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In recent remarks, the former president has pledged to pulverize his opponents if he reenters the Oval Office. In an interview last week on Univision, for instance, he spoke of deploying the FBI and Justice Department against political rivals in retaliation for their alleged persecution of him.

“If I happen to be president, and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them,’” he said. “They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election.”

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A few days later, in a Veterans Day address, he vowed as president to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascist and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” This was no heat-of-the-moment slip; he blasted out the same phrasing on social media, too.

This rhetoric would be horrifying even if one didn’t interpret it literally, given the history of authoritarian leaders who have compared disfavored groups to “vermin.” And it can be genuinely hard to know whether it’s useful to amplify such ugliness, since Trump thrives on attention.

But voters deserve to know what Trump intends to accomplish in a second term. These words are not idle threats or “locker-room talk.” They are campaign promises and should be treated as such.

How do we know? Look at the track record from the last time he was president.

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Earlier this year, in a sworn statement, Trump’s former chief of staff John F. Kelly said his boss had discussed having the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies harass two of the FBI officials who had investigated ties between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

Separately, Kelly also told the New York Times that Trump wanted to have other perceived enemies audited or investigated as well, including former CIA director John Brennan, Hillary Clinton, and Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos. Kelly said he did not cooperate. (Trump has since told advisers of plans to sic the Justice Department upon Kelly himself, The Post recently reported.)

Trump also frequently deployed economic and regulatory powers against businesses deemed insufficiently loyal.

For example, his administration launched a bogus antitrust investigation into some of the auto companies when they did not support his rollback of fuel-efficiency standards. He likewise reportedly instructed his top economic aide to interfere with the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, as........

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