Trump Is Even Targeting the Private Employment of Officials Who Investigated His Criminal Acts by Threatening to Cancel the Contracts of Companies Like Microsoft that Hire Them

Sep 29, 2025

One of the illusions that brought Trump to power is the idea that he is “pro-business” and favors deregulation. In reality, he wants an economy controlled personally by him, down to the finest details, such as the design of corporate logos—and who they hire as executives. He has already demanded that companies fire their CEOs and chief economists, and now he’s doing it again.

The Hill reports:

President Trump called for Microsoft to fire Lisa Monaco, former President Biden’s No. 2 Justice Department official, who was recently appointed as the company’s chief of global affairs.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump called Monaco “corrupt and totally deranged” and, citing national security concerns, called for her to be terminated from her role. …
“She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government,” he continued. “Because of Monaco’s many wrongful acts, the U.S. Government recently stripped her of all Security Clearances, took away all of her access to National Security Intelligence, and banned her from all Federal Properties.” …
Monaco, as Biden’s deputy attorney general, was closely involved in the federal investigations into Trump’s role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and into his mishandling of classified documents. …
Earlier this year, Trump rescinded Monaco’s security clearance, along with that of other former political opponents, including Biden.

The line about Microsoft’s government contracts is supposed to be evidence for why Monaco poses a danger, but it’s really there to remind Microsoft of the leverage the federal government holds over it. This is an attempt by the president to deprive former officials of the ability to seek private employment, as punishment for investigating his own crimes.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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