One of the prevailing criticisms of President Donald Trump (as if we didn’t already have enough) is that he is dangerously vengeful, obsessively seeking — and acting on — opportunities to punish his political enemies for past transgressions.

The most recent example: Last week, former FBI Director James Comey posted on social media a photo of seashells arranged on a beach to form the numbers 86 47 — immediately interpreted by many, including Trump himself, as a call to “86” (get rid of) our 47th president.

A not-so-veiled assassination threat? Trump supporters and conservative media think so and are demanding Comey’s head. And of course, the Left dismisses that reaction as ridiculous — for Pete’s sake, we’re talking about seashells on a beach! Reportedly, the Secret Service and the FBI are on the case.

As of this writing, there’s no telling where this matter will go. But it’s a sign of the times and certainly won’t be the last.

In my view, it’s truly rich that Democrats — having orchestrated the most extreme, multifaceted assault on an election opponent in American political history — are now outraged that their target might actually be in the mood to exact some revenge. Theirs was no ordinary political oppo stuff. The Democrat 2024 election strategy to retain the White House was to run against Donald Trump (whom they presumed to be the most beatable of GOP opponents) and to hedge their bet by rendering him so badly damaged (hopefully a convicted felon headed for jail) that no one in their right mind would ever vote for him. They did their best to ruin him personally, financially, and politically.

That strategy failed spectacularly, but along the way it did great harm, and it surely served as inspiration for at least two assassination attempts — one missing by millimeters. We’d be hard pressed to find any human being on the receiving end of such treatment — let alone the volatile, combative Donald Trump — who would not be itching to strike back at his tormentors.

Some argue that Trump promised his supporters that he would do so, telling them several times during his presidential campaign that “I am your retribution.” But those words are open to interpretation. Trump’s much clearer and oft-repeated statement of intent was that “the best retribution is success.” That’s the high road — and if he can stick to it, we’ll be fine.

Is that the road he is taking? Search the Internet and you will find dozens of assertions that much of the Trump presidential agenda is built around retribution, including such actions as pardoning the J6 participants (a slap in the face to the Biden administration DOJ), DOGE (a means to terminate his “deep state” villains), and mass deportations of illegal aliens (ruining the lives of resident immigrants for political advantage and to show up his predecessor).

Hogwash. As always, there are pros and cons in each case — but by and large, these are actions Trump had promised to take, and arguably the ones that won him the election.

But there are other matters that are surefire political ratholes to which the president should give wide berth. The Comey shells-on-a-beach matter is one. James Comey is an unrepentant, hardcore Trump hater. He had a lead role in the two-year Russia collusion wild goose chase that severely hampered Trump’s first presidential term. I’ve no doubt that he was well aware of the impropriety of his “86 47” social media post. He may have arranged those seashells himself.

No matter. There’s an enormous gap between shells on a beach and an assassin pulling a trigger. An attempt by the DOJ to prosecute Comey for threatening the assassination of the U.S. president would fail dismally and would remind the public of the similarly unconscionable weaponization of the DOJ under Joe Biden. Let it go.

Another red-hot trend these days is the surge of public interest (prompted by new books by CNN’s Jake Tapper and others) in President Biden’s cognitive decline during his term in office and its myriad implications. Suddenly, we all want to know who saw it firsthand, who covered it up, who failed to report it objectively, who was actually running the government during those years, and why no responsible officials invoked the 25th Amendment (which was adopted expressly for that situation).

This is a huge story with very real consequences and critically important lessons for our nation. It is becoming increasingly clear that with an incapacitated president at the helm, our nation was effectively rudderless during very dangerous times. We dodged a bullet (maybe a nuclear detonation) — we must get to the bottom of how that happened in a very public way.

But to my mind, prosecuting anyone involved in that debacle would be a loser. The matter could never be resolved in a criminal courtroom because there is no way to definitively unpack individual intentions. Any effort to do so via prosecution would become intensely political and counterproductive. On this one, our best course is to keep to the high road, dig deep, learn and fix, and then move on.

On the other hand, a thorough cleanup, rebuild, and refocus of the DOJ — including replacement of DOJ leadership, staff, consulting contractors, and law firms that were willful participants in the lawfare debacle — may look and feel like retribution, but it is sensible and necessary. That was the stuff of banana republics, and we cannot tolerate a recurrence. Undoing the mess won’t be pretty. In some respects, it might look vindictive. Too bad — it must be done.

Trump got it right — the best retribution is success. My advice to the boss: Steer clear of the political cesspools, but otherwise keep doing what you need to do and don’t worry about who complains.