Charles Krupa/AP
More than a decade after “some traffic problems in Fort Lee” spun into a political mess for then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, President Donald Trump is resurrecting the 2013 scandal known as Bridgegate in an apparent effort to target Christie just hours after he told ABC News that the president is unconcerned with the separation of powers.
“Chris refused to take responsibility for these criminal acts,” Trump wrote on Sunday, alluding to the notorious traffic scheme that eventually resulted in prison time for two top Christie aides. Christie was later cleared of wrongdoing, but the scandal followed his doomed presidential ambitions.
Trump continued: “For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!”
The president did not seem to grasp the acute irony of suggesting a fresh investigation into a politically motivated traffic scheme that sought revenge on the mayor of Fort Lee after he declined to endorse Christie’s reelection bid. But the threat appeared to take Trump’s own revenge tour to its logical extreme, threatening to consume his presidency until it eclipses every other presidential priority. Later on Sunday, Trump returned to his social media platform to suggest that ABC and NBC News lose their licenses because he felt that the networks were unfair to Republicans.
The latest threats came days after the FBI raided the home of another perceived enemy, former national security adviser under Trump, John Bolton, who has since been an outspoken critic of Trump’s foreign policy. It’s unclear what, if any, compromising evidence was discovered at Bolton’s home. But the raid underscored the alarming willingness with which Trump intends to fulfill his long-held threats to use the federal government to exact revenge on folks he believes have hurt him or who have displayed insufficient loyalty, irony be damned.