The moment was easy to miss: Donald Trump basking in the roar of Republican applause, Democrats holding protest signs aloft, and beside him a vice-presidential hopeful bending toward the House Speaker with a practiced grin. Yet the reported phrase — a “full reckoning” for the president’s enemies — felt like the quiet part finally said out loud in a country already bracing for payback politics. Coming from JD Vance, a man who once likened Trump to history’s darkest figures and now defends him with near-religious zeal, the words carried a special menace.

Set against Trump’s public humiliation of allies, his combative encounter with Zelensky, and accusations that Democrats inspired an assassination attempt, Vance’s aside sounded less like idle bluster than a mission statement. It crystallized a fear many already hold: that the next chapter in American politics won’t be about healing or policy, but about settling scores.