'Slash and burn': A 'grim mood' hovers over DC as insiders fear Trump 2.0

06 May 2024

During a November 2023 interview, Michael Cohen — Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer and one of the prosecution's star witnesses in Trump's hush money/falsifying business records trial — told ITV in the U.K. that he will "absolutely" seek political asylum in another country if his ex-boss returns to the White House in January 2025.

Cohen warned that Trump "will exact revenge" on anyone he thinks "has done him wrong," telling ITV, "I fear for my safety. I fear for my life."

Similarly, veteran actor Robert De Niro — a scathing and outspoken Trump critic — told "Real Time" host Bill Maher he fears that "malignant, sociopathic narcissist" Trump will "come looking for me" and try to carry out some type of revenge if he wins in November. And Gen. Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said he fears Trump would try to incarcerate him during a second term.

De Niro and Milley, unlike Cohen, haven't talked about seeking political asylum in another country. But the New York Times' Peter Baker, in an article published on May 5, reports that some Washington, D.C. insiders are flirting with the idea of leaving the United States if Trump defeats incumbent President Joe Biden in November.

"It has become the topic of the season at Washington dinner parties and receptions: Where would you go if it really happens?" Baker explains. "Portugal, says a former member of Congress. Australia, says a former agency director. Canada, says a Biden Administration official. France, says a liberal columnist. Poland, says a former investigator."

Baker continues, "They're joking. Sort of. At least in most cases. It's a gallows humor with a dark edge. Much of official Washington is bracing for the possibility that former President Donald J. Trump really could return — this time with 'retribution' as his avowed mission. The discussion is where people might go into a sort of self-imposed exile. Whether they mean it or not, the buzz is a telling indicator of the grim mood among many in the nation's capital these days."

According to former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor — a Never Trump conservative who is rooting for Biden — many D.C. insiders absolutely dread the possibility of Trump getting a second term.

Taylor told the Times, "I feel like in the past two weeks, that conversation, for whatever reason, has just surged. People are feeling that it's very obvious if a second Trump term happens, it's going to be slash and burn."

Former Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida) notes that Trump's extreme rhetoric is worrying both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C.

Murphy told the Times, "The rest of America may not take what he says seriously, but I think you're hearing the uncomfortable chatter in Washington among Democrats and Republicans because they understand, having worked with him in the past, that when he says something he means it."

According to CNN's David A. Andelman — who has lived in France before — some Americans who fear retribution from Trump are seriously looking into other countries to move to. Andelman told the Times that after he addressed that subject in a May 1 op-ed, 45 Americans contacted his real estate broker in France.

Read Peter Baker's full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).

From Your Site Articles