# Lock Her Up "Lock her up" is the Trump 2016 campaign chant — originally directed at [[Hillary Clinton]] in connection with her use of a private email server while Secretary of State — that subsequently expanded as MAGA-coalition standard rhetorical-vocabulary directed at multiple political-opponents across the 2016-present period. The principal documented mass-event coinage was at the [[2016 Republican National Convention]] (July 18-21, 2016, Cleveland, Ohio), particularly [[Michael Flynn]]'s July 18 speech in which he substantially-led the chant from the convention podium; the chant subsequently became standard rhetorical-vocabulary at Trump rallies through the 2016 campaign, the 2020 campaign, the 2024 campaign, and the second-Trump-administration period. The chant operates as the **criminalize-the-political-opponent rhetorical mode**: rather than treating opposition as legitimate political contestation, treating opposition as criminal-activity warranting incarceration. The chant has been *expanded* across the 2016-present period to target additional opponents: "Lock him up" directed at [[Joe Biden]], [[James Comey]], Anthony Fauci, and multiple other figures; "Lock them up" directed at the [[January 6 Select Committee]] members, the Mueller team, FBI agents, and adjacent groups; the broader criminalize-the-opposition rhetorical-mode operates substantially across the contemporary MAGA-coalition rhetorical-infrastructure. The word's analytical interest is the chant's **operational transition** — from 2016 campaign-rhetoric-only into political-prosecution-policy under the second Trump administration. The [[Comey Indictment]] (substantively-charged former FBI Director James Comey on charges substantially-aligned with the "lock him up" rhetoric directed at him during the first Trump administration), the [[SPLC Federal Indictment]] (substantively-charged the SPLC under federal authorities substantially-aligned with the "lock them up" rhetoric directed at progressive civil-liberties infrastructure), and adjacent contemporary federal-prosecution actions collectively constitute the operational transition. The chant has become operational-political-policy. Tracking the transition is essential to understanding the contemporary [[Trump Retribution Doctrine]] operationalization. ## Operational Function **Coalition-emotional unification.** The chant operates as shared rhetorical-emotional commitment unifying MAGA-coalition factions around the criminalization-of-opposition political-affect. The chant's *participatory* character (it operates as call-and-response at rallies) substantially-distinguishes it from other MAGA rhetorical-vocabulary items — participants are not merely *hearing* the rhetoric but *enacting* it through participatory performance. **Permission-structure for prosecutorial-political-targeting.** The chant substantially-pre-authorizes subsequent prosecutorial-political-targeting actions. The 2016-2020 period saw substantial Trump-administration rhetorical-deployment of "lock her up" without corresponding prosecutorial-action against Clinton; the second-Trump-administration has substantially-operationalized the rhetorical-deployment into prosecutorial-action. The chant's rhetorical-establishment provided the permission-structure for the subsequent operational-implementation. **Criminalize-opposition mode normalization.** The chant's persistence across approximately a decade of MAGA-coalition rhetorical-deployment has substantially-normalized the criminalize-opposition rhetorical-mode within mainstream U.S. political-discourse. The normalization extends beyond the original Clinton-target to multiple opponents and substantially-beyond Republican-aligned populations to mainstream-discourse normalization of the rhetorical-mode itself. **Authoritarian-precedent vocabulary.** The chant operates within the historical-comparative authoritarian-political-leadership rhetorical-tradition of criminalize-opposition mass-political-events. The comparative-political-science literature treats criminalize-opposition rhetorical-mass-events as one of the principal rhetorical-political markers of incipient-authoritarian regime-development. Tracking the chant within this comparative-historical framework is one of the principal analytical-political-science applications. ## Expansion Trajectory The chant's *target-expansion* trajectory across the 2016-present period: - *2016:* Principally directed at Hillary Clinton in connection with FBI investigation of her private-email-server use - *2017-2020 (first Trump administration):* Expanded to James Comey, [[Andrew McCabe]], the Strzok-Page-FBI-personnel cluster, the broader Mueller-investigation-personnel; expanded to medical-public-health officials including Anthony Fauci during COVID-19 period; expanded to [[Adam Schiff]] and the broader Trump-impeachment-1 leadership; expanded to [[Nancy Pelosi]] - *2020-2021 election period:* Expanded to election-officials including [[Brad Raffensperger]], [[Brian Kemp]], Christopher Krebs, Bill Barr, and adjacent Republican-aligned officials who substantially-rejected Trump's election-subversion attempts - *2021-2024:* Expanded to January 6 Select Committee members ([[Bennie Thompson]], [[Liz Cheney]], [[Adam Kinzinger]], [[Jamie Raskin]], and adjacent members), [[Jack Smith]] and the special-counsel investigation personnel, multiple state-prosecutor officials including Fani Willis (Fulton County DA) and Letitia James (NY Attorney General) - *2025-present (second Trump administration):* Operational transition into federal-prosecution actions The target-expansion is itself documentary record of the chant's operational-evolution from 2016-campaign-rhetoric to broader contemporary political-prosecution-policy. ## Why It Matters for the KB **Operational-transition documentary case.** The chant's transition from 2016 campaign-rhetoric to operational political-prosecution-policy under the second Trump administration is one of the principal documentary cases of populist-political-rhetoric becoming operational-political-policy. Tracking the transition is essential to understanding the broader [[Trump Retribution Doctrine]] operationalization. **MAGA-coalition rhetorical-infrastructure analytical resource.** The chant is one of the principal standard MAGA-coalition rhetorical-vocabulary items. Tracking the chant's deployment-and-expansion is useful for understanding the broader MAGA-coalition rhetorical-infrastructure. **Authoritarian-vocabulary historical-comparative documentary resource.** The chant operates within the historical-comparative authoritarian-political-leadership rhetorical-tradition. Tracking the chant within comparative-political-science frameworks for analyzing incipient-authoritarian regime-development is one of the principal analytical applications. **Permission-structure analytical resource.** The chant operates as permission-structure for subsequent prosecutorial-political-targeting actions. Tracking the permission-structure dynamic provides analytical-vocabulary for understanding how political-rhetorical infrastructure pre-authorizes subsequent operational-political-action. ## See Also - [[Trump Retribution Doctrine]] — the contemporary political-targeting framework - [[NSPM-7 Domestic Terrorism Framework]] — adjacent contemporary domestic-political-targeting framework - [[Domestic Terrorism Framing]] — adjacent contemporary criminalize-opposition framework - [[Comey Indictment]] — operational-transition case-event - [[SPLC Federal Indictment]] — operational-transition case-event - [[MAGA]] — the coalition-context - [[Drain the Swamp]] — adjacent MAGA-coalition rhetorical-vocabulary - [[The Regime]] — adjacent right-coded establishment-vocabulary