For much of the run-up to the 2024 election, Democrats acted as if Trump’s political career was finished. Kamala Harris was hailed as the inevitable victor, riding a campaign theme of “joy” and a “Brat summer” pop culture wave. On election day, left-wing pundits confidently touted early turnout in places like Philadelphia as proof she had already secured the presidency.

That confidence carried a hidden risk — Democrats had spent years weaponizing government power against Trump, never imagining they might have to live under the very rules they created. From the Russia collusion hoax to the Ukraine impeachment, from January 6 investigations to post-presidency prosecutions, the left used the legal system as a political bludgeon. Now, less than seven months into Trump’s second term, those same tactics are being aimed back at them.

Reports indicate more than a dozen individuals who played key roles in the investigations and political offensives against Trump are now facing legal scrutiny themselves. These aren’t just verbal counterpunches or rhetorical jabs. The Trump administration has actively moved to strip security clearances, fire entrenched bureaucrats, and launch formal probes into those accused of abusing their offices.

Critics on the left are calling it “political retribution.” Trump supporters call it justice. The President himself has made no secret of his intentions, framing his actions as a necessary response to years of Democratic overreach. As one commentator put it, “In life, when you do things, those things often produce specific repercussions. We call those ‘consequences.’”

The double standard is glaring. When Joe Biden’s Department of Justice pursued aggressive legal action against Trump, Democrats claimed “no one is above the law.” But now that Trump is investigating those same officials and operatives, the media narrative has flipped to alarm over a “threat to democracy.”

The Texas redistricting fight offers a parallel. Democrats have spent decades drawing some of the most gerrymandered maps in states like Illinois, Maryland, and New York. Yet when Texas Republicans pushed through a map cutting Democrat-held seats, over 50 left-wing lawmakers fled the state to try to block the vote — sparking outrage not over gerrymandering itself, but over Republicans playing the same game.

The pattern is clear: Democrats embraced a new set of political norms when they believed they’d never face the consequences. Trump, true to form, has no interest in reverting to the “old rules” that once kept political payback taboo.

What’s unfolding now is the logical outcome of years of escalating political warfare. The “Overton window” of acceptable conduct in politics was shattered long before Trump returned to power — the left simply never expected the wreckage to be used against them.

As the saying goes, if you take a shot at the king, you’d best not miss. Democrats missed. And in Trump’s Washington, that means the rules they wrote are now the rules they have to live by.