Opinion: Let’s look closer at who’s on Trump’s naughty and nice lists

No matter what President-elect Donald Trump may think about the far reach of his powers, only Santa is allowed to make the official list of who is naughty or nice.

Yet just as Santa Claus is coming to town, so is Trump — lists in hand. And while I expect most people can live with whichever one of Santa’s lists they fall into for holiday gifts, they’d better not cry and better not pout about Trump’s lists — I doubt it would matter. He seems determined to serve a holiday feast covered in a thick sauce of sweet revenge.

The president-elect spent much of his campaign making lists of the people he will go after when he returns to the White House.

His naughty list includes former members of Congress, the current president and vice president of the United States, FBI officials, Justice Department attorneys, news organizations, nonprofits, political donors, election workers, lots of Democrats and disobedient Republicans, China, Mexico and Canada, and many others who may find their holidays anything but merry and bright.

All it took to make the list was an unkind word about Trump, questioning any of his allegations, standing up to his bullying or getting on the wrong side of his key advisers. Let’s just hope that Santa never outsources his list making to Elon Musk.

Trump has been working on his list all year. “Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our country,” Trump posted on his Truth Social website in September. What’s unfortunate is that it could happen in this country.

But the guy has a nice list, too. It includes friends, supporters and relatives who are getting the fattest of holiday sugar plums this year. That includes Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of his daughter Ivanka Trump, who was named U.S. ambassador to France. It’s Trump’s second gift to Kushner: He pardoned the convicted felon on his way out of the White House four years ago. Even Santa can’t pull that kind of magic out of his bag.

And while it seems no federal agency is excused from the president-elect’s naughty list, the FBI appears to hold down the No. 1 spot. Trump has long blamed the FBI for all sorts of nefarious things dating back to his first term. The head of the FBI, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, and his agents will be lucky if their gift this year is no worse than a lump of coal.

Meanwhile, Trump has named a new head for the FBI, a first-term loyalist named Kash Patel, who a few months ago on a conservative talk radio show said he would shut down the FBI’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., and then reopen it the next day “as a museum of the deep state.” He didn’t say whether he would charge admission to the museum. Maybe he could lease it to Trump International to operate — a sure way to stay on the extra nice list.

Patel made no attempt to sugarcoat his naughty-list threat against the news media in a 2023 podcast interview with Stephen K. Bannon, who was convicted of contempt of Congress but pardoned by Trump soon after he pardoned Kushner.

The FBI nominee threatened to go after journalists if appointed to a role in a Trump administration: “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly — we’ll figure that out,” he said.

So, while Trump and his loyalists are figuring out how to punish people they don’t like, I worry what more gifts they have in mind for friends on their nice list.

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