Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes

This is the fifth in a series of lists. Commit to vote here.

Various writers have compiled this list during the course of the Trump administration. Their work has been guided by invaluable journalistic resources, including WTFJHT, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other sources, to whom we are grateful.

ATROCITY KEY

– Sexual Misconduct & Harassment
– White Supremacy
– Public Statements / Tweets
– Collusion with Russia & Obstruction of Justice
– Trump Staff /Administration
– Trump Family Business Dealings
– Policy
– Environment

NOVEMBER 2017

1. – November 2, 2017 – Donald Trump’s nomination for chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture, Sam Clovis, announced he would bow out of consideration for the position due to concerns about “political climate inside Washington.” Clovis had recently been swept up in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which had turned its attention to Clovis’s contacts with Russia during his time as a Trump campaign aid. Clovis had hired George Papadopoulos to the Trump campaign, and was likely implicated when Papadopoulos admitted he had spoken with Russian entities about the Clinton campaign. Outside of the investigation into his relationship with Russia, Clovis almost no scientific experience. Prior to joining the Trump campaign as co-chair, Clovis had taught Business Administration and policy at Morningside College in Iowa.
   
   
2. – November 2, 2017 – In a statement during the NBC television program Meet the Press, Energy Secretary Rick Perry seemed to suggest that fossil fuels could lower rates of sexual assault. Perry asserted that Africa lacked access to electric light, and said, “But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts. [sic]”
   
   
3. – November 2, 2017 – When asked about the many vacant leadership positions in the State Department, Donald Trump replied, “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be. You’ve seen that, you’ve seen it strongly." By November of his first year, Trump had yet to hire 75 percent of the State Department positions that require Senate approval.
   
   
4. – November 7, 2017 – Syria signed the Paris Agreement, an international accord to globally address climate change. This left the United States as the only country in the world to not agree to the environmental pact, after Donald Trump had withdrawn earlier in the year.
   
   
5. – November 8, 2017 – Donald Trump appointed Eric Trump’s brother-in-law to be the chief of staff for the Department of Energy.
   
   
6. – November 8, 2017 – Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his election to the presidency by tweeting about his victory. Below a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up, Trump wrote, “Congratulations to all of the “DEPLORABLES” and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory!”
   
   
7. – November 9, 2017 – The US Foreign Service lost an unprecedented number of diplomats during Trump’s first year in office. Three of the Foreign Service’s five career diplomats—the highest rank for a diplomat in the U.S.—left their post during Donald Trump’s first year. On the level below career diplomat, career ministers, 14 of the active 33 submitted resignations. Beyond the mass departures at their highest levels, the Foreign Service has also reported a steep drop-off in the number of young people joining the diplomatic ranks. In 2015, over 17,000 people applied to enter the foreign service; in 2017, that number had been cut in half.
   
   
8. – November 9, 2017 – While in Asia, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Elaine Duke, the acting head of the Department Homeland Security, to pressure her into denying residency permits for tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the U.S. Duke refused Kelly’s request and granted the permits anyway, making the decision based on her interpretation of what was in line with the United States law. One DHS official familiar with the situation said, “She was angry. To get a call like that from Asia, after she’d already made the decision, was a slap in the face.”
   
   
9. – November 11, 2017 – Despite escalating tensions with North Korea, Donald Trump tweeted, “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!”
   
   
10. – November 15, 2017 – After a mass shooting in northern California, Donald Trump appeared to copy-and-paste an earlier tweet from a different attack and forgot to change the city. Though the shooting occurred in Rancho Tehama, California, Trump tweeted, “May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived.”
    The Sutherland shooting had occurred one week earlier. In his condolence tweet for the Sutherland attack, Trump tweeted, “May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene.”
    
    
11. – November 16, 2017 – After the public revelation of former senator Al Franken’s sexual assault scandal, wherein Franken was photographed groping a female soldier, Trump tweeted, “The Al Frankenstien [sic] picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? …..” Trump has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct and assault.
    
    
12. – November 16, 2017 – The Trump administration denied a large number of applications from prospective Dreamers on the grounds that they were “late.” At least 20 of these applications arrived in time and were ignored as they sat in the mailbox for processing. After reporting by The New York Times and Vox on the issue, the Trump administration announced they would reverse their verdict and consider these applications.
    
    
13. – November 17, 2017 – The FCC announced it would repeal 42-year-old regulations that limited media mergers and prevented media conglomerates from growing too powerful. The repeal came at a convenient time for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative pro-Trump media group that is already the largest broadcasting company in America. Sinclair had been trying to buy Tribune Media for some time, but, in order to do so under FCC law, would need to divest a sizable share of its local news channels. With the FCC’s update to Ownership regulations, Sinclair’s hurdles disappeared. As of August, Sinclair’s television broadcasts already reached 72 percent of American homes.
    
    
14. – November 17, 2017 – The Keystone Pipeline, which is the sister project of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline approved by President Trump, spilled 210,000 gallons of oil near the border of South Dakota and North Dakota. The oil spill resurrected concerns about the environmental impact of the new XL pipeline, which had been the subject of fervent protest before Trump decided to greenlight the project.
    
    
15. – November 18, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” In the first year of his presidency, Trump tweeted about Hillary Clinton 77 times, an average of once every 4.7 days.
    
    
16. – November 19, 2017 – Donald Trump publicly feuded with LaVar Ball, who is the father of a UCLA basketball player, after Ball’s son was arrested for shoplifting in China during a team trip. Trump reportedly called Chinese President Xi Jin Ping and requested LaVar Ball’s son’s release. Ball disparaged Trump’s role in freeing his son, saying, “Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.” Trump retaliated over Twitter, writing, “Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”
    
    
17. – November 20, 2017 – The Trump administration chose to end the Temporary Protected Status program for 59,000 Haitians, forcing them to leave the United States by July 2019 or face deportation. After the Haitian earthquake in 2010, millions of Haitians lost their homes. A massive outbreak of Cholera endangered hundreds of thousands more during recovery from the hurricane. In 2011, the Obama administration deemed the situation in Haiti precarious enough to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitians staying in the U.S., allowing these Haitian citizens to live in the U.S. while conditions remained dangerous in their homeland. Obama renewed their TPS status multiple times during his time in office, through his final year when Hurricane Matthew decimated the island again. After Trump decided to end the Temporary Protected Status program in his first year, Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote over Twitter, “I traveled to #Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and after hurricane Matthew in 2016. So I can personally attest that #Haiti is not prepared to take back nearly 60,000 #TPS recipients under these difficult and harsh conditions.”
    
    
18. – November 20, 2017 – “Donald Trump took steps to close his charitable organization one year after he had promised he would. The organization explained that they could not shut earlier because they were technically still under investigation for “self-dealing”—a prohibited practice where the owner of a charitable organization secretly funnel money from the charity into their own bank account. Trump violated this rule in 2015.
    
    
19. – November 24, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Time magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man (Person) of the Year,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo-shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!” Time magazine eventually awarded Person of the Year to the women of the #MeToo movement.
    
    
20. – November 27, 2017 – At a speech to Native American veterans of World War II, Donald Trump digressed to reference Elizabeth Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry, saying to the veterans, “I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’ But you know what, I like you because you are special. You are special people.”
    
    
21. – November 27, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”
    
    
22. – November 29, 2017 – Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the ultranationalist hate group Britain First. Fransen, who has a long history of posting Islamophobic content on social media, was found guilty in 2016 for aggravated harassment of a Muslim woman. In response to one of the videos, “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches,” the Dutch embassy in Washington tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump Facts do matter. The perpetrator of the violent acts was born and raised in the Netherlands.” U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May joined worldwide condemnation of Trump’s retweets, saying, “It is wrong for the president to have done this” and explaining Britain First spreads “hate-filled narratives to peddle lies and stoke tensions.”
    
    
23. – November 29, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted about the Republican tax bill, saying, “The only people who don’t like the Tax Cut Bill are the people that don’t understand it or the Obstructionist Democrats that know how really good it is and do not want the credit and success to go to the Republicans!” He had cited the tax bill as a way to “RESTORE AMERICAN PROSPERITY – and RECLAIM AMERICA’S DESTINY” in another tweet on the same day. The Senate’s tax bill will not benefit the majority of Americans and provides massive tax cuts to the wealthy.
    
    
24. - November, 2017 – As of November 2017, Donald Trump was confirmed to have played golf 35 times. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Trump repeatedly chastised Obama for playing golf. At the same point in his presidency, Barack Obama had played 11 times.
    
    
25. – November, 2017 – After CNN published a report on the Libyan slave trade in November, media outlets in Libya doubted the authenticity of CNN’s reporting, calling on CNN’s reputation for reporting “fake news.” This marked a growing global trend whereupon one of Donald Trump’s frequent catchphrases has caught on and been used as a defense against negative press coverage elsewhere in the world.
    
    
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    DECEMBER 2017

26. – December 4, 2017 – Following allegations that Roy Moore, a candidate for Alabama senator, had sexually abused teenage girls, Donald Trump endorsed Moore’s campaign for Senate.
    
    
27. – December 6, 2017 – Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to move the US Embassy to the holy city. Admonitions immediately sprung up from around the international diplomatic community. The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said peace in the region was extremely precarious, adding, “We believe that any action that would undermine these efforts must absolutely be avoided.”
    
    
28. – December 13, 2017 – White House adviser Omarosa Manigault-Newman left her position in Donald Trump’s administration, amid a swirl of speculation about the cause for her departure. She later said, “It has been very, very challenging being the only African American woman in the senior staff.”
    
    
29. – December 13, 2017 – Donald Trump retaliated over Twitter when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand spoke out on behalf of the women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. Trump tweeted: “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”
    
    
30. – December 14, 2017 – Led by Donald Trump appointee and former Verizon Counsel Ajit Pai, the FCC voted to repeal net-neutrality regulations.
    
    
31. – December 14, 2017 – For all official documents, staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the terms “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” or “science-based.”
    
    
32. – December 20, 2017 – As of December 20, 2017, Donald Trump had tweeted about “fake news” or “fake media” 176 times—roughly once every two days for a year.
    
    
33. – December 22, 2017 – Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law. The legislation, which costs $1.5 trillion, cut the corporate tax rate to its lowest point since 1939, temporarily lowered tax rates for individuals, and repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. While economists were split, often along party lines, about the effect of the tax cut, Goldman Sachs’ chief United States political economist, Alec Phillips, said, “We note the effect in 2020 and beyond looks to be minimal and could actually be slightly negative.”
    
    
34. – December 23, 2017 – Trump renewed leases for copper and nickel mining next to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, a protected wilderness area. The wilderness contains over 100 species of birds and an active fishery, and, in a finding last year, the Department of the Interior concluded mining could cause “serious and irreplaceable harm.” Various parties with interests in the mining leases had been actively lobbying Trump administration officials. Shortly after Trump took office, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with lobbyists from Twin City Metals—a subsidiary of the Chilean mining company Antofagasta PLC. Andronico Luksic, a lead executive at Antofagasta PLC, also rents a home in Washington D.C. to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
    
    
35. – December 27, 2017 – On December 27, 2017, Donald Trump stated that he had signed more legislation than any president since Truman. Almost the opposite is true, according to public record. Through his inaugural year, Trump has signed the fewest pieces of legislation for any president since Eisenhower.
    
    
36. – December 28, 2017 – With an uptick in cold temperatures on the east coast during December 2017, Donald Trump tweeted the U.S. could “use some good old global warming.” Trump has repeatedly misunderstood the difference between “weather” and “climate.”
    
    
37. – December 28, 2017 – Trump rolled back offshore drilling regulations put in place after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill which, in 2010, had killed 11 people and released millions of barrels of oil into the ocean. It’s estimated Trump’s decision to eliminate the regulations will save drilling companies $288 million over the next decade.
    
    
38. – December 29, 2017 – In 2017, Donald Trump spent nearly one-third of his time in office at a property that bears his name or that his company owns.
    
    
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    JANUARY 2018

39. – January 1, 2018 – Representative Devin Nunes sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein indicating that the House Intelligence Committee would be expanding its investigation to include the Justice Department’s handling of the Russia investigation. Nunes’s announcement included a request for access to the documents of the ongoing investigation. This statement arrived about one month before the release of the infamous Nunes Memo, and was likely a precursor to its release.
    
    
40. – January 2, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
    
    
41. – January 2, 2018 – After months of lambasting journalists and attacking the press as “fake news,” Donald Trump tweeted to announce “THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR,” where “subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media.”
    
    
42. – January 4, 2018 – The Trump administration drafted a proposal to open 94% of previously protected American shorelines to offshore drilling. The plan, entitled the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program, would distribute the first drilling leases for the California coast in 49 years, while also adding nearly a billion acres of new drilling area in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard. Trump’s plan would be the single largest expansion of offshore drilling in American history. The Obama administration had spent about five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to lay down protections for the Arctic and Atlantic Seaboards in 2015 and 2016. Of the 22 governors representing coastal states effected by the new proposal, 15 of them disagreed with the president’s plan to open drilling (1/3 of these dissenting governors were from the Republican party). In an article on the threat the new drilling would pose to the environment and marine wildlife, the Director for Federal Affairs at the National Resources Defense Council called Trump’s proposal, “the most extreme fossil fuel assault on our nation’s public oceans—ever.”
    
    
43. – January 4, 2018 – Donald Trump dissolved his commission on voter fraud in the 2016 election. The commission found no verifiable evidence of voter fraud.
    
    
44. – January 8, 2018 – A study by Factbase’s Bill Frischling found that Donald Trump speaks at a fourth-grade level. After evaluating Trump’s speech patterns and vocabulary on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale, Factbase determined Trump communicates at the lowest level of any president since Herbert Hoover. (Herbert Hoover actually spoke at an eleventh-grade level; Factbase’s study didn’t analyze any president from before 1929.) The fourth-grade competency discovered by Frischling resonated with another review nearly three years earlier conducted by the Boston Globe. The Globe had analyzed the verbal fluency of all presidential candidates based on their statements during presidential debates. Their review determined Trump’s language was the least sophisticated of all 19 candidates—including both Democrats and Republicans. Mirroring the results of the Factbase study in 2018, Trump’s verbal fluency during 2015 presidential debates equaled that of a fourth grader.
    
    
45. – January 11, 2018 – According to an account of an immigration meeting with members of Congress, Donald Trump allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and nations in Africa as “shithole countries.” In regard to the 60,000 Haitian immigrants sheltered in America following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Trump purportedly said, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?” Trump followed this saying that the U.S. should admit more people from places like Norway, and that he would accept more Asian immigrants because he believed them to be beneficial to the economy.
    
    
46. – January 14, 2018 – Taylor Weyeneth, a 24 year-old whose only professional experience after college was as a staffer for the Trump campaign, was assigned the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The agency helps lead anti-drug campaigns for the federal government, which include the herculean task of addressing the American opioid epidemic. After the chief of staff for the ONDCP left the agency, the director of the agency announced in a memo that the chief of staff’s duties would fall to Wyeneth and himself.
    
    
47. – January 16, 2018 – The Daily Stormer, a virulent white supremacist website, wrote that they found Trump’s policies “encouraging and refreshing,” and “Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regard to race and immigration.”
    
    
48. – January 17, 2018 – In January of 2018, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels announced that she had an affair with Donald Trump in July of 2006 after a celebrity golf tournament. Just four months before Trump’s infidelity with the porn star, President Trump’s wife Melania had given birth to Barron Trump. Daniels said she and Trump met several times after their first encounter. Then, a few weeks before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s lawyer paid Daniels a sum of $130,000 to keep her affair with Trump from public knowledge.
    
    
49. – January 18, 2018 – Donald Trump appointee Carl Higbie, Chief of External Affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service, resigned after racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBT comments he made on the radio surfaced due to reporting from CNN’s KFile. Higbie had said, “I’m not afraid of [Muslim people]. I don’t like them. Big difference,” and, “the black race” had “lax” morals.
    
    
50. – January 18, 2018 – The Department of Health and Human Service opened the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, which had the stated goal of protecting doctors who cited religious objections against providing their patients with medical care.
    
    
51. – January 19, 2018 – Donald Trump’s administration’s turnover rate was setting records. In Trump’s first year in office, 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired, or moved into different positions, according to a report from the Brookings Institution.
    
    
52. – January 20, 2018 – As of January 20, 2018, Donald Trump had spent 94 days as president at one of his golf properties.
    
    
53. – January 25, 2018 – The New York Times reported that Donald Trump had ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller in June 2017. White House counsel Donald McGahn refused to carry out Trump’s order, threatening to step down if the president followed through on it. McGahn disagreed with Trump’s reasoning and worried that firing Mueller would suggest the White House was trying to derail the Russia investigation. After hearing McGahn’s threat to leave, Trump backed off.
    
    
54. – January 29, 2018 – White Supremacist propaganda on college campuses tripled in 2017, according to research conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. These instances varied from hanging banners adorned with swastikas to a full-fledged private speaking event—held on the campus of UC San Diego—called “A Brighter Future” which distributed pamphlets regarding “The Color of Crime” and “Protecting Our Heritage.”
    
    
55. – January 29, 2018 – Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee voted to disclose Representative Devin Nunes’s memo on the purported surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign by the FBI and Department of Justice. Donald Trump Jr. and members of the Trump administration supported the Committee’s decision, while others suggested this was an attempt to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into the collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (See entry 136 for more on the relationship between Nunes and Trump).
    
    
56. – January/February 2018 – Responding to the pending release of the Republican-generated Nunes memo and its alleged revelations about surveillance of the Donald Trump campaign by the FBI, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said, “I think the people at the FBI, at the DOJ need to cleanse their own house if there are problems in their own house,” claiming that, “there’s a very legitimate issue here as to whether or not an American’s civil liberties were violated in the FISA process. Members of the Trump administration like Donald Trump Jr. also spoke to the memo’s allegations of FBI wrongdoing, later calling its release “sweet revenge” for the Trump family.
    
    
57. – January 30, 2018 – Donald Trump’s appointee for Director of the CDC, Brenda Fitzgerald, was found to have personally profited from investments in the tobacco industry.
    
    
58. – January 31, 2018 – Donald Trump’s first State of the Union Address received public praise from known white supremacists like David Duke and Richard Spencer. Following the speech, Spencer tweeted, “Trump said that he wants to maintain the “nuclear family” by ending chain migration. Basically, he’s implying the superiority of the Prostestent [sic] “wife and kids” over the South American and African extended family. Interesting rhetoric.”
    
    
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    FEBRUARY 2018

59. – February 2, 2018 – Donald Trump declassified and publicly released the Nunes memo, despite the FBI’s “grave concerns” over its contents. Members of Congress argued this was an effort on behalf of Trump to undermine the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.
    
    
60. – February 3, 2018 – Referring to the Nunes memo, Donald Trump tweeted, “This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!” Republican and Democratic lawmakers disagreed.
    
    
61. – February 5, 2018 – During a speech at a factory in Ohio, Trump wondered aloud whether Democrats had committed treason against the United States for withholding their applause during his State of the Union Address. “Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”
    
    
62. – February 6, 2018 – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested climate change could be beneficial for humans.
    
    
63. – February 6, 2018 – In response to Hurricane Maria, the Trump administration awarded a $156 million contract to Tribute Contracting LLC to provide 18.5 million emergency meals to victims of the hurricane. By the deadline, just 50,000 meals had been delivered to Puerto Rico.
    
    
64. – February 8, 2018 – White House staff secretary Rob Porter was forced to resign amid credible allegations of domestic abuse. Both White House Counsel Donald McGahn and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly were reported to have known about the allegations for months.
    
    
65. – February 8, 2018 – The Department of Homeland Security drafted rule changes to immigration statutes, allowing the DHS to review whether applicants for U.S. immigration may need support from federal benefits. These statutes protect new arrivals to the country that may need non-cash benefits like Head Start, which gives low-income children access to early education. These non-discrimination rules have been in place for nearly 20 years.
    
    
66. – February 9, 2018 – Trump renewed a law that he himself had repealed one year earlier. In March of 2017, during a mad-dash to repeal as much Obama legislation as possible with the Congressional Review Act, the Trump administration eliminated a rule which allowed employers to randomly drug-test workers who received unemployment insurance. In 2018, almost exactly one year after the initial repeal, Trump renewed the law with even broader powers for employers to randomly drug-test their employees.
    
    
67. – February 9, 2018 – The U.S. Government shut down for five hours amid disagreements on a spending bill that was proposed by Senate Republicans and backed by Donald Trump. The shutdown was so unexpected that the Department of Management and Budget didn’t start warning agencies to prepare for it until hours before it happened. This was the second time in two weeks that the government had shut down.
    
    
68. – February 10, 2018 – Rachel L. Brand resigned from the Justice Department. Brand’s position was one step behind Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Brand’s replacement—who may be appointed to the position for up to 210 days by Donald Trump (without direct Senate confirmation)—will take charge of the Russia investigation if Rod Rosenstein leaves his position.
    
    
69. – February 12, 2018 – The Department of Education announced it would no longer investigate claims of discrimination from transgender students regarding bathrooms in schools.
    
    
70. – February 12, 2018 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions called sheriffs a critical part of “Anglo-American heritage.” While speaking to the National Sheriff’s Association, Sessions reaffirmed his commitment to helping them remain strong. “We must never erode this historic office," Sessions said, “I know this, you know this. We want to be partners, we don’t want to be bosses. We want to strengthen you and help you be more effective in your work.”
    
    
71. – February 12, 2018 – In an interview for a Las Vegas local TV station, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt insinuated that global warming might benefit humanity. “Is it an existential threat? Is it something that is unsustainable, or what kind of effect or harm is this going to have? I mean, we know that humans have most flourished during times of what? Warming trends.” This runs contrary to a library’s worth of reports explaining the dangers of climate change. The U.S. Global Change Research Program said in their National Climate Assessment, “climate change presents a global public health problem, with serious health impacts predicted to manifest in varying ways in different parts of the world."
    
    
72. – February 18, 2018 – In a tweet after the massacre in Parkland, Florida, President Trump said the FBI couldn’t capture the school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on the Russia Investigation. The statement was widely criticized, by everyone from Republican senators to survivors of the massacre. One Parkland student tweeted, “17 OF MY CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS ARE GONE AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE THIS ABOUT RUSSIA???!!”
    
    
73. – February 21, 2018 – The Southern Poverty Law Center tracked a 4 percent increase in the number of hate groups during 2017. These groups represent a diverse set of ideologies, from anti-Muslim white supremacists to black nationalist organizations with hateful views toward LGBT and Jewish communities. The largest growth during Trump’s first year were in neo-Nazi circles; 22 new neo-Nazi chapters assembled across the nation during 2017.
    
    
74. – February 22, 2018 – A Trump-appointed federal judge decided not to recuse himself from a case involving Fusion GPS, the research firm responsible for the controversial Trump dossier. With a line of reasoning that could have far-reaching effects for other Trump appointees, U.S. District Court Trevor McFadden explained his decision to hear the case: “Fusion’s argument that I should look beyond the traditional grounds of disqualification to consider President Trump’s alleged political interests proves too much,” McFadden wrote, “such an argument would lead to the disqualification of numerous judges appointed by the sitting president on a wide range of cases.” As of February 27, 2018, Trump has appointed 20 federal judges, with nominations pending for another 76.
    
    
75. – February 23, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt justified his stance on coal by referencing the Bible. In an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said, “The Biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we’ve been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind.”
    
    
76. – February 27, 2018 – After special counsel Robert Mueller filed 24 charges of tax and bank fraud against him, Richard Gates, the former deputy chairman of Trump’s campaign, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of making a false statement to investigators.
    
    
77. – February 27, 2018 – During a series of raids, Immigration officials arrested 150 people around California’s Bay Area. The arrests come just two days after Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf publicly warned her residents that the raids were imminent. “My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options,” said Schaaf, “It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.” ICE leaders criticized Schaaf’s decision to alert her community to the raids. The conflict between federal immigration forces and local governments underscored an ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and sanctuary cities.
    
    
78. – February 27, 2018 – The Department of Housing and Urban Development planned to spend $31,000 on a dining set for Ben Carson’s office, plus another $165,000 for lounge furniture in their Washington office. The spending came after Donald Trump cut HUD’s annual funding by $6.8 billion.
    
    
79. – February 28, 2018 – Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s communications director and one of his longest-serving aides, resigned the day after she gave hours of testimony to Congress, and had been implicated in the Rob Porter scandal. She was reportedly dating Porter.
    
    
80. – February 28, 2018 – One day after resigning from the White House, former communications director Hope Hicks testified for nine hours in a closed-door session with the House Intelligence Committee. While she insisted in her testimony that she knew nothing about collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, Hicks admitted to telling white lies on behalf of the president.
    
    
81. – February 28, 2018 – Months after series of meetings held in the White House between Jared Kushner and the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a massive wealth management fund, Apollo lent Kushner Companies $184 million dollars to refinance their mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. Earlier last year, Kushner’s firm received an even larger loan of $325 million from Citigroup shortly after Kushner met the CEO of Citigroup at the White House.
    
    
82. – February 28, 2018 – An unidentified entity forged an official nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Donald Trump. This wasn’t the first time such a fraud happened in Trump’s favor. In 2017, an unknown party submitted another forged nomination for the US president. A variety of different people qualify as nominators—from heads of state to political policy academics to previous prize winners—but when the nominator listed on Trump’s forms was contacted about the nomination, they said they had no knowledge of the submission. The police were immediately alerted to the forgeries.
    
    
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    MARCH 2018

83. – March 1, 2018 – The FBI announced it was investigating a Russian oligarch, Alexander Torshin, for funneling money through the National Rifle Association to Donald Trump’s campaign. Torshin, who is the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, carries close interpersonal ties to the Kremlin.
    
    
84. – March 2, 2018 – William G. Otis, Donald Trump’s appointee for the Sentencing Commission, which sets policy for punishing federal prisoners, has favored abolishing the agency. Otis has also written a variety of racially charged statements on subjects ranging from violence to family structure. In one post on the legal blog “Crime and Consequences,” Trump’s new pick for the commission wrote, “When Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones said at a University of Pennsylvania Law School talk that blacks and Hispanics are more violent than whites, a consortium of civil rights organizations filed a complaint. The complaint calls for stern discipline, on the grounds that the remarks were ‘discriminatory and biased.’ …So far as I have been able to discover, it makes no mention of the fact that they’re true.”
    
    
85. – March 3, 2018 – Ignoring advice from his economic advisors, Donald Trump chose to create steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. White House officials said Trump’s decision, which could result in a trade war, was spur-of-the-moment—made without a strategy to alert trade partners, without a legislative plan submitted to Congress, and without any scheduled remarks beyond an email from the Commerce department drafted late at night on February 28th.
    
    
86. – March 3, 2018 – After Chinese President Xi Jinping altered the Chinese constitution to abolish his term limits—allowing him to retain power indefinitely—Donald Trump was recorded in a closed-door meeting as he said, “[Xi’s] now president for life. President for life… I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”
    
    
87. – March 4, 2018 – With midterm elections approaching, the State Department was issued $120 million to combat election meddling from Russia; as of March 2018, they hadn’t spent any of it.
    
    
88. – March 5, 2018 – In a move that may violate federal law, the Trump Organization ordered new tee markers bearing the official presidential seal for one of their international golf courses. The law in question states the presidential seal, “or any facsimile thereof” may not be used for any commercial purpose.
    
    
89. – As of March 2018 – Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate used the Congressional Review Act with an unprecedented frequency. The act allowed the House to remove any regulation within 60 days of its enactment, and has been the administration’s weapon of choice in rolling back Obama-era regulations. Before Trump, The Congressional Review Act had been used only one time; since Trump took office it has been exercised 15 times, with dozens more rules proposed for removal.
    
    
90. – March 5, 2018 – The Trump administration announced it would allow hunters to import sport-hunted African elephant trophies on an “application-by-application” basis. The controversial hunting practice had been outlawed during the Obama administration. The U.S. Forest and Wildlife Service justified the decision by saying that findings on endangered species were “no longer effective for making individual permit determinations for imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies.” The findings referenced as “no longer effective” were published just the year before.
    
    
91. – March 6, 2018 – The US Office Special Counsel announced Kellyanne Conway twice violated the Hatch Act, a regulation which prohibits federal employees from publicly endorsing or criticizing candidates running for high-level positions. Conway had been a vocal advocate for Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race last year, speaking on Moore’s behalf during two Fox News interviews last year.
    
    
92. – March 6, 2018 – Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn resigned from the Trump Administration. Though no explicit reason was given for Cohn’s departure, Trump had ignored Cohn’s long-standing advice against raising steel and aluminum tariffs earlier in the week, causing many to speculate this was the impetus for Cohn’s exit.
    
    
93. – March 7, 2018 – Trump’s chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Tony Tooke, resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct. PBS had released conversations with 34 women from the Forest Service discussing a culture of discrimination and sexual harassment. After the documentary aired, it appeared Tooke was among those accused of sexual misconduct. The chief resigned from his post in an email to the agency. Tooke’s appointment occurred in August 2017, at the direction of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
    
    
94. – March 7, 2018 – Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto without the current US Ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson. Kushner had almost no experience in international diplomacy, while Jacobson served the US Government for 31 years as one of the nation’s leading experts on Latin America. Columbia University’s Christopher Sabatini told the New York Times, “The sending of the president’s son-in-law — someone with no experience in Mexican-U.S. relations — is another example of the de-professionalization and personalization of diplomacy that will hurt U.S. interests and leverage in the region.”
    
    
95. – March 7, 2018 – During questioning, former Communications Director Hope Hicks revealed that two of her email accounts had been hacked, and she still could not access either account. One of the hacked email addresses served as her primary contact while campaigning for Trump, and the other was a personal address. Both the identity of the hackers and the sensitivity of the compromised information remained unknown.
    
    
96. – March 8, 2018 – The AP reported that one-third of the 59 people appointed to the EPA by President Trump have direct ties to fossil fuel companies, either as registered lobbyists or as lawyers for chemical manufacturers.
    
    
97. – March 8, 2018 – The Interior Department planned to spend $139,000 on six doors for Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office.
    
    
98. – March 9, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wanted to hold a series of public debates on whether or not climate change was real. Chief of Staff John Kelly deemed the debates unwise and told Pruitt to drop the idea, according to White House officials. Those in the meeting with Kelly and Pruitt said Kelly considered the debates a distraction from the Trump administration’s rollbacks of Obama-era legislation on climate change.
    
    
99. – March 10, 2018 – Donald Trump advocated for the execution of drug dealers as a means of addressing America’s drug problem. The previous year, Trump was complimentary of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte—going so far as to invite him to the White House—after Duterte had been condemned by human rights groups for his extrajudicial killing of Filipino drug dealers.
    
    
100. – March 10, 2018 – Trump announced the US military would stage a military parade in Washington D.C. for veterans day in November 2018. After a trip to Paris for Bastille Day, which included a French military parade, Trump returned to the U.S. inspired to hold one himself. Criticism of the idea came from both sides of the aisle. At the very least, it was considered a waste of resources, as the parade will likely cost between $10 and $30 million.
     
     
101. – March 12, 2018 – House Republicans declared the Mueller investigation had failed to find any collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian. The statement, released by the House Intelligence Committee, was not reviewed by any of the Democrats on the committee before its publication. Rep. Adam Schiff, one of the ranking Democrats on the committee, tweeted “BREAKING: GOP just shut down House Intel investigation, leaving questions unanswered, leads unexplored, countless witnesses uncalled, subpoenas unissued. If Russians have leverage over the President, GOP has decided that it would rather not know. The minority’s work continues:”
     
     
102. – March 12, 2018 – Department of Education head Betsy DeVos was interviewed on 60 Minutes, and admitted she hadn’t visited any underperforming schools and did not know basic public school statistics in her home state of Michigan.
     
     
103. – March 13, 2018 – Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump had clashed with Tillerson in the past on everything from the Iran nuclear deal to issues of “personal chemistry.” In October it was rumored that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” to senior staff members. To replace Tillerson, Trump chose CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who the president described as having “a very similar thought process.”
     
     
104. – March 20, 2018 – A citizen watchdog group named Public Citizen filed ethics complaints regarding significant conflicts of interest for 36 appointees in the Trump administration. These conflicts of interest in the administration violated Trump’s own rules for ethical standards. In Executive Order 13770, Trump declared all federal appointees should pledge the following: “If I was a registered lobbyist within the 2 years before the date of my appointment, in addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraph 6, I will not for a period of 2 years after the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment or participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls.” The Public Citizen attached a comprehensive report to each complaint which provided the full list of 36 individuals who were suspected to have violated Executive Order 13770. (
     
     
105. – March 22, 2018 – Donald Trump may have stoked a trade war with China by imposing tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods. While China’s theft of American intellectual property has long struck economists as a serious problem in the economic relationship between the two world powers, many economists viewed Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese goods as a poor strategy for addressing the issue. Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said “Any good strategy has to include getting other countries on your side. If it’s the United States versus China, we’re similar sized economies. If it’s the United States and the world versus China, that’s not something China can win.”
     
     
106. – March 22, 2018 – Trump fired national security adviser General H.R. McMaster, replacing him with former Fox News pundit John Bolton. McMaster and Trump had clashed frequently, with McMaster telling Secretary of Defense James Mattis, “He treats me like a three-star rather than a coequal” (McMaster is a four-star Marine Corps general). McMaster’s replacement, John Bolton, was in Trump’s original consideration for the position, but lost the spot because the president didn’t like his mustache. The new hire would likely affect U.S. strategy for the upcoming diplomatic talks between the United States and North Korea, as Bolton has long expressed hawkish views on North Korea. As recently as February 28, 2018, Bolton wrote about the futility of conversation with North Korea, favoring pre-emptive strike as the only viable option for the United States.
     
     
107. – March 25, 2018 – Ever since Trump was $1.6 billion in funding for his proposed border wall, the president has privately argued for the construction funding to come from military budget. He then tweeted, "Because the $700 & $716 Billion gotten to rebuild our military, many jobs are created and our military is again rich. Building a great border wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about national defense. Build WALL through M!”
     
     
108. – March 26, 2018 – The Census Bureau announced it would include a question regarding citizenship status on the 2020 U.S. Census. The question hasn’t been on the census since 1950. Critics of the move explained the question would discourage undocumented immigrants from responding to the census, and thereby skew the population data significantly. The information gathered in the census has a bearing on everything from government policy to funding to boundaries for voting districts. Almost immediately, the State of California sued the Trump administration over the constitutionality of the question. The Constitution states a census, or “actual enumeration,” must take place every 10 years, and the enumeration must include “the number of free persons.” The State of California alleged this would include citizens and non-citizens alike.
     
     
109. – March 26, 2018 – Donald Trump kept in touch with Rob Porter after Porter left the White House amid credible allegations against him of domestic abuse from two of his ex-wives. In the final few weeks of March, Trump’s phone calls with Porter became increasingly frequent, with some speculating Trump would bring Porter back to the White House soon. (March 25, 2018)
     
     
110. – March 28, 2018 – The EPA sent an internal memo to staff describing a list of “approved talking points” downplaying the certainty of climate change. These included statements like, "While there has been extensive research and a host of published reports on climate change, clear gaps remain in our understanding of the role of human activity and what we can do about it.”
     
     
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     APRIL 2018

111. – April 2, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rented a condo from a lobbying firm called William & Jensen, paying $50 per day for the space (well below market rate according to the New York Times). William & Jensen represented the Enbridge pipeline project, which had been awaiting approval from the EPA confirming the agency had no environmental objections. In March of 2017, Enbridge received the approval from Pruitt’s agency.
     
     
112. – April 3, 2018 – Alex van der Zwaan plead guilty to charges filed by Robert Mueller that accused van der Zwaan of lying to federal investigators about his contacts with the Trump campaign and a Russian intelligence operative named Konstantin Kilimnik Van der Zwaan was the first individual sentenced in Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, receiving a 30-day sentence and a $20,000 fine.
     
     
113. – April 4, 2018 – Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard to the southern border of the United States. Trump said of the decision, “We’re going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step.” Trump was not the first president to send National Guard troops to the border; both George W. Bush and Barack Obama also sent the National Guard to support border patrol.
     
     
114. – April 6, 2018 – Sinclair broadcasters across the country read an identical script warning of biased and misleading news. A video by Deadspin stitched together the segments from dozens of local anchors, so they all said in chorus, “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country […] this is extremely dangerous for our democracy.” After the internet uproar over the hypocrisy evident in the video, Trump tweeted a defense of Sinclair, saying, “So funny to watch the Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more fake NBC, which is a total joke.” Sinclair was among the largest media organizations in America; if its purchase of Tribune Media gained approval from the FCC, Sinclair would broadcast local news for 72% of American households.
     
     
115. – April 7, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had a 20 person security detail, costing more than $3 million dollars with travel expenses included. Pruitt’s security escort was three times larger than the previous EPA Administrator under Obama. Unlike his predecessor, Pruitt also insisted on traveling first class with his detail, even going so far as to bring them on a family vacation to Disneyland.
     
     
116. – April 9, 2018 – The FBI raided Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office in New York City. While the likely impetus for the raid was an ongoing legal battle with adult film star Stormy Daniels, the raid was likely approved by Rod Rosenstein—who was also overseeing the Robert Mueller investigation. Trump was furious after the raid, saying, “It’s an attack on our country in a true sense.” For a while after the raid, rumors swirled that Trump was considering the dismissal of both Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.
     
     
117. – April 12, 2018 – Former FBI Director James Comey published a book on his time in the Trump administration, calling Trump “unethical” and “untethered to the truth and institutional values.” In response to Comey’s publication, Trump tweeted that Comey was “a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” in addition to “weak” and an “untruthful slime ball.”
     
     
118. – April 18, 2018 – Donald Trump ended funding for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System, used to measure carbon dioxide and methane and verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate accords.
     
     
119. – April 18, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted, “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!” Though it was unclear what “breeding concept” referred to, the animalistic connotation of breeding, CNN commented, was clear: “Taken literally, the most likely explanation is that he’s talking about sanctuary cities as places where undocumented immigrants breed.”
     
     
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     MAY 2018

120. – May 8, 2018 – Donald Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of negotiations. The deal granted billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement not to develop or acquire any nuclear weapons. The United States reimposed pre-deal sanctions on Iran.
     
     
121. – May 16, 2018 – The Senate judiciary committee released 2,500 pages of testimony with Donald Trump Jr. and top aides who met with Russian delegates at Trump Tower in 2016, providing evidence of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia) stated, “Our staff concluded that the … conclusions were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”
     
     
122. – May 25, 2018 – In three executive orders, Donald Trump made federal employees easier to fire while cutting back on union time. “President Trump’s executive orders do nothing to help federal workers do their jobs better. In fact, they do the opposite by depriving workers of their rights to address and resolve workplace issues such as sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation against whistleblowers, improving workplace health and safety, enforcing reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities, and so much more,” said American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr.
     
     
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     JUNE 2018

123. – June 9, 2018 – Donald Trump left the 44th G7 summit early and withdrew the United States’ endorsement of a joint communique. In the communique, Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy, Japan and Germany magreed on the need for “free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade” and the importance of fighting protectionism. Trump tweeted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was, “Very dishonest & meek.”
     
     
124. – June 10, 2018 – Politico reported that Donald Trump routinely tore up papers he received, resulting in government officials taping them together for archiving to ensure that Trump did not violate the Presidential Records Act, which states the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails, and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.
     
     
125. – June 15, 2018 – Following the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy announced in April 2018, The Department of Homeland Security stated that between April 19 to May 31, 2018, at the Mexico–United States border, there were 1,995 migrant children separated from 1,940 adults being held for criminal prosecution for an illegal border crossing. Trump blamed the Democrats, tweeting, “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.”
     
     
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     JULY 2018

126. – July 5, 2018 – The Trump administration imposed a first round of tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products following failed negotiations in Beijing in May. China retaliated with similar tariffs on American goods. China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the United States had “launched the biggest trade war in economic history so far.”
     
     
127. – July 5, 2018 – Donald Trump appointed Andrew Wheeler as Deputy Administrator of the EPA, a lobbyist and critic of nationwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions who’s supported the continued use of fossil fuels. In March 2018, Wheeler commented to CNN that the EPA is “brainwashing our kids.”
     
     
128. – July 15, 2018 – At a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Donald Trump sided with Putin over American intelligence. When asked about Russian collusion in the 2016 election, Trump said, “They said they think it’s Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
     
     
129. – July 21, 2018 – Echoing earlier threats to North Korea, Donald Trump tweeted a threat to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS.” The tweets followed Trump’s announcement in May that the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, and that the US would impose sanctions on all exporters of Iranian oil.
     
     
130. – July 24, 2018 – Reversing his statements on Russia meddling in US elections, Donald Trump tweeted that Russia would help Democrats win in the 2018 midterm elections. “I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election,” Trump wrote. “Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats.”
     
     
131. – July 29, 2018 – Donald Trump raised the possibility of a government shutdown over the Wall, tweeting, “I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!”
     
     
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     AUGUST 2018

132. – August 13, 2018 – With the approaching publication of Omarosa Manigault Newman’s Unhinged, an account of working in the White House, Donald Trump went on a sexist, racist rant on Twitter, calling Omarosa “a dog” and “a crazed crying lowlife,” and claimed that she “begged [Trump] for a job, tears in her eyes.” Manigault Newman, a former Apprentice contestant and Trump aide who announced her resignation in December 2017 citing concerns with the administration, suggests in Unhinged that there are recordings of Trump using the N-word.
     
     
133. – August 21, 2018 – The Trump administration announced plans to cut back Obama’s coal emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, calling them “overly prescriptive and burdensome.” The Trump plan increased the state authority to make decisions on coal emission standards, saying it “empowers states, promotes energy independence, and facilitates economic growth and job creation.”
     
     
134. – August 21, 2018 – Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The trial focused on the millions of dollars Manafort made advising a political party in Ukraine that backed pro-Russia policies and his “sumptuous lifestyle, including his $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket and $1,500 dress shirts, and the meticulously landscaped flower bed in the shape of a giant “M” at his 10-bedroom Hamptons estate in New York.”
     
     
135. – August 21, 2018 – On the same day Manafort was convicted, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty in a federal court in New York to, among other charges, campaign finance violations for paying hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The following day, Trump tweeted, “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
     
     
136. – August 23, 2018 – The US and China implemented a second round of tariffs on $16 billion worth of imports on both sides. China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization about the tariffs.
     
     
137. – August 27, 2018 – In response to the death of Senator John McCain, Donald Trump issued no public statement and declined to answer questions about McCain, a veteran who spent 31 years in the Senate. Flags at the White House were lowered on Saturday night after McCain’s death and raised again Sunday, the bare minimum required by law. Trump issued a tweet “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”
     
     
138. – August 28, 2018 – Donald Trump accused Google of being biased against conservatives and hiding information. He tweeted, “Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out.”
     
     
139. – August 30, 2018 – Despite his boasts of the country’s economic strength, Donald Trump announced the government was canceling an automatic 2.1 percent pay increase for federal workers scheduled for Jan. 1, citing budget constraints. Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) stated, “It is unacceptable that after last year signing a Republican tax bill that gave away tens of billions in corporate tax cuts and added more than $1 trillion to the national debt, President Trump cites the need for government belt-tightening in his decision to slash a planned pay increase.”
     
     
140. – August 30, 2018 – During a speech in Evansville, Indiana, Donald Trump alleged that TV cameras were faking technical difficulties to deny him coverage. Trump said, “But when I start screaming ‘fake news,’ you see those red lights go off for a little while. You know, excuse me, we have technical difficulties, OK, then they go back.”
     
     
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     SEPTEMBER 2018

141. – September 3, 2018 – Politico reported that health providers are receiving panicked phone calls from documented and undocumented immigrant families demanding to be dropped from the WIC program after news reports that the White House is planning to deny legal status to immigrants who’ve used public benefits. Agencies in 18 states reported drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment.
     
     
142. – September 5, 2018 – An anonymous op-ed from a White House insider published in the New York Times described the chaos in the Oval Office and the resistance working within it to contain a “impetuous, adversarial, petty, and ineffective” president. “Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.”
     
     
143. – September 11, 2018 – Bob Woodward published Fear, giving an inside view of the instability of Trump’s White House. Woodward wrote, “The reality was that the United States in 2017 was tethered to the words and actions of an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader. Members of his staff had joined to purposefully block some of what they believed were the president’s most dangerous impulses. It was a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.”
     
     
144. – September 12, 2018 – The existence of a letter from a constituent to Senator Dianne Feinstein leaked to The Intercept allegedly detailing sexual misconduct of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Dianne Feinstein confirmed the existence of the letter, but said she was honoring the anonymity of its author and handed the case to the FBI. California psychology professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would come forward later that week identifying herself as the author of the letter, detailing how Kavanaugh had assaulted her at a party when they were in high school. In a statement sent by The White House, Kavanaugh responded, “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”
     
     
145. – September 19, 2018 – In an interview with The Hill, Donald Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russian investigation. “I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad,” Trump said. He’d previously called Sessions “weak” and “disloyal.”
     
     
146. – September 23, 2018 – The US-China Trade War escalated to a third list of tariffs, encompassing a total of $250 billion worth of Chinese goods with virtually all Chinese goods coming to the U.S. levied with a 10% import tariff. The import tariff will rise to 25% at the beginning of 2019.
     
     
147. – September 25, 2018 – Donald Trump addressed the United Nations address and was laughed at after stating, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” As the audience laughed, Trump added, “So true.” Trump later claimed that that “They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me.”
     
     
148. – September 26, 2018 – In a news conference, Trump responded defensively to the allegations of sexual misconduct raised against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “Look, if we brought George Washington here… the Democrats would vote against him, just so you understand,” the president said. “Didn’t he have a couple of things in his past? George Washington would be voted against 100 percent by Schumer and the con artists.” Trump also cited the women who have raised sexual misconduct allegations against him: “I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me.”
     
     
149. – September 28, 2018 – In a 500-page environmental impact statement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Trump administration announced that on its current course, the planet will warm seven degrees by 2100, but that there is nothing that can be done to avert it. The document outlined why freezing fuel-efficiency rules for cars and light trucks for six years will do little to stop a global temperature rise.
     
     
150. – September 28, 2018 – A record number of migrant children — 13,000 — are reported to be held in a West Texas tent city without access to legal services or education. “The average length of time that migrant children spend in custody has nearly doubled [since last year], from 34 days to 59,” the New York Times reported.
     
     
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     October 2018

151. – October 2, 2018 – At a rally in Mississippi, Donald Trump mocked the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and extended his sympathies to Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Impersonating Dr. Ford’s testimony, Trump said, “What neighborhood was it? I don’t know. Where’s the house? I don’t know. Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it — I don’t know. But I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember.” He added, “And a man’s life is shattered.”
     
     
152. – October 2, 2018 – A special tax fraud investigation in the New York Times, based on tax returns and financial records, revealed that Donald Trump received the equivalent of $413 million from his father’s real estate empire in tax schemes dating back to his childhood. The findings countered Trump’s narrative of how he built his multi-billion dollar empire through his own hardwork and deal-making.
     
     
153. – October 6, 2018 – The Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual assault.
     
     
154. – October 9, 2018 – As protestors rallied against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump continued to push a conspiracy theory that leftist protestors are paid by wealthy Democrats. “The paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they haven’t gotten their checks — in other words, they weren’t paid! Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious — less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!” Trump tweeted. “The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers”
     
     
155. – October 15, 2018 – In an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes, Donald Trump defended mocking Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford. Pressed by Stahl on whether he thought he had treated Dr. Ford with respect, Trump said, “It doesn’t matter — we won.”
     
     
156. – October 16, 2018 – The Trump administration showed support for Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had been linked to the disappearance and possible murder of a journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump said in an interview with the Associated Press: “Here we go again with you’re guilty until proven innocent.” That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh smiling and shaking hands with the crown prince.
     
     
157. – October 16, 2018 – After a federal judge threw out Stormy Daniels’ defamation lawsuit against him, Trump tweeted, “’Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!"
     
     
158. – October 18, 2018 – Donald Trump threatened to close the US-Mexico border by military force as a caravan of more than 3,000 migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras traveled north. Trump tweeted, “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught — and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”
     
     
159. – October 19, 2018 – At a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana, Donald Trump praised Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte, who plead guilty to assault for body-slamming Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. To cheers from the crowd, Trump said, “Any guy that can do a body slam — he’s my kind of guy.”
     
     
160. – October 21, 2018 – The Trump administration revealed its attempt to define gender as a binary that is determined at birth on the basis of genitalia, reversing recognition of over 1.4 Americans who identify as transgender. “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services read. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”
     
     
161. – October 29, 2018 – The United States Government planned to send 5200 troops to the US-Mexico border to guard against what Trump called, “an invasion of our country” by a caravan of 3500 Central American migrants, many of whom were children.
     
     
162. – October 30, 2018 – Days before the midterm elections, Trump stated that he would sign an executive order to end birthright citzenship in the United States.
     
     
163. – October 31, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted a racist political ad depicting an undocumented immigrant who had been convicted of murdering two police officers. The ad featured the tagline, “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.” Luis Bracamontes, the convicted man, had a history of crime and was originlly released by a sheriff’s department that was headed by Republican Joe Arpaio. He later illegally re-entered the United States during the presidency of George W. Bush.