances. A Perkins Coie spokesperson told the Post it plans to challenge Trump's order in court, and Steele expressed hope that the firm would get an expression of solidarity from other attorneys in Washington D.C.

"I'm hoping the legal community, as a member, as an active member of the legal community, I'm hoping that we all stand together and [say] 'go ahead. go ahead. make our day,'" Steele said. "You want to tie this up in in in litigation? Let's get this in front of the Supreme Court and let's see what those lawyers have to say. Because this is crazy."

Click here to read the Post's full report (subscription required).

Watch the video of Steele's comments below, or by clicking this link.

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