U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

In an article for The Nation published Monday, journalist Jeet Heer argued that President Donald Trump’s defining trait isn’t his lying (with the assertion that Trump lies about virtually everything) but rather his “unrelenting hatred of his political foes.”

This hatred, he argued, drives Trump’s actions more than ideology or policy concerns. He contended that Trump’s almost pathological animus toward his enemies is the one subject about which he’s always honest, even if brutally so.

Heer points to a memorial service in Arizona for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk held Sunday, where Trump admitted, “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.” Heer writes that “these bitter words have the virtue of honesty. Indeed, they offer a key to Trump’s entire presidency.”

According to Heer, Trump doesn’t try to govern for all Americans so much as to reward friends and punish enemies. He uses government power, including law enforcement, as a tool for that.

Heer discussed recent events that illustrate this pattern: Trump publicly demanded that the Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute several of his political opponents — former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and New York Attorney General Letitia James — and attempted to install a loyalist, Lindsey Halligan, as a prosecutor.

He also cited the case of Tom Homan, once the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and now called the “border czar,” who allegedly was caught in a sting operation involving $50,000 in cash and promises of government favors; that investigation, Heer says, was shut down amid questions about political protection and favoritism.

The writer placed blame not just on Trump but on both political parties for allowing or failing to check this behavior.

Heer is critical of those who view Trump’s corruption — cronyism, misuse of law enforcement — as something voters won’t care about, or as too abstract, urging instead that opponents treat these abuses as central to a populist economic critique.

"If our laws depend on Trump’s voluntary compliance—and Congress won’t lift a finger to defend the laws it has passed—then the president is unleashed. There is no law holding him back. Instead, we are left to the whims and desires of a man who cares about only himself, a man who is willing to discard any law or standard to satisfy his insatiable lust for power," he quotes David French, a Never Trump conservative.

Heer argued that Trump “cares about only himself," and "is willing to discard any law or standard to satisfy his insatiable lust for power.”