Something you may have picked up on over the last three years is that Donald Trurmp demands absolutely blind loyalty from his staff, the kind one would find in a North Korean dictatorship. While turnover and firings have been a key theme from early in his presidency—Rex Tillerson, James Comey, Reince Priebus, and more could speak to that—since being acquitted by the Senate Trump has embarked on a disturbing purge of basically anyone rumored to have even looked at him the wrong way. Last week, acting national intelligence director Joseph Maguire was ousted for the crime of briefing lawmakers on Russia’s attempts to meddle in the 2020 election, replaced by loyalist Richard Grenell, who, by all accounts has approximately zero relevant experience. Before that, decorated war veteran Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who cooperated with the impeachment investigation, was escorted out of the building and reassigned. U.S. attorney Jessie Liu was removed from the Andrew McCabe case and had her nomination for a top treasury role withdrawn. And there’s apparently going to be plenty more where that came from.

Axios’s Jonathan Swan reports the White House and its allies have assembled “detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust—and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them.” These lists, created by a network of conservative activists called Groundswell that include Republican Senate staffer Barbara Ledeen and Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, have made their way to Trump and shaped his views re: who he can trust and who should be canned. For instance, a memo on Liu, reportedly reviewed by Trump shortly before her nomination was withdrawn, laid out 14 reasons why she was unfit for the Treasury job Steven Mnuchin had selected her for and included the fact that she: hadn’t acted on criminal referrals of some of Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers; signed a sentencing filing asking for jail time for Michael Flynn (who, incidentally, pleaded guilty twice); held a leadership role in a networking group the memo criticized as “pro-choice and anti-[Samuel] Alito”; didn’t indict former deputy FBI director and Trump enemy Andrew McCabe; and dismissed charges against supposedly “violent inauguration protesters who plotted to disrupt the inauguration,” as in the one the administration has been lying about for more than three years now.

Another terrifying memo written by Groundswell included a list of suggested hires rejected by the presidential personnel office—before it was being manned by John McEntee, the 29-year-old body man fired in 2018—that the president “may revisit some given his current mood.” Among the hires: Fox News regular Dan Bongino for a counterterrorism or Homeland Security role; Devin Nunes aide Derek Harvey for the National Security Council; radio talk show host Chris Plante for press secretary; Federalist contributor Ben Weingarten for the National Security Council; and Sheriff David Clarke—who has suggested suspending habeas corpus and called Black Lives Matter activists “subhuman creeps”—for a senior Homeland Security gig. And the fun doesn’t stop there!