Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin explicitly stated she wants to use criminal prosecutions to scare young people away from working for President Trump. She said this goal is to create a specific “deterrence message” for future government hires. This plan targets aides and officials who carried out the former president’s agenda.
Slotkin spoke at a University of Chicago event on October 13 about her political path. According to her statement to the audience, she intends to target “signature cases” against individuals who “enabled” Donald Trump. “I want to look at these signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him,” the Michigan Democrat said.
She described her hope that students would think twice before taking these jobs. “I want young people coming out of school to say, should I go work for the Trump administration,” Slotkin remarked. “Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity,” Slotkin added. She added that she wants them to realize the risk involved.
The Message of Fear
Slotkin wants prospective employees to fear legal trouble rather than seek opportunity. “I want them to be like, Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,” she said. Her goal is to stop patriotic Americans from serving their country.
Scott Kupor, who directs the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, described these comments as “disappointing and unprofessional.” He wrote on X that endorsing political prosecutions is wrong for a U.S. senator. “This is incredibly disappointing and unprofessional coming from a U.S. senator — endorsing political prosecutions to dissuade patriotic Americans from serving their country,” Kupor wrote.
Law professor Jonathan Turley criticized the comments on social media as well. Regarding her intentions, he noted that Slotkin had “said the quiet part out loud.” The Daily Wire reported that she laid out this post-midterm game plan during an interview with host Astead Herndon.
Accountability or Retribution
Slotkin argued that Democrats must “go after” officials who engage in corruption. She said the people around Donald Trump have no immunity from these actions. “The people around Donald Trump who are doing his bidding and enabling this have no such immunity,” she stated during the event.
She noted she voted twice to impeach Trump in the past. Now she wants to pick specific cases that are “super egregious” to make an example. “We do have to have accountability for the unbelievable corruption that we are living under right now,” she told the New York Post.
Her plan includes reforms to “Trump-proof the government” if Democrats win back Congress. She believes this approach will stop future corruption by making the risk too high for staff. The New York Post reported she mused on these ideas at an event that has since gone viral.
