19 Sep 20 We are 45 days from the US election. Yes, it is far too long and we all want to cry thinking about it.
Posted by Moya Lothian McLean and Greg Evans in news
While in office, Donald Trump has been a very busy boy. So busy, in fact, that a lot of his bizarre and downright bad behaviour can get forgotten very quickly.
After all, there’s over four years to document now.
So to celebrate number 45, here’s 45 of the worst things he’s done during his presidential term.
Read to the end… if you dare.
1. When he dismissed Russian interference in the election
The spectre of Russia has haunted Trump since the 2016 election that brought him to power. Post-election analysis of data by the likes of academics seems to suggest that yes, Russian interference played a part in it.
But Trump, funnily enough, has never been keen to examine the role Russia might have had in seeing him elected. Which means he’s not only blocked every attempt to investigate it but also sacked multiple officials who’ve threatened to do so, like former FBI director James Comey. Trump even admitted that Russia was part of his reasoning for firing Comey, making him only the second American president to sack his FBI director. Historic.
When he appointed his unqualified family to top administration roles
(Click on the link at the bottom of the page to see the video)
Ah, the sweet smell of nepotism. As soon as Trump went to the White House, so did his family. But breaking with protocol, members of the extended Trump clan quickly received important high-ranking roles. Like daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared who are now special advisors, a role that is very vague but ensures they’re essentially part of running the country. Ivanka’s attempt to mingle with world leaders at the 2019 G20 summit was widely ridiculed.
It’s not stopped her, or the other Trumps, ascending the power ladder though.
3. When he was literally impeached
You have to do something pretty bad to be impeached. Like have sexual relations with a much more junior member of staff and then lie about it. The accusation facing Donald Trump was that he pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, threatening to withhold aid unless the Ukrainian president complied with his wishes.
Trump was acquitted by the Republican House majority but people can examine the evidence for themselves…
4. When he tried to ban TikTok
Donald Trump wasn’t aware of TikTok until a few months ago – but now the viral app ranks high on his list of enemies? Why? Teens.
It wasn’t until teens claimed credit for half-filled seats at Trump’s ‘comeback’ rally in Tulsa.
After that, Trump decided the Chinese-owned app was a national security threat and has now forced the sale of TikTok in order for it to continue operating in the US.
Funnily enough, senior leaders who work at winning bidder Oracle, have a very close relationship with Trump’s administration.
Oracle’s win was a surprise, with most expecting Microsoft to succeed with their bid to “partner” with TikTok’s owners in the US.
Keep your friends close and your enemy apps closer!
5. When he approved a devastating oil pipeline through Native land
One of the very first things Trump did on ascending to office was revive the plans for a huge oil pipeline that had been rejected by Barack Obama.
Despite Obama deciding that the pipeline was not only environmentally unsound, it would also not deliver on promises such as lowering petrol prices, Trump merrily fired out an executive order in January 2017, signing off on the Keystone XL pipeline which would “ pump some of Canada’s most dangerous oil products over nearly 1,200 miles of US land and Indigenous territories largely for export to other countries”.
Priorities.
6. When he called far-right protestors “very fine people”
Remember Charlottesville? The white supremacist rally where counter protestor Heather Heyer was killed after a member of the far-right drove a car into her. Well according to Trump, there were “very fine people” on both sides of that protest. One side was made up of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. The other wasn’t.
7. When he appointed a far-right nationalist his chief strategist
When Trump entered the White House, so did Steve Bannon, a man regularly described as a ‘far-right nationalist’. Eventually he was fired after Trump reportedly got sick of sharing the spotlight. Now he’s been charged with fraud after embezzling funds donated by Trump supporters to a crowdfunder to build the infamous border wall. Classy.
8. When he imposed a ‘Muslim travel ban’
In 2017 Trump signed an executive order that temporarily suspended immigration to the US for all citizens of seven Muslim majority countries for 90 days. Citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen suddenly found themselves unable to enter America. Massive protests immediately took place as a response with courts eventually finding the ban unlawful and overturning it.
That didn’t stop Trump though; he issued a new ban in 2018 that instead restricted how many visas could be issued to applicants from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea.
This ban was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court. And in February it was expanded to cover citizens from Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar.
9. When he (repeatedly) refused to release his tax returns
From the very beginning Trump refused to drop his taxes. Why? We can only guess. But former lawyer Michael Cohen suggested it might be for a very Trumpian reason.
“He doesn’t report the income he claims,” Cohen claimed during an interview to promote his book, Disloyal.
“His wealth is not as significant, and I imagine they were probably lenient in how they took deductions”.
He also said releasing the tax returns might throw up more problems for Trump.
“His biggest fear is, if that tax return was released, there’s a whole slew of accountants and forensic accountants that will rip through it and he will end up with a massive tax bill, penalties, fines, and possibly even tax fraud,” Cohen added.
11. When he lied about his inauguration crowd sizes
Size matters to Trump which is why he and his team practiced their very first professional gaslighting by insisting that the crowds gathered for his inauguration were the “largest ever”, despite extensive photographic evidence to the contrary.
Later it emerged a government photographer had even edited photos to make “crowds appear bigger’, according to a Guardian investigation.
12. When repeatedly called Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas”
After Elizabeth Warren revealed she had Native American ancestry (which wasn’t too well received by actual Native Americans), Trump gave her a new nickname: Pocahontas.
But rather than mock just Warren, the nickname serves to ridicule Native Americans and indigenous cultures as a whole.
13. When he doubled fees at his resort hotel after becoming president
What’s the first thing you do when you become the leader of the ‘free’ world? Jack up the membership fees at your beach resort.
After Trump’s election, Mar-a-Lago, the shining jewel in his gilt-coated crown, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.
At the time, Norm Eisen, Barack Obama’s top ethics lawyer, called it “not very subtle exploitation of the fact that the club’s figurehead is now president of the U.S.”
“This type of naked profiteering off of a government office is what I would expect from King Louis XVI or his modern kleptocratic equivalents, not an American president,” Eisen said.
Preach.
14. Tried to penalise ‘sanctuary cities’ for migrants
Sanctuary cities are a loose name for states or localities that have regulations which can act as an obstacle for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hunt down migrants they think they can deport.
So of course Trump has tried to penalise those areas.
How? By threatening to withhold federal funding from them.
15. When he fired the acting attorney general for not defending his travel ban
One of Trump’s first firings (setting the tone for a presidential term that would see one of the highest staff turnovers ever) was Sally Yates. The then acting US attorney general refused to enforce his first Muslim ban.
So she was sacked for “betraying” the department.
16. When he tried to buy Greenland
Trump wanted to trade Greenland for Puerto Rico, which he reportedly called “dirty and poor”. That just about sums it up.
In 2017, Trump gave a speech in Long Island to members of the Suffolk County Police Department. In it, he seemed to encourage roughing up suspects, saying:
When you guys put somebody in the car and you're protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don't hit their head and they've just killed somebody. Don't hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay?
He doubled down, saying “Don’t be too nice”. The remarks drew such criticism that Suffolk County even tweeted a rejoinder.
18. When he invented three million “illegal” voters to explain Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote
Nothing worse than a sore winner; even though Trump won the presidency, he can’t get over the three million votes that meant Hillary Clinton was the winner of the popular ballot.
From 2017, he promised an investigation into “massive voter fraud”, saying up to five million votes had been illegally cast for Clinton.
Trump has yet to offer any proof.
19. When he used his platform to ‘cancel’ a tire company
We’re tired, you’re tired. Donald Trump hates Goodyear Tires.
21. When he attacked former prisoner of war, John McCain as a “loser”
But Trump certainly got in some low blows against his rival.
Upon McCain’s death in 2018, from a brain tumour, it was reported by witnesses that Trump was angered by his funeral being officially commemorated.
"We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,” witnesses claimed the president said.
However, Trump then denied he’d ever called McCain a “loser”.
Only problem was, footage from Trump’s 2015 campaign run show him clearly slamming McCain as just that.
"He lost, he let us down... I never liked him as much after that because I don't like losers,” Trump says during the clip.
He follows it up by denying McCain deserves the epithet of ‘war hero’.
"He is not a war hero…” Trump said.
“He is a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured”.
22. When he told a sheriff to ‘destroy’ the career of a senator who opposed police officers being able to seize assets
In 2017, Trump ‘joked’ about destroying the career of a Texas senator who wanted to crack down on asset forfeiture.
Asset forfeiture is a controversial practice that allows police departments to seize ‘suspicious’ assets and keep them… even if the person they’re seized from is never convicted or charged with a crime.
According to experts, the practice “disproportionately” affects people without means. Police can auction off the assets and the funds go back into their budgets.
However, Trump’s response to hearing about a senator who wished to reform the concept was pretty telling.
“Who is the state senator?,” he said, on being informed about proposed legislation to require conviction before asset forfeiture could be practiced.
“Want to give his name? We'll destroy his career”.
23. When he appointed Jeff Sessions attorney general
Which was despite large protests against giving Sessions the role, thanks to his past record, which included opposition to LGBTQ rights and protecting voting rights for marginalised groups.
While in office, Sessions immediately began undercutting federal rights for LGBTQ people, especially trans individuals.
Did Trump care, before or after? Absolutely not.
24. When he ignored evidence of Michael Flynn’s meetings with Russia
One of the highest-profile falls from grace of Trump’s administration was Michael Flynn. Formerly Trump’s national security advisor, Flynn now faces criminal charges for accusations that he lied about contact with Russia before being appointed to the role.
But Trump was apparently warned about Flynn weeks before the adviser was forced to resign and only told vice president Mike Pence about the allegations facing Flynn when a Washington Post exposé on the matter the next day.
25. When the Trump Hotel organisation received $60,0000 for hosting an event for Kuwait
Trump apparently never divested from his business interests – which means when an event held by Kuwait to celebrate their national day was held at Washington’s Trump International, there were questions raised.
Like whether the sitting president would see any of the reported $60,000 fee paid by Kuwait to host the event there.
And whether Trump’s solution – which is donating “all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury” – would really prevent any conflict of interest.
Hmm...
24. When he tried to stop transgender students using school bathrooms in line with their gender
In February 2017, Trump decided to go after one of the most marginalised groups possible by removing protections for trans students which allowed them to use bathrooms corroborating with their gender identity.
The harm the policy could cause was so evident that even education secretary Betsy DeVos opposed the move because of the effect it would have on trans students.
Trump went ahead with it anyway.
25. When he appointed Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon, secretary of housing and development
During the 2015 race to become Republican nominee, Ben Carson stood out.
Sadly it wasn’t for his incisive political nous but instead because he kept saying really, really strange things.
It got to the point where people were surprised to discover the man had actually qualified and practiced as a world-renowned neurosurgeon.
So when Trump was elected, it came as an unwelcome surprise to discover Carson was being put in charge of a vital department, as secretary of housing development, with absolutely zero experience in the area.
Since then, Carson’s been accused of trying to ‘destroy’ affordable housing during his four years in government.
26. When he withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change
Q: How do you solve a problem like world-threatening global warming?
A: Withdraw from the global climate change agreement that binds countries to environmental promises to try and limit already devastating harm wrought by global warming.
Simple.
27. When he suggested vaccines cause autism
While on the campaign trail, Trump met with anti-vaxxers, including Andrew Wakefield who’s now-disproved study into the MMR vaccine and autism helped renew an anti-vaccine movement in 1998.
This followed over 20 occasions where Trump tweeted about links between vaccines and autism, for which there is no evidence.
Once elected, Trump had plans to establish an advisory commission to look at federal vaccine policies, reportedly because he had some “doubts[...] and questions”.
Funnily enough, with coronavirus floating about, he’s now a big fan of vaccines.
28. When he stopped funding for the UN Population Fund which supports family planning across the globe
In a Trump-led “crusade against the health and rights of women and girls globally”, the US ended all funding for the United Nations Population Fund in 2017.
The fund supports reproductive and sexual health programmes for vulnerable women in over 150 countries, like Venezuela and Syria.
At the time, Trump cited false claims of programmes requiring ‘coercive abortion’.
In response, women’s rights activists said he had “signed a global death warrant for women”.
29. When he falsely accused Barack Obama of spying on the Trump campaign
Trump has accused predecessor Barack Obama of many things without providing a lick of evidence.
And he started as he meant to go on – by bizarrely claiming Obama had wire-tapped the phones in the Trump Tower.
To achieve what end? So he could listen to the sound of Fox News and crinkling fast food packets for 24 hours a day? Sure.
30. When he appointed an anti-abortion advocate to oversee family planning funding for low-income communities
Who is the best person to head up family planning funding allocations for low-income communities, aka ensuring people with wombs have a right to choose whether they give birth or not?
According to Donald Trump, it’s Teresa Manning, a loud anti-abortion advocate and birth control ‘sceptic’.
Manning was appointed deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in 2017, where she oversaw Title X funding -- money for contraceptive and sexul health services.
Her previous experience in the field came from stints at two large anti-abortion groups.
Eventually Manning resigned in 2018, with her successor Valerie Huber being a “a staunch advocate of abstinence-only programs”.
Just the person for the job then.
31. When he cut a pandemic early warning program in 2019
Now the president doesn’t have to be Mystic Meg but it does seem to show a worrying lack of forethought that Trump cut a program that would issue early warnings of pandemics in September 2019.
The first known reported case of coronavirus occurred just two months later.
32. When was accused of revealing classified information to Russian ambassador
Said one U.S official to a Washington Post reporter about a meeting Trump had with the Russian ambassador and and foreign minister:
He revealed more information to the Russian ambassador than we have shared with our own allies.
Apparently Trump’s loose lips even jeopardised a mole inside the Islamic State. Awkward!
33. When he nominated a climate change sceptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy
We can’t say that Donald Trump doesn’t take climate change seriously – but we can say that he withdrew from global commitments to tackle the issue, once tweeted about needing “a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming!”, and nominated climate change sceptic Kathleen Hartnett White to be his top environmental advisor.
So, you do the math.
34. When he removed protection status from 59,000 Hatitians, forcing them to return to disaster-ridden Haiti by July 2019
In November 2017, Trump ended a humanitarian programme that had allowed 59,000 Haitians to reside and work in the U.S, as the country still tries to recover from 2010’s devastating earthquake, which ripped through its social fabric.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere; money sent back home from expats is a lifeline.
Worse still, in 2020, the forced deportations of Haitians continued during the pandemic, despite human rights activists warning that Trump was essentially “exporting” coronavirus to a nation that would not be able to cope with an outbreak.
35. When he retweeted anti-Islam videos from the deputy leader of Britain First
Trump’s busy fingers on social media often displays that he doesn't really think or check things before he shares them on his official account, which is a worrying thing to consider when you are talking about the US president.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing that Trump has ever shared on his timeline was a series of Islamophobic tweets from the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First back in November 2017.
Trump did later apologise for sharing the tweets, telling Piers Morgan in a television interview that he knew nothing of the group beforehand, adding:
“If you are telling me they're horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you'd like me to do that.”
36. When he cut corporate tax to its lowest rate since 1939
If you are interested in things like corporate tax then you might not be surprised to learn that Trump has opted to favour the biggest companies in the world rather than the everyday blue collar worker that he pretends to appeal to.
On December 22 2017, signed in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced taxes to somewhere between 35 and 21 per cent, reportedly the lowest the rate had been since 1939.
Trump even falsely bragged about this being the biggest tax cut in history, saying in April 2018: “We have the biggest tax cut in history, bigger than the Reagan tax cut. Bigger than any tax cut.” It was actually only the eighth biggest in US history.
Regardless, under Trump the rich get richer and the poor stay the same.
37. Allegedly referred to the likes of Haiti and El Salvador as “s***hole countries*
2018 got off to a hell of start for Trump when he reportedly called countries like Haiti, El Salvador and nations in Africa 's***holes’ during a meeting with congressional leaders.
According to the Washington Post, Trump said:
Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here? Why do we need more Haitians?
Take them out.
38. When he accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his 2018 State of the Union address
We all know by now that Trump is a very, very sensitive man and can’t take the slightest criticism against him. However, to accuse Democrats of ‘treason’ for not applauding his 2018 State of the Union address is a bit of a stretch.
Yet that’s exactly what he did during a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio in February 2018:
39. When he oversaw the longest government shutdown in US history
Between December 22 2018 and January 25 2019 almost nothing happened in the US government due to the longest shutdown in United States history.
The reason for this? Because Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on the federal budget, mostly over disputes about Trump’s immigration policy and his border wall, which still hasn’t been completed.
To show you how hypocritical this whole situation was here is a Trump tweet from less than 12 months before complaining how bad a shutdown would be for the military:
40. When he tweeted that the FBI had failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia
Trump’s failure to tackle gun violence in the US is almost as bad as his inability to accept responsibility for anything and point the finger elsewhere.
In the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting in Florida in February 2018, Trump attempted to blame the FBI for the massacre, claiming that they were spending too much time investigating his alleged collusion with Russia.
At a time when his people needed him the most, he opted to look the other way. Shameless.
41. When he mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
When Trump’s supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was accused of historical sexual assault by Dr Christine Blasey Ford at a college party in 1982, Trump did what any decent president would do; he mocked her.
Speaking at a rally in Mississippi in October 2018, Trump appeared to suggest that Ford was drunk on that date as an excuse to pour scorn on her claims. Kavanaugh denies her allegations.
42. When he separated migrant children from their parents
Of the many scandalous things that Trump has done in his presidency, the separation of children from the parents at his controversial detention facilities at the US/Mexico border was probably the worst.
Evidence had emerged of migrant children literally being placed in cages at the facility, something which Trump tried to blame Barack Obama for. In June 2019, Trump official Marsha Brown even tried to argue that said children didn’t need to be “safe and sanitary.”
43. When he blamed mental illness and video games for gun violence
As we have already mentioned, Trump has failed to do anything about gun violence in the US but in August 2019 he did find something to blame; mental illness and video games.
Speaking after a weekend where 31 died after shootings in Ohio and Texas, Trump criticised “gruesome video games” which “celebrate violence” adding that:
“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger not the gun.”
The problem here is that one of his first actions as president was to scrap a regulation introduced by Obama that made it harder for people with a history with mental illness to purchase a gun.
44. When he peddled a conspiracy theory about Joe Biden and Ukraine
Towards the end of 2019 Trump began spreading and widely debunked conspiracy theory that is was the Ukraine and not Russia that had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of the Democrats.
During an interview on Fox News in November 2019, Trump said:
“A lot of it, they say, had to do, they say had to with Ukraine. It is very interesting, it is very interesting, they have the server from the DNC. You know, the FBI’s never gotten that server. Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?”
He also tried to tie Joe Biden to this theory that linked the former vice president’s son, Hunter due to the work he had done in the Ukraine. This led to Trump trying to obtain information on the Biden’s from the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an act that eventually got Trump impeached.
45. When he sprayed Black Lives Matter protesters with tear gas so he could attend a photo op
As the Black Lives Matter protests escalated across the United States following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, Trump decided to show no compassion or words of solace or peace.
Instead, he order the military to hit protesters outside of the White House with tear gas just so he could walk a few metres across the street and hold up a bible outside of a church for a shameless photo op, a stunt which left the churches resident ‘distraught’.
https://www.indy100.com/article/donald-trump-election-us-russia-joe-biden-ice-9711801
