Presidency of Donald Trump

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Donald Trump official portrait.jpg
Presidency of Donald Trump
January 20, 2017 – present
President Donald Trump
Cabinet See list
Party Republican
Election 2016
Seat White House
Barack Obama
Seal of the President of the United States.svg
Seal of the President
Official website

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The presidency of Donald Trump began at noon EST on January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, succeeding Barack Obama. A Republican, Trump was a businessman and reality television personality from New York City at the time of his 2016 presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. While Trump lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes, he won the Electoral College vote, 304 to 227, in a presidential contest that American intelligence agencies concluded was targeted by a Russian interference campaign. Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-checkers, with political scientists and historians widely describing the phenomenon as unprecedented in modern American politics.[1] Trump's approval rating has been stable, hovering at high-30 to mid-40 percent throughout his presidency.[2]

Trump repealed environmental protections intended to address anthropogenic climate change. He ended the Clean Power Plan, withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, and urged for subsidies to increase fossil fuel production,[3] calling man-made climate change a hoax. Trump failed in his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but signed legislation eliminating the individual mandate provision. He enacted a partial repeal of the Dodd-Frank Act that had previously imposed stricter constraints on banks in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowered corporate and estate taxes permanently, and lowered most individual income tax rates temporarily. He enacted tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and other goods, triggering retaliatory tariffs from Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and a trade war with China.

Trump's "America First" foreign policy has featured more unilateral American actions, disregarding the advice and support of many traditional allies while drawing the United States closer to others like Saudi Arabia and Israel.[4] Trump's administration agreed to sell $110 billion of arms to Saudi Arabia, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, withdrew the United States from the Iran Deal, and issued a controversial executive order denying entry into the U.S. to citizens from several Muslim-majority countries. His administration withdrew U.S. troops from northern Syria, allowing Turkey to attack American-allied Kurds. The Trump administration unilaterally decided to hold talks with North Korea.[4] Trump's demand for federal funding of a U.S.–Mexico border wall resulted in the 2018–2019 government shutdown (the longest in American history) and followed with Trump's declaration of a national emergency regarding the U.S. southern border. He ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Trump administration enforced a "zero tolerance" policy of detaining families entering the U.S at the U.S.–Mexico border and controversially separating parents from their children, resulting in national and international outcry.

After Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, a former FBI director, Robert Mueller, was appointed as special counsel to take over a prior FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and related matters, including coordination or links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Six Trump campaign advisers and staff were indicted and five pled guilty to criminal charges. Trump repeatedly denied collusion or obstruction of justice, and frequently criticized the investigation, calling it a politically motivated "witch hunt". Mueller concluded his investigation in March 2019, with a report of the probe showing Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and hinder Clinton's. The report concluded the prevailing evidence "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government" but documented ten actions by the Trump presidency that could be construed as obstruction of justice. The Mueller team could not indict Trump once investigators decided to abide by an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that a sitting president cannot stand trial, and did not exonerate Trump on this issue. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decided the evidence was not sufficient to demonstrate a criminal offense of obstruction. Barr later said he had not exonerated Trump.

In September 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives initiated a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump regarding abuse of office for political gain. Trump in July 2019 had requested Ukraine investigate rival 2020 presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden, while a whistleblower alleged that this was part of a wider pressure campaign on Ukraine, and that the White House had tried to cover up Trump's request.

Contents

2016 presidential election

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Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, taking 304 of the 538 electoral votes. Five other individuals received electoral votes from faithless electors.

On November 9, 2016, Republicans Donald Trump of New York and Governor Mike Pence of Indiana won the 2016 election, defeating Democrats former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Trump won 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton's 227, though Clinton won a plurality of the popular vote, receiving nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump. Trump thus became the fifth person to win the presidency while losing the popular vote.[5] In the concurrent congressional elections, Republicans maintained majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Trump made false claims that massive amounts of voter fraud – up to five million illegal votes – in Clinton's favor occurred during the election, and he called for a major investigation after taking office. Numerous studies have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.[6][7][8]

Transition period, inauguration and first 100 days

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Outgoing President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office on November 10, 2016

Prior to the election, Trump named Chris Christie as the leader of his transition team.[9] After the election, Vice President-elect Mike Pence replaced Christie as chairman of the transition team, while Christie became a vice-chairman alongside Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former presidential candidate Ben Carson, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.[10]

Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017. Accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump, he was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts.[11] In his seventeen-minute inaugural address, Trump made a broad condemnation of contemporary America, pledging to end "American carnage" and saying America's "wealth, strength and confidence has dissipated".[12][13] He repeated the "America First" slogan he had used in the campaign and promised that "[e]very decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American factories".[11] At the age of seventy, Trump surpassed Ronald Reagan and became the oldest person to assume the presidency,[14] and the first without any prior government or military experience.[15] The largest single-day protest in the history of the United States was against Trump's Presidency the day after his inauguration.[16]

One of Trump's major first year accomplishments, made as part of a "100-day pledge", was the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Structurally, President Trump had the advantage of a Republican Party majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, but was unable to fulfill his major pledges in his first 100 days and had an approval rating of between 40 and 42 percent, "the lowest for any first-term president at this point in his tenure".[17][citation needed] Although he tried to make progress on one of his key economic policies—the dismantling of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—his failure to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the first 100 days was a major setback. None of the bills passed by Trump are considered to be "major bills"—based on a "longstanding political-science standard for 'major bills'."[18] Trump signed 24 executive orders in his first 100 days, the most executive orders of any president since World War II.[19]

Personnel

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The Trump administration has been characterized by record turnover, particularly among White House staff. By the end of his first year in office, 34 percent of Trump's original staff had resigned, been fired, or been reassigned.[20] As of early March 2018, 43 percent of senior White House positions had turned over.[21]

On September 5, 2018, The New York Times published an article entitled "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration",[22] written by an anonymous senior official in the Trump administration. The author asserted that "many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."

Cabinet

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Days after the presidential election, Trump selected RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his Chief of Staff.[23] Priebus and Senior Counselor Steve Bannon were named as "equal partners" within the White House power structure, although Bannon was not an official member of the Cabinet.[24] On November 18, Trump announced he had chosen Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General.[25]

In February 2017, Trump formally announced his cabinet structure, elevating the Director of National Intelligence and Director of the CIA to cabinet level. The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, which had been added to the cabinet by Obama in 2009, was removed from the cabinet. Trump's cabinet now consists of 24 members, more than Barack Obama at 23 or George W. Bush at 21.[26] His final initial Cabinet-level nominee, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, was confirmed on May 12, 2017.[27]

In July 2017, John F. Kelly, who had served as Secretary of Homeland Security, replaced Priebus as Chief of Staff.[28] Bannon was fired in August 2017, leaving Kelly as one of the most powerful individuals in the White House.[29] In September 2017, Tom Price resigned as Secretary of Health and Human Services amid criticism over his use of private charter jets for his personal travel. Don J. Wright replaced Price as acting Secretary of Health and Human Services.[30] Kirstjen Nielsen succeeded Kelly as Secretary in December 2017.[31] Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired via a tweet in March 2018; Trump appointed Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson and Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the Director of the CIA.[32] In the wake of a series of controversies, Scott Pruitt resigned as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in July 2018.[33] Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler is slated to serve as acting administrator beginning July 9, 2018. At the time of Pruitt's resignation, he is the fifth member of Trump's cabinet to resign or be fired since Trump took office.[34][35]

Since taking office, Trump has made two unsuccessful cabinet nominations. Andrew Puzder was nominated for the position of Secretary of Labor in 2017, while Ronny Jackson, who had previously served as the President's physician, was nominated as Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018. Each withdrew their name from consideration after facing opposition in the Senate.[36]

Notable departures

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In the first 13 months of the administration of Donald Trump, the White House staff had a higher turnover than the previous four presidents had in the first two years of their respective administrations. By March 2018, White House staff turnover was estimated at 43%.[37][38]

Firing of Michael Flynn

On February 13, 2017, Trump fired Michael Flynn from the post of National Security Adviser[39] on grounds that he had lied to Vice President Pence about his communications with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.[40] Flynn was fired amidst the ongoing controversy concerning Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and accusations that Trump's electoral team colluded with Russian agents. In May 2017, Sally Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism that she had told White House Counsel Don McGahn in late January 2017 Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials and warned McGahn that Flynn was potentially compromised by Russia.[41] Flynn remained in his post for another two weeks and was fired after The Washington Post broke the story. Yates was fired by Donald Trump on January 30 because "she defiantly refused to defend his executive order closing the nation's borders to refugees and people from predominantly Muslim countries".[42]

Firing of James Comey

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On May 9, 2017, Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey, stating that he had accepted the recommendations of the Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to dismiss Comey. Sessions' recommendation was based on Rosenstein's, while Rosenstein wrote that Comey should be dismissed for his handling of the conclusion of the FBI investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[43]

On May 10, Trump met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Based on White House notes of the meeting, Trump told the Russians: "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job ... I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."[44] On May 11, Trump said in a videoed interview: "... regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey ... in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story."[45] On May 18, Rosenstein told members of the U.S. Senate that he recommended Comey's dismissal while knowing Trump had already decided to fire Comey.[46] On May 31, Trump wrote on Twitter: "I never fired James Comey because of Russia!"[47]

In the aftermath of Comey's firing, the events were compared with those of the "Saturday Night Massacre" during Richard Nixon's administration, and there was debate over whether Trump had provoked a constitutional crisis as he had dismissed the man leading an investigation into Trump's associates.[48]

Comey had previously prepared seven detailed memos, four of which contained classified information, documenting most of his meetings and telephone conversations with President Trump.[49] He provided some of the memos to his friend Daniel Richman, who then released the substance of the memos to the press.[50] Comey later told the Senate Intelligence Committee he created written records immediately after his conversations with Trump because he "was honestly concerned that he [Trump] might lie about the nature of our meeting".[51] In his memo about a February 14, 2017, Oval Office meeting, Comey says Trump attempted to persuade him to abort the investigation into General Flynn.[49]

Resignation of Jim Mattis

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis informed Trump of his resignation following Trump's abrupt December 19, 2018 announcement that the remaining 2,000 American troops in Syria would be withdrawn, against the recommendations of his military and civilian advisors. In his resignation letter, Mattis appeared to criticize Trump's worldview, praising NATO, which Trump has often derided, as well as the Defeat-ISIS coalition Trump had just decided to abandon. Mattis' resignation became effective on February 28, 2019.[52]

Judicial nominees

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In his first month in office, Trump nominated federal appellate judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy which arose after the February 2016 death of Antonin Scalia and which had not been filled under the then-president Obama because of Republican obstruction.[53] Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate in a 54–45 vote.[54] Prior to this nomination, the support of three-fifths of the Senate had effectively been required for the confirmation of Supreme Court nominees due to the Senate filibuster. However, the Senate's Republican majority changed the rules for the filibuster via the so-called "nuclear option," and the confirmation of Supreme Court justices now requires only a simple majority vote.[54]

In June 2018, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, widely considered to be the key swing vote on the Supreme Court, announced his retirement.[55] Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, to fill the vacancy. During the confirmation process, Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting Dr. Christine Blasey Ford while they were both in high school. The Senate voted 50–48 to confirm Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court.[56]

By November 2018, Trump had appointed 29 judges to the United States courts of appeals, more than any modern president in the first two years of a presidential term.[57] Compared to President Obama, Trump has nominated fewer non-white and female judges.[58] Trump's judicial nominees tended to be young and favored by the conservative Federalist Society.[53]

Leadership style and philosophy

Trump reportedly eschews reading detailed briefing documents, including the President's Daily Brief, in favor of receiving oral briefings.[59][60] Intelligence briefers reportedly repeat the President's name and title in order to keep his attention.[61][62] He is also known to acquire information by watching up to eight hours of television each day, most notably Fox News programs such as Fox & Friends and Hannity, whose broadcast talking points Trump sometimes repeats in public statements, particularly in early morning tweets.[63][64][65][66] Trump reportedly expresses anger if intelligence analyses contradict his beliefs or public statements, with two briefers stating they have been instructed by superiors to not provide Trump with information that contradicts his public statements.[62]

Trump has reportedly fostered chaos as a management technique, resulting in low morale and policy confusion among his staff, although he has maintained his White House runs like a "well-oiled machine".[67][68][69] Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, noted Trump possesses several management qualities that are prevalent among many leaders, including narcissism and dishonesty, but added, "With a modicum of management skill he could have gotten his wall, and he would probably be on the path to re-election. But he has very few accomplishments to his credit." Trump proved unable to effectively compromise during the 115th United States Congress, which led to significant governmental gridlock and few notable legislative accomplishments despite Republican control of both houses the House and the Senate.[70] Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin found Trump lacks several traits of an effective leader, including "humility, acknowledging errors, shouldering blame and learning from mistakes, empathy, resilience, collaboration, connecting with people and controlling unproductive emotions".[71] The New York Times reported that "before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals."[63]

In January 2018, Axios reported Trump's working hours were typically around 11am to 6pm (a later start and an earlier end compared to the beginning of his presidency) and that he was holding fewer meetings during his working hours, in order to accommodate Trump's desire for more unstructured free time (labelled as "executive time").[72] Later that year, Politico reported Trump's schedule for October 22–26 that he never started work earlier than 11am, had large amounts of "executive time" and only a total of two hours of policy briefings in five days.[73][74] In 2019, Axios published Trump's schedule from November 7, 2018 to February 1, 2019, and calculated that around 60% of the time between 8am to 5pm was "executive time".[75][76]

False and misleading statements

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As president, Trump has made so many false statements in public speeches, remarks, and in tweets, that media commentators and fact-checkers have described the rate of his falsehoods as unprecedented for an American president or even unprecedented in politics.[1] This trait of his was similarly observed when he was a presidential candidate.[77][78] His falsehoods have become a distinctive part of his political identity,[79] and they have also described as part of a gaslighting tactic.[80] His White House has dismissed the idea of objective truth,[81] and his campaign and presidency have been described as being "post-truth" and hyper-Orwellian,[82][83] Trump's rhetorical signature includes disregarding data from federal institutions which are incompatible to his arguments, quoting hearsay, anecdotal evidence and questionable claims in partisan media, denying reality (including his own statements), and distracting when falsehoods are exposed.[84]

During the first year of Trump's presidency, The Washington Post's fact-checker wrote, "President Trump is the most fact-challenged politician that The Fact Checker has ever encountered ... the pace and volume of the president's misstatements means that we cannot possibly keep up."[85] By August 2018, the pace of the false statements increased substantially. In June and July alone 968 new incidences had been noted, and a total of 4,229 "false or misleading" statements had by then been recorded in his tenure. Immigration issues led the subject list at that point, with 538 recorded mendacities.[86]

Senior administration officials have also regularly given false, misleading or tortured statements to the media.[87][88] By May 2017, Politico reported that the repeated untruths by senior officials made it difficult for the media to take official statements seriously.[87]

Trump's presidency started out with a series of falsehoods initiated by Trump himself. The day after his inauguration, he falsely accused the media of lying about the size of the inauguration crowd. Then he proceeded to exaggerate the size, and Sean Spicer backed up his claims.[89][90][91] When Spicer was accused of intentionally misstating the figures, Kellyanne Conway, in an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, defended Spicer by stating that he merely presented "alternative facts".[89] Other notable claims by Trump which fact checkers rated false include the claim that his electoral college victory was a "landslide"[92][93][94] and that Hillary Clinton received 3-5 million illegal votes.[95]

In the seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections—it had risen to an average of 30 per day[96] from 4.9 during his first 100 days in office.[97] The Washington Post found that Trump averaged 15 false statements per day during 2018.[98] As of May 2019, Trump had made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims.[99]

Rule of law

Shortly before Trump secured the 2016 Republican nomination, The New York Times reported "legal experts across the political spectrum say" Trump's rhetoric reflected "a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law," adding "many conservative and libertarian legal scholars warn that electing Mr. Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis."[100] A group named "Originalists Against Trump" declared in October 2016, "Trump's long record of statements and conduct have shown him indifferent or hostile to the Constitution's basic features."[101] As the Trump presidency unfolded, numerous prominent conservative Republicans expressed similar concerns that Trump's perceived disregard for the rule of law betrayed conservative principles.[102][103][104][105][106] The Times reported in November 2018 that more than a dozen members of the conservative-libertarian Federalist Society — which had been instrumental in selecting Trump's appointments to federal courts — "are urging their fellow conservatives to speak up about what they say are the Trump administration's betrayals of bedrock legal norms".[107]

During the first two years of his presidency, Trump repeatedly sought to influence the Justice Department to investigate those he saw as his political adversaries — including Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, James Comey and the FBI — regarding a variety of persistent allegations, at least some of which had already been investigated or debunked.[108][109] In spring 2018, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn he wanted to order the DOJ to prosecute Clinton and Comey, but McGahn advised Trump such action would constitute abuse of power and invite possible impeachment.[110] In May 2018 Trump demanded the DOJ to investigate "whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes," which the DOJ referred to its inspector general.[111] Although it is not unlawful for a president to exert influence on the DOJ to open an investigation, presidents have assiduously avoided doing so to prevent perceptions of political interference.[111][112] Some of Trump's congressional allies asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special counsel to investigate the FBI and an alleged Uranium One controversy involving Clinton;[113] Sessions instead appointed in May 2018 federal prosecutor John Huber to examine the matters and make a recommendation as to whether a special counsel was justified.[114] Sessions otherwise resisted demands by Trump and his allies for investigations, causing Trump to repeatedly express frustration, saying at one point, "I don't have an attorney general."[115] Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist whom the President appointed to succeed Sessions as Acting Attorney General in November 2018, had in 2017 reportedly provided private advice to Trump on how the White House might pressure the Justice Department to investigate the President's adversaries, including appointing a special counsel to investigate the FBI and Hillary Clinton.[116] In 2014, Whitaker criticized Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 landmark Supreme Court decision that established the bedrock principle of judicial review that empowered courts to strike down statutes and government actions that contravene the Constitution.[117]

In an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president, in November 2018 Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts responded to Trump's characterization of a judge who had ruled against his policies as an "Obama judge," adding "That's not law."[118] Roberts wrote, "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."[119]

Trump has on multiple occasions either suggested or promoted views of extending his presidency beyond normal term limits.[120][121]

While criticizing the special counsel investigation in July 2019, Trump falsely claimed that Article Two of the United States Constitution ensures that: "I have to the right to do whatever I want as president".[122] Also in July 2019, Trump said that "free speech is not when you see something good and then you purposefully write bad ... To me that's very dangerous speech and you become angry at it." Trump's definition contradicts the First Amendment to the United States Constitution on free speech.[123]

Relationship with the media

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Trump talking to the press, March 21, 2017, before signing S.422, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act, in the Oval Office
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Trump speaks to reporters on the White House South Lawn in June 2019

Early into his presidency, the administration developed a highly contentious relationship with the media, repeatedly describing it as the "fake news media" and "the enemy of the people".[124] Through August 2018, at least three journalists received threatening phone calls from men calling them the enemy of the people, with one suspect being arrested by the FBI for making death threats.[125][126][127] Trump both privately and publicly mused about taking away critical reporters' White House press credentials (despite, during his campaign, promising not to do so once he became president).[128] At the same time, the Trump White House gave temporary press passes to far-right pro-Trump fringe outlets, such as InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit, which are known for publishing hoaxes and conspiracy theories.[128][129][130]

On his first day in office, Trump falsely accused journalists of understating the size of the crowd at his inauguration, and called the media "among the most dishonest human beings on earth". Trump's claims were notably defended by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who claimed the inauguration crowd had been the biggest in history, a claim disproven by photographs.[131] Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway then defended Spicer when asked about the falsehood, saying it was an "alternative fact", not a falsehood.[89]

Less than a month into his presidency, Trump held a press conference claiming the media was not speaking for the people, but for special interests. He claimed they were dishonest, out of control and doing a disservice to the American people.[132] On February 17, 2017, Trump tweeted, "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" [133][134] Trump's first press conference was also the last (as of January 2019).[135] For comparison, Barack Obama had held eleven solo press conferences by the end of his first year, George W. Bush held five, and Bill Clinton held 12.[136] Later in the month, the administration blocked reporters from The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, Los Angeles Times and Politico from attending an off-camera briefing with Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press chose not to attend the briefing in protest at the White House's actions. The New York Times described the move as "a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps", and the White House Correspondents' Association issued a statement of protest.[137][138]

In March 2017, all major U.S. television networks declined to air a paid campaign ad placed by the 2020 Trump campaign which included a graphic claiming that mainstream media is "fake news". In a statement, CNN said they "requested that the advertiser remove the false graphic that the mainstream media is 'fake news'". Lara Trump, daughter-in-law to Trump and adviser for his campaign, called the rejection a "chilling precedent against free speech rights", and "an unprecedented act of censorship in America that should concern every freedom-loving citizen".[139]

The relationship between Trump, the media, and fake news has been studied. One study found that between October 7 and November 14, 2016, while one in four Americans visited a fake news website, "Trump supporters visited the most fake news websites, which were overwhelmingly pro-Trump" and "almost 6 in 10 visits to fake news websites came from the 10% of people with the most conservative online information diets".[140][141] Brendan Nyhan, one of the authors of the study by researchers from Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Exeter, stated in an interview: "People got vastly more misinformation from Donald Trump than they did from fake news websites."[142]

In May 2018, Trump tweeted "91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake)." The Washington Post described this Trump making it "explicit" that negative coverage on him has to be fake.[143] Also that month, journalist Lesley Stahl recounted that after Trump won the 2016 presidential election, he had told her he kept attacking the media to "demean" and "discredit", "so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you".[144] Trump also attacked The New York Times on their coverage of a White House briefing on the 2018 North Korea–United States summit. Trump claimed that the anonymous "senior White House official" the newspaper quoted "doesn't exist", instructing: "Use real people, not phony sources". Following Trump's claim, journalists provided audio evidence of the official being introduced as Matt Pottinger of the National Security Council, with White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah insisting that Pottinger's anonymity was required. The White House's invitation for the briefing to journalists also surfaced.[145][146][147]

The Boston Globe called for a nationwide refutation of Trump's "dirty war" against the media, with the hashtag #EnemyOfNone. Over 300 news outlets joined the campaign. The New York Times called Trump's attacks "dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy" and published excerpts from dozens of further publications. The New York Post wrote, "It may be frustrating to argue that just because we print inconvenient truths doesn't mean that we're fake news, but being a journalist isn't a popularity contest. All we can do is to keep reporting." The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "If the press is not free from reprisal, punishment or suspicion for unpopular views or information, neither is the country. Neither are its people"[148]

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During a joint news conference, Trump said he was "very proud" to hear Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro use the term "fake news".[149]

On August 16, 2018 the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming that "the press is not the enemy of the people,"[150] marking the second time the Senate had unanimously rebuked Trump within a month.[151]

In October 2018, Trump praised US representative Greg Gianforte for assaulting political reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017.[152] According to analysts, the incident marked the first time the President has "openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil".[153] Later that month, as CNN and prominent Democrats were targeted with bombs, Trump initially condemned the bomb attempts but shortly thereafter blamed the "Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News" for causing "a very big part of the Anger we see today in our society".[154]

In a May 2017 interview with NBC News anchorman Lester Holt, Trump stated he was thinking of "this Russia thing" when he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey.[155] Trump's statement raised concerns of potential obstruction of justice.[156] In May 2018 Trump denied firing Comey because of the Russia investigation.[157] In August 2018 Trump tweeted "Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia," followed by his attorney Jay Sekulow asserting in September 2018 that NBC had edited the Trump interview.[158][159] Neither Trump nor Sekulow produced evidence that the tape had been modified.

Following a contentious Trump press conference on November 7, 2018 in which CNN reporter Jim Acosta was criticized by Trump and press secretary Sarah Sanders for perceived disruptive behavior, including an alleged assault on a White House intern as she attempted to take a microphone from Acosta, the White House revoked Acosta's press pass. CNN sued Trump and several of his aides six days later, asserting that Acosta's due process and First Amendment rights had been violated.[160] The case was heard by Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee to the District Court for the District of Columbia who ruled on November 16 that Acosta's due process rights had been violated and his press pass must be restored. Kelly made no ruling on the First Amendment issue.[161] Sanders faced criticism for tweeting a video clip that originated from Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars purporting to prove the alleged assault, which differed from original video of the incident, resulting in a misleading impression that Acosta had aggressively thrust his hand at the intern.[162][163][164] Later asked if the video had been altered, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway replied, "That's not altered, that's sped up," likening it to a television replay of a sporting event.[165]

In June 2019, Trump said a Time journalist "can go to prison" if they "use" a photo taken of a letter Kim Jong-un had given Trump.[166] In August 2019, Trump criticized Fox News for "heavily promoting the Democrats", stating: "We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn't working for us anymore!"[167]

Use of Twitter

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Trump continued his use of Twitter following the presidential campaign. He has continued to personally tweet from @realDonaldTrump, his personal account, while his staff tweet on his behalf using the official @POTUS account. His use of Twitter has been unconventional for a president, with his tweets initiating controversy and becoming news in their own right.[168] Some scholars have referred to his time in office as the "first true Twitter presidency".[169] The Trump administration has described Trump's tweets as "official statements by the President of the United States".[170] A federal judge ruled in May 2018 that Trump's blocking of other Twitter users due to opposing political views violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and he must unblock them; however, according to a plaintiff, Trump has yet to comply with the unblocking order.[171] The administration has appealed the court's ruling.[172]

File:Twitter activity of Donald Trump.png
Twitter activity of Donald Trump from his first tweet in May 2009 to September 2017. Retweets are not included.

His tweets have been reported as ill-considered, impulsive, vengeful, and bullying, often being made late at night or in the early hours of the morning.[173][174][175][176] His tweets about a Muslim ban were successfully turned against his administration to halt two versions of travel restrictions from some Muslim-majority countries.[177] He has used Twitter to threaten and intimidate his political opponents and potential political allies needed to pass bills.[citation needed]

Many tweets appear to be based on stories Trump has seen in the media, including far-right news websites such as Breitbart, and television shows such as Fox & Friends.[178][179]

Trump has used Twitter to attack federal judges who have ruled against him in court cases[180] and to criticize officials within his own administration, including then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, then-National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and at various times Attorney General Jeff Sessions.[181] Tillerson was eventually fired via a tweet by Trump.[182] Trump has also tweeted that his Justice Department is part of the American "deep state";[183] that "there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State" Departments;[181] and that the special counsel investigation is a "WITCH HUNT!"[184] In August 2018, Trump used Twitter to write that Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should stop" the special counsel investigation immediately; he also referred to it as "rigged" and its investigators as biased.[185]

Domestic policy

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Abortion and fetal tissue research

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Trump reinstated the Mexico City policy prohibiting funding to foreign non-governmental organizations that perform abortions as a method of family planning in other countries.[186] In 2018, the U.S. was the only country to oppose a United Nations nonbinding draft resolution to combat violence against women; the administration said a reference to "sexual and reproductive health" could be interpreted as support for abortion rights, and that the resolution might conflate "physical violence against women with sexual harassment".[186] In 2018, the administration prohibited scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from acquiring new fetal tissue for research,[187] and a year later stopped all medical research by government scientists that used fetal tissue.[188]

The administration geared HHS funding towards abstinence education programs for teens rather than the comprehensive sexual education programs the Obama administration funded.[189]

In his January 2019 State of the Union Address Trump said he would push for a ban on late-term abortions, falsely asserting that a New York law would allow "a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth."[190] On multiple occasions in 2019 he falsely claimed that Democrats favor allowing doctors and mothers to "execute" live-born babies.[191][192]

In June 2019, the Trump administration was allowed by a federal court of appeals to implement, while legal appeals continue, a policy restricting taxpayer dollars given to family planning facilities through Title X. This policy requires that companies receiving Title X funding must not mention abortion to patients, provide abortion referrals, or share space with abortion providers.[193][194] As a result Planned Parenthood, which provides Title X birth control services to 1.5 million women, is withdrawing from the program.[195]

Agriculture

Due to Trump's trade tariffs combined with depressed commodities prices, American farmers faced the worst crisis in decades.[196] Trump provided farmers $12 billion in direct payments in July 2018 to mitigate the negative impacts of his tariffs, increasing the payments by $14.5 billion in May 2019 after trade talks with China ended without agreement.[197] Most of the administration's aid went to the largest farms.[198]

Trump's fiscal 2020 budget proposed a 15% funding cut for the Agriculture Department, calling farm subsidies "overly generous".[196] Politico reported in May 2019 that some economists in the Economic Research Service of the Agriculture Department felt they were being punished for presenting analyses showing farmers were being harmed by Trump's trade and tax policies, with six economists having more than 50 years of combined experience at the Service resigning on the same day of April 2019.[199]

Consumer protections

The administration reversed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that had made it easier for aggrieved consumers to pursue class actions against banks; the Associated Press characterized the reversal as a victory for Wall Street banks.[200] Under Mick Mulvaney's tenure, the CFPB reduced enforcement of rules that protected consumers from predatory payday lenders.[201][202] Trump scrapped a proposed rule from the Obama administration that airlines disclose baggage fees.[203] Trump reduced enforcement of regulations against airlines; fines levied by the administration in 2017 were less than half of what the Obama administration did the year before.[204]

Criminal justice

File:Ann Wagner Statement on President Signing FOSTA into Law.jpg
Trump signed new anti-sex-trafficking legislation on April 16, 2018

In November 2017, the New York Times summarized the Trump administration's "general approach to law enforcement" as "cracking down on violent crime", "not regulating the police departments that fight it", and overhauling "programs that the Obama administration used to ease tensions between communities and the police".[205] The administration reversed a 16-year old moratorium on federal capital punishment in 2019, with Attorney General Barr directing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to schedule five executions.[206]

The administration reinstated the use of asset forfeiture – the practice of seizing the property of crime suspects who have not been charged with or convicted of a crime – making it so local authorities in the states that banned asset forfeiture could engage in the practice.[207] When a sheriff complained about a state senator who proposed legislation to end asset forfeiture, Trump responded, "Who is the state senator? Do you want to give his name? We'll destroy his career."[208]

Trump appeared to advocate police brutality in a July 2017 speech to police officers,[209] prompting criticism from law enforcement agencies.[210]

In December 2017, Trump signed the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill which sought to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce recidivism, notably by expanding job training and early-release programs, and lowering mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.[211] Trump's proposed 2020 budget underfunded the new law; the law was intended to receive $75 million annually for five years, but Trump's budget proposed only $14 million.[212]

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's April 2019 report documented that Trump pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department to re-open the investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[213]

Trump's 2019 budget plan proposed nearly 50% cuts to the COPS Hiring Program which provides funding to state and local law enforcement agencies to help hire community policing officers.[214]

The number of prosecutions of child-sex traffickers has showed a decreasing trend under the Trump administration. 108 such prosecutions were filed[citation needed] in the first eight months of 2019, producing an estimated 162 prosecutions in 2019 at the current rate. Under the eight-year Obama administration, the number of prosecutions rose from 85 in 2009 to around 275 in 2016. The number of prosecutions in 2017 was slightly higher than 2016's, but the number of prosecutions in 2018 was lower, at 221.[215][216]

Presidential pardons and commutations

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During his presidency, Trump pardoned:

The New York Times remarked that Trump took no action on more than 10,000 pending applications and that he solely used his pardon power on "public figures whose cases resonated with him given his own grievances with investigators".[217]

Drug policy

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In a May 2017 departure from the Obama DOJ's policy to reduce long jail sentencing for minor drug offenses and contrary to a growing bipartisan consensus, the administration ordered federal prosecutors to seek maximum sentencing for drug offenses.[225] In a January 2018 move that created uncertainty regarding the legality of recreational and medical marijuana, Sessions rescinded federal policy that had barred federal law enforcement officials from aggressively enforcing federal cannabis law in states where the drug is legal.[226] The administration's decision contradicted then-candidate Trump's statement that marijuana legalization should be "up to the states".[227] That same month, the VA said it would not research cannabis as a potential treatment against PTSD and chronic pain; veterans organizations had pushed for such a study.[228]

Defense

During 2018, Trump asserted he had secured the largest defense budget authorization ever, the first military pay raise in ten years, and that military spending was at least 4.0% of GDP, "which got a lot bigger since I became your president". These statements were false.[229][230][231][232]

As a candidate and as president, Trump called for a major build-up of American military capabilities, including increasing the nuclear arsenal tenfold. He stated he was open to allowing Japan and South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons. He announced in October 2018 that America would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia to enable America to counter increasing Chinese intermediate nuclear missile capabilities in the Pacific. In December 2018, Trump complained about the amount America spends on an "uncontrollable arms race" with Russia and China. Trump stated the $716 billion America is now spending on the "arms race" was "Crazy!," after praising his increased defense spending five months earlier. The total fiscal 2019 defense budget authorization was $716 billion, although missile defense and nuclear programs comprised about $10 billion of the total.[233][234][235][236]

Economy

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Economic indicators and federal finances under the Obama and Trump administrations
$ represent U.S. trillions of unadjusted dollars
Year Unemploy-
ment[237]
GDP[238] RGDP
Growth
[239]
Fiscal data[240][241]
Receipts Outlays Deficit Debt
ending Dec 31 (calendar year) Sep 30 (fiscal year)[1]
2014* 6.2% $17.522 2.5% $3.021 $3.506 - $0.485 $12.8
2015* 5.3% $18.219 2.9% $3.250 $3.688 - $0.438 $13.1
2016* 4.9% $18.707 1.6% $3.268 $3.853 - $0.585 $14.2
2017 4.4% $19.485 2.2% $3.315 $3.981 - $0.666 $14.7
2018 3.9% $20.494 2.9% $3.329 $4.108 - $0.799 $15.8
2019 Q2 3.7%[242] 2.6%[243]

Trump's economic policies have centered on cutting taxes, deregulation, and trade protectionism. His involvement has included the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the cancellation of NAFTA and negotiation for USMCA, and tariffs during trade negotiations with China.

In February 2018, Trump released a $1.5 trillion federal infrastructure plan, but left the details of the plan for Congress to solve, including how to pay for it; Congress did not take up the plan.[244] One of the administration's first actions was to indefinitely suspend a cut in fee rates for federally-insured mortgages implemented by the Obama administration. The cut in fee rates would have saved individuals with lower credit scores around $500 per year on a typical loan.[245]

In September 2017, the DOJ announced it would not defend in courts a mandate that would have extended overtime benefits to more than four million workers.[246]

File:Treasury Secretary Nominee Steve Mnuchin Opening Statement (C-SPAN).webm
Nominee Steven Mnuchin delivers his opening statement before the Senate Finance Committee at the confirmation hearing for him to become Secretary of the Treasury.

In September 2017, the administration proposed a tax overhaul, which became the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The proposal was to reduce the corporate tax rate to 20% (from 35%) and eliminate the estate tax. On individual tax returns it would change the number of tax brackets from seven to three, with tax rates of 12%, 25%, and 35%; apply a 25% tax rate to business income reported on a personal tax return; eliminate the alternative minimum tax; eliminate personal exemptions; double the standard deduction; and eliminate many itemized deductions (specifically retaining the deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions).[247]

File:Donald Trump and Mike Pence meet with automobile industry leaders.jpg
Trump and Vice-President Pence met with key automobile industry leaders, January 24, 2017

According to The New York Times, the plan would result in a "huge windfall" for the very wealthy but would not benefit those in the bottom third of the income distribution.[247] The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that the richest 0.1% and 1% would benefit the most in raw dollar amounts and percentage terms from the tax plan, earning 10.2% and 8.5% more income after taxes respectively.[248] Middle-class households would on average earn 1.2% more after tax, but 13.5% of middle class households would see their tax burden increase.[248] The poorest fifth of Americans would earn 0.5% more.[248] Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued that the corporate income tax cut will benefit workers the most; however, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, Congressional Budget Office and many economists estimated that owners of capital would benefit vastly more than workers.[249] A preliminary estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that the tax plan would add more than $2 trillion over the next decade to the federal debt,[250] while the Tax Policy Center found that it would add $2.4 trillion to the debt.[248]

During his tenure, Trump has sought to intervene in the economy to affect specific companies and industries.[251] Trump sought to compel power grid operators to buy coal and nuclear energy, and sought tariffs on metals to protect domestic metal producers.[251] Trump also publicly attacked Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sending their stocks tumbling.[252] Trump repeatedly singled out Amazon for criticism and advocated steps that would harm the company, such as ending an arrangement between Amazon and the US Postal Service and raising taxes on Amazon.[253] Trump expressed opposition to the merger between Time Warner (the parent company of CNN) and AT&T.[254] After the merger was completed, Trump in June 2019 suggested boycotting AT&T to force changes at CNN.[255]

In March 2018, Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, triggering a series of tit for tat tariffs and threatened additional tariffs from multiple nations, which by June 2018 had escalated into what some characterized as a trade war[256] The trade dispute disrupted global commerce, with the New York Times noting that "shipments are slowing at ports and airfreight terminals around the world. Prices for crucial raw materials are rising. At factories from Germany to Mexico, orders are being cut and investments delayed. American farmers are losing sales as trading partners hit back with duties of their own."[257] By June 2018, negative effects of the Trump tariffs policy had begun to ripple through the American economy, in particular the agriculture sector.[258] In July 2018, China retaliated with a $34 billion in tariffs on U.S. goods.[259] Trump had signaled that he might impose an additional $200 billion in tariffs if China imposed their own tariffs, with the potential for a further $200 billion, in an escalating trade war.[260] China and the United States entered into negotiations in the summer of 2018 to seek a comprehensive solution to their trade conflict, but the talks ended without agreement on May 10, 2019, and that day Trump carried out his earlier threat to impose additional tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods.[261] Some economists estimated that the cumulative effect of the continuing trade conflict could raise costs for the average American household by several hundreds of dollars per year.[262]

Upon taking office, Trump halted trade negotiations with the European Union on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which had been under way since 2013.[263] In May 2018, Trump initiated a trade conflict with the EU by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum,[264] for which the EU retaliated in June with tariffs of their own,[265] with Trump threatening to escalate the conflict with additional tariffs.[266] In July 2018, Trump and the EU declared a truce of sorts, announcing they would enter into negotiations for an agreement similar to the TTIP.[263]

From June 2018, Trump has repeatedly and falsely characterized the economy during his presidency as the best in American history;[267] he has made some version of this claim over 130 times.[268]

The New York Times reported on August 5, 2018 that two major American steel companies with close ties to senior Trump administration officials had succeeded in blocking requests from 1,600 American manufacturing companies for waivers of the steel tariffs, compelling them to purchase more expensive American steel. Nucor had financed a documentary made by Peter Navarro, Trump's Director of the White House National Trade Council, and US Steel had previously been represented in legal matters by Trump's trade representative Robert Lighthizer and his deputy Jeffrey Gerrish.[269]

A July 2018 paper, which used the synthetic control method, found no evidence Trump had an impact on the US economy during his 18 months in office.[270]

Analysis conducted by Bloomberg News at the end of Trump's second year in office found that his economy ranked sixth among the last seven presidents, based on fourteen metrics of economic activity and financial performance.[271]

During his February 2019 State of the Union Address, Trump asserted, "Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades, and growing for blue collar workers, who I promised to fight for, faster than anyone else."[272] However, nominal wage growth for production and nonsupervisory workers averaged 3.0% during 2018, the highest rate since 2009. Adjusted for inflation, the 2018 average growth rate for such workers was 0.5%, the highest rate since 2016, when real wages rose 1.2%. Real wage growth was lower during both of Trump's first two years in office than during any of the preceding four years.[273]

The Trump campaign economic policy, as expressed by Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross in a September 2016 white paper, included a priority of "eliminating America's chronic trade deficit," particularly with China.[274] However, the overall trade deficit increased in both of Trump's first two years in office, up 10% in 2017 and 13% in 2018, compared to single-digit increases during each of the preceding three years. The deficit in goods, Trump's preferred trade balance measure, increased 8% in 2017 and 10% in 2018, reaching a record high of $891 billion in 2018.[275] The goods deficit with China reached a record high for the second consecutive year in 2018, up 12% from 2017.[276] The overall deficits were mitigated somewhat by surpluses in services, continuing a trend of many years.[277]

According to two 2019 studies, Trump's trade war harmed the U.S. economy, with U.S. consumers bearing the brunt of the cost.[278]

Shortly after being elected, Trump cited a handful of anecdotes to assert that foreign investment had begun pouring into America because of his election.[279][280] However, aggregate statistical data showed that foreign direct investment—the total flow of investment capital into the United States from the rest of the world—declined sharply during Trump's first two years in office, down 40% compared to the two years immediately preceding his presidency.[281]

In April 2019, one week after asserting, "the economy is roaring" and "our country has never done better economically," Trump called for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates and renew quantitative easing to stimulate economic growth. Trump has been repeatedly critical of the Fed's use of low interest rates and quantitative easing to boost the economy in the aftermath of the Great Recession during the Obama presidency.[282]

Analysis conducted by CNBC in May 2019 found that Trump "enacted tariffs equivalent to one of the largest tax increases in decades," while Tax Foundation and Tax Policy Center analyses found the tariffs could wipe out the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 for many households.[283][284] While Trump has repeatedly asserted his tariffs contribute to GDP growth, the consensus among analysts — including Trump's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow — is that the Trump tariffs have had a small to moderately negative effect on GDP growth.[285] Kudlow was also quoted as being in support of the administrations efforts to renegotiate tariffs with China, stating that this is, "a risk we should and can take without damaging our economy in any appreciable way" in order "to correct 20 years plus of unfair trading practices with China." Kudlow went on to state, "We have had unfair trading practices all these years, and so in my judgment, the economic consequences are so small that the possible improvement in trade and exports and open markets for the United States, this is worthwhile doing."[285]

When first quarter 2019 GDP growth reached 3.2%, Trump falsely asserted it was "a number that they haven't hit in 14 years."[286]

Three weeks after Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote an April 2019 Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled "Trump's Tariffs End or His Trade Deal Dies," stating "Congress won't approve USMCA while constituents pay the price for Mexican and Canadian retaliation," Trump lifted steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexico and Canada.[287] Two weeks later, Trump unexpectedly announced he would impose a 5% tariff on all imports from Mexico on June 10, increasing to 10% on July 1, and by another 5% each month for three months, "until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP."[288] Hours later, Grassley commented, "This is a misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent. Following through on this threat would seriously jeopardize passage of USMCA, a central campaign pledge of President Trump's and what could be a big victory for the country."[289] That same day, the Trump administration formally initiated the process to seek congressional approval of USMCA.[290] Trump's top trade advisor, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, opposed the new Mexican tariffs on concerns it would jeopardize passage of USMCA.[291] Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump senior advisor Jared Kushner also opposed the action. Grassley, whose committee is instrumental in passing USMCA, was not informed in advance of Trump's surprise announcement.[292] An array of lawmakers and business groups expressed consternation about the proposed tariffs.[293][294] With 2018 imports of Mexican goods totaling $346.5 billion, a 5% tariff constitutes a tax increase of over $17 billion.[295] On June 7, Trump announced the tariffs would be "indefinitely suspended" after Mexico agreed to take actions, including deploying its National Guard throughout the country and along its southern border.[296] The New York Times reported the following day that Mexico had actually agreed to most of the actions months earlier.[297] Also that day, Trump tweeted, "MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!," although the communique between the countries did not mention any such deal and Mexican officials were not aware of such discussions, while American officials declined comment.[298]

Analysis conducted by Deutsche Bank estimated that Trump's trade actions had resulted in foregone American stock market capitalization of $5 trillion through May 2019.[299]

Analysis of Trump's 2017 tax cut released by the Congressional Research Service in May 2019 found that "On the whole, the growth effects tend to show a relatively small (if any) first-year effect on the economy."[300]

By late 2018 and early 2019, the national average unemployment continued to decline to the lowest level since 1969.[301]

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in July 2019, Trump's policies will add $4.1 trillion to the national debt from 2017 to 2029. Around $1.8 trillion of debt is projected to eventually arise from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.[302]

Trump has sought to present his economic policies as successful in encouraging businesses to invest in new facilities and create jobs. In this effort, he has on several occasions taken credit for business investments that began before he became president.[303][304]

Education

File:Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump visit Saint Andrew's Catholic School, March 2017.jpg
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and President Trump visit Saint Andrew's Catholic School in Orlando, Florida, March 3, 2017

Trump revoked an Obama administration memo which provided protections for people in default on student loans.[305] The Education Department cancelled agreements with the CFPB to police student loan fraud.[306] Seth Frotman, the CFPB student loan ombudsman, resigned, accusing the Trump administration of undermining the CFPB's work on protecting student borrowers.[307]

The administration scrapped an Obama administration guidance on how schools and universities should combat sexual harassment and sexual violence. DeVos criticized the guidance for undermining the rights of those accused of sexual harassment.[308]

DeVos marginalized an investigative unit within the Department of Education which under Obama investigated predatory activities by for-profit colleges. The unit had been scaled down from a dozen employees to three, and had been repurposed to process student loan forgiveness applications and focus on smaller compliance cases. An investigation started under Obama into the practices of DeVry Education Group, which operates for-profit colleges, was halted in early 2017, and the former dean at DeVry was made into the supervisor for the investigative unit later that summer. DeVry paid a $100 million fine in 2016 for defrauding students.[309] The administration rescinded a regulation restricting federal funding to for-profit colleges unable to demonstrate that college graduates had a reasonable debt-to-earnings ratio after entering the job market.[310]

Election integrity

On the eve of the 2018 mid-term elections, Politico described the Trump administration's efforts to combat election propaganda as "rudderless". At the same time, U.S. intelligence agencies warned about "on-going campaigns" by Russia, China and Iran to influence American elections.[311]

Energy

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The administration's "America First Energy Plan" did not mention renewable energy and instead focused on fossil fuels.[312] The administration enacted 30% tariffs on imported solar panels. The American solar energy industry is highly reliant on foreign parts (80% of parts are made abroad); as a result, the tariffs could raise the costs of solar energy, reduce innovation and reduce jobs in the industry — which in 2017 employed nearly four times as many American workers as the coal industry.[313][314]

Trump rescinded a rule that required oil, gas and mining firms to disclose how much they paid foreign governments,[315] and withdrew from the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which required disclosure of payments by oil, gas and mining companies to governments.[316]

File:Donald Trump signs orders to green-light the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.jpg
Trump signing the presidential memoranda to advance the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. January 24, 2017

In January 2018, the administration singled out the state of Florida as an exemption from the administration's offshore drilling plan. The move stirred controversy because it came after the Governor of Florida, Republican Rick Scott (who was considering a 2018 Senate run), complained about the offshore drilling plan. The move raised ethical questions because Trump owns a resort in Florida and because Florida is a swing state Trump would like to win in the 2020 presidential election. NBC News said the decision had the appearance of "transactional favoritism" and that it was likely to lead to lawsuits.[317]

Environment

File:Donald Trump rally in Huntington (a) .png
2017 Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump hold a placard that reads "TRUMP DIGS COAL"

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By June 2019, the administration had overturned or was in process of rolling back 83 environmental regulations.[318] A 2018 study in the American Journal of Public Health found that in the first six months of the administration, the EPA adopted a pro-business attitude unlike that of any previous administration, as it "moved away from the public interest and explicitly favored the interests of the regulated industries".[319] The Washington Post summarized Pruitt's leadership of the EPA in 2017 as follows, "he has moved to shrink the agency's reach, alter its focus, and pause or reverse numerous environmental rules. The effect has been to steer the EPA in the direction sought by those being regulated. Along the way, Pruitt has begun to dismantle former president Barack Obama's environmental legacy, halting the agency's efforts to combat climate change and to shift the nation away from its reliance on fossil fuels."[320] Analyses of EPA enforcement data showed that the Trump administration brought fewer cases against polluters, sought a lower total of civil penalties and made fewer requests of companies to retrofit facilities to curb pollution than the Obama and Bush administrations. According to the New York Times, "confidential internal E.P.A. documents show that the enforcement slowdown coincides with major policy changes ordered by Mr. Pruitt's team after pleas from oil and gas industry executives."[321] In 2018, the Trump administration referred the lowest number of pollution cases for criminal prosecution in 30 years.[322] Two years into Trump's presidency, The New York Times wrote he had "unleashed a regulatory rollback, lobbied for and cheered on by industry, with little parallel in the past half-century".[323] In June 2018, David Cutler and Francesca Dominici of Harvard University estimated conservatively that the Trump administration's modifications to environmental rules could result in over 80 000 additional U.S. deaths and widespread respiratory ailments.[324] In August 2018, the administration's own analysis showed that the loosening of coal plant rules could cause up to 1,400 premature deaths and 15,000 new cases of respiratory problems.[325]

The new administration removed all references to climate change on the White House website, with the sole exception of mentioning Trump's intention to eliminate the Obama administration's climate change policies.[326] The EPA removed climate change material on its website, including detailed climate data.[327] In June 2017, Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, a 2015 climate change accord reached by 200 nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions, defying broad global backing for the plan.[328] In December 2017, President Trump - who had repeatedly called scientific consensus on climate a "hoax" before becoming president - for the first time as president disputed climate change by falsely implying cold weather meant climate change was not occurring.[329] Trump issued an executive order reversing multiple Obama administration policies meant to tackle climate change, such as a moratorium on federal coal leasing, the Presidential Climate Action Plan, and guidance for federal agencies on taking climate change into account during National Environmental Policy Act action reviews. Trump also ordered reviews and possibly modifications to several directives, such as the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the estimate for the "social cost of carbon" emissions, carbon dioxide emission standards for new coal plants, methane emissions standards from oil and natural gas extraction, as well as any regulations inhibiting domestic energy production.[330] The administration rolled back regulations requiring the federal government to account for climate change and sea-level rise when building infrastructure.[331] In December 2018, the administration joined Russia and the gulf states of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in stopping the Katowice climate change conference from welcoming an October 2018 IPCC report on the dangers of climate change.[332]

The new administration instituted a temporary media blackout for the EPA, saying that this was to make sure the messages going out reflected the new administration's priorities, and implemented a temporary freeze on EPA contract and grant approvals.[333] The EPA hired an opposition research firm associated with the Republican Party for $120,000 in a no-bid contract to investigate EPA employees who had expressed criticism of Pruitt's management of the EPA.[334] The EPA disbanded a 20-expert panel on pollution which advised the EPA on the appropriate threshold levels to set for air quality standards.[335]

File:Scott Pruitt official portrait (cropped).jpg
The official portrait of Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator.

The administration invalidated the Stream Protection Rule (which prevented coal mining debris from being dumped into streams, groundwater and surface waters)[336] regulations which limited dumping of toxic wastewater containing metals, such as arsenic and mercury, into public waterways,[337] regulations on coal ash (carcinogenic leftover waste produced by coal plants),[338] and an Obama-era executive order on protections for oceans, coastlines and lakes which was enacted after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[339] The administration rolled back major Clean Water Act protections. Studies by the Obama-era EPA suggest that up to two-thirds of California's inland freshwater streams would lose protections under the rule change.[340] The EPA sought to repeal a regulation which required oil and gas companies to restrict emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.[341] The EPA granted a loophole allowing a small set of trucking companies to skirt emissions rules and produce trucks that emit 40 to 55 times the air pollutants of other new trucks.[342] The EPA rejected a ban on the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos; a federal court ordered the EPA to ban the pesticide, because the EPA's own staff had recommended banning it due to extensive research showing adverse health effects on children.[323] The administration scaled back the ban on the use of methylene chloride, a lethal chemical.[343] The EPA lifted a rule requiring major farms to report pollution emitted through animal waste.[344]

The administration suspended a number of large research programs, such as a $1 million National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on the public health effects of mountaintop removal coal-mining,[345] a $580,000 NAS study intended to make offshore drilling safer,[346] a multimillion-dollar program that distributed grants for research the effects of chemical exposure on children,[347] and $10-million-a-year research line for NASA's Carbon Monitoring System.[348] The administration unsuccessfully sought to kill aspects of NASA's climate science program.[348]

The EPA expedited the process for approving new chemicals and made the process of evaluating the safety of those chemicals less stringent; EPA scientists expressed concerns that the agency's ability to stop hazardous chemicals was being compromised.[349][350] Internal emails showed that Pruitt aides prevented the publication of a health study showing some toxic chemicals endanger humans at far lower levels than the EPA previously characterized as safe.[351] One such chemical was present in high quantities around a number of military bases, including groundwater.[351] The non-disclosure of the study and the delay in public knowledge of the findings may have prevented the government from updating the infrastructure at the bases and individuals who lived near the bases to avoid the tap water.[351]

The administration weakened enforcement the Endangered Species Act, making it easier to start mining and drilling projects in areas with endangered and threatened species.[352] The administration sharply reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah by approximately two million acres, making it the largest reduction of public land protections in American history.[353] Shortly afterwards, Interior Secretary Zinke advocated for downsizing four additional national monuments and changing the way six additional monuments were managed.[354] In 2019, the administration sped up the process for environmental reviews for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic; experts said the speeding up made reviews less comprehensive and reliable.[355] According to Politico, the administration sped up the process in the event that a Democratic administration was elected in 2020, which would have halted new oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.[355] The administration sought to open up more than 180,000 acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest in the country, for logging.[356]

In April 2018, Pruitt announced a policy change within the EPA whereby EPA regulators would be prohibited from considering scientific research unless the raw data of the research was made publicly available. This would limit EPA regulators' use of much environmental research, given that participants in many such studies provide personal health information which is kept confidential.[357] The EPA cited two bipartisan reports and various nonpartisan studies about the use of science in government to defend the decision. However, the authors of those reports dismissed that the EPA followed their instructions, with one author saying, "They don't adopt any of our recommendations, and they go in a direction that's completely opposite, completely different. They don't adopt any of the recommendations of any of the sources they cite."[358]

The administration released the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) in November 2018, a long-awaited study conducted by numerous federal agencies that found "the evidence of human-caused climate change is overwhelming and continues to strengthen, that the impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats to Americans' physical, social, and economic well-being are rising."[359] Steven Milloy, a climate-change denier who served on Trump's EPA transition team, called the report a product of the so-called deep state, adding that the Administration chose to release it the day after Thanksgiving "on a day when nobody cares, and hope it gets swept away by the next day's news".[360] In June 2019, the administration tried to prevent a State Department intelligence analyst from testifying to Congress about "possibly catastrophic" effects of human-caused climate change, and prevented his written testimony containing science from NASA and NOAA from being included in the official Congressional Record because it was not consistent with administration positions.[361][362]

Government size and regulations

The administration imposed far fewer financial penalties against banks and major companies accused of wrong-doing relative to the Obama administration.[363]

In the first six weeks of his tenure, Trump suspended — or in a few cases, revoked — over 90 regulations.[364] In early 2017, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to slash two existing regulations for every new one (without spending on regulations going up).[365] A September 2017 Bloomberg BNA review found that due to unclear wording in the order and the large proportion of regulations it exempts, the order had had little effect since it was signed.[366] The Trump OMB released an analysis in February 2018 indicating the economic benefits of regulations significantly outweigh the economic costs.[367] The administration ordered one-third of government advisory committees for federal agencies eliminated, except for committees that evaluate consumer product safety or committees that approve research grants.[368]

Trump ordered a four-month government-wide hiring freeze of the civilian work force (excluding staff in the military, national security, public safety and offices of new presidential appointees) at the start of his term.[369] He said he did not intend to fill many of the governmental positions that were still vacant, as he considered them unnecessary;[370] there were nearly 2,000 vacant government positions.[371]

The administration ended the requirement that nonprofits, including political advocacy groups who collect so-called "dark money", disclose the names of large donors to the IRS; the Senate voted to overturn the administration's rule change.[372]

Guns

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The administration rolled back an Obama-era regulation prohibiting gun ownership among the approximately 75,000 individuals who received Social Security checks due to mental illness and who were deemed unfit to handle their financial affairs.[373] The administration ended American involvement in the Arms Trade Treaty, a UN agreement to curb the international trade of conventional arms with countries having poor human rights records. America had been abiding by the treaty since 2014, although it had not yet been ratified.[374]

The administration banned bump stocks in March 2019.[375]

Health care

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CBO estimated in May 2017 that the Republican AHCA would reduce the number of persons with health insurance by 23 million during 2026, relative to current law.[376]

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The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as "Obamacare" or the ACA) elicited major opposition from the Republican Party from its inception, and Trump called for a repeal of the law during the 2016 election campaign.[377] On taking office, Trump promised to pass a healthcare bill that would cover everyone and result in better and less expensive insurance.[378] Throughout his presidency, Trump repeatedly asserted that his administration and Republicans in Congress supported protections for individuals with preexisting conditions; however, fact-checkers noted the administration had supported attempts both in Congress and in the courts to roll back the ACA (and its protections for preexisting conditions).[379][380][381][382]

Congressional Republicans made two serious efforts to repeal the ACA. First, in March 2017, Trump endorsed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a Republican bill to repeal and replace the ACA.[383] Opposition from several House Republicans, including both moderate and conservatives, led to the defeat of this version of the bill.[383] At the time, Trump stated that the "best thing politically is to let Obamacare explode".[384] Second in May 2017, the House narrowly voted in favor of a new version of the AHCA to repeal the ACA, sending the bill to the Senate for deliberation.[383] Over the next weeks the Senate made several attempts to create a repeal bill; however, all the proposals were ultimately rejected in a series of Senate votes in late July.[383] Trump reacted by alternately urging Congress to keep trying and threatening to "let Obamacare implode".[385] The individual mandate was ultimately repealed in December 2017 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The CBO estimated in May 2018 that the repeal of the individual mandate would increase the number of uninsured by eight million and that individual healthcare insurance premiums increased by 10% between 2017 and 2018.[386]

Trump repeatedly expressed a desire to "let Obamacare fail", and the Trump administration has undermined Obamacare through various actions.[387][388] The open enrollment period was cut from twelve weeks to six, the advertising budget for enrollment was cut by 90%, and organizations helping people shop for coverage got 39% less money.[389][390] The administration ordered HHS regional directors not to participate in state open enrollment events, as they had in previous years.[391] A September 2017 report by the (CBO) found that ACA enrollment at health care exchanges would be lower in 2018 and future years than its previous forecasts due to the Trump administration's undermining of the ACA.[389] A 2019 study found that enrollment into the ACA during the Trump administration's first year was nearly 30% lower than during 2016.[392] The CBO found that insurance premiums would rise sharply in 2018 due to the Trump administration's refusal to commit to continuing paying ACA subsidies, which added uncertainty to the insurance market and led insurers to raise premiums for fear they will not get subsidized.[389] The administration sided with a lawsuit to overturn the ACA, including protections for individuals with pre-existing conditions.[393]

The administration ended subsidy payments to health insurance companies, in a move expected to raise premiums in 2018 for middle-class families by an average of about 20% nationwide and cost the federal government nearly $200 billion more than it saved over a ten-year period.[394] People with lower incomes would be unaffected because the ACA provides tax credits that ensure their out-of-pocket insurance costs remain stable.[394] The administration made it easier for businesses to use health insurance plans not covered by several of the ACA's protections, including for preexisting conditions,[380] and allowed organizations not to cover birth control.[395] Survey results indicated more than 10% of companies with more than 200 employees would opt out of birth control coverage if they had the option.[396] In justifying the action, the administration said contraceptive use caused harms, such as risky sex behavior, cited the potential side effects of contraceptives, and asserted that the relationship between contraceptive use and unintended pregnancy was uncertain and complex.[396] Indiana University professor of pediatrics Aaron E. Carroll noted "there is ample evidence that contraception works, that reducing its expense leads to more women who use it appropriately, and that using it doesn't lead to riskier sexual behavior."[396]

The administration reduced enforcement of penalties against nursing homes that harm residents.[398]

In 2018, the CDC announced it would cut 80% of its efforts to stop infectious-disease epidemics worldwide due to budget cuts.[399]

The administration's proposed March 2019 budget called for substantial spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Disability Insurance. Trump had previously vowed to protect Medicare and Medicaid.[400][401] As a candidate and throughout his presidency, Trump said he would cut the costs of pharmaceuticals. During his first seven months in office, there were 96 price hikes for every drug price cut.[402] Abandoning a promise he made as candidate, President Trump announced he would not allow Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices.[403] Shortly after the 2018 mid-term elections, the large pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced a price increase for dozens of drugs (it had reportedly bowed to pressure not to do so earlier by Trump ).[404]

Opioid epidemic

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Donald Trump at the 15th Annual Opioid Takeback Day

Trump nominated Tom Marino to become the nation's drug czar but the nomination was withdrawn after an investigation found he had been the chief architect of a bill that crippled the enforcement powers of the DEA and worsened the opioid crisis in the United States.[405]

Kellyanne Conway led White House efforts to combat the opioid epidemic; Conway had no experience or expertise on matters of public health, substance abuse, or law enforcement.[406] Conway sidelined drug experts and opted instead for the use of political staff. Politico wrote in 2018 that the administration's "main response" to the opioid crisis "so far has been to call for a border wall and to promise a 'just say no' campaign".[406]

In October 2017, the administration declared a 90-day public health emergency over the opioid epidemic and pledged to urgently mobilize the federal government in response to the crisis. On January 11, 2018, twelve days before the declaration ran out, Politico noted that "beyond drawing more attention to the crisis, virtually nothing of consequence has been done."[407] The administration had not proposed any new resources or spending, had not started the promised advertising campaign to spread awareness about addiction, and had yet to fill key public health and drug positions in the administration.[407] One of the top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is tasked with multibillion-dollar anti-drug initiatives and curbing the opioid epidemic, was a 24-year old campaign staffer from the Trump 2016 campaign who lied on his CV and whose stepfather went to jail for manufacturing illegal drugs; after the administration was contacted about the official's qualifications and CV, the administration gave him a job with different tasks.[408]

Housing and urban policy

In December 2017, The Economist described the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), led by Ben Carson, as "directionless".[409] Most of the top HUD positions were unfilled and Carson's leadership was "inconspicuous and inscrutable".[409] Of the policies HUD was enacting, The Economist wrote, "it is hard not to conclude that the governing principle at HUD is to take whatever the Obama administration was doing, and do the opposite."[409] HUD scaled back the enforcement of fair housing laws, halted several fair housing investigations started by the Obama administration[410] and removed the words "inclusive" and "free from discrimination" from its mission statement.[410] The administration designated Lynne Patton, an event planner who had worked on the Trump campaign and planned Eric Trump's wedding, to lead HUD's New York and New Jersey office (which oversees billions of federal dollars).[411]

Disaster relief

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President Trump signs the Hurricane Harvey relief bill at Camp David, September 8, 2017

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria

Three hurricanes hit the U.S. in August and September 2017: Harvey in southeastern Texas, Irma on the Florida Gulf coast, and Maria in Puerto Rico. Trump signed into law $15 billion in relief for Harvey and Irma, and later US$18.67 billion for all three.[412] The administration came under criticism for its delayed response to the humanitarian crisis on Puerto Rico.[413] Politicians of both parties had called for immediate aid for Puerto Rico, and criticized Trump for focusing on a feud with the NFL instead.[414] Trump did not comment on Puerto Rico for several days while the crisis was unfolding.[415] According to The Washington Post, the White House did not feel a sense of urgency until "images of the utter destruction and desperation — and criticism of the administration's response — began to appear on television".[416] Trump dismissed the criticism, saying distribution of necessary supplies was "doing well". The Washington Post noted, "on the ground in Puerto Rico, nothing could be further from the truth."[416] Trump also criticized Puerto Rico officials.[417] A BMJ analysis found the federal government responded much more quickly and on a larger scale to the hurricane in Texas and Florida than in Puerto Rico, despite the fact that the hurricane in Puerto Rico was more severe.[412]

At the time of FEMA's departure from Puerto Rico, one third of Puerto Rico residents still lacked electricity and some places lacked running water.[418] A New England Journal of Medicine study estimated the number of hurricane-related deaths during the period September 20, 2017 to December 31, 2017 to be around 4,600 (range 793-8,498)[419] The official death rate due to Maria reported by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is 2,975; the figure was based on an independent investigation by George Washington University commissioned by the governor of Puerto Rico.[420] Trump falsely claimed the official death rate was wrong, and said that the Democrats were trying to make him "look as bad as possible".[421]

California wildfires

In November 2018, while California experienced one of its most destructive wildfires, Trump blamed the fires on "gross" and "poor" "mismanagement" of forests by California, saying there was no other reason for these wildfires. The New York Times described Trump's claims as misleading, noting that the fires in question were not "forest fires", that most of the forest was owned by federal agencies, and that climate change in part contributed to the fires.[422]

Immigration

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Trump has repeatedly characterized illegal immigrants as criminals, although multiple studies have found they have lower crime and incarceration rates than native-born Americans.[423] Prior to taking office, Trump promised to deport the eleven million illegal immigrants living in the United States and to build a wall along the Mexico–United States border.[424] Upon taking office, Trump directed the DHS to begin work on a wall.[425] An internal DHS report estimated Trump's wall would cost $21.6 billion and take 3.5 years to build (far higher than the Trump 2016 campaign's estimate ($12 billion) and the $15 billion estimate from Republican congressional leaders).[426]

The transcript of a January 2017 phone call between Trump and Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto was leaked; in the phone call, Trump conceded that he would fund the border wall, not by charging Mexico as he promised during the campaign, and implored the Mexican president to stop saying publicly the Mexican government would not pay for the border wall.[427] In January 2018, the administration proposed spending $18 billion over the next ten years on the wall, more than half of the $33 billion spending blueprint for border security.[428] Trump's plan would reduce funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats and customs agents; experts and officials say these are more effective at curbing illegal immigration and preventing terrorism and smuggling than a border wall.[428]

The administration embraced the 2017 RAISE Act which sought to reduce legal immigration levels to the U.S. by 50% by halving the number of green cards issued, capping refugee admissions at 50,000 a year and ending the visa diversity lottery.[429]

The administration terminated a program that granted temporary legal residence to unaccompanied Central American minors. 2,714 individuals would need to renew their legal residence status through other more difficult immigrant channels.[430] The administration revoked the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to 60,000 Haitians (following the 2010 Haiti earthquake),[431] and 200,000 Salvadorans (following a series of devastating earthquakes in 2001).[432] The Salvadorans are parents to an estimated 190,000 U.S.-born children.[431] A federal judge blocked the administration's attempt to deport the TPS recipients, citing what the judge said was Trump's racial "animus against non-white, non-European immigrants".[433]

An analysis released by Trump's Department of Health and Human Services in September 2017 was found to have removed earlier findings that refugees entering America had a $63 billion net positive effect on tax revenues between 2005 and 2014, with the final report counting only the costs refugees incur.[434] In July 2018, Sessions rescinded a DOJ guidance on refugees and asylum seekers' right to work, thus prohibiting them from working in the United States.[435]

In October 2017, Secretary of Defense Mattis added additional background checks for non-citizens who served in the military and extended the time they had to serve before they could receive necessary paperwork to pursue US citizenship. As a result of these changes, the number of service members who applied for citizenship through their service declined by 65% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.[436]

In December 2017, the administration announced that it would make it illegal for spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States.[437]

In January 2018, Trump was widely criticized after referring to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations in general as "shithole countries" at a bipartisan meeting on immigration. Multiple international leaders condemned his remarks as racist.[438]

By February 2018, arrests of undocumented immigrants by ICE increased by 40% during Trump's tenure. Arrests of noncriminal undocumented immigrants were twice as high as during Obama's final year in office. Arrests of undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions increased only slightly.[439]

In March 2018, the Commerce Department announced it would add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Experts noted that the inclusion of such a question would likely result in severe undercounting of the population and faulty data, as undocumented immigrants would be less likely to respond to the census.[440] Blue states, especially California, are therefore likely to get less congressional apportionment and fund apportionment than they would otherwise get, because they have larger undocumented populations.[441] In response, Xavier Becerra, California's attorney general, announced his attention to sue the administration over the decision.[440] Similar suits were filed in New York, Washington D.C., and several cities. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and immigrants' rights organizations sued in June 2018.[442] Federal District Court judge Jesse Furman blocked the administration plan on January 15, 2019.[443] Documents released in May 2019 showed Thomas B. Hofeller, an architect of Republican gerrymandering, had found adding the census question would help to gerrymander maps that "would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites". Hofeller later wrote the DOJ letter which justified the policy by claiming it was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act.[444]

In July 2018, experts noted that due to the administration's strict border security policy, there was an increase in criminality and lawlessness along the US-Mexico border. There was a strengthening of ties between human smugglers, organized crime and corrupt local law enforcement, and organized crime groups were preying on asylum seekers who were prevented by US authorities from filing for asylum.[445]

During the 2018 mid-term election campaign, Trump sent nearly 5,600 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border for the stated purpose of protecting the United States against a caravan of Central American migrants.[446] The Pentagon had previously concluded the caravan posed no threat to the U.S. The border deployment was estimated to cost as much as $220 million by the end of the year.[447] With daily warnings from Trump about the dangers of the caravan during the mid-terms, the frequency and intensity of the caravan rhetoric nearly stopped after election day.[448]

On September 26 2019, The Trump administration announced it plans to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, its lowest level since the modern program began in 1980. [449][450][451] [452]

Period Refugee Program[453][454][451]
2018 45,000
2019 30,000
2020 18,000

Family separation policy

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In May 2018, the administration announced it would separate children from parents caught unlawfully crossing the southern border into the United States. Parents were routinely charged with a misdemeanor and jailed; their children were placed in separate detention centers with no established procedure to track them or reunite them with their parent after they had served time for their offence, generally only a few hours or days.[455] Later that month, Trump falsely accused Democrats of creating that policy, despite it originating from his own administration, and urged Congress to "get together" and pass an immigration bill.[456] Members of Congress from both parties condemned the practice and pointed out that the White House could end the separations on its own; Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, "President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call."[457] The Washington Post quoted a White House official as saying Trump's decision to separate migrant families was to gain political leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to accept hardline immigration legislation.[458]

Six weeks into the implementation of the "zero tolerance" policy, at least 2,300 migrant children had been separated from their families.[459] The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association condemned the policy, with the American Academy of Pediatrics saying the policy was causing "irreparable harm" to the children.[460][458] The policy was extremely unpopular, more so than any major piece of legislation in recent memory.[461] Images of children held in cage-like detention centers, interviews of sobbing mothers who had no idea where their children were and had not heard from them for weeks and months, and an audio of sobbing children resulted in an outrage calling the practice "inhumane," "cruel" and "evil".[459] On June 30, a national protest drew hundreds of thousands of protesters from all 50 states to demonstrate in more than 600 towns and cities.[462] All four living former First Ladies of the United StatesRosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama—condemned the policy of separating children from their parents.[463] Amidst the growing outrage, DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen falsely claimed on June 17, "We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period."[464]

On June 20, 2018, amid worldwide outrage and enormous political pressure to roll back his policy, Trump signed an executive order to end family separations at the U.S. border, unilaterally reversing his policy.[459] He had earlier said, "You can't do it through an executive order."[459] As the result of a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, on June 26, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the family-separation policy, and required the government to reunite separated families within 30 days.[465] On July 26, the administration said 1,442 children had been reunited with their parents while 711 remain in government shelters because their cases are still under review, their parents have criminal records, or they are no longer in the U.S. Administration officials state that 431 parents of those children have already been deported without their children. Officials said they will work with the court to return the remaining children, including the children whose parents have been deported.[466][467]

Executive Order 13769

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Trump signing Executive Order 13769 at the Pentagon as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense James Mattis look on, January 27, 2017

In January 2017, Trump signed an executive order which indefinitely suspended admission of asylum seekers fleeing the Syrian Civil War, suspended admission of all other refugees for 120 days, and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days. The order also established a religious test for refugees from Muslim nations by giving priority to refugees of other religions over Muslim refugees.[468] Later, the administration seemed to reverse a portion of part of the order, effectively exempting visitors with a green card.[469] After the order was challenged in the federal courts, several federal judges issued rulings enjoining the government from enforcing the order.[469] Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she stated she would not defend the order in court; Yates was replaced by Dana Boente, who stated the DOJ would defend the order.[470]

A new executive order was signed in March which limited travel to the U.S. from six different countries for 90 days, and by all refugees who do not possess either a visa or valid travel documents for 120 days.[471] The new executive order revoked and replaced the executive order issued in January.[472]

In June, the Supreme Court partially stayed certain injunctions that were put on the order by two federal appeals courts earlier, allowing the executive order to mostly go into effect. In October, the Court dismissed the case, saying the orders had been replaced by a new proclamation, so challenges to the previous executive orders are moot.[473]

In September, Trump signed a proclamation placing limits on the six countries in the second executive order and added Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela.[474] In October 2017, Judge Derrick Watson, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii issued another temporary restraining order.[475] In December 2017, the Supreme Court allowed the September 2017 travel restrictions to go into effect while legal challenges in Hawaii and Maryland are heard. The decision effectively barred most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea from entry into the United States along with some government officials from Venezuela and their families.[476]

2018–2019 federal government shutdown

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The federal government was partially shut down from December 22, 2018 until January 25, 2019 (the longest shutdown in U.S. history) over Trump's demand that Congress provide $5.7 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall.[477] The House and Senate lacked votes necessary to support his funding demand and to overcome Trump's refusal to sign the appropriations last passed by Congress into law.[478] In negotiations with Democratic leaders leading up to the shutdown, Trump commented he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security".[479] By mid-January 2019, the White House Council of Economic Advisors estimated that each week of the shutdown reduced GDP by 0.1 percentage points, the equivalent of 1.2 points per quarter.[480]

LGBT rights

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The administration rescinded a federal policy that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.[481] The DOJ declined to appeal a nationwide court injunction halting enforcement of the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination protections on the basis of gender identity, and the DOJ abandoned its request for a preliminary injunction against North Carolina's bathroom law. HUD withdrew purposed agency policies designed to protect LGBT homelessness people. HHS stopped collecting information on LGBT participants in its national survey of older adults,[482] and the Census Bureau removed "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" as proposed subjects for possible inclusion on the Decennial Census and/or American Community Survey.[482]

The DOJ and the Labor Department cancelled quarterly conference calls with LGBT organizations.[482] The HHS rolled back regulations interpreting the Affordable Care Act's nondiscrimination provisions to protect gender identity status.[482] Trump said he would not allow "transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," citing disruptions and medical costs.[483] The DOJ filed a legal brief arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or, implicitly, gender identity.[482]

The DOJ filed a legal brief arguing for a constitutional right for businesses to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and, implicitly, gender identity.[482] The DOJ reversed an Obama-era policy that explicitly defines gender identity as protected under employment discrimination laws due to what qualifies as employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.[484] The DOJ released a memo allowing federal agencies, government contractors, government grantees, and private businesses to engage in discrimination, as long as they can cite religious reasons for doing so.[482] The Treasury Department imposed sanctions under the Magnitsky Act on Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and a Chechen law enforcement official, citing anti-gay purges in Chechnya.[485]

In February 2018, the United States Department of Education announced it will dismiss complaints from transgender students involving exclusion from school facilities and any other gender identity discrimination claims. In March 2018, President Trump signed Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security Regarding Military Service by Transgender Individuals. If it takes effect, it would prohibit transgender persons, whether transitioned or not, with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria are disqualified from military service, except for individuals who have had 36 consecutive months of stability "in their biological sex prior to accession" and currently serving transgender persons in military service.[486][482]

In May 2018, the Bureau of Prisons in the DOJ adopted a policy of housing almost all transgender people in federal prison facilities that match their sex assigned at birth, rolling back existing protections for transgender people in federal prisons. In August 2018, the United States Department of Labor released a new directive for Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs staff encouraging religious exemptions to federal contractors with religious-based objections to complying with nondiscrimination laws. It also deleted material from an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs FAQ on nondiscrimination protections for sexual orientation and gender identity that had previously clarified the limited scope of allowable religious exemptions. In November 2018, the United States Office of Personnel Management erased guidance that helped federal agency managers understand how to support transgender federal workers and their rights, replacing with a guidance hostile to transgender workers.[482]

In February 2019, the administration launched a global campaign to end the criminalization of homosexuality, an initiative pushed by Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. The campaign was spurred by reports of the death of a gay man in Iran, one of the administration's main geopolitical enemies. Asked about the administration's campaign, Trump appeared to be unaware of it.[487]

The administration proposed a rollback of regulations prohibiting discrimination by health care providers against LGBTQ patients.[488]

Trump has nominated two LGBT persons to the federal judiciary (Mary M. Rowland and Patrick J. Bumatay).[489] Other high-profile appointments of LGBT persons made by Trump are Richard Grenell, James T. Abbott, and David Glawe.[490]

Science

The administration marginalized the role of science in policymaking. It was the first administration since 1941 not to name a Science Advisor to the President. While preparing for talks with Kim Jong-un, the White House did not do so with the assistance of a White House science adviser or senior counselor trained in nuclear physics. The position of chief scientist in the State Department or the Department of Agriculture was not filled. The administration nominated Sam Clovis to be chief scientist in the United States Department of Agriculture, but he had no scientific background and the White House later withdrew the nomination. The administration successfully nominated Jim Bridenstine, who had no background in science and rejected the scientific consensus on climate change, to lead NASA. The United States Department of the Interior, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration disbanded advisory committees.[491]

The Department of Energy prohibited the use of the term "climate change".[492] The administration reportedly sent a list to the CDC on words that the agency was prohibited from using in its official communications, including "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based," "science-based," "vulnerable," "entitlement," and "diversity".[493] The Director of the CDC denied these reports.[494]

Surveillance

In 2019, Trump signed into law a six-year extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), allowing the NSA to conduct searches of foreigners' communications without any warrant. The process incidentally collects information from Americans.[495]

Veterans affairs

Prior to David Shulkin's firing in April 2018, The New York Times described the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a "rare spot of calm in the Trump administration". Shulkin built upon changes started under the Obama administration to do a long-term overhaul of the VA system.[496] In May 2018, legislation to increase veterans' access to private care was stalled, as was a VA overhaul which sought to synchronize medical records.[497] In May 2018, there were reports of a large number of resignations of senior staffers and a major re-shuffling.[496]

In August 2018, ProPublica reported a group of three wealthy Mar-a-Lago patrons, who had no experience in the military or the government, formed an "informal council" that strongly shaped VA decision-making, including involving a $10 billion contract to modernize veterans' health records. The trio, which VA staff referred to as "the Mar-a-Lago Crowd", spoke to VA staff daily, and provided instructions on policy and personnel decisions at the agency.[498] GAO announced on November 2018 that it would investigate the matter.[499]

Voting rights

Under the first 18 months of the administration, the DOJ "launched no new efforts to roll back state restrictions on the ability to vote, and instead often sides with them".[500]

Trump repeatedly, without evidence, alleged there was widespread voter fraud.[501] The administration created a commission with the stated purpose to review the extent of voter fraud in the wake of Trump's false claim that millions of unauthorized votes cost him the popular vote in the 2016 election. It was chaired by Vice President Pence, while the day-to-day administrator was Kris Kobach, best known for promoting restrictions on access to voting. The commission began its work by requesting each state to turn over detailed information about all registered voters in their database. Most states rejected the request, citing privacy concerns or state laws.[502] Multiple lawsuits were filed against the commission. Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Kobach was refusing to share working documents and scheduling information with him and the other Democrats on the commission. A federal judge ordered the commission to hand over the documents.[503] Shortly thereafter, Trump disbanded the commission, and informed Dunlap that it would not obey the court order to provide the documents because the commission no longer existed.[504] Election integrity experts argued that the commission was disbanded because of the lawsuits, which would have led to greater transparency and accountability and thus prevented the Republican members of the commission from producing a sham report to justify restrictions on voting rights.[503] It was later revealed the Commission had, in its requests for Texas voter data, specifically asked for data that identifies voters with Hispanic surnames.[505]

White nationalists and Charlottesville rally

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On August 13, 2017, Trump condemned violence "on many sides" after a gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous day (August 12) turned deadly. A white supremacist drove a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.[506] According to Sessions, that action met the definition of domestic terrorism.[507] During the rally there had been other violence, as some counter-protesters charged at the white nationalists with swinging clubs and mace, throwing bottles, rocks, and paint.[508][509][510] Trump did not expressly mention Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, or the alt-right movement in his remarks on August 13,[511] but the following day (August 14) he did denounce white supremacists.[512] He condemned "the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups".[513] Then the next day (August 15), he again blamed "both sides".[514]

Many Republican and Democratic elected officials condemned the violence and hatred of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right activists. Trump came under criticism from world leaders[515] and politicians,[516][511] as well as a variety of religious groups[517] and anti-hate organizations[518] for his remarks, which were seen as muted and equivocal.[516] The New York Times reported Trump "was the only national political figure to spread blame for the 'hatred, bigotry and violence' that resulted in the death of one person to 'many sides'",[516] and said Trump had "buoyed the white nationalist movement on Tuesday as no president has done in generations".[519] White nationalist groups felt "emboldened" after the rally and planned additional demonstrations.[507]

Foreign policy

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Trump and Vietnam's Communist Party leader Nguyễn Phú Trọng in front of a statue of Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi, February 27, 2019

The stated aims of the foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration include a focus on security, by fighting terrorists abroad and strengthening border defenses and immigration controls; an expansion of the U.S. military; an "America First" approach to trade; and diplomacy whereby "old enemies become friends".[520] The foreign policy positions expressed by Trump during his presidential campaign changed frequently, so it was "difficult to glean a political agenda, or even a set of clear, core policy values ahead of his presidency".[521]

Trump has repeatedly praised authoritarian strongmen such as China's president Xi Jinping,[522] Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte,[522] Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi,[522] Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,[522] King Salman of Saudi Arabia,[523] Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte,[524] Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro[525] and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.[522] Trump also praised Poland under the EU-skeptic, anti-immigrant Law and Justice party (PiS) as a defender of Western civilization.[526][527]

The New York Times reported on January 14, 2019, that on several occasions during 2018 Trump privately stated he wanted America to withdraw from NATO. Top defense and national security officials such as Jim Mattis and John R. Bolton reportedly "scrambled to keep American strategy on track without mention of a withdrawal that would drastically reduce Washington's influence in Europe and could embolden Russia for decades".[528]

A January 2019 intelligence community assessment found that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons and North Korea was unlikely to relinquish its nuclear arsenal. Both assessments directly contradicted core tenets of Trump's stated foreign policy. The intelligence community also assessed that Trump's trade policies and unilateralism had damaged traditional alliances and induced foreign partners to seek new relationships.[529] The day after the heads of the intelligence community presented their findings in public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump referred to them as "extremely passive and naive" and "wrong" in their assessments. The following day, Trump asserted the press had misquoted the intelligence chiefs' testimony to fabricate a conflict, claiming he and the intelligence community were "on the same page!" In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, Trump falsely asserted that the intelligence community had characterized Iran as "essentially, a wonderful place".[530][531]

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On February 18, 2019 Trump appealed to the Venezuelan military to back Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó.[532]

On February 5, 2019 the Senate voted overwhelmingly to rebuke Trump for his decisions to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Drafted by majority leader Mitch McConnell, the measure was supported by nearly all Republicans and was the second time in two months that the Republican-controlled Senate criticized the President's foreign policy.[533]

After initially adopting a verbally hostile posture toward North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, Trump quickly pivoted to embrace the regime, stating that he and Kim "fell in love".[534] Trump engaged Kim by meeting him at two summits, in June 2018 and February 2019, an unprecedented move by an American president, as previous policy had been that a president's simply meeting with the North Korean leader would legitimize the regime on the world stage. During the June 2018 summit, the leaders signed a vague agreement to pursue denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, with Trump immediately declaring "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."[535] Little progress was made toward that goal during the months before the February 2019 summit, which ended abruptly without an agreement, hours after the White House announced a signing ceremony was imminent.[536] During the months between the summits, a growing body of evidence indicated North Korea was continuing its nuclear fuel, bomb and missile development, including by redeveloping an ICBM site it was previously appearing to dismantle — even while the second summit was underway.[537][538][539][540] In the aftermath of the February 2019 failed summit, the Treasury department imposed additional sanctions on North Korea. The following day, Trump tweeted, "It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea. I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!"[541]

During a June 2019 visit to South Korea, Trump visited the Korean Demilitarized Zone and invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet him there, which he did, and Trump became the first sitting president to step inside North Korea.[542] Trump later asserted, "President Obama wanted to meet and chairman Kim would not meet him. The Obama administration was begging for a meeting," which former senior Obama administration officials sharply denied.[543][544]

In October 2019, after Trump spoke to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the White House acknowledged that Turkey would be carrying out a planned military offensive into northern Syria; as such, U.S. troops in northern Syria were withdrawn from the area to avoid interference with that operation. The statement also passed responsibility for the area's captured ISIS fighters to Turkey.[545] Congress members of both parties denounced the move, including Republican allies of Trump like Senator Lindsey Graham. They argued that the move betrayed the American-allied Kurds, and would benefit ISIS, Russia, Iran and Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime.[546] Trump defended the move, citing the high cost of supporting the Kurds, and the lack of support from the Kurds in past U.S. wars.[547][548] Within a week of the U.S. pullout, Turkey proceeded to attack Kurdish-controlled areas in northeast Syria.[549] Kurdish forces then announced an alliance with the Syrian government and its Russian allies, in a united effort to repel Turkey.[550]

Russia and related investigations

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Robert Mueller in the Oval Office

American intelligence sources have stated with "high confidence" that the Russian government attempted to intervene in the 2016 presidential election to favor the election of Trump,[551] and that members of Trump's campaign were in contact with Russian government officials both before and after the presidential election.[552] In May 2017, the United States Department of Justice appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation".[553] Because of the Russian interference and subsequent investigation, many members of Trump's administration have come under special scrutiny regarding past ties to Russia or actions during the campaign. Several of Trump's top advisers, including Paul Manafort and Michael T. Flynn, who had official positions before Trump replaced them, have strong ties to Russia.[554] Several others had meetings with Russians during the campaign which they did not initially disclose.[555][556][557]

Trump himself hosted the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, in partnership with Russian-Azerbaijani billionaire Aras Agalarov. On many occasions since 1987, Trump and his children and other associates have traveled to Moscow to explore potential business opportunities, such as a failed attempt to build a Trump Tower Moscow. Between 1996 and 2008 Trump's company submitted at least eight trademark applications for potential real estate development deals in Russia. However, as of 2017 he has no known investments or businesses in Russia.[558][559] Trump said in 2017, "I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia."[560] In 2008, his son Donald Trump Jr. said "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets" and "we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia".[554]

During his January 2017 confirmation hearings as the attorney general nominee before the Senate, then-Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) was asked by Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) if he had been "in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?" Sessions' single word response was "No", which raised questions about what appeared to be deliberate omission of two meetings he had in 2016 with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Sessions later amended his testimony saying he "never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign".[557] He said that in March 2016, he had twice met with Ambassador Kislyak, and "stood by his earlier remarks as an honest and correct answer to a question".[561] Officials with the DOJ stated that when Sessions met with Kislyak, it was not as a Trump campaign surrogate, rather it was "in his capacity as a member of the armed services panel".[557] Following his amended statement, Sessions recused himself from any investigation regarding connections between Trump and Russia.[562]

In May 2017, Donald Trump discussed highly classified intelligence in an Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak, providing details that could expose the source of the information and the manner in which it was collected.[563] The intelligence was about an ISIS plot. A Middle Eastern ally provided the intelligence which had the highest level of classification and was not intended to be shared widely.[563] The New York Times reported that "Mr. Trump's disclosure does not appear to have been illegal - the president has the power to declassify almost anything. But sharing the information without the express permission of the ally who provided it was a major breach of espionage etiquette, and could jeopardize a crucial intelligence-sharing relationship."[563] The White House, through National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, issued a limited denial, saying the story "as reported" was not correct,[564] and stated that no "intelligence sources or methods" were discussed.[565] McMaster did not deny that information had been disclosed.[566] The following day Trump stated on Twitter that Russia is an important ally against terrorism and that he had an "absolute right" to share classified information with Russia.[567] Soon after the meeting, American intelligence extracted a high-level covert source from within the Russian government, on concerns the individual could be at risk due, in part, to Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandling classified intelligence.[568]

In October 2017, former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the FBI regarding his contacts with Russian agents. During the campaign he had tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to set up meetings in Russia between Trump campaign representatives and Russian officials.[569][570] The guilty plea was part of a plea bargain whereby Papadopoulos cooperates with the Mueller investigation.[571]

In February 2018, when Special Counsel Mueller indicted more than a dozen Russians and three entities for interference in the 2016 election, Trump's response was to assert that the indictment was proof his campaign did not collude with the Russians.[572] The New York Times noted Trump "voiced no concern that a foreign power had been trying for nearly four years to upend American democracy, much less resolve to stop it from continuing to do so this year".[572] A day after the indictment, Trump used the FBI's alleged failure to stop the Stoneman Douglas High School shooter to call for the end to investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.[573]

In July 2018, the special counsel's office indicted twelve Russian intelligence operatives and accused them of conspiring to interfere in the 2016 US elections, by hacking servers and emails of the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign.[574] The indictments were made before Trump's meeting with Putin in Helsinki, in which Trump supported Putin's denial that Russia was involved and criticized American law enforcement and intelligence community (subsequently Trump partially walked back some of his comments).[575] A few days later, it was reported that Trump had actually been briefed on the veracity and extent of Russian cyber-attacks two weeks before his inauguration, back in December 2016, including the fact that these were ordered by Putin himself.[575] The evidence presented to him at the time included text and email conversations between Russian military officers as well as information from a source close to Putin. According to the report, at the time, in the classified meeting, Trump "sounded grudgingly convinced".[575]

The Washington Post reported on January 12, 2019 that Trump had gone to "extraordinary lengths" to keep details of his private conversations with Russian president Putin secret, including in one case by retaining his interpreter's notes and instructing the linguist to not share the contents of the discussions with anyone in the administration. As a result, there were no detailed records, even in classified files, of Trump's conversations with Putin on five occasions.[576] According to The Financial Times, there were no American aides present when Trump met privately with Putin at the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit in November 2018.[577]

Of Trump's campaign advisors and staff, six of them were indicted by the special counsel's office; five of them (Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos) pleaded guilty, while one has pleaded not guilty (Roger Stone).[578]

Special Counsel's report

On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted the final report to Attorney General William Barr.[579] On March 24, 2019, Attorney General Barr sent Congress a four-page letter, describing what he said were the special counsel's principal conclusions in the Mueller Report.[580] Barr added that since the special counsel "did not draw a conclusion" on obstruction,[581][582] this "leaves it to the Attorney General to determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime".[583] Barr continued: "Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."[584][585]

On April 18, 2019, a two-volume redacted version of the Special Counsel's report titled Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, was released to Congress and the public. About one-eighth of the lines in the public version were redacted.[586][587][588]

Volume I discusses about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, concluding that interference occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law".[589][590] The report detailed activities by the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm, to create a "social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,"[591] and to "provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States".[592] The report also described how the Russian intelligence service, the GRU, performed computer hacking and strategic releasing of damaging material from the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations.[593][594] To establish whether a crime was committed by members of the Trump campaign with regard to Russian interference, investigators used the legal standard for criminal conspiracy rather than the popular concept of "collusion", because a crime of "collusion" is not found in criminal law or the United States Code.[595][596]

According to the report, the investigation "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign," and found that Russia "perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency" and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign "expected it would benefit electorally" from Russian hacking efforts. Ultimately, "the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."[597][598] However, investigators had an incomplete picture of what had really occurred during the 2016 campaign, due to some associates of Trump campaign providing either false, incomplete or declined testimony (exercising the Fifth Amendment), as well as having deleted, unsaved or encrypted communications. As such, the Mueller Report "cannot rule out the possibility" that information then unavailable to investigators would have presented different findings.[599]

Volume II covered obstruction of justice. The report described ten episodes where Trump may have obstructed justice as president, plus one instance before he was elected.[600][601] The report said that in addition to Trump's public attacks on the investigation and its subjects, Trump also privately tried to "control the investigation" in multiple ways, but mostly failed to influence it because his subordinates or associates refused to carry out his instructions.[602][603][604] For that reason, no charges against the Trump's aides and associates were recommended "beyond those already filed".[600] The Special Counsel could not charge Trump himself once investigators decided to abide by an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion that a sitting president cannot stand trial,[605][606] and they feared charges would affect Trump's governing and possibly preempt his impeachment.[607][606][608] In addition, investigators felt it would be unfair to accuse Trump of a crime without charges and without a trial in which he could clear his name,[605][606][602] hence investigators "determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes".[606][607][609][610][611]

Since the Special Counsel's office had decided "not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether to "initiate or decline a prosecution," they "did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President's conduct". The report "does not conclude that the president committed a crime",[591][612] but specifically did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of justice, because investigators were not confident that Trump was innocent after examining his intent and actions.[613][614] The report concluded "that Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice" and "that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law".[610][615][614][602]

On May 1, 2019, following publication of the Special Counsel's report, Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, during which Barr said he "didn't exonerate" Trump on obstruction as that was not the role of the Justice Department.[616] He declined to testify before the House Judiciary Committee the following day because he objected to the committee's plan to use staff lawyers during questioning.[617] Barr also repeatedly[618] failed to give the unredacted Special Counsel's report to the Judiciary Committee by its deadline of May 6, 2019.[619] On May 8, 2019, the committee voted to hold Barr in contempt of Congress, which refers the matter to entire House for resolution.[620] Concurrently, Trump asserted executive privilege via the Department of Justice in an effort to prevent the redacted portions of the Special Counsel's report and the underlying evidence from being disclosed.[621] Committee chairman Jerry Nadler stated that the U.S. is in a constitutional crisis, "because the President is disobeying the law, is refusing all information to Congress".[622][623] Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed with Nadler's characterization and told fellow Democrats Trump was "self-impeaching" by stonewalling Congress, with some Democrats and analysts noting that refusing to comply with subpoenas was the third article of impeachment for Richard Nixon.[624][625]

Following release of the Mueller Report, Trump and his allies turned their attention toward "investigating the investigators".[626] On May 23, 2019, Trump ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr's investigation of the origins of the investigation, granting Barr full authority to declassify any intelligence information related to the matter. Some analysts expressed concerns that the order could create a conflict between the Justice Department and the intelligence community over closely-guarded intelligence sources and methods, as well as open the possibility Barr could cherrypick intelligence for public release to help Trump.[627][628][629][630]

Upon announcing the formal closure of the investigation and his resignation from the Justice Department on May 29, Mueller stated, "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime."[631] During his testimony to Congress on July 24, 2019, Mueller answered Republican Representative Ken Buck that a president could be charged with obstruction of justice (or other crimes) after the president left office.[632]

Ethics

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During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to "drain the swamp in Washington D.C." - a phrase that usually refers to entrenched corruption and lobbying in D.C. - and he proposed a series of ethics reforms.[633] However, according to federal records and interviews, there has been a dramatic increase in lobbying by corporations and hired interests during Trump's tenure, particularly through the office of Vice-President Mike Pence.[634] About twice as many lobbying firms contacted Pence, compared to previous presidencies, among them representatives of major energy firms and drug companies.[634] In many cases, the lobbyists have charged their clients millions of dollars for access to the vice president, and then have turned around and donated the money to Pence's political causes.[634]

Among his proposals was a five-year ban on serving as a lobbyist after working in the executive branch.[633] Trump's transition team also announced that registered lobbyists would be barred from serving in the Trump administration.[635] However, an Obama era ban on lobbyists taking administrative jobs was lifted[636] and at least nine transition officials became lobbyists within the first 100 days.[637]

One of Trump's campaign promises was that he would not accept a presidential salary. In keeping with this pledge, Trump donated the entirety of his first two quarterly salaries as president to government agencies.[638]

Potential conflicts of interest

Trump's presidency has been marked by significant public concern about conflict of interest stemming from his diverse business ventures. In the lead up to his inauguration, Trump promised to remove himself from the day-to-day operations of his businesses.[639] Trump placed his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. at the head of his businesses claiming they would not communicate with him regarding his interests. However, critics noted that this would not prevent him from having input into his businesses and knowing how to benefit himself, and Trump continued to receive quarterly updates on his businesses.[640] As his presidency progressed, he failed to take steps or show interest in further distancing himself from his business interests resulting in numerous potential conflicts.[641]

Many ethics experts found Trump's plan to address conflicts of interest between his position as president and his private business interests to be entirely inadequate; Norman L. Eisen and Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyers for Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively, stated that the plan "falls short in every respect".[642] Unlike every other president in the last 40 years, Trump did not put his business interests in a blind trust or equivalent arrangement "to cleanly sever himself from his business interests". Eisen stated that Trump's case is "an even more problematic situation because he's receiving foreign government payments and other benefits and things of value that's expressly prohibited by the Constitution of the United States" in the Foreign Emoluments Clause.[642]

In January 2018, a year into his presidency, a survey found that he "continues to own stakes in hundreds of businesses, both in this country and abroad".[643]

After Trump took office, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, represented by a number of constitutional scholars, sued him[644] for violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause (a constitutional provision that bars the president or any other federal official from taking gifts or payments from foreign governments), because his hotels and other businesses accept payment from foreign governments.[644][645][646] CREW separately filed a complaint with the General Services Administration (GSA) over Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.; the 2013 lease that Trump and the GSA signed "explicitly forbids any elected government official from holding the lease or benefiting from it".[647] The GSA said it was "reviewing the situation".[647] By May 2017, the CREW v. Trump lawsuit had grown with additional plaintiffs and alleged violations of the Domestic Emoluments Clause.[648][649][650] In June 2017, attorneys from the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs had no right to sue[651] and that the described conduct was not illegal.[652] Also in June 2017, two more lawsuits were filed based on the Foreign Emoluments Clause: D.C. and Maryland v. Trump,[653][654] and Blumenthal v. Trump, which was signed by more than one-third of the voting members of Congress.[655] United States District Judge George B. Daniels dismissed the CREW case on December 21, 2017, holding that plaintiffs lacked standing.[656][657] D.C. and Maryland v. Trump cleared three judicial hurdles to proceed to the discovery phase during 2018,[658][659][660] with prosecutors issuing 38 subpoenas to Trump's businesses and cabinet departments in December before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay days later at the behest of the Justice Department, pending hearings in March 2019.[661][662][663] NBC News reported that by June 2019 representatives of 22 governments had spent money at Trump properties.[664]

In February 2017, Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway promoted the clothing line of Ivanka Trump in a TV appearance from the White House briefing room. Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub requested disciplinary action in a letter to the White House Counsel's office.[665] Under federal ethics regulations, federal employees are barred from using their public office to endorse products.[665]

As of August 2019, the House Oversight Committee is investigating why the Air National Guard made a pit stop to stay at Trump's Turnberry resort in Scotland, instead of a U.S. military base as done on previous trips. Vice President Mike Pence is also under investigation for staying at the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland despite it being located hundreds of miles away from his meeting place.[666]

Saudi Arabia

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In March 2018, The New York Times reported that George Nader had turned Trump's major fundraiser Elliott Broidy "into an instrument of influence at the White House for the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ... High on the agenda of the two men ... was pushing the White House to remove Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson", a top defender of the Iran nuclear deal in Donald Trump's administration, and "backing confrontational approaches to Iran and Qatar".[667]

Trump actively supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis.[668][669][670] Trump also praised his relationship with Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.[668] On May 20, 2017, Trump and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling US$110 billion immediately,[671][672] and $350 billion over ten years.[673][674] The transfer was widely seen as a counterbalance against the influence of Iran in the region[675][676] and a "significant" and "historic" expansion of United States relations with Saudi Arabia.[677][678][679][673][680] By July 2019, two of Trump's three vetoes were to overturn bipartisan congressional action related to Saudi Arabia.[681]

In October 2018, amid widespread condemnation of Saudi Arabia for the murder of prominent Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the Trump administration pushed back on the condemnation.[682] After the CIA assessed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the murder of Khashoggi, Trump rejected the assessment and said the CIA only had "feelings" on the matter.[683]

Transparency and data availability

The Washington Post reported in May 2017, "a wide variety of information that until recently was provided to the public, limiting access, for instance, to disclosures about workplace violations, energy efficiency, and animal welfare abuses" had been removed or tucked away. The Obama administration had used the publication of enforcement actions taken by federal agencies against companies as a way to name and shame companies that engaged in unethical and illegal behaviors.[684]

The Trump administration stopped the Obama administration policy of logging visitors to the White House, making it difficult to tell who has visited the White House.[684][685] Nathan Cortez of the Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, who studies the handling of public data, said the Trump administration, unlike the Obama administration, was taking transparency "in the opposite direction".[684]

Cost of trips

According to several reports, Trump's and his family's trips in the first month of his presidency cost the US taxpayers nearly as much as former president Obama's travel expenses for an entire year. When Obama was president, Trump frequently criticized him for taking vacations which were paid for with public funds.[686] The Washington Post reported that Trump's atypically lavish lifestyle is far more expensive to the taxpayers than what was typical of former presidents and could end up in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the whole of Trump's term.[687]

A June 2019 analysis by the Washington Post found that federal officials and GOP campaigns had spent at least $1.6 million at businesses owned by Trump during his presidency.[688] This was an undercount, as most of the data on spending by government officials covered only the first few months of Trump's presidency.[688]

Security clearances

In March 2019, Tricia Newbold, a White House employee working on security clearances, spoke privately to the House Oversight Committee, claiming that at least 25 Trump administration officials had been granted security clearances over the objections of career staffers. Newbold also asserted that some of these officials had previously had their applications rejected for "disqualifying issues", only for those rejections to be overturned with inadequate explanation.[689][690][691]

The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Carl Kline, the former head of White House security clearances to testify on April 23.[692][693] However White House deputy counsel Michael Purpura instructed Kline not to appear at the deposition, citing constitutional concerns.[693] Kline eventually appeared before the committee on May 1.[694]

Accepting political information from foreign powers

On June 12, 2019, Trump asserted he saw nothing wrong in accepting intelligence on his political adversaries from foreign powers, such as Russia, and he would see no reason to contact the FBI about it. Responding to a reporter who told him FBI director Christopher Wray had stated that such activities should be reported to the FBI, Trump stated, "the FBI director is wrong." Trump elaborated, "there's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, 'we have information on your opponent' — oh, I think I'd want to hear it." Both Democrats and Republicans repudiated the remarks.[695][696][697][698]

Impeachment inquiry

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On August 12, 2019, an unnamed intelligence official privately filed a whistleblower complaint with Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG), under the provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA).[699] The whistleblower alleged that President Trump had abused his office in soliciting foreign interference to improve his own electoral chances in 2020. The complaint reports that in a July 2019 call, Trump had asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate potential 2020 rival presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as matters pertaining to whether Russian interference occurred in the 2016 U.S. election with regard to Democratic National Committee servers and the company Crowdstrike. Trump allegedly nominated his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to work with Ukraine on these matters. Additionally, the whistleblower alleged that that the White House attempted to "lock down" the call records in a cover-up, and that the call was part of a wider pressure campaign by Giuliani and the Trump administration to urge Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. The whistleblower posits that the pressure campaign may have included Trump cancelling Vice President Mike Pence's May 2019 Ukraine trip, and Trump withholding financial aid from Ukraine in July 2019.[700][701][702][703]

Inspector General Atkinson found the whistleblower's complaint both urgent and credible, so he transmitted the complaint on August 26 to Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Under the law, Maguire was supposed to forward the complaint to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees within a week. Maguire refused, so Atkinson informed the congressional committees of the existence of the complaint, but not its content.[704][705] The general counsel for Maguire's office stated that since the complaint was not about someone in the intelligence community, it was not an "urgent concern" and thus there was no need to pass it to Congress. Later testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on September 26, Maguire said that he had consulted with the White House Counsel and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, of which the latter office gave him the rationale to withhold the complaint.[706] Maguire also testified: "I think the whistleblower did the right thing. I think he followed the law every step of the way."[707]

On September 22, Trump confirmed that he had discussed with Zelensky how "we don't want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine".[708] Trump also confirmed that he had indeed temporarily withheld military aid from Ukraine, offering contradicting reasons for his decision on September 23 and 24.[709]

On September 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry.[710][711] On September 25, the White House released a non-verbatim transcript of the call between Trump and Zelensky; while the members and staff of congressional intelligence committees were allowed to read whistleblower complaint.[712][705] On September 26, the White House declassified the whistleblower's complaint, so Schiff released the complaint to the public.[705] The non-verbatim transcript corroborated the main allegations of the whistleblower's report about the Trump–Zelensky call.[700][713][714] The non-verbatim transcript stated that after Zelensky discussed the possibility of buying American anti-tank missiles to defend Ukraine, Trump instead asked for a favor, suggesting an investigation of the company Crowdstrike, while later in the call he also called for an investigation of the Bidens, and cooperation with Giuliani and Barr.[715][716] On September 27, the White House confirmed the whistleblower's allegation that the Trump administration had stored the Trump–Zelensky transcript in a highly classified system.[717]

Following these revelations, members of congress largely divided along party lines, with Democrats generally in favor of impeachment proceedings and Republicans defending the president.[718] Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker resigned and three House committees issued a subpoena to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to schedule depositions for Volker and four other State Department employees, and to compel the release of documents.[719][720] Attention to the issue also led to further revelations by anonymous sources. These included the misuse of classification systems to hide records of conversations with Ukrainian, Russian and Saudi Arabian leaders, and statements made to Sergei Lavrov and Sergey Kislyak in May 2017 expressing disconcern about Russian interference in US elections.[721][722]

Other allegations

Bloomberg News reported in October 2019 that during a 2017 Oval Office meeting, Trump asked secretary of state Rex Tillerson to pressure the Justice Department to drop a criminal investigation of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader who was a client of Trump associate Rudy Giuliani. Tillerson reportedly refused.[723]

Elections during the Trump presidency

Republican seats in Congress
Congress Senate House
115th[2] 52 241
116th 53 200

2018 mid-term elections

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In the 2018 mid-term elections, Democrats won control of the House of Representatives, while Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate.[724]

Historical evaluations and public opinion

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Popular polling

File:Gallup Poll-Approval Rating-Donald Trump.svg
Gallup approval polling, covering February 2017-September 2019
  Disapprove
  Unsure
  Approve

At the time of the 2016 election, polls by Gallup found Trump had a favorable rating around 35% and an unfavorable rating around 60%, while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton held a favorable rating of 40% and an unfavorable rating of 57%.[725] 2016 was the first election cycle in modern presidential polling in which both major-party candidates were viewed so unfavorably.[726][727][728][729]

By January 20, 2017, Inauguration Day, Trump's approval rating average was 42%, the lowest rating average for an incoming president in the history of modern polling.[730] Trump's approval rating during his first term has been "incredibly stable (and also historically low)" within a band from about 36% to 44%.[731][732]

Historians and political scientists

Political scientist Norman Ornstein states that many writers have tried to put Trump in perspective:

Among President Trump's major accomplishments is the booming industry in books about him, his administration, the state of democracy in America, the rise of autocracy in America and abroad, the reasons for his rise, the bases of his support, the state of the Republican Party, the state of his mental health or lack thereof, the chaos in his White House and so on.
Not all are strictly about Trump — the fact is the conditions and dynamics that brought us Trump long preceded him, and the changes in the fabric of our Republic are paralleled by changes in other longstanding democracies around the globe.[733]

Democratic backsliding

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Since the beginning of the presidency of Donald Trump, ratings of U.S. democracy sharply plunged in the United States.[734]

According to the 2018 Varieties of Democracy Annual Democracy Report, there has been "a significant democratic backsliding in the United States [since the Inauguration of Donald Trump] ... attributable to weakening constraints on the executive".[734] Independent assessments by Freedom House and Bright Line Watch found a similar significant decline in overall democratic functioning.[735][736]

Historical rankings

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BBC News wrote, in January 2019:[737]

At the midpoint of Trump's first term, historians have struggled to detect the kind of virtues that offset his predecessors' vices: the infectious optimism of Reagan; the inspirational rhetoric of JFK; the legislative smarts of LBJ; or the governing pragmatism of Nixon. So rather than being viewed as the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan or Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Trump gets cast as a modern-day James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce or William Harrison. Last year, a poll of nearly 200 political science scholars, which has routinely placed Republicans higher than Democrats, ranked him 44th out of the 44 men who have occupied the post.

The 2018 poll—as referenced, in 2019, by the BBC—was administered by the American Political Science Association (APSA) among political scientists specializing in the American presidency, and had ranked Trump in last place.[738] Republican survey respondents rated him 40th out of 44th, Independents/Other respondents rated him 43rd out of 44th, while Democratic historians rated him 44th out of 44th.[738] Siena College Research Institute's 6th presidential expert poll, released in February 2019, placed Donald Trump 42nd out of 44th—ahead of Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan.[739]

See also

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Notes

  1. ^ A small portion of the 115th Congress (January 3, 2017 – January 19, 2017) took place under President Obama.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Stolberg, Sheryl Gay (August 7, 2017). "Many Politicians Lie. But Trump Has Elevated the Art of Fabrication". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2019. President Trump, historians and consultants in both political parties agree, appears to have taken what the writer Hannah Arendt once called "the conflict between truth and politics" to an entirely new level.
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  86. President Trump has made 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days, Washington Post, Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly, August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
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  106. "Just in time: A new Republican group seeks to protect Mueller," Washington Post, April 11, 2018: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/04/11/just-in-time-a-new-republican-group-seeks-to-protect-mueller/
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  148. Trump's 'dirty war' on media draws editorials in 300 US outlets BBC
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  163. "White House shares doctored video to support punishment of journalist Jim Acosta," Washington Post, November 8, 2018: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/11/08/white-house-shares-doctored-video-support-punishment-journalist-jim-acosta/
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  180. Kristine Phillips, All the times Trump personally attacked judges — and why his tirades are 'worse than wrong' Archived November 3, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Washington Post (April 26, 2017).
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  236. "Trump Wanted Tenfold Increase in Nuclear Arsenal, Surprising Military," NBC News, October 11, 2017: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/trump-wanted-dramatic-increase-nuclear-arsenal-meeting-military-leaders-n809701
  237. Civilian Unemployment Rate, Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=mCWW
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  240. Federal receipts, outlays and deficits, Office of Management and Budget via FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=mr42
  241. Federal Debt Held by the Public, US Treasury via FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=mCXl
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  259. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  260. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  262. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  263. 263.0 263.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  264. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  265. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  266. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  267. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  268. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  269. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  270. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  271. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  272. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  273. Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross, "Scoring the Trump Economic Plan: Trade, Regulatory, & Energy Policy Impacts," September 29, 2016: https://assets.donaldjtrump.com/Trump_Economic_Plan.pdf
  274. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  275. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  276. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  278. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  279. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  280. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  281. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  282. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  283. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  284. 285.0 285.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  285. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  286. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  287. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  288. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  289. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  290. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  291. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  292. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  293. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  294. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  295. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  296. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  297. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  298. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  299. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  300. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  301. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  302. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  303. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  304. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  305. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  306. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  307. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  308. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  309. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  310. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  311. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  312. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  313. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  314. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  315. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  316. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  317. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  318. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  319. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  320. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  321. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  322. 323.0 323.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  323. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  324. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  325. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  326. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  327. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  328. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  329. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  330. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  331. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  332. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  333. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  334. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  335. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  336. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  337. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  338. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  339. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  340. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  341. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  342. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  343. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  344. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  345. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  346. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  347. 348.0 348.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  348. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  349. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  350. 351.0 351.1 351.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  351. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  352. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  353. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  354. 355.0 355.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  355. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  356. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  357. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  358. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  359. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  360. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  361. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  362. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  363. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  364. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  365. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  366. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  367. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  368. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  369. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  370. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  371. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  372. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  373. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  374. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  375. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  376. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  377. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  378. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  379. 380.0 380.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  380. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  381. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  382. 383.0 383.1 383.2 383.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  383. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  384. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  385. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  387. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  388. 389.0 389.1 389.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  389. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  390. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  391. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  392. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  393. 394.0 394.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  394. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  395. 396.0 396.1 396.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  396. Overdose Death Rates. By National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
  397. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  398. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  399. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  402. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  404. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  405. 406.0 406.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  407. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  411. 412.0 412.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  415. 416.0 416.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  416. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  419. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  423. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  424. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  425. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  426. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  427. 428.0 428.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  428. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  429. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  430. 431.0 431.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  432. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  434. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  435. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  438. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  439. 440.0 440.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  440. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  441. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  442. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  443. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  444. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  445. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  446. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  447. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  448. Trump proposes slashing refugee numbers | SBS News
  449. Trump aims to slash US refugee intake, claiming backlog | USA News | Al Jazeera
  450. 451.0 451.1 Trump to cut number of refugees allowed in U.S. to lowest ever - CBS News
  451. US slashes refugee limit to all-time low of 18,000 - BBC News
  452. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  453. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  454. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  455. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  456. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  457. 458.0 458.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  458. 459.0 459.1 459.2 459.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  459. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  460. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  461. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  462. Matt Stevens & Sarah Mervosh, All four Living Former First Ladies Condemn Trump Border Policy That Separates Families, New York Times (July 21, 2018).
  463. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  464. Michael D. Shear, Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Thomas Kaplan & Robert Pear, Federal Judge in California Issues Injunction Halting Government From Separating Families, New York Times (June 26, 2018).
  465. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  466. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  467. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  468. 469.0 469.1 Peter Baker, "White House Official, in Reversal, Says Green Card Holders Won't Be Barred", The New York Times (January 29, 2017).
  469. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  471. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  473. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  474. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  475. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  476. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  478. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  479. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  480. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  481. 482.0 482.1 482.2 482.3 482.4 482.5 482.6 482.7 482.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  482. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  483. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  484. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  485. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  486. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  487. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  489. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  490. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  491. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  492. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  494. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  495. 496.0 496.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  496. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  497. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  498. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  499. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  500. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  501. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  502. 503.0 503.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  503. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  504. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  505. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  506. 507.0 507.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  507. Costello, Tom. "Charlottesville Fact Check: Were Both Sides To Blame For Violence?" Today Show (August 16, 2016).
  508. Gunter, Joel. "What Trump Said Versus What I Saw", BBC News (August 16, 2017).
  509. Alexander, Harriet. "What is the 'alt Left' that Donald Trump said was 'very violent' in Charlottesville?", The Telegraph (August 16, 2017): "photos and videos from Saturday's riot does show people dressed in black, their faces covered, engaging the neo-Nazis in violent confrontation."
  510. 511.0 511.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  511. Nakamura, David. "Trump denounces KKK, neo-Nazis as 'repugnant' as he seeks to quell criticism of his response to Charlottesville", The Washington Post (August 14, 2017).
  512. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  513. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  514. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  515. 516.0 516.1 516.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  516. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  517. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  518. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  519. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  520. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  521. 522.0 522.1 522.2 522.3 522.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  522. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  523. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  524. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  525. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  526. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  527. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  528. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  529. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  530. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  531. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  533. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  534. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  535. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  536. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  537. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  538. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  539. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  540. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  541. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  542. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  543. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  544. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  545. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  546. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  547. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  548. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  549. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  550. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  551. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  552. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  553. 554.0 554.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  554. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  555. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  556. 557.0 557.1 557.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  557. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  558. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  559. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  560. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  561. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  562. 563.0 563.1 563.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  563. Jack Goldsmith, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, Benjamin Wittes, Elishe Julian Wittes, Bombshell: Initial Thoughts on the Washington Post's Game-Changing Story, Lawfare (May 15, 2017).
  564. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  565. Aaron Blake, The White House isn't denying that Trump gave Russia classified information — not really, The Washington Post (May 15, 2017).
  566. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  567. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  569. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  570. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  571. 572.0 572.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  572. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  573. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  574. 575.0 575.1 575.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  575. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  576. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  577. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  578. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  579. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  593. Mueller Report, vol. I, p. 4: At the same time the IRA operation began to focus on supporting candidate Trump in early 2016, the Russian government employed a second form of interference: cyber intrusions (hacking) and releases of hacked materials damaging to the Clinton Campaign. The Russian intelligence service known as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army (GRU) carried out these operations. In March 2016, the GRU began hacking the email accounts of Clinton Campaign volunteers and employees, including campaign chairman John Podesta. In April 2016, the GRU hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The GRU stole hundreds of thousands of documents from the compromised email accounts and networks. Around the time the DNC announced in mid-June 2016 the Russian government's role in hacking its network, the GRU began disseminating stolen materials through the fictitious online personas "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0". The GRU later released additional materials through the organization WikiLeaks.
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  595. Mueller Report, vol. I, p. 2: In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of "collusion". In so doing, the Office recognized that the word "collud[e]" was used in communications with the Acting Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation's scope and that the term has frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. For those reasons, the Office's focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law.
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  610. Mueller Report, vol. II, p. 2: "Third, we considered whether to evaluate the conduct we investigated under the Justice Manual standards governing prosecution and declination decisions, but we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes."
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  641. 642.0 642.1 Karen Yourish & Larry Buchanan, It 'Falls Short in Every Respect': Ethics Experts Pan Trump's Conflicts Plan, The New York Times (January 12, 2017).
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  646. 647.0 647.1 Julia Horowitz, President Trump hit immediately with ethics complaint, CNN (January 20, 2017).
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  656. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Trump, 17 Civ. 458 (S.D.N.Y. December 21, 2017).
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  664. 665.0 665.1 Matea Gold, Chaffetz, Cummings support ethics office opinion that Conway likely broke rules, The Washington Post (February 14, 2017).
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  666. "How 2 Gulf Monarchies Sought to Influence the White House". The New York Times. March 21, 2018.
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  722. Bloomberg News: Trump Urged Top Aide to Help Giuliani Client Facing DOJ Charges — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-09/trump-urged-top-aide-to-help-giuliani-client-facing-doj-charges
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  732. Norman Ornstein, "Two Leading Intellectuals Analyze What Ails America" New York Times Dec. 7, 2018
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  1. REDIRECT Template:US presidents

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