Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, has welcomed self-described “secretary of retribution” and “deep state marauder” Ivan Raiklin to the board of directors of America’s Future, Inc., which Flynn chairs.
Raiklin, subject of a recent in-depth Raw Story investigation, has developed a far-right following online and at Flynn’s ReAwaken America tours with his calls for mass arrests of government officials, civil society advocates, and members of the media who he believes should be “criminalized for their treason.”
Flynn’s enthusiastic embrace of Raiklin is confirmation that Donald Trump’s stated plans to bring Flynn back into the White House are what Right Wing Watch called “a five alarm threat to democracy”—and affirms historian and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s description of Flynn as “one of the most dangerous individuals in America today.” Raiklin has called on Trump to make Flynn his Vice President,
In a June 27 press release announcing that Raiklin has joined the America’s Future board, Flynn said Raiklin “will never back down or quit the fight to save our nation from the tyranny at our doorstep.” America’s Future executive director and Flynn's sister Mary Flynn O’Neill called Raiklin “a fearless powerhouse in the fight for freedom and liberty worldwide.”
That doesn’t seem like a terribly accurate description for someone who has drawn up a list of 350 elected officials, intelligence agents, government employees, and journalists to be arrested when Trump is reelected. Raiklin responded to questions from Raw Story by posting that his “Deep State target list” is just “the scratching of the surface of who is going to be criminalized for their treason, okay?”
In a disturbing video he posted on social media in May, an intense and hostile Raiklin told NPR reporter Zoe Chase that the mass arrests he was describing would take place no matter who wins the presidential election. “This is going to take place at the hands of the American people, with or without an election.”
Raiklin said he hopes to be deputized by a red-county sheriff to help carry out the mass detentions. NJ.com, drawing on the Raw Story report, wrote, “If Trump is re-elected, Raiklin wants to enlist so-called 'constitutional' sheriffs in rural, conservative counties across the country to lock up Trump’s political enemies. He lusts for ‘live-streamed swatting raids’ against Trump’s political enemies on his ‘Deep State target list.’”
Like Flynn, Raiklin backed Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. Raiklin helped devise and promote the Trump team’s bogus theory that Mike Pence had the power to reject state-certified electoral college votes. Flynn called on Trump to declare martial law after the 2020 election and told right-wing activists on the eve of the insurrection not to accept the outcome. Since then, he has teamed up with conspiracy theorist Clay Clark for the ReAwaken America tour, a road show of radicalizing extremism that combines right-wing conspiracy theories with aggressive Christian nationalism.
Raiklin spoke at a ReAwaken America event and held a press conference with right-wing media in Detroit in June, where he laid out his plan to have sheriffs deputize the 80,000 veterans he says are “clamoring” to help carry out live-streamed raids against people on his enemies list. He hopes some of them will be executed, saying, “Some states have something called capital punishment. It would be so glorious for capital punishment to go from the ‘o’ spelling to the ‘a’ spelling in Texas, in Louisiana, in Kansas, in Florida, and the list goes on, as we start the retribution cycle.”
Trump family members and surrogates have often spoken at ReAwaken America events. Eric Trump and Trump adviser Kash Patel are scheduled to speak at a ReAwaken America Tour stop in North Carolina in October.
Raw Story reported that Raiklin tried without success to recruit so-called “constitutional sheriffs” at an April gathering of Richard Mack’s Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Raiklin also met with Mack in June, though Mack has since distanced himself, saying he disagrees with Raiklin’s rhetoric. Raiklin told right-wing media that he would be speaking at a sheriffs event in Texas right after the Republican convention.
In his ReAwaken speech, Raiklin floated a couple of extremely implausible conspiracy theories. In one, establishment Republicans would try to somehow change RNC rules to deny Trump the nomination. In another, several establishment Republicans would retire from the House, allowing Democrats to name Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, thereby allowing Congress to pass and President Biden to sign legislation designating Trump as an insurrectionist to keep him off the ballot. Raiklin also urged attendees to demand that red-state legislators allocate their state’s Electoral College votes to Trump.
Responding to Raw Story’s report about Raiklin’s mass arrest plans, Rep. Jamie Raskin warned, “A retired U.S. military officer has drawn up a ‘Deep State target list’ of public officials he considers traitors, along with our family members and staff. His hit list is a vigilante death warrant for hundreds of Americans and a clear and present danger to the survival of American democracy and freedom.”
After the assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, Patriot Takes unearthed footage from five months ago of Raiklin and Alex Jones talking about how a Trump assassination could unleash the forces of retribution. Raiklin said it would be “so much better for us and so much worse for them,” because it would provoke “the best cleansing and the fastest cleansing that we’ve ever seen in my lifetime.”
