Revealed: Trump threw staff under the bus when asked about retribution

30 April

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg recently interviewed President Donald Trump at the White House, where they discussed everything from the Signal scandal to the economy and foreign policy. But Goldberg said the "most interesting" part of the conversation was about his retribution efforts against his political enemies.

CNN host Jake Tapper asked Goldberg during a Wednesday segment about what stood out the most in his conversation with the president. Goldberg — who was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared sensitive attack plans — that their conversation about the so-called "Signalgate" was notable in that Trump continued to stand by Hegseth despite the error. Goldberg said Trump was optimistic that Hegseth would be "just fine" despite another separate Signal leak and the Navy recently losing a $60 million jet.

However, Goldberg said what was perhaps the most eyebrow-raising moment of their talk was when he asked Trump about why the president was using the full weight of the federal government to clamp down on his enemies.

"When I asked him why this intense focus on vengeance or revenge or retribution against people — including people who worked for Joe Biden and Joe Biden himself — he said: 'Look, there are people around here who think we should just go forward and make policy and lead the country. I'm in that camp,'" Goldberg recalled. "He says: 'You may not believe it' and I said: 'I might not believe that.' He said: 'There are other people in the White House staff who think that we should really go after our enemies for what they did to us.'"

"So he was sort of pinning it on the staff, this desire to investigate and punish people he felt did him wrong," Goldberg added. "I felt that was an interesting moment."

During Trump's third campaign for the presidency, he repeatedly promised to seek revenge against his enemies, even telling a crowd in Waco, Texas: "I am your retribution." He has more recently signed executive orders targeting top law firms that either represented or hired his political opponents, including firms that advised former Department of Justice special counsels Jack Smith and Robert Mueller.

Additionally, the president has also targeted former officials who worked for him during his first presidency. Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has since quit his cybersecurity firm in order to fully fight back against the Trump administration after he was named in an executive order.

Watch the full segment below, or by clicking here.

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