On Saturday, November 9, the comedians of Saturday Night Live – a cultural institution on American television for 50 years – had a message for Donald Trump a few days after his presidential victory. "Every single person on this stage believed in you ... so, if you’re keeping some sort of list of your enemies ... we should not be on it," they quipped. While they chose to approach the subject matter jokingly, this says a lot about the climate of tension in the United States.

The president-elect has made revenge a key feature of his campaign. For years, he has threatened reprisals against those who stand in his way, even portraying his political opponents as "the enemy from within." But how much value should we give to these remarks? Is it simply campaign rhetoric designed to galvanize his troops? Or a genuine desire to make those who have opposed him pay?

His supporters point out that Trump did not take legal action against Hillary Clinton after his 2016 victory, although he had pledged to do so. As for his detractors, they say he has now attained all the levers of power, an ultra-loyal entourage that will not resist him, and broad immunity granted to sitting presidents in July by the conservative-majority Supreme Court. Here's a small sample of the many personalities he has publicly targeted.

Liz Cheney is one of his most iconic opponents. The former Republican politician has become a pariah within her own party, ever since she agreed to co-chair the committee investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The daughter of Dick Cheney, former vice president under George W. Bush, has consistently highlighted Trump's central role in the attempted coup.

Defeated by a Trumpist in the 2022 mid-term elections in Wyoming, she campaigned alongside Kamala Harris to prevent Trump's return to the Oval Office. As he wrote in March on his social media network Truth Social, he fantasizes about seeing her "go to jail along with the rest" of the committee. Four days before the election, he accused her of being a "radical war hawk" for her foreign policy positions. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it," he blurted out.

Some saw this as a dangerous parallel to a firing squad, but Cheney didn't back down. "This is how dictators destroy free nations," she stated November 1 on X. "They threaten those who speak against them with death."

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