Slotkin Wants Legal Cases to Deter Young People From Trump Jobs

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said at a University of Chicago event on Oct. 13 that she wants a deterrence message aimed at young people weighing jobs in the Trump administration. She was talking about accountability for what she called corruption, and she said Democrats should go after "the people who do his bidding" as well as the president.

Slotkin said during a live recording of Vox's "America, Actually!" podcast with Vox editorial director Astead Herndon that Democrats should pursue "signature cases and not just focus on the president, but on the people who enabled him." She continued: "I want young people coming out of school to say, 'Should I go work for the Trump administration?' Like, 'That sounds fun. I might get an opportunity.' I want them to be like, 'Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don't want. And so, let me avoid participating in that. I want that deterrence message sent.'"

Earlier in the conversation, she said Democrats "have to pick signature cases and you have to go after people and projects that are just super egregious." She gave the East Wing of the White House as an example, saying people feel that "in a way that's different from a nameless contract at the Pentagon." "Not just Trump, right?" she said, adding that the people around him "doing his bidding and enabling this have no such immunity."

A clip of the deterrence remarks circulated on X from the @ThinkerChicago account, which presented them as an effort to scare young conservatives away from politics. Slotkin did not use the word conservatives in the portions of the remarks WECU News read. WECU News did not find a response from her office.

The Carnegie speech

The Chicago remarks follow a Sept. 30 speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, after a trip to Poland and Hungary. Slotkin listed three priorities for a future Democratic Congress: show that government can work in concrete ways, accountability, and "Trump-proof the government." On accountability, she pointed to Poland. "In Poland, they called this plan the Iron Broom, cleaning the place up," she said, according to her prepared remarks.

"The goal here is to have a list of 'signature cases' that go after some of the most obvious and harmful abuses of taxpayer dollars," she said, according to Michigan Public.

The officials she named

Slotkin named three people, each in an "if" sentence. "If Kristi Noem steered two hundred million in taxpayer dollars to a friend's company to make her ads, she should be held accountable." "If Doug Burgum gave a thirteen-million-dollar no-bid contract for the Reflecting Pool that backfired immediately, he should be held accountable." And "if Jeanine Pirro used the DOJ to go after the President's enemies, including me, she should be held accountable and she should lose her law license."

She added that "abusing taxpayer money for personal and political gain can land you a sentence of up to twenty years in prison." She also said "retribution cannot be the only thing citizens see after the election." The word prosecution does not appear in the prepared text.

Her own case

Slotkin has a personal stake. In November 2025, she and five other Democratic lawmakers released a video reminding service members they can refuse illegal orders. President Trump called it "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR" and suggested in a post that it was "punishable by DEATH." In February, a grand jury declined to indict the six lawmakers after a push by Pirro, according to news reports and Slotkin. "In February of 2026, he took me to the grand jury in an attempt to criminally indict me," Slotkin said at Carnegie, referring to Trump.

What is not clear

Slotkin's named examples at Carnegie were senior officials, and each was conditional on an allegation being true. In Chicago, she did not say who beyond "the people who do his bidding" would face cases, or whether junior staff would. Critics, including the account that posted the clip, describe the idea as an effort to scare young conservatives. Slotkin's own framing at Carnegie is accountability for abuses of taxpayer money, alongside her statement that retribution cannot be all voters see.

Sources:

Sen. Slotkin, remarks as prepared for the Carnegie Endowment (Sept. 30, 2026), PDF on slotkin.senate.gov. Primary document; as prepared, so delivered wording may differ. Read via excerpts.

Office of Sen. Slotkin, press release on the Carnegie speech (Sept. 30, 2026). Primary document.

Carnegie Endowment, event page for the Slotkin-Applebaum conversation (Sept. 30, 2026).

Chicago Maroon (Oct. 15, 2026), report on the Oct. 13 Institute of Politics event. Date, venue and format.

Mediaite (Oct. 18, 2026). Transcription of Slotkin's Chicago remarks; secondhand, video not watched.

Breitbart (Oct. 17, 2026). Transcription of the deterrence quote and the source of the @ThinkerChicago claim; partisan outlet, secondhand.

Michigan Public (Sept. 30, 2026), coverage of the Carnegie speech. Used to cross-check quotes.

News report on the grand jury and Trump's November posts (Yahoo-syndicated, Feb. 2026). Secondhand; original outlet not confirmed.