Trump makes political show of force in Justice Department visit

US president takes a victory lap at agency that twice indicted him, vowing to avenge ‘wrongs and abuses’ and to expel enemies.

One year ago, Donald Trump sat in a federal courtroom in Florida, facing the first criminal case brought by the Justice Department against a former president. On Friday, he took a victory lap in front of the same agency that sought to convict him.

Trump strode through royal blue curtains and on to the agency’s main stage like a conqueror vindicated.

“We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls,” he said in a speech that was at times reminiscent of his rambling, off-the-cuff campaign rallies, vowing to punish the officials who pursued him in multiple criminal cases and investigations.

“In recent years, a group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government … did everything in their power to prevent me from becoming president of the United States,” he said.

But now, he said, it was time to turn the page. “We will restore the scales of justice in America and we will ensure that such abuses never happen again in our country,” he said, drawing cheers from the friendly audience of roughly 200, which included an array of political appointees, local sheriffs, Republican lawmakers, federal agents and longtime supporters.

Officials had billed Trump’s rare speech in the Justice Department’s Great Hall as a chance for him to tout his law-and-order, anti-immigration agenda directly to the officials tasked with carrying it out. But shortly after the start of his speech, he was vowing to “expel the wrong actors in our forces of government” who pursued him and his allies and expose “misconduct which was at levels we’ve never seen.”

Trump’s politically charged speech was a most visible break from the modern tradition of the arm’s-length relationship between the Justice Department and White House. And it highlighted how firmly – and unapologetically – he has been able to bring the department into his grasp in his second term.

Attorney-General Pam Bondi greeting President Trump on Friday at the Justice Department. Picture: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Ideological allies, loyalists and Trump’s former criminal defence attorneys now hold the department’s top jobs. His attorney-general, Pam Bondi, appears on Fox News almost daily to promote his agenda. His FBI director, Kash Patel, has sought to establish close ties with the Oval Office, in contrast to predecessors who preferred to keep a distance. Both praised Trump in speeches warming up the crowd before the president spoke.

Two criminal cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith against Trump were dismissed with his return to the White House, and Smith’s team of prosecutors have all been fired. Scores of career officials throughout the agency have been forced out, including some linked to investigations of Trump and other politically sensitive probes.

“In the end, the thugs failed,” Trump said. “The case against me was bulls**t.”

He suggested those who he believes wronged him could face harsher punishment yet: “I will insist upon and demand full accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred.”

On the stage were signs that read “Fighting Fentanyl,” and a pile of white packages labelled “DEA Evidence.”

Bondi later clarified that the packages represented 180kg of fentanyl, but “it’s fake, don’t worry.” More than an hour into his speech, Trump turned to the topic, calling it a scourge that, among other harms, destroys users’ looks.

Presidential visits to the Justice Department are rare but not unprecedented. Ronald Reagan spoke in the Great Hall in 1982 about combating crime and drug trafficking, George W. Bush swore in attorney-general Michael Mukasey there in 2007, and Barack Obama came twice during his tenure, to deliver a speech on government surveillance practices in 2014 and to say farewell to attorney-general Eric Holder the following year.

Top Trump administration officials in the audience at the Justice Department included FBI Director Kash Patel, wearing glasses. Picture: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Events in the marble-walled Great Hall are usually for employees to hear policy addresses from senior leadership or celebrate internal accomplishments, events that rarely touch directly on politics.

Four years ago, former president Joe Biden’s attorney-general, Merrick Garland, a former federal judge, stood at the same podium and said the Justice Department would recommit itself to norms after being rocked by the tumultuous years of Trump’s first term.

Friday’s event at times felt like a campaign rally. Upbeat music blasted from speakers on loop – songs like Jerry Lee Lewis’s Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On and Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy – as guests filtered into the Great Hall.

YMCA by the Village People played as Trump walked off the stage, as it has at many of his campaign events in the past.

The FBI director mingled with Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the bureau before the Justice Department dropped the case. White House officials and Republican lawmakers snapped selfies and cheered alongside Justice Department officials before Trump spoke.

Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also received shout-outs from the president.

“So I just want to wish all of you good luck,” Trump said in closing. “It’s going to be an interesting journey. Win, win, and fight, fight, fight.”

– Dow Jones Newswires