Last month, Columbia University stunned many of its faculty members by agreeing to overhaul its protest policies, security practices and Middle Eastern studies department in response to Mr. Trump’s demands, seeking to avert the potential loss of $400 million in federal funds.
The willingness of those targeted by Mr. Trump to bend to his will marks a significant difference from his first term when Mr. Trump and his administration were met with swift and strong resistance from Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and law firms representing clients taking him on in court.
Most of Mr. Trump’s attempts at retribution during his first term were built on trying to use blunt force, either through public statements or private arm-twisting, to get the Justice Department, F.B.I. and I.R.S. to investigate political opponents or others whose actions angered him. While many of those who opposed him politically, sought to hold him to account or became impediments to his agenda did come under scrutiny in an array of ways, none of them were charged by the end of Mr. Trump’s presidency, deeply angering him.
His grasp of how to ensure his wishes are carried out has also strengthened since his first term.
In 2018, the White House press secretary held a briefing in which she said that Mr. Trump would be taking away the security clearance of John Brennan, a former C.I.A. director who had been a fierce critic of Mr. Trump’s and whom Mr. Trump blamed for the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia.
Despite the news conference, top aides to Mr. Trump, including his chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, stepped in to block the move, telling Mr. Trump that despite what had been said publicly, the idea was vindictive and undemocratic.
Mr. Brennan’s security clearance remained intact.
By contrast, Mr. Trump’s demands in the first two months of his second term that the security clearances of more than five dozen of his political opponents, including Hillary Clinton, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and Mr. Brennan were promptly carried out.
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