Draft 6-19-12 Four Conference Rally 2012: Fill & Download for Free

LIES and GOSSIPING:February 10, 2011 – In 2011, Donald Trump stoked false claims that Barack Obama had lied about his education. During a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said, “Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: The people that went to school with him, they never saw him, they don’t know who he is. It’s crazy.” This is false. Numerous accounts from Obama’s college classmates refute Trump’s claim, including Obama’s Columbia roommate, Phil Doerner.August 6, 2012 – Over a year after the White House released Obama’s long-form birth certificate, Donald Trump again promoted the “birther” myth, tweeting, “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.” President Trump has publicly attacked media outlets for citing anonymous sources, but has himself cited anonymous sources numerous times to support the claim that Barack Obama lied about his biography.October 7, 2016 – Donald Trump reiterated his false claim that the young men known as the “Central Park Five” were guilty of sexually assaulting a jogger in 1989, despite DNA evidence that exonerated them.November 27, 2016 – Without citing evidence to support his claim, Donald Trump tweeted, “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally”. This claim has been repeatedly debunked.January 10, 2017 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Donald Trump approached him about leading an investigation into “Vaccine Safety.” The prospect that vaccination can lead to autism has been repeatedly debunked by long-running, peer-reviewed studies. Trump had supported the anti-vaccination theory on stage at the 2015 presidential debates. In September 2015 he publicly stated, “We had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, two years old, a beautiful child, went to have the vaccine and came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic.”January 21, 2017 – In his first conference as White House press secretary, Sean Spicer stated emphatically that the gathering on the National Mall for Trump’s inaugural address, “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” Photo evidence of Barack Obama’s first inauguration and subsequent crowd analyses of Trump’s crowd proved this was untrue.January 22, 2017 – Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said that Sean Spicer’s false statements about the crowd size at Donald Trump’s inauguration were not lies, but “alternative facts.”February 4, 2017 – Donald Trump posted a report to his Facebook page saying Kuwait would institute a travel ban on many Muslim-majority countries. The report was not truthful; Kuwait did no such thing. The Assistant Foreign Minister of Kuwait responded to Trump’s false Facebook post: “The State of Kuwait believes that granting of visa [sic] is a sovereign matter, and is not linked to terrorism or violence or nationality or faith.”February 7, 2017 – Donald Trump stated the murder rate in America had reached a 47-year peak. This was not true. While there had been a slight increase in murders from 2014 to 2015, the murder rate for both years was still more than 40 percent lower than it had been 47 years ago. In 1970, there were nearly 8 murders per 100,000 people in America; in 2015, the latest year with full data collected by the FBI, that number had fallen to 4.9 murders per 100,000 people.February 9, 2017 – Three times in one week, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer referred to “recent terrorist attacks” in Atlanta which never actually happened. The City of Atlanta has not had a terrorist attack in 21 years, in 1997, when Christian extremist Eric Robert Rudolph bombed Centennial Olympic Park. After misspeaking for the third time, Sean Spicer acknowledged his mistake and explained that he meant to reference the nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida in June 2016.February 11, 2017 – Donald Trump claimed without evidence that 3 million illegal votes went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Politifact and Snopes have both debunked the claim—with Snopes saying “the ‘3 million non-citizens’ may just as well have been plucked out of thin air.” The number appeared to originate from an InfoWars article which sought to explain why Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes.February 12, 2017 – In a televised interview with George Stephanopoulos, senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller reaffirmed Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated suspicion of voter fraud in the presidential election. When challenged for evidence by Stephanopoulos, Miller replied, “This morning on this show is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence. But I can tell you this, voter fraud is a serious problem in this country.” Miller never subsequently offered any evidence for his claim.February 15, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence falsely stated that no member of the Trump campaign, including national security adviser Michael Flynn, had contact with Russian officials. Pence publicly defended Flynn’s phone calls to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, claiming Flynn did not discuss sanctions against Russia (Flynn later confessed to the FBI that he had). Pence did not realize that Flynn had misled him until two weeks after he made his public assertion, well after Donald Trump had become aware of Flynn’s Russian contacts.March 4, 2017 – Without evidence, Donald Trump falsely accused Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower before the election. Trump levied the accusation in a Twitter storm that began at 6:30am. President Trump’s own Department of Justice released a statement in September in 2017 rebuking Trump’s claim and confirming the Obama administration had not wiretapped the Trump campaign.April 4, 2017 -Donald Trump implied that Barack Obama’s administration was to blame for a gas attack in a rebel-controlled area of Syria, saying the attack had been a “consequence of the past administration’s weakness and irresolution.”April 16, 2017 – In response to marches around the nation demanding Donald Trump release his tax returns, Trump tweeted, “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!” No evidence exists to suggest that protesters were paid to march.April 29, 2017 – On Face the Nation, Donald Trump falsely suggested the new Republican healthcare bill, called the American Health Care Act, would protect health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions. The most recent draft of the legislation contained no such stipulation.May 12, 2017 – After Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sean Spicer, and President Trump each gave conflicting explanations for Trump’s decision to dismiss FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump tweeted, “As a very active President with many things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy.” Trump then added, “Maybe the best thing to do is cancel all future “press briefings” and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy????”May 28, 2017 – Despite releasing a budget that proposed cutting Medicaid by $800 billion only days earlier, Donald Trump tweeted, “I suggest that we add more dollars to Healthcare and make it the best anywhere!”June 6, 2017 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt claimed 50,000 jobs had been added to the coal mining industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the number was closer to 1,400.June 22, 2017 – At a rally with supporters, Donald Trump asserted that a law should exist which requires all immigrants to support themselves financially for five years before receiving welfare aid. This exact law has existed since 1996. Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act restricting new immigrants to the U.S. from accessing federal benefits for a period of five years.June 25, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders. Is she allowed to so collude? Unfair to Bernie!” At the time, Trump was under investigation for colluding with Russia to influence the 2016 election.June 27, 2017 – The Trump Organization framed a March 1, 2009 cover of Time magazine and hung it on the walls of at least five Trump resorts. The cover features Trump with his arms crossed beside the headlines “Donald Trump: The Apprentice is a television smash!” and “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS…EVEN ON TV!” Time magazine has confirmed the cover is fake.July 1, 2017 – After Trump requested state officials forfeit private voter information in his quest to substantiate claims of illegal voting during the 2016 election, 44 states and the District of Columbia refused to divulge citizens’ records. He tweeted, “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?” Trump has never offered credible evidence to support illegal votes swaying the 2016 popular vote, and the claims have been repeatedly debunked.August 2, 2017 – Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders admitted during her daily press briefing that the Boy Scouts of America never called the president to say his speech to their organization was the “greatest speech ever made to them.” This is contrary to claims Donald Trump had made to the Wall Street Journal.August 15, 2017 – After more CEOs resigned from his American Manufacturing Council, Trump claimed he had a line of executives waiting to join in their place. He tweeted, “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!”August 18, 2017 – Donald Trump fired chief strategist Steve Bannon. Trump later claimed that Bannon had been a “staffer” and “had very little to do with our historic victory,” despite the fact that Bannon was a top aide through the presidential campaign and key influencer in the White House.August 30, 2017 – After Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, Donald Trump visited Corpus Christi and told a small crowd the recovery from the hurricane’s devastation would be “better than ever before.” His proposed budget slashed FEMA programs aimed at helping Americans get back on their feet after natural disasters.September 15, 2017 – Following a terrorist attack on the London subway, Donald Trump responded to the event by propping up his travel ban. He also falsely suggested in a series of tweets that authorities had identified those responsible, and that those people had recruited others online. British Prime Minister Theresa May rebuked Trump’s speculative claims.September 21, 2017 – During a speech at the UN, Donald Trump cited the exemplary healthcare system of a place called Nambia. Trump applauded the nonexistent African nation, saying, “Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.”October 10, 2017 – According to fact-checkers at the Washington Post, Donald Trump made 1,318 false claims in his first 263 days as president. That equates to around 5 falsehoods per day since his inauguration.October 16, 2017 – Donald Trump asserted Barack Obama did not call the families of fallen soldiers. This was untrue. Obama had long meetings with the families of fallen soldiers, as confirmed by both Obama’s staff and the families themselves.October 18, 2017 – Donald Trump offered the father of a fallen soldier a gift of $25,000. At first, Trump did not keep his promise. Then three months later, on the publication day of the Washington Post’s article reporting Trump never sent his promised gift, a check for $25,000 was mailed to the grieving father.October 19, 2017 – During a security conference, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, “The intelligence community’s assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election.” This was false. The report Pompeo referenced concluded that Russian meddling had occurred, but did not speculate on whether that interference had altered the course of the election or not.October 20, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Just out report: ‘United Kingdom crime rises 13 percent annually amid spread of Radical Islamic terror.’ not good, we must keep America safe!” The UK’s Office for National Statistics did report a 13 percent increase in police-reported crime in its quarterly report, but gave only one reference to terror attacks in the whole report and did not attribute the rise in crime to Islam in any way.QUARRELSOME and SLANDEROUS TREATMENT of OTHERS:July 18, 2015 – Donald Trump insulted the military service of Senator John McCain, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who endured torture and solitary confinement as a POW in Hanoi. Trump said in a speech at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, "He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Trump’s comments drew boos from his audience in Iowa, as well as widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike. Donald Trump himself was exempted from military service after receiving four student deferments between 1964 and 1968, and a medical deferment for a “bone spur in his foot” after graduating from college.August 7, 2015 – During the first Republican primary debate in 2015, Donald Trump clashed with moderator Megyn Kelly regarding his many controversial statements against women. In one exchange, Trump claimed his disparaging remarks about women were limited to comments about Rosie O’Donnell, to which Kelly responded, “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees. Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?” The next day, Trump told a CNN interviewer that Kelly had been “off-base” in the way she treated him. “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” Trump said. “You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”July 30, 2016 – Donald Trump belittled Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a Muslim American soldier who had been killed while serving in the Army, for their speech at the Democratic National Convention. In his speech at the DNC, Khizr Khan had addressed Trump’s stringent anti-Muslim immigration policies, saying, “Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of law.” In response to the speech, Trump suggested that Khan had “no right” to criticize him.January 17, 2017 – After accusing him of sexual misconduct, Summer Zervos also filed a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. Zervos claimed Trump had tarnished her reputation when he issued false statements against her and others who had accused him of sexual harassment, calling them “liars” who were telling their stories for “ten minutes of fame.”February 4, 2017 – Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the federal judge who had blocked his travel ban, calling Judge James Robart a “so-called judge” whose dissenting opinion had taken “law-enforcement away from our country.” Justice Robart had received a unanimous endorsement of “well-qualified” from the American Bar Association before his appointment to the bench by George W. Bush.February 7, 2017 – Donald Trump told a sheriff in Rockwell County, Texas, to “destroy” the career of a state senator who had opposed civil asset forfeiture. This controversial law enforcement practice allows police officers to seize cash and assets they believe may be related to a crime, even if the property owners were never arrested or convicted of that crime.February 8, 2017 – President Trump used Twitter to lash out at Nordstrom for its decision to stop carrying his daughter’s retail brand. He tweeted about the company, “My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly.”February 9, 2017 – Donald Trump attacked Senator John McCain on Twitter. McCain had raised objections to the Yemen raid wherein one American soldier was killed and five others were wounded. Trump tweeted about McCain, “Only emboldens the enemy! He’s been losing so long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.” McCain was a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, enduring torture and solitary confinement after his plane was shot down in North Vietnam.February 9, 2017 – When meeting with senators, Donald Trump addressed Democrats by saying that “Pocahontas is now the face of your party.” The racial epithet referenced Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed Native American ancestry.February 17, 2017 – In what has become a regular attack on free press, Donald Trump tweeted, “The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”February 24, 2017 – After Donald Trump’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he declared certain media outlets to be “FAKE NEWS,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer temporarily barred the New York Times, CNN, and Politico from the daily White House press briefing. While reporters from these publications were not permitted into the briefing, the Trump administration allowed entrance for correspondents from Fox News and Breitbart News.March 4, 2017 – In March of 2017, President Donald Trump engaged in a Twitter-based squabble with Arnold Schwarzenegger over ratings of “The Apprentice,” the television show—on which Trump was still listed as a producer. Trump tweeted, “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show.” Schwarzenegger responded to Trump’s insult with a video on Twitter chiding Trump for defunding inner-city school programs. “When you take away after school programs for children and meals on wheels for the poor people,” said Schwarzenegger, “that’s not what you call ‘making America great again’.” Schwarzenegger then invited Trump to tour a middle with him to see the benefits of the after-school programs the president planned to eliminate. Trump did not respond.March 29, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!” Published the same month as the above tweet, the Times’s financial report announced the newspaper had just enjoyed its strongest quarter for subscriber growth in the publication’s 126-year history.April 23, 2017 – Approaching the hundredth day of his presidency, Donald Trump took to Twitter to blame low approval ratings and the loss of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton on “fake news.” The president tweeted, “New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative. Would still beat Hillary in popular vote.” Trump was referring to new polls from ABC News/Washington Post and NBC/Wall Street Journal that showed he had the lowest approval rating of any president since 1945.April 26, 2017 – Donald Trump publicly slammed the 9th circuit court after they blocked his administration’s attempt to deny federal funding for “sanctuary cities.” In response to the ruling, Trump said he was considering proposals to break up the three-judge panel.May 12, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” After the tweet, Comey was quoted saying, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”May 25, 2017 – During the NATO Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Donald Trump visibly pushed Montenegro’s Prime Minister out of the way so he could to stand in front for a picture with other world leaders.June 6, 2017 – In more than 50 cases nationwide, children were heard bullying classmates with calls for deportation, references to Donald Trump’s name, and blatantly racist language. One eight-year-old girl in California said to a black classmate, “Now that Trump won, you’re going to have to go back to Africa, where you belong.”June 13, 2017 – On Twitter, Donald Trump’s account blocked a veterans group that had been critical of him. The group, VoteVets, represents 500,000 U.S. military veterans.June 16, 2017 – Responding to special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Donald Trump tweeted, “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt”. “The man” referenced here is Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller to lead the Russia investigation and also issued a memo recommending former FBI Director James Comey’s firing.June 29, 2017 – Donald Trump attacked TV news host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter, saying he had once seen her when she was “badly bleeding from a face-lift.”June 30, 2017 – MSNBC news anchors Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski alleged the White House tried to blackmail them with an article about their relationship in the National Enquirer. The newly engaged co-anchors claimed they had texts and phone records from Trump advisers threatening to publish the Enquirer article if the pair did not contact Trump directly. The president apparently sought an apology for the couple’s unfavorable news coverage. Trump is a long-time friend and ally of David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer, and had leveraged the relationship before. The Enquirer then published a hit piece on Scarborough and Brzezinski’s relationship.June 2017 – Two anonymous White House officials told the New York Times that Donald Trump said Haitians “all have AIDS” and Nigerian immigrants wouldn’t ever “go back to their huts.” Newly released immigration statistics, which reported 15,000 Haitian immigrants had entered the U.S. since he took office, reportedly ignited President Trump’s tirade. While the White House subsequently denied Trump had used the words “AIDS” and “huts,” it did not deny the “overall description of the meeting.”July 1, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!”July 24, 2017 – Donald Trump took aim at Attorney General Jeff Sessions again, calling him “beleaguered” in a tweet about the Russia investigation.July 24, 2017 – Donald Trump insulted the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, by calling him “sleazy” and “totally biased” on Twitter.July 25, 2017 – Donald Trump targeted both Jeff Sessions, the U.S. attorney general and a member of his own administration, as well as his campaign opponent Hillary Clinton, by tweeting, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!”August 8, 2017 – Donald Trump promised to unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if North Korea threatened the United States with nuclear action. Trump delivered his warning of catastrophic nuclear action after Kim Jong-un’s regime successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range capable of reaching the continental United States. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson attempted to downplay Trump’s bellicosity, saying, “I think Americans should sleep well at night, and have no concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.”August 10, 2017 – Frustrated by Congress’s failed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump lashed out at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump doled out his critique in two tweets directed at the senator: “Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing. You can do it!” and “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!”August 14, 2017 – After Donald Trump hesitated to condemn the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals, chose to resign from Trump’s American Manufacturing Council. Frazier, an African American and one of the most powerful executives in the United States, explained his decision to leave in a public statement: “America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting hatred, bigotry, and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal. As CEO of Merck and as a matter of public conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.” Trump took to Twitter, firing back, “Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President’s Manufacturing Council, he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!”September 19, 2017 – During a speech at the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man” and threatened to “totally destroy North Korea.”September 22, 2017 – Continuing to use aggressive language towards North Korea and Kim Jong-un, Donald Trump tweeted, “Kim Jong-un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn’t mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!”October 4, 2017 – On October 4, 2017, four soldiers in the United States Armed Forces were killed in Niger by ISIS-affiliated combatants. When asked at a press conference on October 16 why he still hadn’t spoken about the fallen soldiers, Trump said he had written the families personal letters, which would “go out either today or tomorrow.” He also insinuated at the press conference that President Obama had not called the families of fallen soldiers. This was untrue. Obama had called Gold Star families throughout his presidency, as confirmed by both Obama’s staff and the families themselves. The night after the press conference, Donald Trump placed a condolence call to Myeshia Johnson, the widow of fallen serviceman Sgt. La David Johnson. The following week, Mrs. Johnson appeared on Good Morning America to discuss her husband’s life and her call with the president. Mrs. Johnson said Trump forgot her husband’s name during the call, and that she “heard him stumbling” as he tried to remember. Less than an hour after the interview aired, President Trump suggested the Gold Star widow had been lying, writing on Twitter, “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”October 5, 2017 – In either a misunderstanding of the duties of the Senate Intelligence Committee or an attempt to deflect attention from the Russia investigation, Donald Trump tweeted, “Why Isn’t the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up-FAKE!”October 10, 2017 – In response to rumors earlier in the month that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called the president a “moron,” Donald Trump said, “I think it’s fake news. But if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.”October 25, 2017 – As part of an ongoing online feud, Donald Trump tweeted at Senators Jeff Flake and Bob Corker: “The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!”TREATMENT of STRANGERS based on GROUP MEMBERSHIP instead of WELCOMING THEM based on THEIR INDIVIDUALITY:June 16, 2015 – In his speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Donald Trump said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”May 31, 2016 – Donald Trump attacked Gonzalo Curiel, the federal judge who presided over the Trump University fraud case, saying that Curiel’s assignment to the case represented "an absolute conflict because the judge was “of Mexican heritage.” “I’m building a wall,” said Trump, “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”October 7, 2016 – In the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, Donald Trump bragged to Billy Bush about grabbing women by their genitals without consent. In the video published by the Washington Post, Trump said, “I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab them by the pussy.” Trump said his statements were “locker room banter” and apologized “if anyone was offended.” He later issued a further response to the tape’s release, saying, “I’ve never said I’m a perfect person.”January 27, 2017 – Donald Trump signed what would become known as the ”travel ban,” an executive order which imposed a 90-day ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, while also indefinitely halting incoming refugees from Syria. Trump’s travel ban still allowed travelers from other Muslim-majority countries where he held extensive business interests, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.February 9 , 2017 – Before a day of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Donald Trump tweeted that refugees were flooding in from the seven “suspect” countries his travel ban had outlawed, and that these refugees were “SO DANGEROUS.” In January, Fox News reported that no terrorist attacks had been perpetrated by refugees from countries on Trump’s list.February 12, 2017 – In the wake of Donald Trump’s travel ban, some international travelers faced increased scrutiny at airports, and in some cases were asked to deliver digital information to Border Protection. Sidd Bikkannavar, a natural-born U.S. citizen and scientist at NASA, was detained at an airport in Texas upon his return from Chile and pressured into unlocking his cell phone for search. Haisam Elsharkawi, an American citizen and electronics salesman from Anaheim, California, surrendered his cell phone after persistent pressure from border control. He said in an interview that border control told him they would confiscate the phone if he did not comply. Elsharkawi said, “I opened the doors of hell when I asked for a lawyer. They just started attacking me verbally. ‘Why do you need a lawyer? Are you a criminal? What are you hiding?’”February 16, 2017 – Donald Trump asked April Ryan, an African American reporter and White House correspondent, if she would arrange a meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. After Ryan asked a question about Trump meeting with the Caucus, he said, “Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours?”February 18, 2017 – The Department of Homeland Security drafted a proposal to mobilize the National Guard in an effort to arrest undocumented immigrants. While the DHS never implemented the proposal, and the White House denied it had existed in the first place (despite the 11-page memo leaking to the Associated Press), Washington lawmakers saw the draft as an indication that the Trump administration was willing to consider military force as a means of rounding up undocumented immigrants.Feburary 22, 2017 – Donald Trump signed an executive order halting an Obama-era directive that allowed transgender students to use the school bathroom corresponding to their gender identity. Civil rights groups said the executive order would reinforce a culture of discrimination and could further endanger transgender students.March 6, 2017 – Six weeks after issuing his first failed executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, Donald Trump issued a new travel ban. Trump’s first order met objections in several state courts, and was blocked on appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. To improve the second ban’s chances of passing, the Trump administration amended the executive order, excluding Iraq from the list of banned countries and altering the permanent ban on Syrian refugee admissions. About a week later, on March 15, a Hawaiian judge blocked this second draft of the ban.July 26, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow… Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming… victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.” Two judges later blocked Trump’s discriminatory memorandum.August 25, 2017 – Following up on tweets he wrote in July, Donald Trump signed a directive to prevent transgender individuals from joining the military. The order gave Defense Secretary James Mattis the ability to decide if transgender members currently in the military could continue to serve.October 12, 2017 – While Puerto Rico was still reeling a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall—with 90 percent of the island still without electricity and 40 percent without clean drinking water—Donald Trump responded to critics on Twitter by saying, “We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” Five months after the hurricane, 400,000 Puerto Ricans still did not have power.October 23, 2017 – When asked about gay rights while in the company of Mike Pence, Donald Trump joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”MAKING EXCUSES for SIN:August 19, 2015 – In August of 2015, just three months after Trump announced his candidacy for president, two of his supporters in Boston beat a homeless Latino man with a metal pipe, and then urinated on him. Asked by the arresting officer why they had done it, one of the attackers said, “Trump was right—all these illegals need to be deported.” During a press conference shortly thereafter, Trump said he hadn’t heard about the assault. “It would be a shame,” he told the crowd of reporters, before continuing, “I will say, the people that are following me are very passionate. They love this country and they want this country to be great again. They are passionate.”February 1, 2017 In a rollback of an Obama-era protection, Donald Trump’s White House withdrew the Mercury Effluent Rule, which regulated the safe use and disposal of mercury in American dental offices. The Natural Resource Defense Council estimated the repeal would discharge five tons of the neurotoxic substance into water supplies each year. Even trace amounts of mercury can harm brain function and damage the human nervous system, particularly in pregnant women and infants.February 16, 2017 – Using the Congressional Review Act, Donald Trump repealed the so-called “stream protection rule,” which kept coal companies from dumping mining debris into rivers. Barack Obama first implemented the regulation after a growing body of evidence suggested the debris could contain toxic materials, such as selenium, mercury, and arsenic. Trump’s repeal has been on the wish list for the coal industry since the rule’s publication in December of 2016.March 28, 2017 – Donald Trump signed a bill that killed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces regulation. Signed by Barack Obama, the legislation protected workers against serious safety hazards and labor law violations in any government contract above $500,000.April 2, 2017 – In regard to an ongoing lawsuit, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled Donald Trump may have incited violence against protesters during his 2016 campaign rally in Kentucky. While the judge’s ruling did not constitute a formal conviction, it did reject arguments from Trump’s lawyers to throw out the suit, finding the protestors’ injuries were the “direct and proximate result” of Trump’s statements. Donald Trump yelled “Get ‘em out of here!” to his supporters, who subsequently shoved and punched the protesters.April 3, 2017 – Donald Trump praised Egypt’s authoritarian leader President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, saying, “I just want to let everybody know in case there was any doubt that we are very much behind President el-Sisi.” Just before meeting with Trump, el-Sisi sentenced 17 Egyptians to jail for taking part in protests against his regime. Due to his human rights offenses, the Egyptian leader had been barred from the White House for four years prior to meeting Trump.April 17, 2017 – Donald Trump called and congratulated Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the Turkish leader’s victory in a public referendum that majorly expanded his executive powers. Contradicting Trump, the U.S. State Department released a statement questioning the democratic legitimacy of the referendum, pointing out irregularities in the election results and bias in media coverage.April 30, 2017 – Donald Trump invited Rodrigo Duterte, the authoritarian leader of the Philippines, to visit the White House. Duterte’s regime had carried out extrajudicial killings of drug users and drug dealers, garnering global condemnation. As of January 2018, Human Rights Watch had counted over 12,000 such murders’. Two senior officials in the White House said they expected significant pushback internally, should Duterte accept Trump’s invitation. The two leaders met in November, during which time Trump reported the pair had a “great relationship.”May 1, 2017 – In an interview on Sirius Radio, Donald Trump praised Andrew Jackson as having “a big heart.” Andrew Jackson infamously enacted the Trail of Tears, which forced 17,000 Cherokees to walk across the country and resulted in thousands of deaths. Trump also claimed, “had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War.” He continued, “But why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?”May 31, 2017 – The White House granted ethics waivers to 17 senior officials, including Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. The waivers allowed Bannon to interact with Breitbart News, and Conway to interact with lobbyists and private clients.August 12, 2017 – During the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, neo-Nazis and former Ku Klux Klan members carried tiki torches and shouted slogans including “The Jews Will Not Replace Us.” A white nationalist named James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others in the process. After the attack and Heyer’s death, Trump he refused to explicitly rebuke the white nationalists. The president placed partial blame for the attack on the counter-protesters, condemning, “hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”August 15, 2017 – At a news conference about the “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia, Donald Trump said, “There were very fine people on both sides” of the violence in Charlottesville.August 17, 2017 – Donald Trump lamented the removal of Confederate monuments, stating that such actions were “so foolish” and “sad.” He called these statues “beautiful” and spoke to the “history and culture of our great country being ripped apart.” He did not mention slavery in any of his tweets on the Confederacy.August 25, 2017 – Donald Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. An Arizona judge had convicted Arpaio of criminal contempt-of-court for “flagrant disregard” of a court order to cease and desist his practice of racially profiling Latinos. U.S District Judge G. Murray Snow noted Arpaio made “multiple intentional misstatements of fact under oath,” and also told local news stations he would ignore the injunction and “continue ‘doing what he had always been doing.’”September 12, 2017 – Donald Trump hosted Najib Razak, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, at the White House, despite the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation of a corruption scandal in Razak’s administration. Razak stood accused of funneling $3.5 billion dollars in public money from the Malaysian government to finance the purchase of jewelry, real estate, and Hollywood film rights. Razak has responded to accusations of corruption in his own country by firing investigators and referring to journalistic exposés on his spending as “Fake News.” Razak and his entourage stayed in the Trump International Hotel during his trip to D.C.ACTIVELY PROMOTING the LOVE of MONEY:November 13, 2016 – Ivanka Trump accompanied her father on his presidential interview with 60 Minutes. Ivanka’s upscale jewelry brand used her father’s political appearance to promote a $10,800 bracelet she had worn during the broadcast.November 18, 2016 – Even though he said he would not settle the case, Donald Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle his Trump University fraud lawsuits. The real estate seminar program was not an accredited university and used misleading marketing tactics to recruit students.January 11, 2016 – Donald Trump refused to divest from his real estate companies or place his assets in a blind trust, as encouraged by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The United States Government designates a “Qualified Blind Trust:” for executive branch employees as one where the trustee has no relation whatsoever to the government official. Contrary to this, President Trump opted to entrust business operations of his companies to his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. According to the Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Trump’s arrangement “doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every President in the past four decades has met.” By continuing to maintain a direct connection with his businesses, Trump may have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. This clause forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”January 20, 2017 – During Inauguration Day, Melania Trump’s biography on the White House’s official website, The White House, included a paragraph that promoted her jewelry line, “Melania™ Timepieces & Jewelry.”January 25, 2017 – After Donald Trump won the presidential election, his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.January 2017 – At least two foreign government-owned entities rented space in Trump Tower, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority. Donald Trump has announced he would not sell his ownership stake in Trump Hotels, and has argued, through his lawyer Sheri Dillon, that they didn’t think “paying your hotel bill was an emolument”. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” A lawsuit brought against Trump for maintaining his ownership stake rebutted Dillon’s argument, saying, “As the Framers were aware, private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic.”February 9, 2017 – Senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway promoted Ivanka Trump’s retail brand while speaking on television in her official capacity as an aide to President Trump. “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff is what I would tell you,” Conway said, on Fox and Friends, “I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody.” Sales for Ivanka’s brand skyrocketed that day, almost tripling after Conway’s appearance. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, joined ranking Democrats in jointly issuing a letter to the Office of Government Ethics calling for a review of Conway’s comments. In response to inquiries on disciplinary action for Conway, Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s stated she had been “counseled” on her behavior.February 19, 2017 – The Trump administration asked the Council of Economic Advisers to predict a 3.5% surge in economic production over the next decade. Compared to the 1.8% projected by the Federal Reserve, this calculation could be dangerously optimistic. “The risk,” explained the president of the Committee Responsible for Federal Budget, “is that rosy economic scenarios allow us to borrow trillions of additional dollars in the next couple of years, doing real damage.”February 22, 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received an estimated $40,000-$60,000 for hosting an event held by the Embassy of Kuwait. This violates the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Trump never divested from his companies, and thus has continued to benefit from payments to the Trump Organization.February 23, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Justice Department would renew its contracts with for-profit prisons. This reversed an Obama-era decision to phase out federal use of private correctional facilities. In decades past, privately-run facilities were used to address the U.S.’s overflowing public prisons, which saw the number of incarcerated people skyrocket 800 percent between 1980 and 2013. After Barack Obama introduced a series of significant prison reforms in 2013 (most significantly a directive to lower sentences for non-violent offenders), the Justice Department anticipated less demand for corporate-run prisons as the number of prisoners was expected to dwindle significantly. Because the Trump administration announced a new “crackdown” on crime, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department would need to renew contracts with the private institutions in order “to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”February 26, 2017 – The Trump Organization claimed it had made good on its promise to donate all profits earned from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. However, it provided no evidence of how much it donated or how that amount was calculated. Since his company has accepted payments from foreign governments (see numbers 41, 42, 63, 102, 135, 210, 277, 319), Donald Trump may have violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits any U.S. official from receiving gifts or compensation from another nation’s government. By all recent evidence, Trump has neither divested from his companies nor set up a blind trust for his assets.March 9, 2017 – The Office of Government Ethics urged the White House to reprimand senior counselor Kellyanne Conway for publicly endorsing Ivanka Trump’s clothing line. The OGE called the White House’s view of ethics “incorrect.” In response, White House deputy counsel Stefan Passantino said in a statement, “Many regulations promulgated by the Office of Government Ethics do not apply to employees of the Executive Office of the President.” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings said Passantino’s argument was “troubling,” and wondered how it had been determined which ethical regulations were “inapplicable to employees of the Executive Office of the President.”March 14, 2017 – Donald Trump wrote off $100 million dollars in losses on his leaked 2005 return. He paid $38 million in taxes on a reported $150 million income. This is an effective tax rate of around 25%. This is the same rate as, or even less than, that of individuals making between $30,000 and $100,000 per year. During the 2016 debates, Trump had bragged about not paying taxes, saying, “That makes me smart.”March 16, 2017 – In southern Florida, 63 Russian investors have purchased about $100 million of Trump-branded real estate. According to a disclosure made in 2016, Trump reaped between $100,000 and $1 million during election year 2016 from property sales in southern Florida. Although the exact origin of the payments remains a mystery, the new owners’ identities are a matter of public record. One such buyer was Alexander Yuzvik, who purchased Unit 3901 in Trump’s Sunny Isles development for $1.3 million. In the three years leading up to the transaction, Yuzvik served as a senior executive for Spetsroi—a state-owned Russian construction company which has built new structures for the FSB (the modern descendant of Russia’s KGB). Trump dealt with Russian purchasers as recently as 2016, and has offered no record of full divestiture after his inauguration. Contrary to calls from the American public and ethics experts, Trump has declined to release comprehensive financial records.April 24, 2017 – Donald Trump ordered White House aides to draft a tax plan that slashed the corporate tax rate to 15 percent. Trump told his aides cutting taxes for businesses should take priority over decreasing the federal deficit.May 1, 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received $30,000 from groups promoting Turkish-American relations as part of a convention at the Trump property. Among the attendees were the Turkish Ambassador and a high-level U.S. official. This could violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Donald Trump has retained an ownership interest in his businesses, and thus could receive payments from foreign states.May 6, 2017 – Nicole Kushner Meyer, the sister of White House adviser and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, solicited investments from Chinese business owners by promising American visas in return. An ad for her event in China read, “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States.”June 13, 2017 – Since the election, 70 percent of the properties purchased from the Trump Organization have reportedly sold to anonymous LLCs rather than identified people. Before the election, only 2% of Trump properties went to anonymous companies.June 20, 2017 – Donald Trump’s budget cuts to address homelessness and low-income housing did not cut funding for one New York City housing development—the subsidized Starrett City housing complex. It happened that Trump held a stake in Starrett City, and made about $5 million dollars off the property in three months during 2016. (June 20, 2017) Trump Business Dealings PolicyJune 26, 2017 – Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke flew on a charter plane from Las Vegas to his hometown in Montana, which cost taxpayers $12,375. Zinke and his staff used private and military aircraft multiple times.June 2017 – The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. received $270,000 in payments from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for rooms, catering, and parking as part of a lobbying effort. This violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids government officials from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Donald Trump has retained an ownership interest in his businesses and thus could receive payments from foreign states.July 18, 2017 – The United States military rented space in Trump Tower, amounting to a $2.4 million yearly expense. The stated reason for the payment was to retain space in the hotel should Donald Trump decide to sleep there. As of July, Trump hadn’t spent a night in the Tower.August 21, 2017 – The U.S. Secret Service spent substantial sums with Donald Trump’s businesses, including at least $137,000 on golf cart rentals at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. Based on a Government Accountability Office report, each trip to Mar-a-Lago costs the taxpayer $3 million in total.September 6, 2017 – Among the members of Donald Trump’s private golf clubs are 21 lobbyists from prominent trade groups and 50 executives from companies with federal contracts. Citizen watchdog groups said club membership could influence Trump’s decision making, allowing certain individuals potentially lucrative access to the president. On his hundredth day in office, Trump visited The Ames Company’s factory in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to sign two new executive orders. Robert Mehmel, president of the Ames Company and a member of Trump’s New Jersey golf course, stood just behind the president’s shoulder as Trump signed the orders for the press. During another White House meeting with Trump, a lobbyist for North American airport companies was overheard on C-Span saying to the president, “I’m a member of your golf club by the way.”September 29, 2017 – Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned from his position after public outrage mounted about his inappropriate spending on private jets for travel. According to Politico, Price had spent over $300,000 on private flights before resigning from Trump’s cabinet.October 5, 2017 – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spent $811,797.81 to make seven trips using military aircraft. While the Office of the Inspector General said this did not break any laws explicitly, Mnuchin failed to provide justification for his spending. Earlier in the year, he had placed a formal request for a military plane to escort he and his new wife on their honeymoon. While his request was denied, he has had other lavish requests granted, including one flight to Miami which cost taxpayers $40,000. Typically, government employees are encouraged to book commercial travel and file for reimbursement. Had he followed protocol, that same flight to Miami would have cost taxpayers about $700.October 23, 2017 – To repair Puerto Rico’s electric power infrastructure, the Trump administration awarded a $300 million contract to Whitefish Energy—a small Montana-based company with only two employees. When confusion spread over why Whitefish had earned the lucrative contract, it was revealed that Whitefish Energy’s CEO, Andy Techmanski, was from the same hometown as Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Both Zinke and Techmanski confirmed they knew each other before the $300 million deal; Zinke’s son had even worked a summer job for Whitefish. When Techmanski was asked about how had gotten the multimillion-dollar federal contract, he replied, “We called each other.” According to the contract itself, the US government could not “audit or review the cost and profit elements” of Whitefish’s work—allowing Whitefish to spend the $300 million with virtually no oversight. Days later, the governor of Puerto Rico canceled the contract.ACTIVELY PROMOTING the LOVE of AUTHORITY OTHER THAN GOD’SJanuary 24, 2017 – Donald Trump barred all employees of the Environmental Protection Agency from posting on social media or speaking with reporters about their work.January 27, 2017 – At a private dinner, Donald Trump allegedly demanded loyalty from FBI Director James Comey. Comey claimed Trump said to him, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” Comey had replied that he would always be honest with [Trump], but that he was not ‘reliable’ in the conventional political sense. Comey went on to explain why the Department of Justice and FBI should remain independent of each other. Director Comey was dismissed from office four months later.January 30, 2017 – Donald Trump fired acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to defend the travel ban. In a repudiation of the president, Yates had instructed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order from any legal challenges.February 14, 2017 – The day after Michael Flynn resigned, FBI Director James Comey reported Donald Trump requested a private meeting] [BP2] to “talk about Mike Flynn.” Trump told Comey that Flynn had misled Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian representatives, but that Flynn was “a good guy.” Trump said he hoped Comey could “let this go.”February 14, 2017 – In the wake of Michael Flynn’s resignation for lying to senior officials and interacting with Russian representatives after the election, Donald Trump tweeted, “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal with N.Korea etc?”February 16, 2017 – Staff at the United States Department of Agriculture were given a list of “blacklisted” terms which the agency would no longer use in their scientific research. The memo instructed scientists to replace “climate change” with “weather extremes,” and “reduce greenhouse gases” with “build soil organic matter, increase nutrient use efficiency.” Explaining the decision in an email, the Deputy Chief of Programs wrote, “It has become clear one of the previous administration’s priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration. Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your staff and make them aware of this shift in perspective within the executive branch.”February 24, 2017 – After Donald Trump’s election, Republican lawmakers in 18 states proposed new legislation intended to curb mass protests. Among these were increased consequences for protests blocking roadways, new punishments for any demonstrators wearing a mask, and, in Arizona, a law which would allow the state to seize the assets of any person attending a protest which later turned violent.February 28, 2017 – To stop a long string of press leaks, Donald Trump approved a rule allowing White House senior staff to examine the cell phones of anyone working in the White House. According to Politico, senior staffers invited aides to an “emergency meeting” wherein the junior staffers had to relinquish all mobile devices for search. Press Secretary Sean Spicer led the charge on the operation, informing junior staffers that apps such as Signal and Confide—encrypted messaging apps—would violate the Presidential Records Act. Spicer warned staffers against speaking to the press about the “emergency meetings”; the story was almost immediately leaked to the press.March 10, 2017 – Donald Trump abruptly ordered 46 Obama-era prosecutors to tender their resignations. Among the dismissed prosecutors was Preet Bharara, an attorney renowned for his work uprooting government corruption. Bharara served as the U.S. attorney in New York City and, at the time of his removal, had jurisdiction over Trump Tower in New York. When he was fired, Bharara was reportedly building a case against Rupert Murdoch and Fox News executives for a variety of indiscretions related to violations of privacy.March 13, 2017 – Donald Trump expanded the CIA’s power to allow the agency to conduct drone strikes on suspected terrorists. Under Obama, the CIA’s directive was to gather intelligence on locations of potential terrorists and then allow the military to call the drone strike. With the new powers endowed by Trump, the CIA has expanded military abilities, further opening the door to unreviewed military action abroad. According to figures released in December 2017 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes in numerous middle-eastern countries nearly doubled from 2016 to 2017.March 17, 2017 – Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara had been investigating potentially illegal investments from Tom Price, Donald Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services, when Trump abruptly fired Bharara on March 10, 2017. The investigation reviewed Price’s investments in the healthcare industry over the past four years, when Price had purchased more than $300,000 in healthcare stock while holding a governmental position which could influence their performance.March 28, 2017 – In response to the defamation suit brought against Donald Trump by former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, Trump’s lawyers invoked the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. This clause, argued the Trump’s personal legal team, prevented civil lawsuits against the president while he held office. In another case reminiscent of the Zervos accusations, President Bill Clinton tried to use the Supremacy Clausein 1997 to evade allegations of sexual assault from Paula Jones. The Supreme Court rejected Clinton’s claim, and the former president was forced to settle the lawsuit out of court.March 29, 2017 – Politico reported a supervisor at the Energy Department’s Climate Office banned the phrases “Climate Change,” “Emissions Reduction,” and “Paris Agreement” from all communications. Instead, workers were told to more frequently reference “jobs” and “infrastructure.”March 30, 2017 – According to FBI Director James Comey, Donald Trump called him to ask the director to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation. Trump said the investigation was impeding his ability to make deals for the country.April 4, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the Justice Department to review consent decrees, a legal tool which allows federal officials to institute criminal justice reform in cases of police misconduct. A consent decree represents a legally enforceable pact between police departments and the courts, both agreeing on the need for reform and the method of its implementation. Following the police shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the Justice Department’s investigation resulted in a consent decree! that outlined the specific terms of reform for the Missouri city. Among the terms were required body cameras for police officers, new police training on racial bias, and establishment of a Civilian Review Board that could independently review claims of excessive force. As of April 2017, police misconduct investigations were underway in the cities of Baltimore and Chicago after the shootings of Freddie Gray and Laquan McDonald. In reviewing consent decrees, Jeff Sessions had the power to place these investigations—and any resultant police reforms—on a permanent hold.April 7, 2017 – The United States Department of Homeland Security ordered Twitter to reveal the private information of a Twitter user, because the anonymous user had been critical of Donald Trump and may have worked for the U.S. government. Twitter refused to reveal the account’s identity, and then filed a lawsuit to counter the order. Following this, the DHS dropped their request for information.April 11, 2017 – Donald Trump allegedly asked that FBI Director James Comey “get out”—that is, release publicly—the idea that the FBI was not investigating Trump. Trump added, “Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.”April 14, 2017 – Donald Trump’s administration announced the White House would no longer disclose visitor logs. Without the logs, Trump and White House officials could hold private meetings without oversight on visitor identity or affiliation.April 18, 2017 – In the wake of controversy about Donald Trump’s travel ban, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said the president’s critics in Congress should “shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”April 20, 2017 – A full month after dismissing 93 U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had not hired any to replace them. The vacancies in the federal prosecutors’ office came as a surprise, given that Sessions has prioritized a crack-down on crime.April 20, 2017 – Donald Trump’s lawyers claimed in a court filing that protesters at Trump rallies had “no rights” to “express dissenting views” because doing so violated Trump’s First Amendment rights. Trump’s lawyers argued that the protesters’ right to free speech, which is protected by the First Amendment, actually did not apply “as part of the campaign rally of the political candidates they oppose.”May 2, 2017 – Donald Trump referred to the system of checks and balances between the legislative and executive branches as an “archaic” system. He followed this statement by claiming, “Maybe at some point we’ll have to take those rules on, because, for the good of the nation, things are going to have to be different.”May 2, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted that the country “needs a good ‘shutdown’,” and argued that Senate rules should be changed in order to lower the number of votes needed to break a filibuster.May 8, 2017 – In a legal brief defending Donald Trump’s travel ban, the Justice Department cited Palmer v. Thompson, a segregation-era court case which restricted judges from considering “government purpose” when assessing a law’s constitutionality. The “government purpose” in the original Palmer v. Thompson case referenced Jackson, Mississippi’s racially motivated decision to close five segregated pools rather than open them to African American citizens. The Supreme Court at the time ruled in favor of Jackson closing the pools, saying the city’s racial motive in doing so should not affect the court’s assessment of the action’s constitutionality. The Trump administration cited the case to justify its argument that religious bias ought not to affect the constitutionality of the travel ban.May 9, 2017 – Dan Heyman, a West Virginian journalist, was arrested after questioning Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about how the proposed health care bill would affect victims of domestic violence. In the aftermath of the healthcare bill’s introduction, Secretary Price had barred press access whenever questions about health care might be raised. On the day in question, Heyman approached Price while the secretary walked toward the capital in the morning. After the reporter held out his phone to record Price, Heyman was arrested for “breaching Secret Service agents.” Heyman spent seven hours in jail before he was released with a charge of willful disruption of governmental processes. Almost three months later, a state prosecutor found Heyman had broken no laws and would not be prosecuted for his actions.May 11, 2017 – In a televised interview, Donald Trump admitted that he had the Russia investigation in mind when he fired FBI Director Comey. He said, “And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, said to myself, I said: This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”June 2, 2017 – White House lawyers met with the leaders of several federal agencies to order them not to comply with Democrats’ requests for oversight of agency activities. A White House spokesperson said the Trump administration’s policy regarding oversight is to “accommodate requests of the chairmen, regardless of political party.” At the time, there were no Democratic chairmen because Republicans controlled Congress.June 11, 2017 – Breaking with a longstanding custom, Donald Trump tried to cultivate a personal relationship with a federal prosecutor, Preet Bharara, after the 2016 election. Months after his firing, Bharara reported a sense of déjà vu listening to James Comey’s testimony regarding Trump’s bizarre interactions. Trump’s final call to Bharara, on March 9, 2017, was ostensibly to “shoot the breeze,” which Bharara found unethical and immediately reported to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He was fired the following day.June 22, 2017 – Two senior intelligence officials told Robert Mueller that Donald Trump had approached them separately and requested they use their position to publicly announce the Trump campaign had not colluded with Russian operatives.July 19, 2017 – In an interview with The New York Times, Donald Trump said he would not have chosen Jeff Sessions to be the attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. This admission underscored his expectation of loyalty from his administration, and further suggested a simmering conflict between Trump and Sessions.September 23, 2017 – Donald Trump suggested that team owners in the National Football League should fire players who kneel during the national anthem. He said owners should respond by saying, “Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he’s fired. He’s fired!” Trump also said that “when somebody disrespects the flag,” fans should leave in protest.September 24, 2017 – Donald Trump repeated his rebuke of National Football League players who kneel during the national anthem. He tweeted, “Great solidarity for our National Anthem and for our Country. Standing with locked arms is good, kneeling is not acceptable. Bad ratings!”September 25, 2017 – Congressional investigators reported the White House and Justice Department had missed deadlines to submit documents requested for the ongoing Russia investigation, including information on Jared Kushner’s security clearance and Donald Trump’s conversations with James Comey. In an email, Representative Adam Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee said, “The White House’s refusal to answer Congress in full and truthfully raises serious questions about the White House’s intent, including the potential that it is misleading Congress.”October 9, 2017 – After more National Football League players began kneeling for the national anthem Donald Trump told Vice President Mike Pence to attend a Colts vs. 49ers game, specifically to leave the stadium as a public rebuke to the protests. Pence dutifully carried the plan to fruition, arriving at the stadium to great fanfare, and then conspicuously leaving the game before kickoff. After the stunt, the president tweeted, “I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.” Pence’s trip to Indiana in order to walk out of the stadium cost taxpayers around $250,000.October 10, 2017 – In response to the National Football League’s national anthem protests, Donald Trump threatened the NFL with re-evaluation of its tax-exempt status.October 11, 2017 – Donald Trump threatened the broadcasting licenses of NBC and other media stations, stating on Twitter, “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!”October 11, 2017 – After Congress repeatedly blocked its efforts to overhaul immigration policy, the Department of Homeland Security began to explore smaller policy tweaks it could legally enact without the approval of Congress. Though smaller in scope than the more ambitious calls for border walls and billions spent on border security, the DHS looked into ways it could limit protections for unaccompanied minors, tighten visa restrictions, and accelerate pending deportations.October 11, 2017 – Donald Trump told his military advisors he wanted a tenfold increase in nuclear firepower. Every president since Ronald Reagan has signed international disarmament agreements, which still legally restricts the U.S. from increasing nuclear stockpiles. Trump denied he had asked for the expansion, and some military officials said they did not believe he was speaking “literally” when discussing the United States nuclear arsenal.October 13, 2017 – In the fallout from Hurricane Maria, the Pentagon accidentally sent emails to a Bloomberg reporter discussing how they would spin the natural disaster for media coverage. The emails to Bloomberg continued for five days despite the Bloomberg reporter “repeatedly alerting officials” to the mistake. Among the bits of strategy gleaned from the emails were agency-wide requests to ignore the mayor of San Juan, who had been critical of Trump, and to “avoid instructions about waiting for FEMA.”

Note: Some of this info comes from my having watched the Colts since 1987. Some from Pro-Football-Reference dot come and some from an article Cold Hard Football Facts’ Comeback King by By Scott KacsmarThe short answer is since he has rewritten the record books for numerous records compared to all QB's who have played in the NFL for 3 years, and he has made the playoffs every year he has played, and progressed further in the playoffs each year, he appears to be the real deal. Lets not forget its not just the newscasters saying he is great, ESPN has spoken to GM's, coaches and players from all NFL teams and the consensus he is the real deal. Free agents like Frank Gore and Andre Johnson are choosing to come to the Colts for a chance to play with Luck because they believe in him. Now for the long answer.I think it is important to look at more than the QB when evaluating what a QB has accomplished. For example, if a QB has a great offensive line, running game and defense then they have to do less than a QB who has a subpar defensive line, mediocre running game and middle to not so good defense.When Andrew Luck was drafted as the number 1 NFL pick by the Indianapolis Colts, he joined a team that not only released QB Peyton Manning, but a team which basically decided to hit the "nuke button" and blow up the roster, releasing older players and rebuilding nearly the entire team. Hall of Fame former General Manager Bill Polian, and his son, Chris Polian, who had taken over his fathers role, as well as Head Coach Jim Caldwell and most of the coordinators were fired and replaced. The Colts let a lot of former players go for this rebuild, but rather than list them all, it is easier to say for Luck's 2nd year, which wad 2013, the Colts had only four players from the 2006 Super Bowl championship team: Reggie Wayne, Robert Mathis, Adam Vinatieri and Antoine Bethea. As of my writing this, only Robert Mathis and kicker Adam Vinatieri are left for the 2015 season, so this is in no way Manning's former teammates as a whole.Luck won 11 games his rookie season and made the playoffs. Something that had been projected to take around 3 years to accomplish for a team rebuilding. Many may claim the AFC south is a weak division and this is true, although Houston was 12-4 during Luck's rookie year and won the division title. Luck has had some big wins as I will point out. In terms of bad divisions, the Patriots have ruled the AFC East forever with Brady. The AFC East looks on pace become more competitive now, but outside of a few years when the Jets made it the the AFC Championship game. And lets not forget one year the Jets made the playoffs was when the Colts starters walked off the field in the middle of a late season game vs. the Jets because of Bill Polian's own ego. He said the Colts goal was to win the Superbowl not go undefeated and he wanted the players to rest and not get injured. The Colts starters walked off the field against the Jets, who rallied to win the game and that action let the Jets in the playoffs. The Colts went on to lose the Superbowl later in the year to the Saints. The AFC East has generally not been a good conference for a long, long time except for the Patriots. The year the Pats went 16-0, the three other AFC East teams won 11 combined games. The point is, you play who you have in you division. If the teams in your division stinks, it is not your fault.Counting the regular season and playoffs, here are Luck wins during his first 3 years:2012 - 11 wins2013 - 12 wins2014 -13 winsHe has progressed further every year in the playoffs, reaching the AFC Championship game last year in his 3rd year on a rebuilt team. He has won the AFC South title twice. This despite that he has to do more with his team than most and I will lay that out in stats. The truth is no one expected the Colts to beat Denver at Denver last year (at least not Vegas) and they were playing on house money in the AFC Championship game. There is only so much you can do with no running game, and when your defense lets the Patriots run all over you. Of course this is going to make a young QB be forced into trying to do everything he can to win and it is not a winning formula.The Colts are trying to address the running game. I am not sure if they have really addressed the defense enough but with Reggie Wayne hurt most of the year in 2014 - he was ineffective since around week 6 last year with torn triceps, once TY Hilton was shut down by the Patriots, Luck didn't have much to work with. Now he has a possible short term solution at RB and WR with Gore and Andre Johnson and some possible real future talent with Phillip Dorsett at WR (clocked at 4.25 by the Colts on grass), Moncrief who has another year under his belt and is a burner with 4.3 speed and 6 '3 and Duron Carter tore up the CFL and who is 6 '4, and the legendary WR, Chris Carter's son. The last three WR's are more about "potential" than about being great at the moment and we'll see how they work out, but if they are indeed solid, it will make shutting down the Colts, especially if Gore is just "good" hard to do because Gore has always faced fully stacked boxes. You can't do that now with Luck's weapons which include two TE's who had 8 TD's each last season in Fleener and Allen.Now let's look at what Luck has done and what he has to work with:-Last year he led the NFL with 43 TD's (40 passing and 3 rushing) in his 3rd year.- He won the division and took the Colts to the AFC Championship game.-He set the Colt's single season passing yardage record with 4,739 yards- He did this despite:Colts Offensive line: No QB was hit or hurried more than Luck in his rookie season and his line has not been very good in 3 seasons. Luck's ability to scramble and make running and passing plays has kept his sack numbers down.-Colts Defense: This unit allowed 387 points his rookie season which is the most points allowed for a team with 11 wins in NFL history! The Colts tied the 2011 Steelers for fewest takeaways ever for a team with 11 or more wins (Steelers has 12 wins with a seasoned Big Ben at QB). The defense improved since the rookie season but it still gets embarrassed in big games - see three Patriots blowouts and the 2014 Steelers loss.-Colts Receivers: Luck had an old but solid Reggie Wayne his rookie year but the rest of the unit was comprised of rookies with the exception of Donnie Avery. This was not a loaded receiver squad his rookie season. Drops! 14.6% of his catchable passes were dropped by his targets his rookie season and this has remained an issue the last 3 years. Luck's targets improved once TY Hilton was drafted. Dwayne Allen is a good TE when he can stay on the field and Coby Fleener can go deep when he doesn't drop the ball. Keep in mind all of these guys are young and maturing as Reggie Wayne is gone now but the Colts do have a veteran WR in Andre Johnson to replace him and some fresh new draft picks and free agents.-The Colts Running game: During Luck's rookie season the Colts ran for 1,416 yards averaging 3.75 yards per run. Luck ran for 5 of the rushing TD's, which was one less that all his RB's combined. Things did not get much better with a bad Trent Richardson trade and the Colts run game has not been good to say the least. Hopefully Frank Gore can resolve this for a couple of years.What did Luck accomplish his rookie season:- He took won 11 games and took his team to the playoffs as a wild card. As I had mentioned, it had been projected it would take the Colts 3 years to get to the playoffs after nuking the team for a rebuild. The Texans won the AFC South with a 12-4 record his rookie season. One of those 4 loses was to the Colts.Here are some of Andrew Luck's rookie records:- Most passing yards in a single game by a rookie quarterback: 433- Most passing yards by a rookie in a single season 4,374-Most game-winning drives by a rookie quarterback 7-Most fourth quarter comebacks by a rookie quarterback 7-Luck had the highest 3rd down conversion rate out of all NFL Quarterbacks at: 42.57%People forget how young Luck is and bash him probably because many people talk about how great Luck is, and some compare him to another young QB, Russell Wilson. It would be wise to evaluate the situations that both QB's walked into to see it is not a one man show:- Andrew Luck was the #1 pick because the Colts were without Peyton Manning the year before and and old Colts squad that had only won 10 games under Peyton. The prior year they the worst in the NFL and that team was essentially nuked and rebuilt. Luck was hit more than any QB in the NFL his rookie season and while he can scramble and avoid sacks that is why he has been able to flourish despite having less than average offensive line. He makes a lot of plays where he scrambles then throws. He is 6 foot 4 and 235 and was clocked in the 40 at the combine very close to Cam Newton's speed. He was the best part of his running game his rookie season when he had 5 TD's which was two more TD's than any RB on the team. Trent Richardson didn't make things better. Trent Richardson is now a legendary bust after being cut by the Raiders in preseason. Hopefully Frank Gore will.Now let's take a look at Russell Wilson:First let me go on the record Wilson is a very good QB. My point is he has a much, much better supporting cast than Andrew Luck ever has or probably ever will have:- Russell Wilson took over a team with a solid offensive line. One the best RB's in the NFL with Beast-Mode at RB named Marshawn Lynch. And the #1 ranked defense in the NFL. His defense has been ranked #1 all 3 years he has been the QB. (pro-football-reference dot com).- Last year the Colts had Trent Richardson (a bust) compared to Beast Mode. The Colts has a questionable offensive line that had a different starting line up all but the last few games of the regular season due to injuries and a defense ranked in the middle of the NFL, but that defence would get embarrassed against a few teams - Patriots and Steelers.Russell Wilson can win easier than Andrew Luck based on his supporting cast. Proof?2014:Russell Wilson:-7 games he threw for less than 200 yards (nearly half a regular season) he won 5 of those games. We're talking about winning a game with 168 yards passing!Andrew Luck-4 games with less than 200 yards. He won 2 of the 4Russell Wilson won a playoff game his second season throwing for 103 yards against Drew Brees and New Orleans! Luck could never do that with the Colts defense.In 2014:Seattle Rushing: 2,763 yards = And they pass in the Superbowl a goal-line vs run? That call and Russell Wilson's INT lost Seattle the Superbowl.Indy Rushing: 1,612 yardsSeattle Defense Rank: #1 in points allowed and #1 yards allowedIndy Defense Rank: #19 in point allowed and #11 yards allowedSeattle Passing (Wilson only): 3,475 yards, 20 TD's and 7 INT'sIndy Passing (Luck only): 4,761 yards 40 TD's and 16 INT'sTotal QB TD's (passing and rushing combined):Wilson 26 total TD'sLuck: 43 TD'sLuck 43 total TD's (Led NFL QB's in 3rd year)Is it becoming more clear why Wilson can win by doing less and why Luck has to do more to win, which forces him into some interceptions? BTW for those who say Luck throws too many INT's, while I have shown he has less to work with, Peyton Manning had 23 interceptions his 4th year and Luck has played 3 years and threw 18 INT's his worst year which was his rookie year compared to 28 INT's in Manning's rookie year. My point is Luck will only get better as his supporting cast is greatly improving.How about 2013?The Colts and Luck beat the following teams which are very quality wins:Seattle, Denver and San Francisco (SF was still good that year). This was the year Seattle and Denver went to the Superbowl and Luck beat both Superbowl teams!!! Indy beat Seattle: 34-28. Luck is 1-0 vs. Russell head to head but again he had to do it with a worse team.What did Wilson have supporting him vs. Luck that year?Seattle Rushing: 2,188 yardsIndy Rushing: 1,743 yardsSeattle Defense Rank: Once again Seattle was #1 in points allowed and #1 yards allowedIndy Defense Rank: #9 in points allowed and #20 yards allowedHow about their rookie year to see what each QB had backing them up as newbies?-Seattle Rushing: 2,188 yards-Indy Rushing: 1,743 yards-Seattle Defense Rank: Again #1 in points allowed!! And #4 yards allowedNotice all 3 years Wilson has been in the NFL, Seattle has had the #1 defense when it comes to points allowed? Would that make Luck or any QB much better? Yes.*Even Joe Montana didn't have the #1 defense for 3 years in a row.-Indy Defense Rank: #21 in points allowed and #26 yards allowed (not very close to Seattle for Luck's rookie year).-Seattle Rushing: 2,579 yards-Indy Rushing: 1,671 yardsI have presented overwhelming evidence that Luck does not have a great supports cast from 2011-2014 esp. when people compare him to a QB who came in the same year, Russell Wilson.And I'll leave you with Luck's records in his 3 years of playing football as referenced by Pro-Football-Reference dot com :- Luck engineered the 2nd largest playoff comeback in NFL history from 28 down to beat the Chiefs 45-44 in the playoffs.Tied for most fourth quarter comebacks by a quarterback in one season (7)Most passing yards for a quarterback through his first 2 seasons: 8,196Most passing yards for a quarterback through his first 3 seasons : 12,688Most passing yards for a quarterback through his first 5 postseason games: 1,703Most consecutive 350-yard passing games on the road: 5Fifth highest passing yards total in a playoff game: 443 yardsFirst quarterback to throw for 350+ yards in five consecutive road gamesFirst quarterback to throw for 370 yards or more, 4 touchdowns, and have a completion percentage 70% or more in back to back gamesThird player to throw for 3,000 yards in the first nine games, alongside Peyton Manning and Drew Brees = twiceColts records that Andrew holds (Manning obviously has a bunch but Luck is on track to break them):Most passing yards in a single season: 4,739Most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in a single season: 4,374Most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in a single game: 433Most pass attempts by a rookie quarterback in a single season: 627Most pass completions by a rookie quarterback in a single season: 339Most pass completions by a rookie quarterback in a single game: 31Most passing touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in a single game: 4Highest passer rating by a rookie quarterback with a minimum of 100 attempts: 76.5

Source:-Reliance Industries - WikipediaReliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Reliance owns businesses across India engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. Reliance is one of the most profitable companies in India,[3]the largest publicly traded company in India by market capitalization,[4]and the largest company in India as measured by revenue after recently surpassing the government-controlled Indian Oil Corporation.[5]On 22 June 2020, Reliance Industries became the first Indian company to exceed US$150 billion in market capitalization after its market capitalization hit ₹11,43,667 crore on the BSE.[6][7]The company is ranked 96th on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations as of 2020.[8]It is ranked 8th among the Top 250 Global Energy Companies by Platts as of 2016. Reliance continues to be India's largest exporter, accounting for 8% of India's total merchandise exports with a value of ₹1,47,755 crore and access to markets in 108 countries.[9]Reliance is responsible for almost 5% of the government of India's total revenues from customs and excise duty. It is also the highest income tax payer in the private sector in India.[9][10]Contents1History1.11960–19801.21981–20001.32001 onwards2Shareholding2.1Listing3Operations3.1Subsidiaries3.2Associates4Employees5Awards and recognition6Controversies6.1De-merger of RIL in 2005–20066.2Relationship with ONGC7Scams7.1Insider trading7.2NICL7.3RIL plane grounded7.4Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin gas7.5Petition against Reliance Jio8See also9References10External linksHistory[edit]1960–1980[edit]The company was co-founded by Dhirubhai Ambani and Champaklal Damani in 1960's as Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1965, the partnership ended and Dhirubhai continued the polyester business of the firm.[11]In 1966, Reliance Textiles Engineers Pvt. Ltd. was incorporated in Maharashtra. It established a synthetic fabrics mill in the same year at Naroda in Gujarat.[12]On 8 May 1973, it became Reliance Industries Limited. In 1975, the company expanded its business into textiles, with "Vimal" becoming its major brand in later years. The company held its Initial public offering (IPO) in 1977.[13]The issue was over-subscribed by seven times.[14]In 1979, a textiles company Sidhpur Mills was amalgamated with the company.[15]In 1980, the company expanded its polyester yarn business by setting up a Polyester Filament Yarn Plant in Patalganga, Raigad, Maharashtra with financial and technical collaboration with E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., U.S.[12]1981–2000[edit]In 1985, the name of the company was changed from Reliance Textiles Industries Ltd. to Reliance Industries Ltd.[12]During the years 1985 to 1992, the company expanded its installed capacity for producing polyester yarn by over 1,45,000 tonnes per annum.[12]The Hazira petrochemical plant was commissioned in 1991–92.[16]In 1993, Reliance turned to the overseas capital markets for funds through a global depository issue of Reliance Petroleum. In 1996, it became the first private sector company in India to be rated by international credit rating agencies. S&P rated Reliance "BB+, stable outlook, constrained by the sovereign ceiling". Moody's rated "Baa3, Investment grade, constrained by the sovereign ceiling".[17]In 1995/96, the company entered the telecom industry through a joint venture with NYNEX, USA and promoted Reliance Telecom Private Limited in India.[16]In 1998/99, RIL introduced packaged LPG in 15 kg cylinders under the brand name Reliance Gas.[16]The years 1998–2000 saw the construction of the integrated petrochemical complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat,[16]the largest refinery in the world.2001 onwards[edit]In 2001, Reliance Industries Ltd. and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. became India's two largest companies in terms of all major financial parameters.[18]In 2001–02, Reliance Petroleum was merged with Reliance Industries.[13]In 2002, Reliance announced India's biggest gas discovery (at the Krishna Godavari basin) in nearly three decades and one of the largest gas discoveries in the world during 2002. The in-place volume of natural gas was in excess of 7 trillion cubic feet, equivalent to about 120 crore (1.2 billion) barrels of crude oil. This was the first ever discovery by an Indian private sector company.[13][19]In 2002–03, RIL purchased a majority stake in Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd. (IPCL), India's second largest petrochemicals company, from the government of India,[20]RIL took over IPCL's Vadodara Plants and renamed it as Vadodara Manufacturing Division (VMD).[21][22]IPCL's Nagothane and Dahej manufacturing complexes came under RIL when IPCL was merged with RIL in 2008.[23][24]In 2005 and 2006, the company reorganized its business by demerging its investments in power generation and distribution, financial services and telecommunication services into four separate entities.[25]In 2006, Reliance entered the organised retail market in India[26]with the launch of its retail store format under the brand name of 'Reliance Fresh'.[27][28]By the end of 2008, Reliance retail had close to 600 stores across 57 cities in India.[13]In November 2009, Reliance Industries issued 1:1 bonus shares to its shareholders.In 2010, Reliance entered the broadband services market with acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services Limited, which was the only successful bidder for pan-India fourth-generation (4G) spectrum auction held by the government of India.[29][30]In the same year, Reliance and BP announced a partnership in the oil and gas business. BP took a 30 per cent stake in 23 oil and gas production sharing contracts that Reliance operates in India, including the KG-D6 block for $7.2 billion.[31]Reliance also formed a 50:50 joint venture with BP for sourcing and marketing of gas in India.[32]In 2017, RIL set up a joint venture with Russian Company Sibur for setting up a Butyl rubber plant in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to be operational by 2018.[33]In August 2019, Reliance added Fynd primarily for its consumer businesses and mobile phone services in the e-commerce space.[34][35]Shareholding[edit]Chairman and MD: Mukesh AmbaniThe number of shares of RIL are approx. 310 crore (3.1 billion).[36]The promoter group, the Ambani family, holds approx. 46.32% of the total shares whereas the remaining 53.68% shares are held by public shareholders, including FII and corporate bodies.[36]Life Insurance Corporation of India is the largest non-promoter investor in the company, with 7.98% shareholding.[37]In January 2012, the company announced a buyback programme to buy a maximum of 12 crore (120 million) shares for ₹10,400 crore (US$1.5 billion). By the end of January 2013, the company had bought back 4.62 crore (46.2 million) shares for ₹3,366 crore (US$470 million).[38]Listing[edit]The company's equity shares are listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and the BSE Limited. The Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) issued by the Company are listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange.[39][40]It has issued approx. 5.6 crore (56 million) GDRs wherein each GDR is equivalent to two equity shares of the company. Approximately 3.46% of its total shares are listed on Luxembourg Stock Exchange.[36]Its debt securities are listed at the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) Segment of the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE).[41]It has received domestic credit ratings of AAA from CRISIL (S&P subsidiary) and Fitch. Moody's and S&P have provided investment grade ratings for international debt of the company, as Baa2 positive outlook (local currency issuer rating) and BBB+ outlook respectively.[42][43][44]On the 28th of December, 2017, RIL announced that it will be acquiring the wireless assets of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications for about ₹23,000 crores.[45]Operations[edit]The company's petrochemical, refining, oil and gas-related operations form the core of its business; other divisions of the company include cloth, retail business, telecommunications and special economic zone (SEZ) development. In 2012–13, it earned 76% of its revenue from refining, 19% from petrochemicals, 2% from oil & gas and 3% from other segments.[37]In July 2012, RIL informed that it was going to invest US$1 billion over the next few years in its new aerospace division which will design, develop, manufacture, equipment and components, including aircraft, engine, radars, avionics and accessories for military and civilian aircraft, helicopters, unmanned airborne vehicles and aerostats.[46]On 31 March 2013, the company had 158 subsidiary companies and 7 associate companies.[47]Subsidiaries[edit]Jio Platforms Limited, essentially a technology company, is a majority-owned subsidiary of RIL. It is the result of a corporate restructuring announced in October 2019, resulting in all the digital initiatives and the telecommunication assets being housed under this new subsidiary.[48] This new subsidiary holds all the digital business assets including Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which in turn holds the Jio connectivity business - Mobile, broadband and enterprise and also the other digital assets (JIO Apps, Tech backbone and Investments in other tech entities like Haptic, Hathaway and Den Networks among others.[49] In April 2020, RIL announced a strategic investment of ₹43,574 crore (US$6.1 billion) by Facebook into Jio Platforms. This investment translated into a 9.99% equity stake, on a fully diluted basis.[50] Further in May 2020, RIL sold roughly 1.15% stake in Jio Platforms for ₹5,656 crore (US$790 million) to the American private equity investor, Silver Lake Partners.[51] . Intel became the 12th company to invest in Reliance Jio platforms after it invested ₹1,894.50 crore ($250 million),the total investments in Jio platforms is ₹117,588.45 crore so far.[52] . On 16th July 2020, Google announced that it will acquire a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms for ₹33,737 crore.[53]Reliance Retail is the retail business wing of the Reliance Industries. In March 2013, it had 1466 stores in India.[54] It is the largest retailer in India.[55] Many brands like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Footprint, Reliance Time Out, Reliance Digital, Reliance Wellness, Reliance Trends, Reliance Autozone, Reliance Super, Reliance Mart, Reliance iStore, Reliance Home Kitchens, Reliance Market (Cash n Carry) and Reliance Jewel come under the Reliance Retail brand. Its annual revenue for the financial year 2012–13 was ₹108 billion (US$1.5 billion) with an EBITDA of ₹780 million (US$11 million).[37][56]Reliance Life Sciences works around medical, plant and industrial biotechnology opportunities. It specializes in manufacturing, branding, and marketing Reliance Industries' products in bio-pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, clinical research services, regenerative medicine, molecular medicine, novel therapeutics, biofuels, plant biotechnology, and industrial biotechnology sectors of the medical business industry.[57][58]Reliance Logistics is a single-window[clarification needed] company selling transportation, distribution, warehousing, logistics, and supply chain-related products.[59][60][61] Reliance Logistics is an asset based company with its own fleet and infrastructure.[62] It provides logistics services to Reliance group companies and outsiders.[63] Merged content from Reliance Logistics to here. See Talk:Reliance Industries/Archives/2013#Merge proposals.Reliance Solar, the solar energy subsidiary of Reliance, was established to produce and retail solar energy systems primarily to remote and rural areas. It offers a range of products based on solar energy: solar lanterns, home lighting systems, street lighting systems, water purification systems, refrigeration systems and solar air conditioners.[64] Merged content from Reliance Solar to here. See Talk:Reliance Industries/Archives/2013#Merge proposals.Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited (RIIL) is an associate company of RIL. RIL holds 45.43% of total shares of RIIL.[37] It was incorporated in September 1988 as Chembur Patalganga Pipelines Limited, with the main objective being to build and operate cross-country pipelines for transporting petroleum products. The company's name was subsequently changed to CPPL Limited in September 1992, and thereafter to its present name, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Limited, in March 1994.[65] RIIL is mainly engaged in the business of setting up and operating industrial infrastructure. The company is also engaged in related activities involving leasing and providing services connected with computer software and data processing.[66] The company set up a 200-millimetre diameter twin pipeline system that connects the Bharat Petroleum refinery at Mahul, Maharashtra, to Reliance's petrochemical complex at Patalganga, Maharashtra. The pipeline carries petroleum products including naphtha and kerosene. It has commissioned facilities like the supervisory control and data acquisition system and the cathodic protection system, a jackwell at River Tapi, and a raw water pipeline system at Hazira. The infrastructure company constructed a 71,000 kilo-litre petrochemical product storage and distribution terminal at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) Area in Maharashtra.[citation needed]Network 18, a mass media company. It has interests in television, digital platforms, publication, mobile apps, and films. It also operates two joint ventures, namely Viacom 18 and History TV18 with Viacom and A+E Networks respectively. It also have acquired ETV Network and since renamed its channels under the Colors TV brand.Reliance Eros Productions LLP, joint venture with Eros International to produce film content in India.[67]Associates[edit]Relicord is a cord blood banking service owned by Reliance Life Sciences. It was established in 2002.[68] It has been inspected and accredited by AABB,[69] and also has been accorded a licence by Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Government of India.Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) previously known as Infotel Broadband, is a broadband service provider which gained 4G licences for operating across India. [70] [71][72]Reliance Institute of Life Sciences (RILS), established by Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation, is an institution offering higher education in various fields of life sciences and related technologies.[73][74]Reliance Clinical Research Services (RCRS), a contract research organisation (CRO) and wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Life Sciences, specialises in the clinical research services industry. Its clients are primarily pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies.[75]LYF, a 4G-enabled VoLTE device brand from Reliance Retail.[76]Employees[edit]As on 31 March 2018, the company had 29,533 permanent employees of which 1,521 were women and 70 were employees with disabilities. It also had 1,58,196 temporary employees on the same date which makes a total of 187,729 employees.[37]As per its Sustainability Report for 2011–12, the attrition rate was 7.5%. But currently, the same attrition rate has gone up to 23.4% in March 2015 as per latest report released by the organization.[77]In its 39th Annual General Meeting, its chairman informed the shareholders of the investment plans of the company of about ₹1,500 billion (US$21 billion) in the next three years. This would be accompanied by increasing the staff strength in Retail division from existing strength of 35,000 to 120,000 in next 3 years and increasing employees in Telecom division from existing 3,000 to 10,000 in 12 months.[78]Awards and recognition[edit]International Refiner of the year in 2017 at Global Refining and Petrochemicals Congress 2017 [79]International Refiner of the Year in 2013 at the HART Energy's 27th World Refining & Fuel Conference.[80] This is the second time that RIL has received this Award for its Jamnagar Refinery, the first being in 2005.[81]According to survey conducted by Brand Finance in 2013, Reliance is the second most valuable brand in India.[82]The Brand Trust Report ranked Reliance Industries as the 7th most trusted brand in India in 2013 and 9th in 2014.[83][84]RIL was certified as 'Responsible Care Company' by the American Chemistry Council in March, 2012.[85]RIL was ranked at 25th position across the world, on the basis of sales, in the ICIS Top 100 Chemicals Companies list in 2012.[86]RIL was awarded the National Golden Peacock Award 2011 for its contribution in the field of corporate sustainability.[87]In 2009, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) named Reliance Industries as the world's fifth biggest 'sustainable value creator' in a list of 25 top companies globally in terms of investor returns over a decade.[88]The company was selected as one of the world's 100 best managed companies for the year 2000 by IndustryWeek magazine.[12][89]From 1994 to 1997, the company won National Energy Conservation Award in the petrochemical sector.[12]Controversies[edit]De-merger of RIL in 2005–2006[edit]The Ambani family holds around 45% of the shares in RIL.[90]Since its inception, the company was managed by its founder and chairman Dhirubhai Ambani. After suffering a stroke in 1986, he handed over the daily operations of the company to his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani. After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002, the management of the company was taken up by both the brothers. In November 2004, Mukesh Ambani, in an interview, admitted to having differences with his brother Anil over 'ownership issues'.[91]He also said that the differences "are in the private domain". The share prices[92]of RIL were impacted by some margin when this news broke out. In 2005, after a bitter public feud between the brothers over the control of the Reliance empire, mother Kokilaben intervened to broker a deal splitting the RIL group business into the two parts.[93]In October 2005, the split of Reliance Group was formalized. Mukesh Ambani got Reliance Industries and IPCL. Younger brother Anil Ambani received telecom, power, entertainment, and financial services business of the group. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group includes Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Power.[94][95]The division of Reliance group business between the two brothers also resulted in de-merger of 4 businesses from RIL.[96][97]These businesses immediately became part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The existing shareholders in RIL, both the promoter group and non-promoters, received shares in the de-merged companies.[25]Relationship with ONGC[edit]In May 2014, ONGC moved to Delhi High Court accusing RIL of pilferage of 18 billion cubic metres of gas from its gas-producing block in the Krishna Godavari basin.[98]Subsequently, the two companies agreed to form an independent expert panel to probe any pilferage.[99]Scams[edit]Seminar magazine (2003) detailed Reliance founder Dhirubhai Ambani's proximity to politicians, his enmity with Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia, the exposes by the Indian Express and Arun Shourie about illegal imports by the company and overseas share transactions by shell companies, and the botched attempt to acquire Larsen & Toubro.[100]As early as 1996, Outlook magazine addressed other controversies related to fake and switched shares; insider trading; and a nexus with the state-owned Unit Trust of India. Five main allegations concerning Reliance, and which have plunged the Indian capital markets into a period of uncertainty unsurpassed since the days of the securities scam were:Reliance issued fake shares.It switched shares sent for transfer by buyers to make illegal profits.It has indulged in insider trading in shares.It established a nexus with the Unit Trust of India to raise huge sums of money to the detriment of UTI subscribers.It attempted to monopolise the private telecom services market through front companies.[101]Insider trading[edit]Stock market fraud regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a show-cause notice to Reliance Industries Ltd. following a probe into alleged insider trading in Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) shares in November 2007. SEBI probed transactions by entities that participated in and led to some three months of speculative rally after which the RPL stock surged to an all-time intraday high of ₹295 on 1 November 2007. In a separate and independent investigation related to the same issue, the income-tax (I-T) department looked at possible tax evasion by a dozen entities that Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL acknowledged to be its "agents".[102]In Jan 2011, Sebi barred Anil Ambani and four other officials of Reliance Group—until recently known as the Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-Adag)—companies from investing in listed shares until December 2011. Two group firms, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra) and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) were barred from making such investment until December 2012. According to Sebi's investigations, R-Infra and RNRL were prima facie responsible for misrepresenting the nature of investments in yield management certificates/deposits, and the profits and losses in their annual reports for the fiscal years 2007, 2008 and 2009. It also found misuse of FII regulations. The then minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena, on 1 December 2009, in a written response to a query raised in the Upper House of Parliament, said that three firms of R-Adag—R-Infra, RNRL and RCom—had violated overseas debt norms. These end-use violations were observed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding two ECB transactions—of $360 million and $150 million—by R-Infra.[103]In another case, Sebi settled a dispute with Reliance Securities Ltd (RSL) with a consent order in June 2011, under which the brokerage will spend ₹1 crore within six months on investor education and not add any new clients for 45 days starting 15 June. In the settlement, it was also added that the brokerage will also pay ₹25 lakh towards settlement charges. This order followed a Sebi investigation into RSL's books and accounts for fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008, which said that it had allegedly violated various clauses of Sebi stock brokers and sub-brokers regulations. The Sebi inquiry cited 20 irregularities, including the brokerage not informing clients about various charges at the time of opening accounts. RSL sought power of attorney in the name of Reliance Commodities Ltd from clients and used this to debit clients’ bank accounts, purchase and sell post office deposits and government of India bonds among other transactions. Brokerage, not fully equipped to handle its customer base at the time, used the name Reliance Money at all its offices and on employee visiting cards, instead of Reliance Securities, which was the registered trading member, leading to confusion. Brokerage was found to have received funds from other client bank accounts other than the ones available to it, thus failing to have a sound third-party check on the receipt of payments. RSL had failed to update client details despite the stock exchanges pointing this out in their inspection reports. The Sebi inquiry also said RSL collected higher securities transaction tax from its clients in 2006–2008, allotted more than one terminal in the same segment for a single user, and also collected cheques in the name of Reliance Money. Brokerage also did not maintain clear segregation between broking and other activities of group companies. Further, there were frequent disruptions in the brokerage's trading platform, which showed connectivity problems at the applicant's end.[104]NICL[edit]The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargesheet in a Mumbai court against Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and four retired employees of National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), including a former CMD, under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for criminal conspiracy and other charges. Acting on a reference from CVC in March, 2005, the CBI started probing the conspiracy that led to the filing of the chargesheet on December 9, 2011. The 2005 complaint had alleged irregularities in issuance of insurance policies — for coverage of default payments — by NICL to RIL. Chargesheet also mentioned criminal offences with dishonest intention and causing wrongful loss totaling ₹147.41 crore to NICL and wrongful gain to the private telecom provider.[105]Two retired senior officials of National Insurance Company Limited and 11 others were awarded varying jail terms by a Delhi court in Jan 2014.[106]RIL plane grounded[edit]A business jet owned by Reliance Industries (RIL) was grounded by The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 22 March 2014 during a surprise inspection, for carrying expired safety equipment on board; its pilot was also suspended for flying without a licence.[107]Krishna Godavari (KG) Basin gas[edit]The Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) was supposed to relinquish 25% of the total area outside the discoveries in 2004 and 2005, as per the Production Sharing Contract (PSC). However, the entire block was declared as a discovery area and RIL was allowed to retain it. In 2011, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) criticized the Oil Ministry for this decision. The CAG also faulted RIL for limiting the competition in contracts, stating that RIL awarded a $1.1 billion contract to Aker on a single-bid basis.[108][109]Petition against Reliance Jio[edit]A PIL filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan, challenged the grant of pan-India licence to RJIL by the Government of India. The PIL alleged that RJIL was allowed to provide voice telephony along with its 4G data service, by paying an additional fees of just INR16580 million (US$280 million) arbitrary and unreasonable, and contributed to a loss of INR228420 million (US$3.8 billion) to the exchequer.[110][111]The CAG in its draft report alleged rigging of the auction mechanism, whereby an unknown ISP, Infotel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, acquired the spectrum by bidding 5000 times its net worth, after which the company was sold to Reliance Industries.[112]