James' World 2

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The indictment of the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey, demanded by President Trump, sent a shiver of fear through others on the so-called enemies list of the current F.B.I. director Kash Patel. But one other person who might have reason for concern is Kash Patel himself.

There will, presumably, come a time when the Republican Party is no longer in control. A precedent has now been set for prosecuting a former F.B.I. director disfavored by the current administration for allegedly lying to Congress. Democrats already are accusing Mr. Patel of having lied to Congress in his confirmation hearings when he promised not to engage in political retaliation.

Mr. Trump’s campaign to imprison, fire or otherwise punish his political foes and use government power to crack down on free speech he does not like has broken norms that stood for generations. But it has also established new standards for what a president can do that even some conservatives worry may come back to bite them. Power claimed by one party is then eventually available to the other. Limits ignored by one administration may no longer seem binding on the next.

If the precedent set by Mr. Trump takes hold, America may be entering a period when each new administration takes aim at the last one in a cycle of retaliation, a what-goes-around-comes-around pattern more familiar in authoritarian countries than in developed Western democracies. Even presidents more restrained than Mr. Trump may succumb to the temptation to follow at least some of his example.

“Conservatives should see this for what it is: shortsighted and dangerous,” said Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary in Mr. Trump’s first term who resigned in protest after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

“If a Democrat wins in 2028, what’s to stop them from turning the D.O.J. on Trump officials or unleashing the F.C.C. on Fox News?” she said. “Trump is setting a precedent that will come back to haunt the right, and they’ll have no leg to stand on if Democrats use the same playbook against them.”

Mr. Trump’s threat to investigate and prosecute left-wing groups after the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk crystallized the concern among some of the president’s own MAGA allies. In particular, some bristled at the pressure applied by Mr. Trump’s Federal Communications Commission to take the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air because of comments related to Mr. Kirk’s murder.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, decried the threat against ABC and its affiliates by Brendan Carr, the F.C.C. chair, comparing it to mafia tactics, and added that it would empower Democrats to someday do the same. “They will silence us,” Mr. Cruz said. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly. And that is dangerous.”

Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host and a MAGA favorite, warned that the Trump administration’s threats to go after “hate speech” could impinge on everyone’s free speech rights. “If they can tell you what to say,” he said, “they’re telling you what to think.”

The concern about precedent goes beyond Mr. Trump’s self-described campaign for “retribution.” . His assertions of vastly expanded presidential power will naturally accrue to his successors. If he can override Congress on what money to spend or not spend, fire leaders of independent agencies, unilaterally gut government departments, and send troops into the streets of American cities, then so can the next president — a point made recently by the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page about his effort to rein in the independence of the Federal Reserve.

“I worry about future presidents of both parties abusing all of the unprecedented powers that Trump is claiming,” said Brendan Nyhan, a government professor at Dartmouth College.

“Do Republicans want to give President A.O.C. unilateral powers to determine which Defense Department programs she wants to fund?” he added, referring to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a liberal Democrat from New York and bête noire to conservatives.

“We shouldn’t trust any administration with the dangerous and extraordinary powers Trump is claiming,” he continued. “Unfortunately, the recent history of the office suggests Democrats will pocket past expansions of executive power and just promise to wield them more carefully.”

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President Trump demanded the indictment of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director.Credit…Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

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