Florida Department Of Revenue W 9: Fill & Download for Free

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, here's a list cribbed from Wikipedia. It certainly treads lightly on our representatives--the list is almost certainly far longer. A person could get oh, what's the word, disenchanted? Disillusioned?Since one of my graduate degrees in in American studies, and I've read more American history than anyone I know except my daughter, but that's because I'm older than she is, I hate to call your question laughable, but it is certain naive. Let's face it, not everyone has a taste for knowing how screwed they're getting.Even some of the legislators who have accomplished a lot of good haven't been exempt from bribes and use of coercion. It's almost a given. What do you think they're called politicians for?They couldn't make up plots for TV for the kinds of bizarrely grabby, entitled and corrupt practices that have been in place in Congress nearly since its beginning.Historians (not me) widely considering the congresses under the following administrations to be THE most corrupt:Bush IIReaganNixonLyndon JohnsonWarren G. HardingUlysses S. GrantAndrew JacksonList of federal political scandals in the United StatesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_scandals_in_the_United_States#mw-This article provides a list of federal political scandals of the United States, sorted from most recent date to least recent.ContentScope and organization of political scandals[edit]The article is organized by presidential terms and then divided into scandals of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches. Members of both parties are listed under the term of the president in office at the time the scandal took place.Scandals; There is no hard and fast rule defining scandals. Scandal is defined as "loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety." In politics scandal should be kept separate from 'controversy,' (which implies two differing points of view) and 'unpopularity.' Many decisions are controversial, many decisions are unpopular—that alone does not make them scandals.A good rule of thumb is whether or not an action is, or appears to be, illegal. Since everyone, particularly a politician, is expected to be a law abiding citizen, breaking the law is, by definition, a scandal. Misunderstandings, breaches of ethics, unproven crimes or cover-ups may or may not result in scandals depending on who is bringing the charges, the amount of publicity garnered, and the seriousness of the crime, if any. The finding of a court with jurisdiction is the sole method used to determine a violation of law.There is no hard line to distinguish major scandals from minor scandals, but rather scandals tend to be defined by the public itself and the media's desire to feed that particular frenzy. Thus, small but salacious scandals, such as Larry Craig's (Republican from Idaho) arrest for lewd behavior can eclipse more serious scandals such as suspending the Writ of Habeas Corpus in time of war.What is also not so clear, is how far down the ladder of obscurity a scandal should go. During the Truman (D) administration, 196 local IRS staffers were found to be corrupt, but they were so far removed from Washington, Truman or any of his appointees, that it could hardly be called a 'Truman scandal.'Also not included in this article are pervasive systemic scandals, such as the role of money in normal politics, which purchases access and influence. Neither are 'revolving door' stories, which is the practice of hiring government officials to promote or lobby for companies they were recently paid to regulate. Though some rules now apply, to a great extent this is legal in the United States.Politicians are those who make their living primarily in politics, their staffs and appointees. By definition, political scandals should involve politicians and not private citizens. Private citizens should be included only when they are closely linked to elected or appointed politicians such as party officials. Kenneth Lay of Enron is a good example of such a citizen. This list also does not include crimes that occur outside the politician's tenure unless they specifically stem from acts while they were in office.To keep the article a manageable size, Senators and Congressmen who are rebuked, admonished, condemned, suspended, found in contempt, found to have acted improperly, used poor judgement or were reprimanded by Congress are not included unless the scandal is exceptional or leads to expulsion.At the bottom of the article are links to related articles which deal with politicians who are actually convicted of crimes, as well as differentiating between federal, state and local scandals and two separate articles are devoted to sex crimes and scandals.Federal government scandals[edit]2009–present Barack Obama Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014 - It was discovered that officials in the Phoenix VA hospital lied about how long the wait times were for veterans to see a doctor.[1] An investigation of delays is being conducted by the Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General.[2][3] The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki, voluntarily resigned.[4]ATF gunwalking scandal – Attorney General Eric Holder was held in Contempt of Congress after refusing to release all documents which the House of Representatives had demanded concerning the Fast and Furious gun walking operation. (2012)[5]Terence Flynn, an appointee of Barack Obama to the National Labor Relations Board, resigned in May 2012 after being accused of serious ethical violations by leaking information to the National Association of Manufacturers.[6]Martha N. Johnson, head of the General Services Administration, fired two top GSA officials and then resigned herself after it was revealed that $822,000 had been spent in Las Vegas on a four-day training conference for 300 GSA employees. (2010)[7][8][9][10]IRS admitted to inappropriate investigation of conservative political groups associated with the Tea Party.[11] Later, it was found that the IRS investigated liberal and progressive groups as well and that initial stories of conservative groups receiving special scrutiny were false.[12][13][14] President Obama labeled the IRS's actions "inexcusable" and Attorney General Eric Holder, an Obama appointee, launched an investigation into the scandal.[15][16] The president demanded and accepted the resignation of Steven T. Miller Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Other actions arising from the scandal included:Joseph H. Grant, commissioner of the IRS Tax-exempt and Government entities division, resigned on May 16.[17]Lois Lerner, head of the IRS Office of Exempt Organizations, stated she had not done anything wrong and then took the Fifth before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.[18] She retired after an internal investigation found that she neglected her duties and was going to call for her ouster.[19]Katherine Archuleta, who was the director of the Office of Personnel Management, was forced to resign on July 10, 2015 after the data theft of information on 22 million people who had applied for security clearances.[20]Legislative[edit]Dennis Hastert (R-IL) pled not guilty to charges that he violated banking rules and lied to the FBI in a scheme to pay $3.5 million in hush money to conceal sexual misconduct with an under age boy from his days as a high school wrestling coach, from 1965 to 1981.(2015)[21][22]Aaron Schock (R-IL) resigned from office after evidence surfaced that he used campaign funds for travel, redecorated his office with taxpayer funds to resemble the sets of the Downton Abbey TV series, and otherwise spent campaign and/or taxpayer money on other questionable personal uses.(2015)[23]Schock's senior adviser Benjamin Cole had resigned earlier after he allegedly condemned "hood rats" and "black miscreants" in internet posts. Schock's office stated, "I am extremely disappointed by the inexcusable and offensive online comments made by a member of my staff."[24]Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) resigned his Congressional seat. Four of his staff were convicted by the state of Michigan of falsifying signatures on McCotter's reelection petitions for the 2012 elections. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette (R) blamed McCotter for running a slipshod, leaderless operation. "The congressman has resigned in disgrace", Schuette said, though McCotter was not charged.[25]Paul Seewald worked for McCotter as his District Director of the Michigan's 11th congressional district. He pled guilty to nine counts of falsely signing a nominating petition as circulator. He was sentenced to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service, and ordered to pay court costs and fees.[26]Don Yowchuang worked for McCotter as Deputy District Director of the Michigan 11th Congressional District. He pleaded guilty to ten counts of forgery and six counts of falsely signing a nominating petition and was sentenced to three years of probation, 200 hours of community service, court costs and fees.[27]Mary M. Turnbull was McCotter's Representative to the Michigan 11th Congressional District. She was convicted of conspiring to commit a legal act in an illegal manner and falsely signing a nominating petition. She was sentenced to two years of probation, a day in jail, and 200 hours of community service. She was also ordered to pay a $1,440 fine. In addition, she is forbidden from any participation in elections or the political process.[28]Lorianne O'Brady worked as a scheduler for McCotter in the Michigan 11th Congressional District. She pleaded no contest to charges that she falsely claimed to have legally collected signatures to get McCotter on the ballot when she actually had not. She was sentenced to 20 days in jail and a work program plus $2,625 in fines and court costs.[29]Senator Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) campaign manager Jesse Benton (R) resigned when details of a bribery scandal from Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign came to light. (2014).[30]David Rivera (R-FL) was indicted as a co-conspirator with Campaign Manager Ana Alliegro who pleaded guilty to violation of US campaign laws in an $81,000 campaign-finance scheme to prop up a little-known Democratic candidate who used the illegal cash to trash Rivera's rival in the 2012 Democratic primary.[31][32]Rick Renzi (R-AZ) on June 12, 2013, was found guilty of 17 counts against him, which included wire fraud, conspiracy, extortion, racketeering, money laundering, and making false statements to insurance regulators.[33]Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) was arrested on December 23, 2012, and later pleaded guilty to drinking and driving in a Virginia court. The court fined him 250 dollars. He was sentenced to 180 days in prison, but served no time.[34][35][36]Trey Radel (R-FL) was arrested on October 29, 2013, in Washington, D.C. for possession of cocaine after purchasing the drug from an undercover law enforcement officer. As a first-time offender, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor in a Washington, D.C. court, and was sentenced to one year probation and fined $250. Radel took a leave of absence from office to undergo substance abuse treatment following his conviction. Following treatment, he initially returned to office with the intent of finishing his term, but eventually resigned on January 27, 2014.[37][38][39]Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-IL) pled guilty to one felony count of fraud for using $750,000 of campaign money to buy personal items such as stuffed animals, elk heads and fur capes.[40]Laura Richardson (D-CA) was found guilty on seven counts of violating US House rules by improperly using her staff to campaign for her, destroying the evidence and tampering with witness testimony. The House Ethics Committee ordered Richardson to pay a fine of $10,000. (2012)[41][42]John Ensign (R-NV) resigned his Senate seat on May 3, 2011, just before the Senate Ethics Committee could examine possible fiscal violations in connection with his extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton. (2011)[43][44][45][46](see Federal sex scandals) In May 2012, aide Doug Hampton (R) in what became the John Ensign scandal reached a plea deal with prosecutors, the details of which have not yet been released.[47]Michael Grimm (R-NY) has been indicted for campaign finance violations. He has not been proven guilty.[48]Judicial Branch[edit]G. Thomas Porteous Federal Judge for Eastern Louisiana was unanimously impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of bribery and perjury in March 2010. He was convicted by the US Senate and removed from office. He had been appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton. (2010)[49][50]Samuel B. Kent Federal District Judge of Galveston, Texas, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying about sexually harassing two female employees. He had been appointed to office by Republican George H. W. Bush in 1990. (2009)[51][52]Jack T. Camp Senior Federal U.S. District Court Judge was appointed by Republican Ronald Reagan and again byGeorge W. Bush, was arrested in an undercover drug bust while trying to purchase cocaine from an FBI agent. Judge Camp resigned after pleading guilty to three criminal charges. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 400 community service hours and fined.[53][54][55]2001–2009 George W. Bush Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Joseph E. Schmitz (R) was nominated by President George W. Bush (R) to be Defense Department Inspector Generalon June 18, 2001. He resigned on September 9, 2005 in the wake of several allegations by Senator Charles Grassley(R-Iowa) including that he had obstructed the FBI investigation of John A. Shaw.[56][57][58][59][60]Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey (R) abruptly resigned over substandard conditions for wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center including long delays in treatment, rodent infestation and outbreaks of mold. Harvey had been appointed to the position by George W. Bush.(2007)[61]Maj. Gen. George Weightman, was fired for failures linked to the scandal.(2007) [62]Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley resigned for failures linked to the scandal.[63]Felipe Sixto was appointed by President George W. Bush to be his Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs as well as Duty Director at the Office of Public Liaison. He resigned a few weeks later on March 20, 2008 because of his misuse of grant money from the U.S. Agency for International Development when he had worked for the Center for a Free Cuba.[64] He was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing almost $600,000 for personal use.[65]Timothy Goeglein, Special Assistant to President Bush resigned when it was discovered that more than 20 of his columns had been plagiarized from an Indiana newspaper. (2008)[66]Scott Bloch was appointed by President George W. Bush to head the United States Office of Special Counsel. On April 27, 2010 Bloch pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of Congress for "willfully and unlawfully withholding pertinent information from a House committee investigating his decision to have several government computers wiped ...."[67]On February 2, Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson ruled that Bloch faces a mandatory sentence of at least one month in prison.[68][69]Lewis Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney (R). 'Scooter' was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Plame Affair on March 6, 2007. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. The sentence was commuted by George W. Bush on July 1, 2007. The felony remains on Libby's record, though the jail time and fine were commuted.[70][71]Alphonso Jackson The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development resigned while under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged cronyism and favoritism [72]Karl Rove Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush was investigated by the Office of Special Counsel for "improper political influence over government decision-making", as well as for his involvement in several other scandals such as Lawyergate, Bush White House e-mail controversy and Plame affair. He resigned in April 2007. (See Karl Rove in the George W. Bush administration)[73]Richard J. Griffin Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security appointed by George W. Bush who made key decisions regarding the department's oversight of private security contractor Blackwater USA, resigned in November 2007, after a critical review by the House Oversight Committee found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors during the Blackwater Baghdad shootings protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.[74]Howard Krongard, Republican contributor[75] was appointed Inspector General of the US State Department by President George W. Bush in 2005.[76] After he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into private security contractor Blackwater USA, concerning the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. Krongard resigned in December 2007.[77][78]"Lawyergate"[79] Or the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy refers to President Bush firing, without explanation, eleven Republican federal prosecutors whom he himself had appointed. It is alleged they were fired for prosecuting Republicans and not prosecuting Democrats.[80][81] When Congressional hearings were called, a number of seniorJustice Department officials cited executive privilege and refused to testify under oath and instead resigned, including:Alberto Gonzales Attorney General of the United States[82]Karl Rove Advisor to President Bush[83]Harriet Miers Legal Counsel to President Bush, was found in Contempt of Congress[84]Michael A. Battle Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys in the Justice Department.[85]Bradley Schlozman Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys who replaced Battle[86]Michael Elston Chief of Staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty[87]Paul McNulty Deputy Attorney General to William Mercer[88]William W. Mercer Associate Attorney General to Alberto Gonzales[89]Kyle Sampson Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales[85]Monica Goodling Liaison between President Bush and the Justice Department[90]Joshua Bolten Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush was found in Contempt of Congress[84]Sara M. Taylor Aide to Presidential Advisor Karl Rove[91]Bush White House e-mail controversy – During the Lawyergate investigation it was discovered that the Bush administration used Republican National Committee (RNC) web servers for millions of emails which were then destroyed, lost or deleted in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act and the Hatch Act. George W. Bush,Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Andrew Card, Sara Taylor and Scott Jennings all used RNC webservers for the majority of their emails. Of 88 officials investigated, 51 showed no emails at all.[92] As many as 5 million e-mails requested by Congressional investigators were therefore unavailable, lost, or deleted.[93]Lurita Alexis Doan Resigned as head of the General Services Administration. She was under scrutiny for conflict of interest and violations of the Hatch Act.[94] Among other things she asked GSA employees how they could "help Republican candidates".[95]John Korsmo chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board pled guilty to lying to congress and sentenced to 18 months of unsupervised probation and fined $5,000. (2005)[96]Darleen A. Druyun was Principal Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force nominated by George W. Bush.[97] She pled guilty to inflating the price of contracts to favor her future employer, Boeing. In October 2004, she was sentenced to nine months in jail for corruption, fined $5,000, given three years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service. She began her prison term on January 5, 2005.[98] CBS News called it "the biggest Pentagon scandal in 20 years" and said that she pleaded guilty to a felony.[99]Philip Cooney Bush appointee to chair the Council on Environmental Quality was accused of editing government climate reports to emphasize doubts about global warming.[100] Two days later, Cooney announced his resignation[101] and later conceded his role in altering reports. Stating "My sole loyalty was to the President and advancing the policies of his administration," .[102][103]Jack Abramoff Scandal in which the prominent lobbyist with close ties to Republican administration officials and legislators offered bribes as part of his lobbying efforts. Abramoff was sentenced to 4 years in prison.[104][105] See Legislative scandals.Tom DeLay (R-TX) The House Majority Leader was reprimanded twice by the House Ethics Committee and his aides indicted (2004–2005); eventually DeLay himself was investigated in October 2005 in connection with the Abramoff scandal, but not indicted. DeLay resigned from the House 9 June 2006.[106] DeLay was found to have illegally channeled funds from Americans for a Republican Majority to Republican state legislator campaigns. He was convicted of two counts of money laundering and conspiracy in 2010.[107]David Safavian GSA (General Services Administration) Chief of Staff,[108] found guilty of blocking justice and lying,[109] and sentenced to 18 months[110]Roger Stillwell Staff in the Department of the Interior under President George W. Bush (R). Pleaded guilty and received two years suspended sentence.[111]Susan B. Ralston Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to Karl Rove, resigned October 6, 2006, after it became known that she accepted gifts and passed information to her former boss Jack Abramoff.[112]J. Steven Griles former Deputy to the Secretary of the Interior pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to 10 months.[113]Italia Federici staff to the Secretary of the Interior, and President of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, pled guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of justice. She was sentenced to four years probation.[114][115][116]Jared Carpenter Vice-President of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was discovered during the Abramoff investigation and pled guilty to income tax evasion. He got 45 days, plus 4 years probation.[117]Mark Zachares staff in the Department of Labor, bribed by Abramoff, guilty of conspiracy to defraud.[105]Robert E. Coughlin Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division of the Justice Department pleaded guilty to conflict of interest after accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff. (2008)[118]Kyle Foggo Executive director of the CIA was convicted of honest services fraud in the awarding of a government contract and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison at Pine Knot, Kentucky. On September 29, 2008, Foggo pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment, admitting that while he was the CIA executive director, he acted to steer a CIA contract to the firm of his lifelong friend, Brent R. Wilkes.[119]Julie MacDonald Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, resigned May 1, 2007, after giving government documents to developers (2007)[120]Claude Allen Appointed as an advisor by President George W. Bush (R) on Domestic Policy, Allen was arrested for a series of felony thefts in retail stores. He was convicted on one count and resigned soon after.[121]Lester Crawford Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, resigned after 2 months. Pled guilty to conflict of interest and received 3 years suspended sentence and fined $90,000 (2006)[122]2003 Invasion of Iraq depended on intelligence that Saddam Hussein was developing "weapons of mass destruction" (WMDs) meaning nuclear, chemical and/or biological weapons for offensive use. As revealed by The (British) Downing Street memo "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy" The press called this the 'smoking gun."(2005)[123]Yellowcake forgery: Just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration presented evidence to the UN that Iraq was seeking material (yellowcake uranium) in Africa for making nuclear weapons. Though presented as true, it was later found to be not only dubious, but outright false.[124][125]Coalition Provisional Authority Cash Payment Scandal: On June 20, 2005, the staff of the Committee on Government Reform prepared a report for Congressman Henry Waxman.[126] It was revealed that $12 billion in cash had been delivered to Iraq by C-130 planes, on shrinkwrapped pallets of US $100 bills.[127] The United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, concluded that "Many of the funds appear to have been lost to corruption and waste.... Some of the funds could have enriched both criminals and insurgents...." Henry Waxman, commented, "Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?" A single flight to Iraq on December 12, 2003, which contained $1.5 billion in cash is said to be the largest single Federal Reserve payout in US history according to Henry Waxman.[128][129]Bush administration payment of columnists with federal funds to say nice things about Republican policies. Illegal payments were made to journalists Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus (2004–2005)[130]John A. Shaw (R) was appointed by George W. Bush as Under Secretary of Defense [131] He was investigated on corruption although charges were never filed against him, he was asked to resign in 2004.[132] When he refused to resign, he was fired by the Bush administration on December 10, 2004.[133][134][135]Bernard Kerik nomination in 2004 as Secretary of Homeland Security was derailed by past employment of an illegal alien as a nanny, and other improprieties. On Nov 4, 2009, he pled guilty to two counts of tax fraud and five counts of lying to the federal government and was sentenced to four years in prison.[136]Plame affair (2004), in which CIA agent Valerie Plame's name was leaked by Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, to the press in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the reports used by George W. Bush to legitimize the Iraq war.[137] Armitage admitted he was the leak[138] but no wrongdoing was found.Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), withheld information from Congress about the projected cost of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, and allegedly threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if Foster provided the data to Congress. (2003)[139] Scully resigned on December 16, 2003.NSA warrantless surveillance – Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush (R) implemented a secret program by the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on domestic telephone calls by American citizens without warrants, thus by-passing the FISA court which must approve all such actions. (2002)[140] In 2010, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled this practice to be illegal.[141]Janet Rehnquist (daughter of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist) appointed Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services by George W. Bush. In 2002, Governor Jeb Bush's (R-FL) Chief of Staff Kathleen Shanahan asked Rehnquist to delay auditing a $571 million federal overpayment to the State of Florida. Rehnquist ordered her staff to delay the investigation for five months until after the Florida elections. When Congress began an investigation into the matter, Rehnquist resigned in March 2003, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family.[142][143][144][144][145][146]John Yoo An attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel inside the Justice Department who, working closely with vice president Dick Cheney and The Bush Six,[147] wrote memos stating the right of the president to –suspend sections of the ABM Treaty without informing Congress[148]bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allowing warrantless wiretapping of US Citizens within the United States by the National Security Agency.[148]state that the First Amendment and Fourth Amendments and the Takings Clause do not apply to the president in time of war as defined in the USA PATRIOT Act[148]allow Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture) because provisions of the War Crimes Act, the Third Geneva Convention, and the Torture convention do not apply.[148]Many of his memos have since been repudiated and reversed.[148][149] Later review by the Justice Department reported that Yoo and Jay Bybee used "poor judgement" in the memos, but no charges were filed.[150]Carl Truscott Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms appointed in 2004 but was soon under investigation for his management style and allegations of lavish spending and misuse of resources, including requiring a large number of agents as personal security, allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars of expensive upgrades to the ATF HQ building, adding a new garage to his house, detailing 20 agents to help with his nephew's high school project and other examples of poor financial judgment. Truscott resigned as the ATF Director on August 4, 2006.[151][152]Legislative Branch[edit]James W. Treffinger (R-NJ) the US senatorial candidate pled guilty in 2003 to corruption and fraud as Chief Executive of Essex County and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution and serve 13 months in jail.[153]Ted Stevens Senator (R-AK) was convicted of seven counts of bribery and tax evasion October 27, 2008. He then lost re-election. Newly appointed US Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed the charges "in the interest of justice" stating that the Justice Department had illegally withheld evidence from defense counsel.[154]Charles Rangel (D-NY) failed to report $75,000 income from the rental of his villa in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and was forced to pay $11,000 in back taxes.(September 2008)[155]Rick Renzi (R-AZ) Announced he would not seek another term.[156]* He was later sentenced to three years in prison after conviction on federal corruption charges of extortion, bribery, insurance fraud, money laundering and racketeering related to a 2005 money-laundering scheme that netted the Flagstaff Republican more than $700,000. (2005) [157]Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned on September 29, 2006 after sending sexually explicit messages to former Congressional pages.[158]Frank Ballance (D-NC) admitted to a federal charge of money laundering and mail fraud in October 2005 and sentenced to 4 years in prison.[159]Tom DeLay (R-TX) and House Majority Leader served from 1985 to 2006 when he resigned his position to undergo trial for conspiring to launder corporate money into political donations and money laundering during the 2002 elections. On November 24, 2010, DeLay was found guilty[160] and was sentenced to three years in prison and 10 years' probation respectively.[161] On September 19, 2013, the conviction was overturned.[162]Jack Abramoff Scandal, (R) lobbyist found guilty of conspiracy, tax evasion and corruption of public officials in three different courts in a wide ranging investigation. Currently serving 70 months and fined $24.7 million.[163] See Scandals, Executive Branch. The following were also implicated:Tom DeLay (R-TX) The House Majority Leader was reprimanded twice by the House Ethics Committee and his aides indicted (2004–2005); eventually DeLay himself was investigated in October 2005 in connection with the Abramoff scandal, but not indicted. DeLay resigned from the House 9 June 2006.[106] DeLay was found to have illegally channeled funds from Americans for a Republican Majority to Republican state legislator campaigns. He was convicted of two counts of money laundering and conspiracy in 2010.[107]Michael Scanlon (R) former staff to Tom DeLay: working for Abramoff, pled guilty to bribery.[104][105]Tony Rudy (R) former staff to Tom DeLay, pleaded guilty to conspiracy.[105]James W. Ellis executive director of Tom DeLay's political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC), was indicted by Texas for money laundering.[164]John Colyandro executive director of Tom DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority(TRMPAC), was indicted by Texas for money laundering[164]Bob Ney (R-OH) pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements as a result of his receiving trips from Abramoff in exchange for legislative favors. Ney received 30 months in prison.[105][165]Neil Volz former staff to Robert Ney, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in 2006 charges stemming from his work for Bob Ney. In 2007 he was sentenced to two years probation, 100 hours community service, and a fine of $2,000.[166]William Heaton, former chief of staff for Bob Ney (R), pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge involving a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping Abramoff's clients.[167]John Albaugh, former chief of staff to Ernest Istook (R-OK), pled guilty to accepting bribes connected to the Federal Highway Bill. Istook was not charged. (2008)[168]James Hirni, former staff to Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), was charged with wire fraud for giving a staffer for Don Young (R) of Alaska a bribe in exchange for amendments to the Federal Highway Bill. (2008)[169]Kevin A. Ring (R) former staff to John Doolittle (R-CA) was convicted of five charges of corruption.[170][171]John Doolittle (R-CA) both he and his wife were under investigation (January 2008). Under this cloud, Doolittle decided not to run for re-election in November 2008. The Justice Department announced in June 2010 they had terminated the investigation and found no wrongdoing.[172]Randy Cunningham (R-CA) pleaded guilty on November 28, 2005, to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion in what came to be called the Cunningham scandal. Sentenced to over eight years.[173]Tan Nguyen (R-CA) congressional candidate for the 47th District was convicted of voter intimidation. He lost the election and was sentenced to one year in prison and six months in a halfway house. (2006)[174]Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) struck a U.S. Capitol Police officer in the chest after he attempted to stop her from going around a security checkpoint. McKinney apologized on the floor of the House and no charges were filed (March 29, 2006)[175]William J. Jefferson (D-LA) in August 2005 the FBI seized $90,000 in cash from Jefferson's home freezer. He was re-elected anyway, but lost in 2008. Jefferson was convicted of 11 counts of bribery and sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009, and his chief of staff Brett Pfeffer was sentenced to 84 months in a related case.[176][177]Bill Janklow (R-SD) convicted of second-degree manslaughter for running a stop sign and killing a motorcyclist. Resigned from the House and given 100 days in the county jail and three years (2003)[178]Robert Torricelli Senator (D-NJ) after 14 years in the House and one term in the Senate, Torricelli declined to run again when accused of taking illegal contributions from Korean businessman David Chang. (2002)[179]Jim Traficant (D-OH) found guilty on 10 felony counts of financial corruption, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison and expelled from the House (2002)[180]1993–2001 Bill Clinton Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Ronald Blackley, Chief of Staff to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, was sentenced to 27 months for perjury. Secretary Espy was found innocent on all counts.[181]Bill Clinton President (D) Impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath about consensual sexual relations with a member of his staff Monica Lewinsky. Clinton wasacquitted by the Senate and remained in office for the rest of his term. Clinton subsequently was cited for contempt of court and agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license (1998).[182] On October 1, 2001, Bill Clinton was barred from practicing law before the Supreme Court of the United States (2001)[183]Legislative Branch[edit]Newt Gingrich (R-GA), the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, was charged $300,000 in sanctions by the majority republican House ethics committee for an unethical book deal [184] leading to his eventual resignation from office. (1997)[185]Barbara-Rose Collins (D-MI) found to have committed 11 violations of law and house rules stemming from use of campaign funds for personal use.[186]Wes Cooley (R-OR), Cooley was convicted of having lied on the 1994 voter information pamphlet about his service in the Army. He was fined and sentenced to two years probation (1997)[187]Austin Murphy (D-PA) convicted of engaging in voter fraud for filling out absentee ballots for members of a nursing home.[188]Nicholas Mavroules (D-MA) pleaded guilty to bribery charges.[189]Lawrence J. Smith (D-FL) On August 3, 1993, Congressman Smith pled guilty to one count of tax evasion and one count of filing false campaign reports. He was sentenced to three months in prison.[190]House banking scandal[191] The House of Representatives Bank found that 450 members had overdrawn their checking accounts, but had not been penalized. Six were convicted of charges, most only tangentially related to the House Bank itself. Twenty two more of the most prolific over-drafters were singled out by the House Ethics Committee. (1992)[192]Buzz Lukens (R-OH) convicted of bribery and conspiracy.[193]Carl C. Perkins (D-KY) pled guilty to a check kiting scheme involving several financial institutions (including the House Bank).[193]Carroll Hubbard (D-KY)convicted of illegally funneling money to his wife's 1992 campaign to succeed him in congress.[194]Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH) was charged with seven felonies, but pleaded guilty only to a misdemeanor campaign finance charge not related to the House Bank.[193]Walter Fauntroy (D-DC) convicted of filing false disclosure forms in order to hide unauthorized income.[193]Jack Russ House Sergeant-at-Arms, convicted of three counts.[193]Congressional Post Office scandal (1991–1995) A conspiracy to embezzle House Post Office money through stamps and postal vouchers to congressmen.[195]Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) Rostenkowski was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison, in 1995.[196]Joe Kolter (D-PA) Convicted of one count of conspiracy[197] and sentenced to 6 months in prison.[198]Robert V. Rota Postmaster, convicted of one count of conspiracy and two counts of embezzlement.[195]Jay Kim (R-CA) accepted $250,000 in illegal 1992 campaign contributions and was sentenced to two months house arrest (1992)[199]1989–1993 George H. W. Bush Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]George H. W. Bush (R) President. during his election campaign, Bush denied any knowledge of the Iran Contra Affairby saying he was "out of the loop." But his own diaries of that time stated "I'm one of the few people that know fully the details ..." He repeatedly refused to disclose this to investigators during the investigation and thus won the election. (1988)[200]Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, (R) Treasurer of the United States. Pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and tax evasion. The only US Treasurer ever sent to prison. (1992)[201]Iran-Contra Affair pardons. On December 24, 1992, George H. W. Bush (R) granted clemency to five convicted government officials and Caspar Weinberger, whose trial had not yet begun. This action prevented any further investigation into the matter.[202]Caspar Weinberger Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan[203]Robert C. McFarlane National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan[203]Elliott Abrams Assistant Secretary of State to Ronald Reagan[203]Clair George CIA Chief of Covert Ops[203]Alan D. Fiers Chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force[203]Duane Clarridge CIA Operations Officer[203]Legislative Branch[edit]Albert Bustamante (D-TX) convicted of accepting bribes.[204]Lawrence J. Smith (D-FL) pleaded guilty to tax fraud and lying to federal election officials[205] and served three months in jail, fined $5,000, 2 years probation and back taxes of $40,000[206]David Durenberger Senator (R-MN) denounced by Senate for unethical financial transactions and then disbarred (1990). He pled guilty to misuse of public funds and given one year probation (1995)[207]Judicial Branch[edit]Clarence Thomas (R) The Supreme Court nominee was accused of sexual harassment by former employee Anita Hill, but was approved anyway.[208]Walter Nixon US Judge. Was impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate for perjury on November 3, 1989.[209]1981–1989 Ronald Reagan Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Housing and Urban Development Scandal A scandal concerning bribery by selected contractors for low income housing projects.Samuel Pierce Secretary of Housing and Urban Development because he made "full and public written acceptance of responsibility" was not charged.[210]James G. Watt Secretary of Interior, 1981–1983, charged with 25 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice, sentenced to five years probation, fined $5,000 and 500 hours of community service[211]Deborah Gore Dean (R) Executive Assistant to (Samuel Pierce, Secretary of HUD 1981–1987, and not charged). Dean was convicted of 12 counts of perjury, conspiracy, bribery. Sentenced to 21 months in prison. (1987)[212]Phillip D. Winn Assistant Secretary of HUD, 1981–1982, pled guilty to bribery in 1994.[212]Thomas Demery, Assistant Secretary of HUD, pled guilty to bribery and obstruction.[212]Joseph A. Strauss, Special Assistant to the Secretary of HUD, convicted of accepting payments to favor Puerto Rican land developers in receiving HUD funding.[213]Silvio D. DeBartolomeis convicted of perjury and bribery.[214]Wedtech scandal Wedtech Corporation convicted of bribery for Defense Department contractsEdwin Meese Attorney General, resigned but never convicted.[215]Lyn Nofziger White House Press Secretary, whose conviction of lobbying was overturned.[216]Mario Biaggi (D-NY) sentenced to 2½ years.[217]Robert García (D-NY) sentenced to 2½ years.[218]Savings and loan scandal in which 747 institutions failed and had to be rescued with $160,000,000,000 of taxpayer monies in connection with the Keating Five. see Legislative scandals.[219]Emanuel S. Savas, appointed by Ronald Reagan to be Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, resigned July 8, 1983 after an internal Justice Department investigation found he had abused his office by having his Government staff work on his private book on Government time.[220][221]Iran-Contra Affair (1985–1986); A plan conceived by CIA head William Casey and Oliver North of the National Security Council to sell TOW missiles to Iran for the return of US hostages and then use part of the money received to fund Contra rebels trying to overthrow the left wing government of Nicaragua, which was in direct violation of Congress'Boland Amendment.[222] Ronald Reagan appeared on TV stating there was no "arms for hostages" deal, but was later forced to admit, also on TV, that yes, there indeed had been:Caspar Weinberger Secretary of Defense, was indicted on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice on June 16, 1992.[223] Weinberger received a pardon from George H. W. Bush on December 24, 1992, before he was tried.[224]William Casey Head of the CIA. Thought to have conceived the plan, was stricken ill hours before he would testify. Reporter Bob Woodward records that Casey knew of and approved the plan.[225]Robert C. McFarlane National Security Adviser, convicted of withholding evidence, but after a plea bargain was given only 2 years probation. Later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush[226]Elliott Abrams Asst Sec of State, convicted of withholding evidence, but after a plea bargain was given only 2 years probation. Later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush[227]Summary of Prosecutions.Alan D. Fiers Chief of the CIA's Central American Task Force, convicted of withholding evidence and sentenced to one year probation. Later pardoned by President George H. W. Bush[222]Clair George Chief of Covert Ops-CIA, convicted on 2 charges of perjury, but pardoned by President George H. W. Bush before sentencing.[228]Oliver North convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity, obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents, but the ruling was overturned since he had been granted immunity.[229]Fawn Hall, Oliver North's secretary was given immunity from prosecution on charges of conspiracy and destroying documents in exchange for her testimony.[230]John Poindexter National Security Advisor (R) convicted of 5 counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence. The Supreme Court overturned this ruling.[231]Duane Clarridge An ex-CIA senior official, he was indicted in November 1991 on 7 counts of perjury and false statements relating to a November 1985 shipment to Iran. Pardoned before trial by President George H. W. Bush.[232][233]Richard V. Secord Ex-major general in the Air Force who organized the Iran arms sales and Contra aid. He pleaded guilty in November 1989 to making false statements to Congress. Sentenced to two years of probation.[234][235]Albert Hakim A businessman, pled guilty in November 1989 to supplementing the salary of Oliver North by buying him a $13,800 fence. Hakim was given two years of probation and a $5,000 fine, while his company, Lake Resources Inc. was ordered to dissolve.[234][236]Thomas G. Clines Once an intelligence official who became an arms dealer, he was convicted in September 1990 on four income tax counts, including underreporting of income to the IRS and lying about not having foreign accounts. Sentenced to 16 months of prison and fined $40,000.[234][237]Carl R. Channell A fund-raiser for conservative causes, he pleaded guilty in April 1987 to defrauding the IRS via a tax-exempt organization to fund the Contras.[238] Sentenced to two years probation.[234]Richard R. Miller Associate to Carl R. Channell, he pleaded guilty in May 1987 to defrauding the IRS via a tax-exempt organization led by Channell. More precisely, he pled guilty to lying to the IRS about the deductibility of donations to the organization. Some of the donations were used to fund the Contras.[239] Sentenced to two years of probation and 120 of community service.[234]Joseph F. Fernandez CIA Station Chief of Costa Rica. Indicted on five counts in 1988.[240] The case was dismissed when Attorney General Dick Thornburgh refused to declassify information needed for his defense in 1990.[241]Inslaw Affair (1985–1994+); a protracted legal case that alleged that top-level officials of President Ronald Reagan's (R) Department of Justice were involved in software piracy of the Promis program from Inslaw Inc. forcing it into bankruptcy.[242] Attorney General Edwin Meese (R) and his successor Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (R) were both found to have blocked the investigation of the matter.[243] They were succeeded by Attorney General William P. Barr (R), who also refused to investigate and no charges were ever filed.[242]D. Lowell Jensen, Deputy Attorney General was held in Contempt of Congress.[244]C. Madison Brewer A high ranking Justice Department official was held in Contempt of Congress.[244]Michael Deaver Deputy Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan 1981–85, pleaded guilty to perjury related to lobbying activities and was sentenced to 3 years probation and fined $100,000[245]Sewergate A scandal in which funds from the EPA were selectively used for projects which would aid politicians friendly to the Reagan administration.Anne Gorsuch Burford Head of the EPA. Cut the EPA staff by 22% and refused to turn over documents to Congress citing "Executive Privilege",[246] whereupon she was found in Contempt and resigned with twenty of her top employees.(1980)[247]Rita Lavelle An EPA Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency misused "superfund" monies and was convicted of perjury. She served six months in prison, was fined $10,000 and given five years probation.[248]Melvyn R. Paisley, appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by Ronald Reagan. As part of the long-runningOperation Ill Wind defense procurement investigation, Paisley was to four years in prison without parole.[249]Louis O. Giuffrida (R) director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was appointed in April 1981 by Ronald Reagan and resigned his position on September 1, 1985. His announcement came a day before a Congressional subcommittee wad to approve a report detailing waste, fraud, and abuse at his agency.[250]J. Lynn Helms was appointed head of the Federal Aviation Administration by Ronald Reagan in April 1981. He was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with diverting $1.2 million from an issue of tax-exempt municipal bonds to his own personal use. Mr. Helms signed an order that settled the case before trial, though he resigned his FAA post.[251][252]Legislative Branch[edit]David Durenberger Senator (R-MN), denounced by the Senate for unethical financial transactions (1990) and then disbarred as an attorney.[253] In 1995 he pled guilty to 5 misdemeanor counts of misuse of public funds and was given one years probation.[254]Jesse Helms Senator (R-NC), His campaign was found guilty of "voter caging" when 125,000 postcards were sent to mainly black neighborhoods and the results used to challenge their residency and therefore their right to vote. (1990)[255]Barney Frank Congressman (D-MA), lived with convicted felon Steve Gobie who ran a gay prostitution operation from Frank's apartment without his knowledge. Frank was Admonished by Congress for using his congressional privilege to eliminate 33 parking tickets attributed to Gobie.(1987)[256]Donald E. "Buz" Lukens (R-OH), Convicted of two counts of bribery and conspiracy. (1996)[257] See also Sex scandals.Anthony Lee Coelho (D-CA) Resigned rather than face inquiries from both the Justice Department and the House Ethics Committee about an allegedly unethical "junk bond" deal, which netted him $6,000. He was never charged with any crime (1989)[258]Jim Wright (D-TX) House Speaker, resigned after an ethics investigation led by Newt Gingrich alleged improper receipt of $145,000 in gifts (1989)[259]Keating Five (1980–1989) The failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan led to Charles Keating donating to the campaigns of five Senators for help. Keating served 42 months in prison.[260] The five were investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee which found that:Alan Cranston Senator (D-CA) reprimanded[261]Dennis DeConcini Senator (D-AZ) acted improperly[262]Don Riegle Senator (D-MI) acted improperly[262]John Glenn Senator (D-OH) used poor judgment[262]John McCain Senator (R-AZ) used poor judgment[262]Abscam FBI sting involving fake 'Arabs' trying to bribe 31 congressmen.(1980)[263] The following six Congressmen were convicted:Harrison A. Williams Senator (D-NJ) Convicted on 9 counts of bribery and conspiracy. Sentenced to 3 years in prison.[264]John Jenrette Representative (D-SC) sentenced to two years in prison for bribery and conspiracy.[265]Richard Kelly (R-FL) Accepted $25K and then claimed he was conducting his own investigation into corruption. Served 13 months.[266]Raymond Lederer (D-PA) "I can give you me" he said after accepting $50K. Sentenced to 3 years.[267]Michael Myers (D-PA) Accepted $50K saying, "...money talks and bullshit walks." Sentenced to 3 years and was expelled from the House.[268]Frank Thompson (D-NJ) Sentenced to 3 years.[269]John M. Murphy (D-NY) Served 20 months of a 3-year sentence.[270]Also arrested were NJ State Senator Angelo Errichetti (D)[271] and members of the Philadelphia City Council. See Local scandals.Mario Biaggi (D-NY), Convicted of obstruction of justice and accepting illegal gratuities he was sentenced to 2½ years in prison and fined $500K for his role in the Wedtech scandal, see above. Just before expulsion from the House, he resigned. The next year he was convicted of another 15 counts of obstruction and bribery. (1988)[272]Pat Swindall (R-GA) convicted of 6 counts of perjury. (1989)[273][274]George V. Hansen (R-ID) censured for failing to file out disclosure forms. Spent 15 months in prison.[275]James Traficant (D-OH), convicted of ten felony counts including bribery, racketeering and tax evasion and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He was expelled from the House July 24, 2002.[276]Frederick W. Richmond (D-NY),Convicted of tax evasion and possession of marijuana. Served 9 months(1982)[277]See Federal sex scandals.Dan Flood (D-PA) censured for bribery. After a trial ended in a deadlocked jury, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation.[278][279]Joshua Eilberg (D-PA) pleaded guilty to conflict-of-interest charges. In addition, he convinced president Carter to fire the U.S. Attorney investigating his case.[280]Judicial Branch[edit]Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Federal District court judge impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate of soliciting a bribe (1989).[281] Subsequently elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1992)[282]Harry Claiborne (D-NE), Federal District court Judge impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate on two counts of tax evasion. He served over one year in prison.[283]1977–1981 James E. Carter Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Debategate: an election briefing book for President Jimmy Carter was stolen and given to Ronald Reagan before U.S. presidential election, 1980[284]Bert Lance Director of OMB, resigned amid allegations of misuse of funds during the sale of a Georgia bank to BCCI.(1977)[285] In 1981, Lance was acquitted by a jury of nine counts of bank fraud.[286]Legislative branch[edit]Daniel J. Flood (D-PA) During the 96th United States Congress, Flood was censured for bribery. The allegations led to his resignation on January 31, 1980.(1980)[287]Fred Richmond (D-NY) – Convicted of tax fraud and possession of marijuana. Served 9 months in prison. Charges of soliciting sex from a 16-year-old boy were dropped after he submitted to counseling. (1978)[288]Charles Diggs (D-MI), convicted on 29 charges of mail fraud and filing false payroll forms which formed a kickback scheme with his staff. Sentenced to 3 years (1978)[289]Herman Talmadge Senator (D-GA), On October 11, 1979, Talmadge was denounced by the Senate for "improper financial conduct". He failed to be re-elected. (1979)[290]Michael Myers (D-PA) Received suspended six-month jail term after pleading no contest to disorderly conduct charged stemming from an incident at a Virginia bar in which he allegedly attacked a hotel security guard and a cashier.[291]Charles H. Wilson (D-CA) censured after he converted $25,000 in campaign funds to his own use and accepted $10,500 from a man with a direct interest in legislation before Congress. This was a later non-Park incident.[292]John Connally (R-TX), Milk Money scandal. Accused of accepting a $10K bribe. He was acquitted. (1975)[293]Richard Tonry (D-LA) pleaded guilty to receiving illegal campaign contributions.[294]Koreagate scandal involving alleged bribery of more than 30 members of Congress by the South Korean government represented by Tongsun Park. Several other Koreans and Congressmen were allegedly involved, but not charged or reprimanded.[295] The most notable are:Richard T. Hanna (D-CA) pleaded guilty[296] and sentenced to 6–30 months in federal prison.[297] Wound up serving a year in prison.[298]Otto E. Passman (D-LA) was accused of bribery and other charges,[299] but found innocent.[300]John J. McFall, Edward Roybal, and Charles H. Wilson, all (D-CA). Roybal was censured and Wilson was reprimanded,[301] while McFall was reprimanded,[302]1974–1977 Gerald Ford Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Nixon pardon: President Gerald Ford (R) pardoned President Richard Nixon (R), (who had chosen Ford to be his vice-president), just before Nixon could be tried for conspiracy and impeached by Congress for his role in the Watergatescandal. (1974)[303]Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture When asked privately why the party of Lincoln was not able to attract more blacks. Butz replied: "I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight pussy; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit." Butz resigned soon after. (1976) [52][304]Earl Butz (R) was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President Gerald Ford(R) and charged with failing to report more than $148,000 in 1978. He pleaded guilty to the tax evasion charge and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation and was ordered to make restitution. He served 25 days behind bars before his release.[305][306]Legislative Branch[edit]Andrew J. Hinshaw (R-CA) Congressman convicted of accepting bribes while Assessor of Orange County. He served one year in prison. (1977)[307]Wayne L. Hays (D-OH), resigned from Congress after hiring and promoting his mistress, Elizabeth Ray See sex scandals. (1976)[308]Henry Helstoski (D-NJ) Indicted on charges of accepting bribes to aid immigrants but the case was dismissed by the Supreme Court. (1976)[309]James F. Hastings (R-NY), convicted of kickbacks and mail fraud. Took money from his employees for personal use. Served 14 months at Allenwood penitentiary (1976)[310]Robert L. F. Sikes (D-FL) reprimanded for conflict of interest in failing to disclose stock holdings.[292]John V. Dowdy (D-TX), Served 6 months in prison for perjury. (1973)[311]Bertram Podell (D-NY), pleaded guilty to conspiracy and conflict of interest. He was fined $5,000 and served four months in prison (1974)[312]Frank Brasco (D-NY) Sentenced to three months in jail and fined $10,000 for conspiracy to accept bribes from a reputed Mafia figure who sought truck leasing contracts from the Post Office and loans to buy trucks.[280]Frank Clark (D-PA) Paid congressional salaries to 13 Pennsylvania residents who performed no official duties.[280]Wilbur Mills (D-AR) Stepped down as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after his affair with Argentinian stripper Fanne Fox was made public in 1974.[313]Judicial Branch[edit]Otto Kerner, Jr. (D) Resigned as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit after conviction for bribery, mail fraud and tax evasion while Governor of Illinois. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison and fined $50,000. (1974)[314]1969–1974 Richard M. Nixon Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Spiro Agnew Vice-President (R-MD) to Richard Nixon was convicted of tax fraud stemming from bribery charges in Maryland and forced to resign.[315] Gerald R. Ford (R-MI)(1973) was nominated by Nixon and replaced Agnew as Vice President (the first person appointed to the Vice Presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment.)Bebe Rebozo (R)[316] investigated for accepting large contribution to Nixon campaign. No charges were filed (1973)[317]Watergate (1972–1974) President Richard Nixon(R) ordered the coverup of the burglary and 'bugging' of the Democratic Party National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. The cover up by Nixon and his staff resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 convicted or pleading guilty. Eventually, Nixon resigned his office rather than face impeachment.[318] Those involved include:John N. Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States, convicted of perjury. Served 19 months of a one- to four-year sentence.[319]Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General, convicted of "refusing to answer questions" given one month in jail.[320]Jeb Stuart Magruder, Head of Committee to Re-elect the President, pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy, August 1973[321]Frederick C. LaRue, Advisor to John Mitchell, convicted of obstruction of justice.[321]H. R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff for Nixon, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.[322]John Ehrlichman, Counsel to Nixon, convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury.[323]Egil Krogh, aide to John Ehrlichman, sentenced to six months.[321]John W. Dean III, counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice.[321]Dwight L. Chapin, deputy assistant to Nixon, convicted of perjury.[321]Herbert W. Kalmbach, personal attorney to Nixon, convicted of illegal campaigning.[321]Charles W. Colson, special counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice.[320]Herbert L. Porter, aide to the Committee to Re-elect the President. Convicted of perjury.[321]G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group, convicted of burglary.[321]Legislative Branch[edit]Ted Kennedy Senator (D-MA) drove his car into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, a small island off of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, passenger Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended sentence of two months.[324] (1969)Cornelius Gallagher (D-NJ) pleaded guilty to tax evasion, and served two years in prison.[325]J. Irving Whalley (R-PA) Received suspended three-year sentence and fined $11,000 in 1973 for using mails to deposit staff salary kickbacks and threatening an employee to prevent her from giving information to the FBI.[280]Martin B. McKneally (R-NY) Placed on one-year probation and fined $5,000 in 1971 for failing to file income tax return. He had not paid taxes for many years prior.[326]Richard T. Hanna (D-CA), convicted in an influence-buying scandal. (1974)[327]Judicial Branch[edit]Harold Carswell Judge (R): Was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court (1970) by Richard Nixon, but was not confirmed. Civil-rights advocates questioned his civil rights record, citing his voiced support for racial segregationduring his unsuccessful election bid in 1948. Various feminists, including Betty Friedan, testified before the Senate, opposed his nomination and contributed to his defeat.[328] Roman Hruska (Republican, Nebraska) stated:"Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."[320][329]1963–1969 Lyndon B. Johnson Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Bobby Baker, (D) Secretary to the Majority Leader of the Senate (the vice-president then serving) and adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson: resigned after charges of favoritism. (1963)[330]Legislative Branch[edit]Thomas J. Dodd, Senator (D-CT): Censured by the Senate for financial misconduct (1967)[331]Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D-NY): was expelled from Congress but won the special election as his own replacement (1967)[332]Daniel Brewster (D-MD) Senator pleaded no contest to accepting an illegal gratuity in 1975 and fined $10,000.[333][334]Brewster was convicted in 1972 of accepting $14,500 from a lobbyist,[335] and got a six-year term in 1973 over the conviction,[336] but the conviction was overturned on grounds of unclear jury instructions.[337]Lawrence J. Smith (D-FL) On August 3, 1993, Congressman Smith pled guilty to one count of tax evasion and one count of filing false campaign reports. He was sentenced to three months in prison.[190]James Fred Hastings (R-NY) was a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention and the 1972 Republican National Convention. He was elected to Congress in 1968 and served from January 3, 1969, until he resigned on January 20, 1976 after being convicted of kickbacks and mail fraud. He served 14 months at Allenwood penitentiary (1976).[338]Judicial Branch[edit]Abe Fortas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (D): resigned when he was discovered to be a paid consultant to a convicted criminal. No charges were ever filed. (1969)[339]1961–1963 John F. Kennedy Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Thomas F. Johnson (D-MD) In 1962, he was indicted on charges of members of Maryland's S&L industry bribing him and lost his seat. Later was convicted of conspiracy and conflict of interest in 1968, served 31⁄2 months of a 6-month sentence and was fined $5,000.[340]Frank Boykin (D-AL) Was placed on six months' probation in 1963 following conviction in a case involving a conflict of interest and conspiracy to defraud the government. His prison sentence was suspended on age and health grounds and was fined $40,000 total. He was pardoned by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.[341][342]1953–1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Richard Nixon (R): Eisenhower's V-P nominee delivers "Checkers Speech", to deflect scandal about $18,000 in gifts, maintaining the only personal gift he had received was a dog (1952)[343](Llewelyn) Sherman A. Adams, Chief of Staff to President Dwight Eisenhower. Cited for Contempt of Congress and forced to resign because he refused to answer questions about an oriental rug and vicuna coat given to his wife.(1958)[344]John C. Doerfer Republican. Appointed Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission by President Eisenhower. In 1960, he spent a week-long Florida vacation on the yacht owned by his friend George B. Storer, president of Storer Broadcasting; as a result, he was accused of conflict of interest and forced to resign.[345][346]Legislative Branch[edit]McCarthyism: A broad political and cultural purge against people suspected of sympathy with communism, starting near the end of World War II and reaching its climax in the investigations of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The Senate passed a resolution of condemnation against McCarthy in 1954 after an embarrassing investigation of the United States Army, ending his career, but anti-communist purges continued for several years.[347][348]Thomas J. Lane (D-MA) convicted for evading taxes on his congressional income. Served 4 months in prison, but was re-elected three more times[349] before his 1962 defeat due to re-districting. (1956)[350]Ernest K. Bramblett (R-CA) Received a suspended sentence and a $5,000 fine in 1955 for making false statements in connection with payroll padding and kickbacks from congressional employees.[351]Douglas Stringfellow (R-UT) Abandoned his 1954 re-election bid after admitting to embellishing his war record. Stringfellow falsely claimed to have been awarded a Silver Star and feigned paraplegia.[352]1945–1953 Harry S. Truman Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]A Justice Department investigation of the Internal Revenue Service led to the firing or resignation of 166 lower level employees causing President Harry Truman (D) to be stained with charges of corruption (1950)[353]Legislative Branch[edit]Walter E. Brehm (R-OH) convicted of accepting contributions illegally from one of his employees. Received a 15-month suspended sentence and a $5,000 fine.[354]J. Parnell Thomas (R-NJ): a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), was convicted of salary fraud and given an 18-month sentence and a fine, resigning from Congress in 1950. He was imprisoned in Danbury Prison with two of the Hollywood Ten he had helped put there. After serving his 18 months he was pardoned by Truman (D) in 1952,[355]Andrew J. May (D-KY) Convicted of accepting bribes in 1947 from a war munitions manufacturer. Was sentenced to 9 months in prison, after which he was pardoned by Truman (D) in 1952.[356]James Michael Curley (D-MA) was sentenced to 6–18 months on mail fraud and spent five months in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Truman (1947)[357]1933–1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Francis Henry Shoemaker (Farmer-Labor-MN) was sentenced to a year and a day in the penetentiary for sending scurrilous and defamatory materials through the mail. (1933)[358]Marion Zioncheck (D-WA) Killed after he jumped or was possibly pushed out a window in Seattle, WA while still in office. He was known to have been feuding with J. Edgar Hoover. (1936)[359]John H. Hoeppel (D-CA), convicted of trying to sell an appointment to the West Point Military Academy. (1936)[360]Judicial Branch[edit]Halsted Ritter (R) U.S. District Judge of Florida, impeached for secretly taking a $4,500 fee from a former law partner. Convicted of bringing the judiciary into disrepute (accepting free meals and lodging during receivership proceedings.) Removed from office. (1936)[361]1929–1933 Herbert Hoover Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Hiram Bingham Senator (R-CT) Censured for hiring a lobbyist employed by a manufacturing organization to work on his staff. (1929)[362]Harry E. Rowbottom (R-IN) was convicted in Federal court of accepting bribes from persons who sought post office appointments. he was given one year in Leavenworth.[363]1923–1929 Calvin Coolidge Administration[edit]George English (D) U.S. District Judge of Illinois, impeached for taking an interest-free loan from a bank of which he was director. Resigned before his Senate trial. (1926)[364]John W. Langley (R-KY) Resigned from the US Congress in January 1926, after losing an appeal to set aside his conviction of violating the Volstead Act (Prohibition). He had also been caught trying to bribe a Prohibition officer. He was sentenced to two years after which, his wife ran for Congress in his place and won two full terms.[365][366]Senator William Scott Vare (R-PA) was unseated on December 6, 1929, due to charges of corruption and fraud during his election.[367]1921–1923 Warren G. Harding Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Warren G. Harding (R-OH) President 1921–1923. His administration was marred by scandals stemming from men in his administration who followed him from Ohio who came to be known as the Ohio Gang.[368] They include;Albert Fall. Secretary of the Interior who was bribed by Harry F. Sinclair for control of the Teapot Dome federal oil reserves in Wyoming. He was the first U.S. cabinet member to ever be convicted; he served two years in prison. (1922)[369]Edwin C. Denby, Secretary of the Navy: resigned for his part in the Teapot Dome oil reserve scandal.[370]Harry M. Daugherty, Attorney General: resigned on March 28, 1924, because of an investigation about a bootlegging kickback scheme by his chief aide Jess Smith. Found not guilty. (1924)[371]Jess Smith aide to Attorney General Daugherty who destroyed incriminating papers and then committed suicide.[371]Charles R. Forbes appointed by Harding as the first director of the new Bureau of Veterans Affairs. After constructing and modernizing VA hospitals, he was convicted of bribery and corruption and sentenced to two years in jail.[372]Charles Cramer Forbes' general counsel, committed suicide. (1923)[373]Thomas W. Miller, Head of the Office of Alien Property: convicted of fraud by selling valuable German patents seized after World War I for far below market price as well as bribery. Served 18 months.[374]Legislative Branch[edit]Thomas L. Blanton (D-TX) censured for inserting obscene material into the congressional record. According toFranklin Wheeler Mondell (R-WY) the letter was said to contain language that was "unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene". A motion to expel him failed by 8 votes.(1921)[375]1913–1921 Woodrow Wilson Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Newport Sex Scandal: Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated an investigation into allegations of "immoral conduct" (homosexuality) at the Naval base in Newport, Rhode Island. After the report, which revealed nothing, the investigators themselves were also accused of homosexuality. (1919)[376]1909–1913 William Howard Taft Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]William Lorimer Senator (R-IL), The 'blond boss of Chicago' was expelled from the U.S. Senate in 1912 for accepting bribes.[377]Benjamin R. Tillman Senator (D-SC) and John McLaurin, Senator (D-SC) were both censured for fighting in the Senate chamber.[378]Ralph Cameron Senator (R-AZ) attempted to control access to the Grand Canyon by buying mining rights to adjacent lands. (1912)[379]Judicial branch[edit]Robert Archbald(R) U.S. Commerce Court Judge of Pennsylvania, for corrupt alliances with coal mine workers and railroad officials. Convicted and removed from office. (1912)[380]1901–1909 Theodore Roosevelt Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]John Hipple Mitchell Senator (R-OR) was involved with the Oregon land fraud scandal, for which he was indicted andconvicted while a sitting U.S. Senator. He died before sentencing.(1905)[381]Joseph R. Burton Senator (R-KS) was convicted of bribery in 1904 on the charge of illegally receiving compensation for services rendered before a federal department and served five months in prison. (1904)[382]Henry B. Cassel (R-PA) in 1909, Cassel was convicted of fraud related to the construction of the Pennsylvania State Capitol.[383]1897 - 1901 William McKinley Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Oregon US Federal District Attorney John Hicklin Hall (R) was appointed by President William McKinley. In 1903, Hall was ordered to investigate land fraud in what became known as the Oregon land fraud scandal and was put on trial for failing to prosecute land companies engaging in fraudulent activities, and for using his knowledge of illegal activities toblackmail his political opponents. On February 8, 1908, a jury found Hall guilty of the charges.(1907)[384] He was later pardoned by President William Howard Taft.[385]1881-1885 Chester A. Arthur Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Nehemiah G. Ordway (R) Governor of Dakota Territory was removed by President Chester A. Arthur after he was indicted for corruption. (1884)[386]1881-1881 James A. Garfield Administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Stephen W. Dorsey, Senator (R-AR) was included in the investigation of corruption of Star Route postal contracts under the administrations of President James A. Garfield (R) and President Chester A. Arthur (R). (1881)1877-1881 Rutherford B. Hayes Administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Ezra Ayres Hayt, Commissioner of Indian Affairs under Rutherford B. Hayes was forced to resign by Interior SecretaryCarl Schurz due to allegations of rampant corruption. (1880)[387]1869–1877 Ulysses S. Grant Administration[edit]Executive branch[edit]William Belknap (R), United States Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant(R): Resigned just before he was impeached by the United States House of Representatives for bribery. (1876)[388]Whiskey Ring: Massive corruption of Ulysses S. Grant's (R) administration involving whiskey taxes, bribery and kickbacks ending with 110 convictions. (1875)[389]Orville E. Babcock (R) personal secretary to Ulysses S. Grant who was indicted in the Whiskey Ring scandal and 10 days later in the Safe Burglary Conspiracy. He was acquitted both times.[389]John J. McDonald (R) Supervisor of the Internal Revenue Service. Convicted and sentenced to three years.[389]W.O. Avery Chief Clerk of the Treasury Department. Convicted.[389]Sanborn contract: kickback scheme between William Adams Richardson(R) Grant's Secretary of the Treasury and John D. Sanborn (1874)[390]Black Friday (1869): When financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market by getting Ulysses S. Grant's brother in law Abel Corbin to convince Grant to appoint General Daniel Butterfield as Assistant to theSecretary of the Treasury where he could then give them insider information. (1869)[391]George M. Robeson, Grant's Secretary of the Navy, was admonished by the House for gross misconduct and corruption in relation to his dealings with Alexander Cattel. (1876)[392]Salary Grab Act: The act that increased the salaries of the President, Congress and the Supreme Court. (1873)Columbus Delano Secretary of the Interior under Grant, resigned after allegedly taking bribes in order to secure fraudulent land grants.[393]Legislative branch[edit]Crédit Mobilier of America scandal:[394]Oakes Ames (R-MA) bribed Congress with Union Pacific stock.[395]James Brooks (D-NY) also implicated; both were censured for their involvement. (1872)[396]Judicial branch[edit]Mark Delahay (R) a U.S. District Judge of Kansas and cofounder of the Republican Party.[397] He was impeached by the United States House of Representatives on February 28, 1873 for "intoxication off the bench as well as on the bench",[398] He resigned two months later. (1873)1865–1869 Andrew Johnson administration[edit]Executive branch[edit]Andrew Johnson: President (I) Abraham Lincoln's vice-president, was impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act. He was acquitted by one vote. (1868)[399]1861–1865 Abraham Lincoln administrations[edit]Executive branch[edit]Simon Cameron (R): Lincoln's Secretary of War resigned in 1862 due to corruption charges. His behavior was so notorious that Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, when discussing Cameron's honesty with Lincoln, told him that "I don't think that he would steal a red hot stove". When Cameron demanded Stevens retract this statement, Stevens told Lincoln "I believe I told you he would not steal a red-hot stove. I will now take that back." (1860–1862)[400]Legislative Branch[edit]Senator James F. Simmons (R-RI) on July 14, 1862, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported corruption charges against him were correct and referred them to the full Senate for action. The Senate adjourned three days later without acting. Before it could reconvene Simmons resigned on September 5, 1862. [401]1857–1861 James Buchanan administration[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Preston Brooks (D-SC) caned Senator Charles Sumner until he was bleeding and unconscious while two others held the Senate off at gun point. (1856)[402]Daniel Sickles (D-NY) shot and killed the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia[403] Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key, whom the Congressman had discovered was having an affair with Sickles's young wife, Teresa. He was tried and acquitted in the first use of the temporary insanity plea. (1859)[404]1849–1850 Zachary Taylor administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]George W. Crawford (Whig-GA) Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Zachary Taylor (Whig) was the center of the Galphin Affair land scandal with the help of Reverdy Johnson (Whig) Attorney General and William M. Meredith(Whig) Secretary of the Treasury, in which Crawford defrauded the federal government of $191,353. (1849)[405]1829–1836 Andrew Jackson administrations[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Samuel Swartwout was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to the New York City Collector's Office. At the end of his term he had embezzled $1.225 million in customs receipts and used the money to purchase land. He fled to Europe to avoid prosecution.[406]Margaret O'Neill Eaton, the wife of Secretary of War John H. Eaton was a central figure in the Petticoat Affair which involved accusations that she had engaged in an extramarital affair, and her social ostracism by the wives of other Cabinet members led by Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun.[407]Legislative Branch[edit]Robert Potter: Congressman from North Carolina who resigned from Congress after castrating two men he believed were having an affair with his wife. (1831)[408] Later, in North Carolina, he was expelled from its legislature for cheating at cards or for pulling a gun and a knife during a card game. (1835)[408]1817–1824 James Monroe administrations[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]Corrupt Bargain: supposed bargain by John Quincy Adams with Henry Clay. (1824)[409]1801–1808 Thomas Jefferson administrations[edit]Executive branch[edit]General James Wilkinson: was appointed to be Governor of the upper Louisiana Purchase. He then conspired with Spain to get Kentucky to secede from the Union in order to allow shipping on the Mississippi to reach New Orleans. (1787–1811)[410]Aaron Burr: New Empire (Southwest) Burr conspiracy (1804–1807) In which Burr allegedly tried to seize a large part of the Louisiana Purchase and establish his own country. He was arrested for treason, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. (1807)[411]Aaron Burr: duel with Alexander Hamilton (1804). See also Burr's "New Empire" conspiracy[412]Judicial Branch[edit]Samuel Chase Supreme Court Justice appointed by George Washington impeached for political favoritism and acquitted in 1805.[413]John Pickering, Federal Judge appointed by George Washington was impeached and convicted in absentia by the U.S. Senate for drunkenness and use of profanity on the bench in spite of the fact neither act was a high crime or misdemeanor. (1804)[414]1797–1800 John Adams administration[edit]Executive Branch[edit]XYZ Affair: French seizure of over 300 US ships and demands for bribes and apologies, led to a Quasi-War causing the US Congress to issue the famous phrase, "Millions for defense, sir, but not one cent for tribute!" Real war was averted by treaty. (1798–1800)[415]Matthew Lyon (Democratic-Republican KY). First Congressman recommended for censure for spitting on Ralph Griswold (Federalist-CT). The censure failed to pass.[416] Also found guilty of violating John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts and sentenced to four months in jail, during which he was re-elected (1798)[417]1789–1796 George Washington administrations[edit]Legislative Branch[edit]William Blount Senator (Democratic-Republican-TN) Expelled from the Senate for trying to aid the British in a takeover of West Florida. (1797)[418]1777–1788[edit]Executive Branch[edit]Conway Cabal: movement or conspiracy to remove George Washington as commander of the Continental Army byThomas Conway and Horatio Gates (1777–1778)[419]Silas Deane: accused of mismanagement and treason while ambassador to France. Intending to clear himself of the charges he died suddenly, and the charges were eventually reversed or dropped. (1777)[420]

Terrible, his most noteworthy predictions are about dramatic sea level rise, polar ice melt by 2015 and the scorched earth from too hot temperatures by 2016.In every case Gore missed the boat by predicting a much hotter climate than reality. He became dubbed the ‘master of climate exaggerations ‘ as his award winning inconvenient video became a sham.Al Gore used apocalyptic fears to gain followers just like the end of the earth prophets have done from time immemorial. This site is a digest of the variety and constancy of this delusional group behavior.Failed Apocalyptic ForecastsModern temperatures have failed to rise as predicted by Al Gore and his fellow alarmists at the IPCC as the computer models do not represent reality.The early warming after the brutal cooling of the Little Ice age has now morphed back into global cooling.https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/04/the-rise-and-fall-of-central-england-temperatures-help-needed-to-find-missing-data/Doubt and skepticism is the only antidote to the terrible delusions and human folly relying on these fears. Hopefully Quora moderation will allow evidence of the mistruths of Al Gore to see the light of day.There’s this response on Twitter by Andy worth repeating as quote of the week:Climate predictions come in two types, those that failed to materialise and those that are yet to fail to materialise. So much fun.Surely the false predictions and media mischief about coastal cities sinking from 20 feet of rising seas is delusional fear mongering.Al Gore’s movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ says sea levels could rise up to 20 feet. Is this true?Asks Steve from FloridaRACHAEL RETTNER • DECEMBER 1, 2008“Some of the most memorable images from Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, are the graphics that show how rising ocean levels will dramatically alter our planet’s coastlines. As Greenland’s ice sheets collapse, Gore predicts that our shores will be flooded and sea-bordering cities will sink beneath the water leaving millions of people homeless. His narration tells the audience that, due to global warming, melting ice could release enough water to cause at 20-foot rise in sea level “in the near future.”Although he doesn’t give a clear time frame for the 20-foot sea level rise, Gore’s statement seems to contradict several recent reports, including one published in 2008, that predict much smaller rises during this century.”Al Gore's movie 'An Inconvenient Truth' says sea levels could rise up to 20 feet. Is this true? | Scienceline No.NASA confirms: Sea levels have been FALLING across the planet for two years … media SILENTWednesday, July 26, 2017 by: Mike AdamsTags: Al Gore, climate change, delusion, global warming, hoax, junk science, NASA, ocean levels, paranoia, satellite data(Natural News) As the global warming narrative unravels under revelations of scientific fraud, data alteration and faked “hockey stick” data models, the fake news media remains suspiciously silent over the fact that NASA now confirms ocean levels have been falling for nearly two years.On a NASA page intended to spread climate alarmism (https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/sea-level/), NASA’s own data reveal that world-wide ocean levels have been falling for nearly two years, dropping from a variation of roughly 87.5mm to below 85mm.These data, of course, clearly contradict the false narrative of rapid, never-ending rising ocean levels that flood continents and drown cities — a key element of the climate change “boogeyman” fiction that’s used to scare gullible youth into making Al Gore rich.Check out the sea level chart for yourself, showing the downward trend across 2016 – 2017:Even in the worst case, sea levels will only rise about a foot in a centuryReality check:MINIMUM Arctic sea-ice extent has been trending up over the past decade, and is most definitely not “ice-free”! The EXACT opposite of what Flannery, the press and ‘97% experts’ have been telling you :Ocean and Ice Services | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut | September Minimum ExtentARCTIC SEA-ICE VOLUME (September 2018)2.0 – 3.0 meter-thick sea-ice covered most of the Arctic basin during the 2018 summer minimum :DMI Modelled ice thickness | Sep 20, 2018ARCTIC minimum sea-ice volume has been increasing since 2007 :@KiryeNet キリエ on Twitter : “The Arctic has been refreezing for 12 years…minimum sea ice volume has been rising since 2007”TIM FLANNERY : Professor of Dud Predictions and Climate FalsehoodsGlobal warming alarmists might say this is only a “pause” in the rising ocean levels, and that the long-term trend is clearly in the direction of rising oceans. However, these people wildly exaggerate the degree of ocean level increases to the point of absurdity.I’m reminded of Al Gore’s ice free predictions that never came to pass.Source: Gore: Polar ice cap may disappear by summer 2014BAD NEWS ALARMISTS — OFFICIAL DATA REVEALS ARCTIC SEA ICE IS ONCE AGAIN GROWINGJANUARY 29, 2020 CAP ALLONAccording to official government data from the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Arctic Sea Ice is once again GROWING, with current 2020 levels exceeding 8 out of the previous 10 years.There is nothing catastrophic, alarming, or even a little worrisome about this data, and it comfortably puts to bed the “prophecies of doom” perpetuated on a daily basis across the western media. Very few MSM outlets have fact-checking as a top priority–there is a lot of grandstanding, of course, and paragraphs upon paragraphs on how science + consensuses have –for what would be first time in history– magically combined to deliver an unquestionable truth… HOWEVER, the blinkered exclusion of the below Arctic Sea Ice Extent graph from ANY mainstream climate article should leave you skeptical.the below Arctic Sea Ice Extent graph from ANY mainstream climate article should leave you skeptical.http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/Arctic sea ice extent in January 2020 is sitting ABOVE levels observed in the years 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2012 (record low extent), 2011, AND 2010.Can you imagine the likes of The Guardian, for example, ever running with this? The source of the data isn’t some hokey-pokey conspiracy site — it’s America’s NSIDC, who boast being backed-up by NASA–and they have satellites and shit. No, the exclusion of charts like these reveals an agenda, and it should ring alarm bells for those with even the weakest of BS detectors.Perhaps it’s as obvious as ‘doom & gloom headlines = highest click-rate’ (and therefore biggest $$$), rather than some sinister politicized push for world socialism. Or maybe it’s just that the majority of MSM editors are a bunch of woke, gullible hippies.Whatever the reason though –whether it be a callous money-grab or all the way up to some regrettable excuse for a rollout of globalism– it still involves cherry-picking, dishonesty, and fraud…The safest bet is to be your own fact-checker (as best you can), as “blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of the truth” — Albert Einstein.And you can start with the latest Arctic sea ice extent vs the 1981-2010 mean map below.Do 2020’s developments look in any way catastrophic to you…?ANOTHER [FAILED] ARCTIC SEA ICE PREDICTION COMES TO PASSNOVEMBER 18, 2019 CAP ALLONThe list of FAILED predictions claiming the Arctic would be devoid of summer sea ice has grown (yet again). Prof Peter Wadhams, of Cambridge University; and Prof Wieslaw Maslowski, of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California are the latest scientists left with egg on their faces.Back in 2007, Professor Wadhams, a self-professed leading expert on Arctic sea ice loss (a genuine field?), claimed that summer sea ice would be completely gone by 2013. However, by 2013, the reality was that levels were actually 25% higher than they had been when Wadhams made his claim.In 2012, I assume with the foresight that he was about to be proved wrong, Wadhams bumped his prediction up to 2016, a forecast supported by Professor Maslowski, who in 2013 published a paper in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences forewarning of an ice-free Arctic by 2016, plus or minus three years.Once again though, far from record lows, 2016 actually saw the quickest Arctic refreeze ever recorded, with the sea ice extent advancing 405,000 m2 (1.05 million km2) in just three weeks — the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) noted that that rate of refreezing was the fastest since its daily records began in 1987.That contradicting reality didn’t stop Professor Wadhams cashing in on his scaremongering, however. His book entitled A Farewell To Ice –in which he again repeated the assertion that the polar region would ice-free within just a few years– was published in 2016 to the predictably-blind critical acclaim of AGW propaganda rags such as The Guardian, among others…But now let’s be fair to Maslowski and his crystal ball, as this prof’s prophecies did give him some leeway; he had up-until 2019, remember–“ice-free by 2016, plus or minus three years“?So, how did the Arctic’s minimum sea ice extent look last summer (2019)?I’ll leave you with this one image (spoiler… it’s doing just fine):Sea ice concentration calculated at the University of Bremen from 89 GHz data of the AMSR2 sensor on the GCOM-W1 satellite; background: “Blue Marble” MODIS data from the NASA Earth Observatory; 1981-2010 sea ice contour from NSIDC: National Snow and Ice Data Center.The cold times are returning in line with historically low solar activity.NASA has recently revealed this upcoming solar cycle (25) will be “the weakest of the past 200 years,” and they’ve correlated previous solar shutdowns to prolonged periods of global cooling here.Another [Failed] Arctic Sea Ice Prediction Comes to Pass - ElectroverseGLOBAL WARMING SMACKDOWN! Tankers Trapped In Midsummer Arctic Sea IcePosted: June 30, 2018 | Author: Jamie Spry | FShipping in the Gulf of Ob is paralysed and the situation complicated, icebreaker company Rosatomflot says. | The Independent Barents Observer“THE global warming, which there has been so much talk about for such a long time, seems to have receded a little and we are returning to the standards of the 1980’s and 1990’s…”― Andrey Smirnov (Icebreaker company rep)Via The Barents Observer :It is late June, but the winter has not abandoned the Gulf of Ob. The shallow bay, which houses two of Russia’s biggest Arctic out-shipment terminals for oil and gas, remains packed with fast ice.It has created a complicated situation, Rosatomflot says. The state company which manages the Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers, confirms that independent shipping in the area is «paralysed» and that LNG carriers and tankers are stuck.The shipping companies had expected the Gulf of Ob to be free of ice in the course of June and that icebreaker assistance would not be necessary. They were wrong.According to Rosatomflot, there appears to be a need for icebreaker services in the area at least until after the first week of July. There are currently two nuclear-powered icebreakers in the Gulf of Ob, the «Taymyr» and the «Vaygach». In addition, there are several smaller tugs and icebreakers working in the waters around the Sabetta port.According to the icebreaker company, this is the first summer in four years that the Gulf of Ob is packed with this much ice.«The global warming, which there has been so much talk about for such a long time, seems to have receded a little and we are returning to the standards of the 1980s and 1990s,» says company representative Andrey Smirnov.Read on…*AND how we have been repeatedly promised the “end of summer Arctic ice” by the Climate Crisis Industry and sycophant mainstream media!HOW sure they were that your lifestyle and “carbon pollution” was melting away the Arctic and drowning cuddly Polar Bears!2007 : BBC claimed Arctic summers would be ice free ‘by 2013′…With or without icebreaker, Qajaq can't get through, says coast guard'We're battling ice conditions that we haven't seen in 30 years,' says Minister Steve CrockerCBC News · Posted: Mar 15, 2019 6:00 AM NT | Last Updated: March 15The MV Qajaq W is a refurbished European vessel, bought by the Newfoundland and Labrador government to replace the aging Apollo on the Strait of Belle Isle. (Submitted)The new ferry in the Strait of Belle Isle doesn't have the same horsepower as the old Apollo, so even with an ice breaker, it's risky to travel in this year's ice conditions, says the Canadian Coast Guard.But the province says this year's severe ice conditions are unprecedented, and even an icebreaker got stuck in the thick ice.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/qajaq-icebreaker-1.5056140The Siberian Times‏‪@siberian_timesFollowFollow ‪@siberian_timesMoreA glimpse into work of TransArctic2019 expedition, biggest research of high Arctic since 80s. J'list Natasha Kadyrova says: ‘Our ship gnawed into thick ice floe & froze to be moved along by wind & currents. 15 institutions -3 from Europe-sent teams 2 collect data from ice & water6:11 AM - 28 Apr 2019In June 2018, Arctic ice extent held up against previous years despite the Pacific basins of Bering and Okhotsk being ice-free. The Arctic core is showing little change, perhaps due to increased thickness (volume) as reported by DMI.The image above shows ice extents on day 195 (July 14) for years 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2018. Note this year ice is strong on both Russian and N. American sides. Beaufort Sea and Canadian Archipelago are solid. E. Siberian and Chukchi Seas are also solid, despite early melting in Bering Sea. Hudson and Baffin bays still have…View original post 224 more wordsShare this:◦TweetLikeICE, ICE BABY! Huge Expansion Of Thick Arctic Ice Over The Last Ten YearsPosted: July 11, 2018 | Author: Jamie Spry | Filed under: Al Gore, Alarmism Debunked, Alarmist media, Arctic, Climate models, Climatism, Dud predictions, Empirical Evidence, Fact Check, Failed Climate Models | Tags: Al Gore, Alarmism, Alarmist Media, arctic, Arctic Temps, climate, Climate Change, Dud Predictions, Empirical Evidence, failed climate models, Global Warming, Mainstream media, Mother Nature, nasa, nature, science, Sea Ice, Seth Borenstein | 2 CommentsYOU will not see this inconvenient empirical data anywhere on the climate-theory-obsessed mainstream media, because it’s good news about the Arctic, and that directly contradicts their relentless bombardment of doom and gloom about Arctic sea-ice and its purported “Death Spiral”.TO report the massive expansion of thick, multi-year ice that has built up over the past ten years threatens both media and alarmist scientists – egos, jobs, reputations and government (taxpayer) grant money…Via Tony Heller’s Real Climate Science :Scary Times For Climate AlarmistsPosted on July 10, 2018 by tonyhellerOcean and Ice Services | Danmarks Meteorologiske InstitutThere has been a huge expansion of thick ice over the last ten years.Al Gore’s 10-Year “Scorching” Prophesy Emerging As A Grand Hoax…Global Temperatures Declined Over Last DecadeBy P Gosselin on10. March 2014More an eight years ago Al Gore, according to Laurie David, prophesized that unless we acted immediately we had only “ten years left to save the planet from a scorching.” The ever skeptical Rush Limbaugh put up his countdown clock (see below) on January 27, 2006.Rush Limbaugh’s countdown to a scorching clock. Cropped from: www.rushlimbaugh.com/earth_cooksWith less than 2 years away to go to the prophesized “scorching”, now is a good time to check to see how much closer we have gotten to it temperaturewise – to see if we should be making plans to move up into the Arctic.What have global temperatures been doing since then? The chart shows: nothing!Chart: www.woodfortrees.org/If anything, the trend is showing a slight cooling and there are no signs of any “scorching” in sight.Conclusion: Al Gore’s prophesy has been nothing but a hoax. And because Al Gore continues to claim to the contrary, despite what the data show, and continues to profit by perpetuating the scare, he stands accused of defrauding the public.COMMENTSKevin Marshall 11. March 2014 at 12:09 AM | PermalinkWhat is even worse for global warming theory is that global CO2 emissions figures. According World Bank figures, global emissions of CO2 in billions of tonnes were1990 22.21995 23.22000 24.82005 29.72010 33.6That is 12% emissions growth in the 1990s, and 36% in the 2000s. Just as CO2 emissions took off, global warming paused or reversed. Based on the climate models, Al Gore was not exaggerating very much. It just shows the extent to which climate models run warm.CO2 emissions (kt)Al Gore’s 10-Year “Scorching” Prophesy Emerging As A Grand Hoax…Global Temperatures Declined Over Last DecadeFinancial Times Admits Gore’s Climate Movement Is Irrevocably RuinedBy P Gosselin on20. September 2011Share this...Simon Kuper of the Financial Times recently wrote a piece called Climate change: who cares any more?, which clearly reveals the frustration and growing resignation among warmists and how the climate cause is irrevocably ruined.As the hoax of climate catastrophe becomes increasingly exposed, it is being taken far less seriously today than back at the peak of the scare in 2007. For example Kuper describes how he felt when leaving a climate conference in Britain in 2007:I left feeling that if you were running a country like Britain in 2007, you probably thought climate change was the single overriding issue. Terrorism, immigration and even the economy were details by comparison.”My how the mightiest of scares have fallen. If that doesn’t confirm that Gore’s movement is lost, then nothing will. In his opening sentence Kuper himself admits to having given up on protecting the climate, realising it is a senseless endeavour:When someone offered me a trip to India, I said, “Definitely.” A couple of years ago I’d have fretted about the carbon emissions. But like almost everyone else, I have given up trying to prevent climate change.”Kuper however blames the failure of the movement on the bad economy and human resignation and apathy, claiming people are more worried about their own prosperity. But the reality is that the science behind climate catastrophe has fallen apart, and this is being made known to the public. The public is realising that all the hype over climate change was mostly a hoax perpetuated by a few select greedy interest groups out to make a ton of money. That’s why the public is turned off over the climate issue. It just isn’t a real threat any more.Now that the scientific data is getting analysed, people are realising it’s no longer necessary to worry about climate when deciding the direction of energy policy – because coal and other fossil fuels simply don’t have the destructive impact on the climate that was once hypothesized. The data simply doesn’t show it. Indeed while coal consumption globally increased 30% over the last 10 years, global temperatures have actually dropped.The blue line shows skyrocketing global coal use, yet global temperatures have fallen.Data source: Review of World EnergySo why would any country do something as stupid as cut back on cheap coal during cooling times? Especially when it would only lead to lots of people freezing to death.Kuper complains and appears baffled by the fact that the media have dramatically reduced their reporting on climate change. Come on Kuper, admit it: It’s not because people have resigned, it’s because people have woken up, and the phony climate catastrophe has since become a non-issue. Few are interested in it, andAl Gore’s 24 Hours of Reality clearly demonstrated the folly of crying wolf for the ten thousandth time. Now it’s all falling on deaf ears. Fewer people than ever now believe all the climate catastrophe hogwash. Recall how everyone saw through the whole charade and all the bias behind the reporting of Hurricane Irene, which exposed the desperation of the movement. I ask: just how stupid do you think the public is, Mr. Kuper?It is over.A better question is: How stupid can one possibly be not to see the man-made climate change charade, and to continue believing the obvious hoax of global climate catastrophe?No, it is not resignation by the public. It is an awakening. Rich and poor countries alike have opted to continue to do what they have been doing for thousands of years: ADAPT. As sea levels rise their usual 1 or 2 or 3 mm a year, people will simply take one or two or three steps back each century. That’s what they’ve always done as climate has always changed in the past.Al Gore’s Global Warming Deliberate Fraud to Increase Governmental Power1.9K386Blog/ClimatePosted Feb 14, 2019 by Martin ArmstrongThere is a serious question that no one wants to address. How did Al Gore create the global warming scare and earn hundreds of millions of dollars in the process? Before Al Gore, science was worried deeply about what we are experiencing today — global cooling. On April 28, 1975, Newsweek magazine published an article in which they sounded the alarm bell and proposed solutions to deliberately melt the ice caps:“Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting thearcticc ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing variables of climate uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies.”This sounds very similar to today’s proposed solution of putting particles in the atmosphere to deflect the sunlight to reduce global warming. Indeed,TIME magazine’s January 31, 1977, cover featured the cover story, “The Big Freeze.” They reported that scientists were predicting that Earth’s average temperature could drop by 20 degrees fahrenheit. Their cited cause was, of course, that humans created global cooling. Then suddenly the climate cycles shifted and it began to warm up.There was this core group of people who seemed to enjoy all the attention they were gathering by predicting the end of civilization caused by humans. As the temperatures began to warm, suddenly they had to switch the dire forecasts from global cooling caused by humans to global warming caused by humans.Al Gore came to the rescue. Global cooling meant that government should stockpile food for everyone, but that would cost money. Switching to global warming would create a different agenda that they were familiar with. Like smoking, they could tax it to HELP people. Of course, when they did stop and tax revenues began to decline, they introduced taxes on e-cigarettes and didn’t try to deter people from smoking.With global warming, they could tax everyone for things they did every day from driving a car to heating and cooling their homes. Suddenly, global warming was a lot more profitable for government than global cooling. The alarm bell stopped ringing that warned of a continued global cooling, seen between 1945 and 1968, that was creating a new Ice Age.Al Gore took the position of Vice President under President Bill Clinton. In that capacity, with Bill Clinton chasing women, Hillary became the de facto President and Al Gore was given free rein. No other Vice President enjoyed that power until Dick Cheney under George Bush, Jr.Gore set out to enact policies that would alter government and our future by placing humankind in harm’s way. Gore directed all funding to ensure that the climate change agenda became a top priority for the United States Government. Gore created the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. The Charter was revised on April 25, 1997, and the “Scope of Activities” was dramatically altered. Gore directed that the agenda was to be EXCLUSIVELY a global warming agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He claimed there would be NO DEBATE regarding the science behind the new agenda. Gore deliberately silenced all opposition.The President’s Council on Sustainable Development was to focus EXCLUSIVELY on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by adopting the U.S. economy to his agenda. The Council shifted from economic development to environmental development even though it would reduce economic development. Gore flipped the purpose of the Council to a global warming and then set about his agenda to create a crisis to increase government control and power. That can only happen when there is a crisis, which Gore then manufactured.To pull off the new agenda, Gore’s strategy set out to purge the government of anyone who disagreed or opposed his agenda in any way. He instilled, not the fear of God, but the fear of Gore throughout the high-ranking government officials in the agencies that included the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Department of Education, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Their funding would be cut unless they adopted Gore’s agenda.When physicist Dr. William Happer, who was the Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy, testified before Congress in 1993 in disagreement with Al Gore, he was instantly fired. Harper would later comment: “I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly.”Al Gore’s propaganda machine has been amazing. From the position of vice president, he changed the entire world while Bill was preoccupied with the line of girls waiting for their turn in the White House. His net worth exploded from $2 million to an estimated $300 million. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, even made him $24 million with its apocalyptic forecasts that are an embarrassment today. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, which is awarded not for peace, but whatever agenda they want to push at any given moment. He was awarded that prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”What is really astonishing is that Al Gore is neither a scientist nor a climatologist. Yet, Gore is considered the leading expert despite the fact that Gore’s climate change agenda was nothing but a fraud and deliberately imposed to increase government power.Categories: ClimateAl Gore's Global Warming Deliberate Fraud to Increase Governmental PoweSoftware Expert Exposes 30 Years Of ‘Totally Messed Up’ Climate Forecasts, Embarrassing NASA ScientistsBy P Gosselin on 29. June 2018A video released by software expert Tony Heller exposes 30 years of completely false predictions made by NASA “climate experts” and how the predictions have no more value than those from a swindling crystal ball fortune-teller of a traveling side show.When it comes to the climate debate, one could say he “floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.”Few skeptics are as hated and vilified by climate alarmists and global warming fraudsters as Tony Heller of Real Climate Science.One reason for the hatred is Tony’s voluminous stream of inconvenient climate facts and climate science fraud he exposes day after day at his Real Climate Science blog.Exposing false predictions and inconvenient climate historyAgain and again Heller, a software and programming expert, effectively and convincingly points out that none of the scary predictions made by climate alarmists and media have come true, and that today’s often claimed unprecedented weather extremes have in fact happened many times and long before – even 100 years ago or more when CO2 was low.As you are about to see, very often the OPPOSITE of what global warming alarmist “scientists” predicted years ago has in fact occurred.The degree to which the alarmist predictions have been wrong is nothing short of stunning.Video viewed tens of thousands of times in just daysThe latest is a 14-minute video that looks back at the past 30 years of totally failed climate predictions, many made by NASA scientist James Hansen when he testified before Congress in 1988 to warn the world of a coming climate disaster.The video is a must-see if you haven’t viewed it already, and is certainly one that ought to be sent to your political representatives, or friends and relatives.So far the video has viewed more than 33,000 views, and shows no signs of slowing down.Hansen warned in 1988 of huge droughts and heat waves plaguing the US soon in the future, but in the video Heller shows how temperatures and drought conditions were in reality far worse back in the 1930s and in 1988 than they are today.Hansen “dead wrong” about his drought forecastFor example in 1988, NASA’s Hansen warned that his climate models (primitive compared to today’s models which still don’t work at all) showed the US Midwest would get drier and droughts more and more severe as time went on.Yet, Heller presents a chart in the video that tells us the exact opposite has in fact happened since!Source: Cropped here.As Heller’s chart above shows, in the late 1980s it was very dry, but then almost immediately after Hansen’s testimony warning of more drought, it got wet again. Moreover the last 5 years have been particularly moist. The exact opposite of what Hansen predicted is in fact occurring today.Hot days have FALLENHansen also warned that the number of hot days above 90°F (32°C) would increase dramatically to 85 days a year in Omaha. Nebraska and Washington D.C.But in the chart Heller presents at the 7:30 mark of the video, we see that the opposite has happened (arrows in all charts added by author):Source: Cropped here.The number of days above 32°C for Ashland, Nebraska (near Omaha) have fallen over the past 20 years, and not risen as NASA’s James Hansen had forecast in 1988.Hansen also “completely messed up” his forecast of 38°C+ days for Beltsville, Maryland near Washington D.C. (7:52), Heller shows:The number of very hot days (38°C or higher) for the Washington D.C. area each year has declined instead of rapidly rising as NASA’s GISS Head James Hansen projected in 1988. Source: Cropped here.“Arctic ice has gotten much thicker over the past decade”Hansen’s predictions concerning the Arctic have turned out to be equally awful. Though the Arctic saw ice loss until about 2010, it has since rebounded robustly, which means that it has nothing to do with CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and more to do with natural cycles.Totally messed up forecastThe chart he presents at the 9:00 minute mark shows a comparison between 2008 and today. Heller notes: “Instead of getting much thinner, the ice has gotten much thicker over the past decade. [….] Arctic sea ice volume is the thickest since 2005. […] Hansen totally messed up that forecast.”Lake levels higher instead of lowerNext the experienced software expert looks at the levels of major lakes, which James Hansen said would drop to possibly dramatic levels. The reality today, however, is that they are higher!The Great Lakes did not dry up and see their levels sink. They increased instead. Source: Cropped here.The Great Lakes in the US are not drying out as Hansen predicted.Sea level forecast totally botchedNext NASA’s Hansen warned in 1988 that melting polar and glacial ice would lead to rapidly rising sea levels and so New York City would be partially under water by now (2018). Al Gore also made a similar prediction in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth.But as Heller points out, “Hansen completely messed up that forecast.” Nothing could be further from the truth, as the following chart vividly illustrates:Tide gauges for Lower Manhattan show sea level has barely risen since NASA’s Dr. James Hansen warned in 1988 the area would be under water by now. Source: Cropped here.NASA forecasts no better than fortune telling by swindling gypsiesIn a nutshell, these NASA forecasts have turned out to be no better than the junk fortunes peddled by swindling gypsies of a traveling sideshow. Any meteorologist with that kind of dismal forecasting track-record would have long found himself employed as a taxi driver.It’s time for NASA’s incompetent and fraudulent scientists to start looking for new careers and to stop wasting money and resources.Taxpayer’s deserve far better for their hard-earned tax dollars. We’re sick and tired of being defrauded and it’s time for President Trump to clean house.Posted in Stupid Predictions | 60 Responses60 responses to “Software Expert Exposes 30 Years Of ‘Totally Messed Up’ Climate Forecasts, Embarrassing NASA Scientists”YonasonYonason 29. June 2018 at 5:36 PM | PermalinkThe Data-Doctor……May succeed at manipulating the data, but reality remains unimpressed.Guardian: 205 Feet Of Sea Level Rise By 2095!Bitter&twistedBitter&twisted 29. June 2018 at 7:21 PM | PermalinkNever have so many been conned, by so few and for so much.AGW is the biggest fraud in history.Software Expert Exposes 30 Years Of ‘Totally Messed Up’ Climate Forecasts, Embarrassing NASA ScientistsThe next article is a very sobering and persuasive insight into how Al Gore used misleading science to create the alarmism movement with its climate emergency fantasy.How Al Gore Built The Global Warming FraudPosted on Sun 10/21/2018 by PA Pundits - International5By Paul Driessen ~Although his science is often seriously wrong, no one can deny that Al Gore has a flare for the dramatic. Speaking about climate change in an October 12 PBS interview, the former vice-president proclaimed, “We have a global emergency.” Referring to the most recent UN climate report, Gore claimed it showed that current global warming “could actually extend to an existential threat to human civilization on this planet as we know it.”Al Gore’s overblown rhetoric makes no sense, of course. Yet his hyperbolic claims beg the question: How did this all start?Back in the 1970s, media articles warning of imminent climate change problems began to appear regularly. TIME and Newsweek ran multiple cover stories asserting that oil companies and America’s capitalist life style were causing catastrophic damage to Earth’s climate. They claimed scientists were almost unanimous in their opinion that manmade climate change would reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.The April 28, 1975 Newsweek proposed solutions that even included outlawing internal combustion engines.This sounds very similar to today’s climate change debate – except, in the 70s, the fear was manmade global cooling, not warming.TIME magazine’s January 31, 1977 cover featured a story, “How to Survive The Coming Ice Age.” It included “facts” such as scientists predicting that Earth’s so-called average temperature could drop by 20 degrees Fahrenheit due to manmade global cooling. Dr. Murray Mitchell of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned readers that “the drop in temperature between 1945 and 1968 had taken us one sixth of the way to the next Ice Age temperature.”Global cooling gained considerable traction with the general public. But then, instead of cooling as long predicted by manmade climate change advocates, the planet started warming again. Something had to be done to rescue the climate change agenda from utter disaster. Enter Al Gore.Al Gore Sr., a powerful Senator from Tennessee, saw to it that his son was elected to the House of Representatives, serving from 1977 to 1985, then going on to the Senate from 1985 to 1993. Gore Junior’s primary issue was his conviction that the Earth would perish if we did not eliminate fossil fuels.Gore advanced to Vice President under President Bill Clinton, where he was able to enact policies and direct funding to ensure that the climate change agenda became a top priority of the United States Government. Gore’s mission was boosted when Clinton gave him authority over the newly created President’s Council on Sustainable Development.It will come as no surprise then that, when the Council’s Charter was revised on April 25, 1997, the “Scope of Activities” included the following direction to the Council:Advise the President on domestic implementation of policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Council should not debate the science of global warming [emphasis added], but should instead focus on the implementation of national and local greenhouse gas reduction policies and activities, and adaptations in the U.S. economy and society that maximize environmental and social benefits, minimize economic impacts, and are consistent with U.S. international agreements. The Council should, at a minimum, identify and encourage potentially replicable examples of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across diverse sectors and levels of society.Considering that the Council was tasked with advising the President “on matters involving sustainable development,” and alternative points of view on the science of climate change were effectively excluded, it was a foregone conclusion that the Clinton administration would go in the direction Gore wanted. Indeed, in their cover letter to the President accompanying their 1999 report, Advancing Prosperity, Opportunity and a Healthy Environment for the 21st Century, the Council stated: “Our report presents consensus recommendations on how America can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and take other steps to protect the climate.”A cornerstone of Gore’s strategy was to ensure that all high-ranking government officials who had any involvement with funding policies relating to climate change were in line with his vision. These agencies included the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, Department of Education, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.An example of his power was shown when physicist Dr. William Happer, then Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy, testified before Congress in 1993 that scientific data did not support the hypothesis of manmade global warming. Gore saw to it that Happer was immediately fired. Fifteen years later, Happer quipped, “I had the privilege of being fired by Al Gore, since I refused to go along with his alarmism. I did not need the job that badly.”Al Gore was also able to leverage his high visibility, his movie awards, his Nobel Prize, and his involvement in various carbon trading and other schemes into a personal fortune. When he ended his tenure as Vice President in 2001, his net worth was $2 million. By 2013, it exceeded $300 million.Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, provided a series of graphic images showing the apocalyptic consequences that some had predicted if fossil fuels were allowed to continue warming the planet. Images included melting glaciers, dying polar bears, spreading diseases, coastal cities inundated by massive floods, cities wiped out by hurricanes and tornadoes, and food supplies exterminated by droughts.This compelling propaganda played a major role in frightening an entire generation about the future, causing young people and many parents to feel guilty about the role that they and their country were supposedly having in destroying our beautiful planet.Since then, Americans have been told constantly that they should feel irresponsible if they drive cars or use fossil fuel energy to heat their homes or power their businesses. A rapid, massive conversion away from coal, oil and natural gas to renewable energy sources such and wind and solar, we are told, is the only hope for saving the planet.Now children are increasingly depressed about their future, thanks to the constant barrage of global warming propaganda that they receive at school. Indeed, they have become so brainwashed and cowed by their peers that they no longer dare to question any statement made about catastrophic climate change.Yet, essentially everything in Gore’s climate change agenda is either wrong or highly misrepresented.Now that he is President Donald Trump’s Senior Scientist for the National Security Council, Dr. Happer needs to show there is no “scientific consensus” on these issues, rekindle informed debate on climate and energy issues, and help bring hope, common sense and real science back into the discourse – to help end the dangerous mythology of dangerous manmade global warming.Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). He is also the author of Cracking Big Green and Eco-Imperialism: Green Power – Black Death.How Al Gore Built The Global Warming Fraud

Even if you don’t find all 546 of these acts reprehensible, if you don’t find .at least 300 of them disturbing, what kind of person are you?LEST WE FORGET THE HORRORS: A CATALOG OF TRUMP’S WORST CRUELTIES, COLLUSIONS, CORRUPTIONS, AND CRIMESTHE COMPLETE LISTING (SO FAR): ATROCITIES 1-546by BEN PARKER, STEPHANIE STEINBRECHER, and KELSEY RONABEFORE JANUARY 2017– 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.– March 30, 2011 – Donald Trump was a vocal proponent of the “birther” myth, claiming Barack Obama was not born in the United States. In 2011, Trump told Bill O’Reilly, “If you are going to be president of the United States you have to be born in this country. And there is a doubt as to whether or not he was… He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that. Or he may not have one. But I will tell you this. If he wasn’t born in this country, it’s one of the great scams of all time.” In response to the “birther” conspiracy theory, the State of Hawaii released Barack Obama’s short- and long-form birth certificate.– 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.– December 12, 2013 – Years after first stirring controversy about Barack Obama’s birthplace, Donald Trump implied a conspiracy surrounding the death of the Hawaiian State Official who had released Obama’s long-form birth certificate in 2011. Trump tweeted, “How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate” died in plane crash today. All others lived.”– May 27, 2015 – Continuing to build on the debunked “birther” conspiracy, Donald Trump said Barack Obama could have claimed Kenya as his birthplace for special treatment from colleges. Trump said, “There are three things that could happen. And one of them did happen. He was perhaps born in Kenya. Very simple, OK? He was perhaps born in this country. But said he was born in Kenya because if you say you were born in Kenya, you got aid and you got into colleges. People were doing that. So perhaps he was born in this country, and that has a very big chance. Or, you know, who knows?"– 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.”– June 16, 2015 – In the same speech announcing his candidacy, Donald Trump said, “I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Trump’s belief that Mexico should finance construction for the wall led Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel a meeting with Trump in June 2017, and again in February 2018. Peña Nieto has repeatedly said that Mexico will not fund the border wall.– 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.”– 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.”– 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.– April, 2016 – Jill Harth accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. In a 1997 lawsuit, Harth stated in court documents that Trump harassed and groped her in 1993. She later dropped the suit but stood by her story.– May 5, 2016 – For the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo, Donald Trump posted a photo of himself eating a taco bowl to Facebook and Twitter, captioned, “Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”– 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.”– May 2016 – Temple Taggart, former Miss Utah in the 1997 Miss USA pageant, claimed Donald Trump sexually harassed her. Taggart said that Trump, on multiple occasions, had kissed her on the lips without her consent.– June, 2016 – Cassandra Searles, Miss Washington 2013, accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct at the Miss USA pageant. Searles posted a photo of contestants with Trump on Facebook, saying, “One guy treated us like cattle,” and “proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property.”– 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.”– 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.– October 11, 2016 – Tasha Dixon, a former Miss Universe contestant, accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Dixon asserted that Trump walked into their changing room in 2001 while contestants were changing. On the Howard Stern Show in 2005, Trump said about the pageant, “I’ll go backstage before a show and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else. And you know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore, I’m inspecting it. You know they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that.”– October 12, 2016 – Mariah Billado, a former Miss Teen USA contestant, claimed that Donald Trump behaved inappropriately during the pageant. Billado said that in 1997 Trump walked into the changing room when contestants were not fully clothed. She is one of four former Miss Teen U.S.A. contestants to tell the same story of Trump’s sexual misconduct.– October 12, 2016 – Rachel Crooks claimed Donald Trump sexually harassed her. Crooks said that when she met Trump for the first time in 2005 while working as a receptionist for a company in Trump Tower, Trump would not let go of her hand and inappropriately kissed her.– October 12, 2016 – Jessica Leeds alleged Donald Trump made inappropriate sexual advances towards her. Over 30 years ago Leeds sat next to Trump on a plane, where he lifted the armrest, grabbed her breasts, and put his hand up her skirt. She described him as an “octopus,” saying, “his hands were everywhere.”– October 12, 2016 – Mindy McGillivray accused Donald Trump of groping her. McGillivray alleged that Trump touched her without her consent while she was attending a concert at Mar-a-Lago in 2003.– October 12, 2016 – Jennifer Murphy, a former contestant on the television show “The Apprentice,” said that Donald Trump kissed her without her consent after a job interview in 2005. She claimed that he had made multiple inappropriate comments to her while she was on the show and when she met with him later about job opportunities.– October 12, 2016 – Natasha Stoynoff, a journalist, accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. Stoynoff said that Trump insisted on giving her a tour of his Palm Beach estate while she was interviewing him and his wife, Melania. Trump pinned her to a wall and kissed her. Trump called her a “liar” and responded to Stoynoff’s story, saying, “Look at her… I don’t think so.”– October 13, 2016 – Lisa Boyne accused Donald Trump of sexual misbehavior. Boyne asserted that at a dinner in 1996, Trump and modeling agent John Casablancas paraded women in front of their table, looking under their skirts to determine whether each woman was wearing underwear.– October 14, 2016 – Kristin Anderson claimed Donald Trump groped her in the early 1990s. Anderson was at a club in Manhattan with friends when, she asserted, Trump reached into her skirt and touched her without consent, leaving her and her friends “very grossed out.”– October 14, 2016 – Samantha Holvey described Donald Trump’s sexual misconduct at the 2006 Miss USA pageant. While participating in the competition, Holvey noted that Trump inspected each contestant before the event. She noted, “He would step in front of each girl and look you over from head to toe like we were just meat, we were just sexual objects, that we were not people.”– October 14, 2016 – Summer Zervos, a former contestant on The Apprentice, accused Donald Trump of sexual assault. Zervos claimed that Trump assaulted her on several occasions, kissing and grabbing her, and during one business meeting, “began thrusting his genitals.”– October 15, 2016 – Cathy Heller accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Heller said she was having Mother’s Day brunch in 1997 at Mar-a-Lago when Trump grabbed her, tried kissing her, and became angry when she twisted away.– October 21, 2016 – Karen Virginia accused Donald Trump of groping her. Virginia described how she’d seen Trump with a group of men at the U.S. Open in 1998, and overheard him say about her “Hey look at this one!” and “Look at those legs.” After his comments, Trump approached Virginia, grabbed her by the right arm, and touched her breast. The incident lingered with Virginia for years, and she came forward with her story alongside Gloria Allred: “I now understand that I was not to blame. Mr. Trump, perhaps you do not remember me or what you did to me so many years ago, but I can assure you that I remember you and what you did to me as though it was yesterday," she said. "Your random moment of sexual pleasure came at my expense and affected me greatly.”– October 22, 2016 – Jessica Drake, an adult film actor and director, accused Donald Trump of inappropriate sexual contact. Drake said that Trump grabbed and kissed her without her consent at a charity golf tournament in 2006, then made further unwanted advances by inviting her to his suite. After Drake repeatedly declined his invitations, Trump asked her, “What do you want? How much?”– October 27, 2016 – Ninni Laaksonen, a former Miss Finland, alleged that Donald Trump had sexually harassed her. Laaksonen described an incident in which Trump groped her from behind in 2006.– 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 – One week after Trump’s election, 100 foreign diplomats gathered at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to drink champagne and tour the building. One diplomat told the Washington Post, “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” This indicated a conflict of interest that could have violated 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.”– 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.– 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.– End of December 2016 – In December of 2016, Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner, incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met at Trump Tower to establish a “line of connection.” The meeting occurred around the time that the Obama administration was placing sanctions on the Russian government for interfering in the 2016 election.- – -JANUARY 2017January 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 11, 2017 – Donald Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon stated that Trump would “voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotel to the United States Treasury.” Two months into his presidency, no evidence existed that Trump had followed through with this promise. If Trump did accept payments from foreign states through his businesses, as his lawyer claimed, he may have been in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. 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 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 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.”– 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 20, 2017 – Before his election, Donald Trump had promised to entrust management of his companies to his children. But on the day Trump took office as president, state officials still had not received paperwork demonstrating that Trump had relinquished ownership in his companies. In order to transfer his ownership stake, Trump would have needed to file documents with state offices in Florida, Delaware, and New York—the states where his holdings reside. State officials from all three states confirmed with ProPublica that they had not received the necessary documentation when Trump took office.– January 20, 2017 – Within hours of his inauguration, Donald Trump took aim at the Affordable Care Act in his first executive order as president. Following up on his campaign’s recurring promise to dismantle Obamacare, the order weakened the program by allowing states to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from or delay implementation of any provision or requirement” that would place a “fiscal burden” on the state.– January 21, 2016 – 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.”– January 22, 2017 – Donald Trump refused to release his tax returns to the public, both during the campaign and after his election. He is the first president in over 40 years to withhold his financial information from the American public. Upon Trump’s election, senior counselor Kellyanne Conway explained his refusal, saying, “The White House response is that he’s not going to release his tax returns… we litigated this all through the election. People didn’t care. They voted for him.” Donald Trump and his administration have justified his decision to break with historic precedent and keep his financial information from public scrutiny by saying that Trump is under a “routine audit” from the Internal Revenue Service. Officials from the IRS have clarified that an audit does not restrict a citizen from revealing their tax information.January 23, 2017 – Three days after Donald Trump took office, the Trump Organization filed paperwork confirming Trump’s resignation from over 400 companies. This suggests that, for his first three days as President of the United States, Trump was also an executive in over 400 private companies. When he did eventually file paperwork to relinquish his ownership, he still did not follow the advice of ethics experts by divesting from his assets—meaning Trump had visibility on his private business interests.– January 24, 2017 – Donald Trump signed executive memos to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, both of which had been blocked by Barack Obama. The Dakota Access inspired fervent protests from Native Americans and environmentalists, who asserted the proposed pipeline would taint drinking water and threaten sacred worshipping grounds. Speaking to a crowd of auto industry executives, Trump explained his decision to greenlight both pipelines, saying, “I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist… But it’s out of control, and we’re going to make it a very short process. And we’re going to either give you your permits, or we’re not going to give you your permits. But you’re going to know very quickly. And generally speaking, we’re going to be giving you your permits.”– January 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 25, 2017 – Following up on his campaign promise to crack down on immigration, Donald Trump signed an executive order to both bolster the United States deportation force and direct construction of a wall along the Mexican border. The executive order also expanded the definition of “priority for deportation” to include anyone charged with a criminal offense. Rather than requiring a conviction by a court, “priority for deportation” would henceforth apply to any “acts that constitute a chargeable offense”—including minor offenses such as traffic violations and shoplifting.– 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 25, 2017 – Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to withhold “federal funds, except as mandated by law” from so-called “sanctuary cities.” Sanctuary cities are municipalities where local police will not necessarily contact federal deportation officials if they find an arrestee is undocumented. Because they prevent reflexive deportation, these areas are considered shields against deportation for established undocumented immigrants. After Trump’s executive order to restrict federal funding, some sanctuary cities protested the order, saying they would not comply with deportation forces. Of the 168 counties where a majority of America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants live, 69 of them (including Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York) said they would not comply federal requests to hold undocumented arrestees for ICE deportation forces.– January 26, 2017 In advance of a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Donald Trump tweeted that, If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting. Peña Nieto canceled the meeting.– 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 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.– January 29, 2017 – Amid vehement backlash, Donald Trump aggressively defended his travel ban. Trump claimed that limiting immigration and refugees would protect the country from terrorists. He argued, “This is not about religion—this is about terror.” In the fifteen years since 9/11, jihadists have killed a total of 94 people on American soil; none of these jihadists came from the countries banned by Trump.– January 29, 2017 – Donald Trump ordered a raid in Yemen during which one Navy SEAL was killed, five American soldiers were wounded, and nearly 30 civilians died. The U.S. Central Command acknowledged that the civilian casualties “may include children.” A month later, U.S. officials announced the raid had yielded no new intelligence.– 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.– January 30, 2017 – Trump signed an executive order which instructed federal agencies to remove two regulations on private businesses for each new one added. The order also stipulated new rules should offset additional cost to businesses by eliminating regulations of equal or greater value to business bottom line.– January 31, 2017 – Almost a year after Antonin Scalia’s death left one seat vacant on the Supreme Court, Donald Trump nominated Colorado judge Neil Gorsuch to take Scalia’s place. Barack Obama had nominated Merrick Garland to the position in 2016, but Senate Republicans broke with historic precedent and refused to hold Garland’s confirmation hearings.– 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 2017– 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 1, 2017 – Trump and House Republicans rolled back an Obama-era regulation that required oil companies to provide purchasing information! when buying minerals from foreign governments. Concerned that oil companies would purchase oil from corrupt and violent foreign administrations, the SEC had originally said Obama’s regulation would “combat government corruption through transparency and accountability.” The repeal had long been on the oil lobby’s wish list, and will save oil industry giants about half a billion dollars per year in compliance costs.– February 2, 2017 – Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the Johnson Amendment, a law which restricted churches and other religious institutions from taking a public political stance while retaining tax-exempt status. When following through on his promised repeal proved legislatively difficult, Trump signed an executive order encouraging leniency on enforcement of the amendment.– February 3, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai rolled back an agreement with nine internet service providers that had encouraged ISPs to provide affordable internet access to low-income communities. This reversed the decision of Pai’s Obama-era predecessor, Tom Wheeler, and will remove a $9.25 per month credit for low-income households to purchase internet service.– 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 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 – The Republican-led House Administration Committee voted to eliminate the Elections Assistance Commission, which was the only federal agency charged with ensuring voting machines could not be hacked. Chairman of the committee Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Mississippi, stated the committee had “outlived” its usefulness to the nation. Only weeks prior to the EAC’s dissolution, Donald Trump claimed hacks of voting machines allowed 3 million of people to vote illegally in the 2016 election. No evidence exists to support this claim.– February 7, 2017 – In another rollback of Obama-era policies, the House voted to eliminate two regulations on American education: the Teacher-Preparation Rule, which ensured new teachers would enter classrooms fully qualified to teach; in addition to the School Accountability Act, which evaluated the quality of service American schools provided to their students and distributed funds accordingly. Civil rights advocates have explained that the latter rule was vital to providing education budget for low-income schools, and its removal could thereby harm funding for poorer areas of the country.– 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 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 7, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm Donald Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary. At the time of her appointment to lead the Department of Education, DeVos had no government experience and no experience working in public schools.– February 8, 2017 – Despite extreme opposition, the Senate confirmed Jeff Sessions as attorney general. Throughout his career as a lawyer and Alabama Senator, Sessions had opposed assurances for the voting rights of minorities, favored heavy criminal punishments for low-level drug offenders, and routinely attacked civil rights.– 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 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 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 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 9, 2017 – Donald Trump knew about Michael Flynn’s contact with a Russian ambassador for weeks before Flynn’s resignation as a national security adviser. Reportedly, the Justice Department warned Trump about their concerns with Flynn on January 26, 2017; Michael Flynn’s forced resignation did not arrive until February 13, more than three weeks later.– 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 12, 2017 – In a tweet from their official account, the Department of Education misspelled the name of W.E.B. Du Bois. In a follow-up tweet apologizing for the error, the Department of Education misspelled the word “apologies.”– February 12, 2017 – In a tweet from their official account, the Department of Education misspelled the name of W.E.B. Du Bois. In a follow-up tweet apologizing for the error, the Department of Education misspelled the word “apologies.”- 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 12, 2017 – After receiving news that North Korea had fired a ballistic missile (the first during Donald Trump’s presidency), Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe strategized during dinner in the main dining room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in full view of other diners.– February 13, 2017 – Less than one month after Trump took office, Michael Flynn resigned as national security adviser. His resignation followed the public revelation that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his contact with Russians. Contrary to what Michael Flynn had told Pence, Flynn had discussed Russian sanctions in a December meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.– February 14, 2017 – Kellyanne Conway told the press that Michael Flynn’s resignation had been voluntary. Just hours later, Sean Spicer said, “Whether or not he actually misled the vice president was the issue, and that was ultimately what led to the president asking for and accepting the resignation of General Flynn.”– 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 14, 2017 – The House Ways and Means Committee rejected a Democratic proposal requesting Donald Trump release his tax returns Under federal tax law, the chairman of the committee can request tax information from the treasury. Chairman of the committee, Republican Kevin Brady, declined to exercise that power in Trump’s case, citing invasion of taxpayers’ privacy rights.– 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.– 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 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 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.– February 16, 2017 – In the first two months of 2017, Republican lawmakers scheduled only 88 town hall meetings with their constituents. In 2015, by comparison, Republicans held 222 town halls during the same two-month period.– 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 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.– 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 20, 2017 – Donald Trump signed an executive order that instructed the Bureau of Land Management to lift a moratorium on new coal mining leases for federal land. A full 40 percent of the coal mined in America comes from federal property. In one such state-owned region, the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana, private companies produced coal that accounts for 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The Obama administration introduced the original moratorium on new mining leases to curb the environmental consequences of coal. Without renewal, the current leases would have allowed mining to continue as is for another 20 years; now, with Trump’s decision to permit renewed leases, that timeframe may extend much further into the future.– 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.– 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.– 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 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.– 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 25, 2017 – Donald Trump announced he would not attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Without further explanation, Trump tweeted, “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” The last president to skip the dinner was Ronald Reagan in 1981, who, at the time, had been recovering from an assassination attempt.– 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.– February 27, 2017 – In his first budget proposal, Donald Trump boosted defense and security spending by $54 billion. He proposed slashing the budget for non-defense spending in areas like education, science, poverty programs, and environmental protection by almost the same amount.– February 27, 2017 – The Justice Department dropped its long-standing claim that a Texas voter I.D. law discriminated against black and Latino voters. The announcement ended a 6-year period of opposition against the I.D. law, indicating the DoJ’s new priorities under Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration. Sessions has a history of favoring controversial views surrounding voter identity, once going so far as to say the Voting Rights Act—the landmark piece of federal legislation which protected equal voting rights for minority Americans—was “an intrusive act.” The new Texas voter I.D. law has long garnered criticism for imposing hurdles which disproportionately affect minority voters. In August of 2017, a federal judge granted a permanent injunction against the I.D. law, ruling that lawmakers had created it with discriminatory intent.– 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 2017– March 1, 2017 – The Justice Department reported: Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office. Sessions did not mention the meetings during his confirmation hearings. Moreover, Sessions had claimed under oath that he was unaware of any contacts between Trump surrogates and Russia.– March 2, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Justice Department’s ongoing Russia investigation after reports surfaced that he had two undisclosed meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The New York Times reported Donald Trump tried to convince Sessions not to recuse himself, and that he expected Sessions to protect him in the investigation.– March 2, 2017 – The Senate confirmed Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, as the new Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department handles a budget of around $30 billion and supports public housing for about 2.1 million people. Carson had no prior experience overseeing an organization on the scale of HUD, nor had he ever worked, in any capacity, on urban development or housing policy.– March 3, 2017 – In 2016, Jeff Sessions used Trump campaign funds for plane travel in order to meet Russian diplomats. During his confirmation hearing, the attorney general had sworn he did not meet with Russian representatives. When the meetings were uncovered, Sessions said he was traveling in his capacity as a senator—despite having his travel booked and paid for by Donald Trump’s campaign.– March 3, 2017 – The White House hired three former lobbyists to internal staff positions in agencies they had lobbied against, an act that violated ethical rules Donald Trump himself had but in place. Rather than banning recent lobbyists from official office entirely, as Obama had done, Trump issued an ethics pledge, which allowed lobbyists to join the federal government on the precondition that they promise not to influence any “particular matter” they had lobbied for in the past. Among the three lobbyists hired was George Burr, who Trump named to chief of staff for the Department of Labor. During his career, Burr had lobbied on behalf of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., opposing wage standards set by the Department of Labor and fighting Labor protections that would limit worker exposure to potentially deadly Silica dust.– March 3, 2017 – Trump eliminated an ethics course for incoming White House staff. The training would have instructed new staffers on ethical methods of interaction with Congress, private companies, and officials from the previous administration.– March 3, 2017 – It was revealed that as governor of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence used his personal email for state business. In March of 2017, Pence’s office announced the personal AOL email had been hacked, including information the State of Indiana deemed “confidential and too sensitive to release to the public.” Pence and the Trump campaign had previously attacked then-candidate Hillary Clinton for using a hacked private email address for confidential government work. In October of 2016, Pence tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump and I commend the FBI for reopening an investigation into Clinton’s personal email server because no one is above the law.”– March 3, 2017 – The Trump administration proposed significant budget cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among the largest funding reductions were for the NOAA’s programs monitoring climate change’s progression. The biggest single budget cut was made to NOAA’s satellite division, which reports on the speed of climate change’s progression. The satellite program had drawn Republican criticism after publishing a study in Science magazine that contradicted a favorite argument of climate change deniers and concluded the pace of climate change was neither “pausing” nor slowing down. In Trump’s proposed budget, this satellite program would lose almost 40 percent of its funding.– 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 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.– March 3, 2017 – The federal government spent $1,092 for an unnamed National Security Council official to stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for two nights.– 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.– March 7, 2017 – In order to fund Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, the Trump administration considered cutting budget from airport security and the Coast Guard.– March 7, 2017 – Donald Trump supported the House’s repeal-and-replace healthcare bill, in a potential violation of Trump’s campaign promise to provide “insurance for everybody” without raising insurance premiums or cutting Medicaid. A review by the Congressional Budget Office found the new bill would slash Medicaid, increase insurance premiums, and leave 21 million Americans uninsured by 2021.– March 9, 2017 – Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt said he did not believe carbon dioxide was a primary contributor to global warming. Pruitt’s statement contradicted a library of scientific evidence, including a 2009 study by his own agency which concluded carbon emissions were a leading cause of global warming.– 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 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.– Match 11, 2017 – Before becoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn was paid close to a half a million dollars to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government. After stepping into his new role with the federal government, Flynn stopped formally accepting payments from Turkey but seemed to promote policy favored by the Turkish government. On the day of the U.S. presidential election, Flynn published an op-ed in The Hill supporting Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Not only was Flynn’s critique in line with Erdogan’s wishes, but it was also a major reversal for Flynn; in 2016, Michael Flynn gave a speech supporting the coup against Erdogan.– 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 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 15, 2017 – After a Hawaiian federal judge blocked Donald Trump’s second travel ban, Donald Trump lashed out at the U.S. courts in a speech at a rally, calling the decision, “unprecedented judicial overreach.” U.S. District Judge Derek ruled that Trump’s Executive Order derived from “religious animus,” concluding, “a reasonable, objective observer—enlightened to the specific historical context, contemporaneous public statements, and specific sequence of events leading to its issuance—would conclude the Executive Order was issued with a purpose to disfavor a particular religion.” In the State of Hawaii’s argument against implementation of the ban, eleven instances wherein Trump publicly announced his intent to ban Muslims from entering America were cited as evidence supporting the ruling.– March 16, 2017 – Donald Trump’s budget proposal presented a 20 percent budget cut to the National Institutes of Health, the agency responsible for funding around one quarter of medical research in the United States. The dean of Baylor’s biomedical research school said the proposed budget, “would bring American biomedical science to a halt.”– 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 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.– March 22, 2017 – Rep. Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, publicly suggested Donald Trump and his associates were swept up in “incidental collection” of foreign surveillance" by American intelligence agencies. The night before his revelation on foreign surveillance, Nunes paid a visit to the White House. According to three committee officials, Nunes had been sharing a car with a senior committee staffer when he received a phone call and switched cars without explanation. Rep. Nunes was then seen entering the White House grounds (though the White House later claimed they were unaware of his presence). The next day Rep. Nunes held his press conference to announce the incidental surveillance on Trump. Another ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, said Nunes would need to “decide if he’s the chairman of an independent investigation… or if he can act as a surrogate for the White House.”– March 22, 2017 – Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, accepted $10 million per year for consulting Oleg Deripaska—a Russian billionaire and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. Manafort worked for Deripaska in 2005, and continued to do so “for years” after, before their relationship soured in 2014 when Deripaska alleged Manafort absconded with $18.9 million. At the time, Manafort was managing the presidential campaign in Ukraine for Putin associate Viktor Yanukovich, and Deripaska tried to invest in a television station owned by Yanukovich’s cronies. The money disappeared, or so alleged a filing from the Russian oligarch’s legal representation. Deripaska has since accused Manafort of fraud and pledged to recover the money. Manafort subsequently served as Trump’s campaign manager from May 19 through August 19, 2016.– March 22, 2017 – The Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding to cover Donald Trump’s travel and the Trump family’s protection. Half of this budget would be allocated to protecting Trump’s private residence at Trump Tower. The reason the Tower required such stringent security, at a cost of $26.8 million per year, was Melania Trump’s preference to reside there rather than the White House.– March 23, 2017 – When pressed on his fraught relationship with the intelligence community, Donald Trump ended a Time magazine interview by saying to the interviewer, “Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not. You know. Say hello to everybody, OK?”– March 28, 2017 – Donald Trump sought to slash $18 billion of federal funding from support for mental health, foreign aid, public housing, and other categories of discretionary funding. Among the many eliminated programs would be the McGovern-Dole International Food program, which provides meals to 40 million impoverished school children abroad. Trump planned to funnel the funding toward military spending and his proposed border wall.– 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 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.– March 29, 2017 – The Trump administration removed categories relating to sexual orientation and gender identity from the U.S. Census, preventing the government from collecting important data on LGBT populations. The Federal Policy Director at the William Institute said, “Without federal data on LGBT populations, the ability of federal, state, and local governments to make evidence-based public policy that also reflects the experiences and needs of LGBT Americans is significantly undermined.”– 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.– 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.– March 30, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of a bill that allowed states to withhold federal funding from Planned Parenthood. The Obama administration implemented the rule in December 2016 as a means of protecting Title X family planning grants, which support contraception and STD screening (but not abortion procedures). The law is another from the Obama era, among 15, repealed by Trump and congressional Republicans using the Congressional Review Act.– March 31, 2017 – One month before signing a bill that would allow drug companies to incentivize doctors, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price purchased $90,000 of pharmaceutical stocks affected by the decision.- – -APRIL 2017– April 1, 2017 – Michael Flynn received $45,000 from Russia Today, a state-sponsored Russian news channel famous for pro-Russian propaganda, in exchange for his speech at their annual gala. Flynn then failed to disclose the payment on his financial disclosure form submitted to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in February.– 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 3, 2017 – Donald Trump signed a bill eliminating rules that would have required internet service providers to ask consumer permission before sharing or selling private information. Though the rule only applied to broadband companies—leaving out internet data giants like Facebook and Google—the privacy law had been a first step at protecting consumer information online. The protections originated from the Obama administration, but had yet to take full effect when Trump and House Republicans repealed them. The privacy law was one among 15 other Obama-era regulations dissolved using the Congressional Review Act.– April 3, 2017 – Donald Trump stopped all funding for the UN Family Planning Agency, which supported women’s health and family planning efforts across the globe. In 2016 alone, American funding for the UNFPA prevented 100,000 unsafe abortions and 800,000 women from going without access to contraception.– April 4, 2017 – Donald Trump’s lawyer revealed the president could withdraw money from the Trump Organization’s underlying trust at any time. The intent of the trust was to prevent Trump from having financial access to his 400 businesses after inauguration. However, the language of the trust certification did allow Trump’s lawyer to “distribute net income or principal to Donald J. Trump at his request.”– April 4, 2017 – Using the Congressional Review Act, Donald Trump and members of the GOP rolled back an Obama-era law that required employers to keep accurate records of employee injuries. Worker advocates criticized the repeal, saying its absence would allow employers to manipulate injury numbers and conceal workplace hazards from regulators.– 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 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 5, 2017 – The EPA proposed budget cuts to a program that trained construction workers in removing toxic lead-based paints and educated the public on the dangers of lead exposure. In 2014, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found blood levels above the danger threshold in 243,000 American children. Thirty-eight million American homes contained lead-based paints in need of removal, while only 14 states had programs to pick up the slack on lead removal after the federal budget cut.– April 6, 2017 – In order to break a filibuster from Senate Democrats, Republicans fundamentally altered Senate voting procedure in order to force confirmation of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Before the change, Senate rules required 60 votes to confirm a new Supreme Court justice. After enacting the so-called “nuclear option” to overcome Democratic objections, that threshold dropped to 51 votes.– April 6, 2017 – The House Ethics Committee revealed Representative Devin Nunes was under investigation for possibly disclosing classified information without authorization. This followed an event on March 11, when Nunes exercised his powers as chief of the House Intelligence Committee to release sensitive information favoring President Trump just one day after Nunes discreetly visited the White House. In response to the new investigation, Nunes announced he would recuse himself from the House Intelligence Committee’s ongoing exploration of Russian intervention in the 2016 campaign. In his statement, he lashed out at the probe, saying it was “entirely false and politically motivated,” blaming, “several left-wing activist groups” for the investigation.– April 7, 2017 – Donald Trump ordered the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian base in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons attack on his own people. Assad’s attack killed approximately 100 Syrians—including an estimated 25 children. Eric Trump said Trump’s decision to launch the assault was strongly influenced by Ivanka Trump’s heartbroken response to Assad’s initial airstrike.– 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 7, 2017 – Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos received an unprecedented level of personal security, including supervision by federal marshals, which cost taxpayers about $1 million dollars per month. The last cabinet member protected by a federal marshal was the director of National Drug Control Policy, a position which fought drug-related violence and the import of illicit narcotics.– April 7, 2017 -The Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch took the seat left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Gorsuch’s confirmation came after Republicans refused to consider Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for eleven months—a nearly unprecedented act in itself. Then Republicans made the historic decision to alter the Constitution’s rules regarding the number of votes needed for Supreme Court confirmation to block Democrats from using the same tactic.– April 8, 2017 – A U.S. Navy strike group moved in range of the Korean Peninsula as a show of military force. The gesture further escalated tensions bordering on brinkmanship between Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un.– April 11, 2017 – While discussing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapon attack, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Adolf Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” during World War II. When reporters reminded Spicer that Hitler used chemical weapons to gas millions of Jews, Spicer replied, “he brought them into the Holocaust centers, I understand that.”– 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 12, 2017 – Education Secretary Betsy De Vos rolled back Obama-era protections put in place to help students with student loan payments. The Department of Education offered no immediate replacement of the protections against default. In the eight years before DeVos’s repeal, 8.7 million Americans had defaulted on their student loans.– April 12, 2017 – Budget director Mick Mulvaney said “letting people keep more of their money” is the most efficient way of allocating resources. According to Mulvaney, “wealth-transfers”—programs that redistribute money from rich to poor, such as food stamps and Medicaid—constitute “bad spending” and “misallocation of resources.”– April 13, 2017 – Donald Trump and congressional Republicans eliminated the rule that enrolled all newly hired federal employees in an Individual Retirement Account. The rule, implemented by Barack Obama, was rolled back using the Congressional Review Act.– April 14, 2017 – Donald Trump signed a bill that would allow states to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood.– 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 14, 2017 – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that he believes the United States should withdraw from the Paris Agreement!, a global initiative to address climate change. Nearly 200 countries have signed onto the Agreement. With the announcement, the United States and Syria became the only two countries to abstain from the agreement. (Nicaragua had initially held out for even stronger environmental protections.)– April 14, 2017 – Candice Jackson, the person responsible for investigating civil rights complaints for the Department of Education, once criticized Stanford University for “discriminatory programs” after finding the school had a tutoring program that offered study help to minorities. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appointed Jackson to the role of acting head for the department’s Office of Civil Rights. In this position, Jackson was tasked with leading a team of 550 people to handle about 10,000 complaints per year.– April 14, 2017 – In the wake of Donald Trump’s travel ban and “extreme vetting” of certain foreign arrivals, demand for international travel to the United States plummeted. Tourism Economics, a travel analytics firm in Philadelphia, estimated 2017 would see 4.3 million fewer international visitors than the year before—resulting in lost revenue of $7.4 billion.– 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 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 18, 2017 – After a federal judge from Hawaii ruled against Donald Trump’s travel ban placed on several Muslim-majority countries, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was “amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” could block the immigration ban.– 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 – After his inauguration, Donald Trump announced that within 90 days of his election he would appoint a team to investigate election interference and protect against future hacking. At 90 days from his oath to take office, no such team existed, nor was a plan in place to build one.– 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.”– April 21, 2017 – The Trump administration hired 25 people who were originally brought into the administration as temporary seat-fillers. By skirting formal announcement, these individuals entered the administration with little or no public notice. Five of the 25 people hired had direct ties to outside lobbying interests before joining the federal government.– 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 23, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions said DREAMers were subject to deportation, just like “everyone that entered the country unlawfully.”– April 24, 2017 – In a potential violation of federal law, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn failed to disclose a $33,000 payment from Russia on his financial statement for his federal security clearance. [SS4] The payment, originally from 2015, came for consulting work Flynn had done for Russia Today—a Russian television network with direct ties to the Kremlin.– April 24, 2017 – In the six months since Donald Trump’s election, the Anti-Defamation League reported anti-Semitic attacks had risen 86 percent. These attacks included grave desecrations, bomb threats, and assaults.– 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.– April 25, 2017 – Ekim Alpetkin, a Turkish businessman and Michael Flynn’s former client, long carried ties with the Russian government and Vladimir Putin himself before working with General Flynn. Alpetkin paid Flynn $600,000 just before Donald Trump appointed Flynn to his post as national security adviser for the new administration.– 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.– April 25, 2017 – At an event in Berlin, Ivanka Trump defended her father’s attitudes toward women. “I’m very proud of my father’s advocacy… He’s been a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive,” she said, to boos from the audience. She argued that the “thousands of women who have worked with and for my father for decades when he was in the private sector are a testament to his belief and solid conviction in the potential of women and their ability to do the job as well as any man.”– April 28, 2017 – The Environmental Protection Agency removed or altered all information about climate change on its website. The EPA claimed that this update sought to “reflect the approach of new leadership.”– April 28, 2017 – Reflecting on his first 100 days in office, Donald Trump said, “I thought this would be easier.”– April 29, 2017 – In a televised interview after North Korea launched a missile test, Donald Trump left the possibility of taking military action against the country open. When asked about possible military response to another nuclear test, Trump said, “I don’t know, I mean, we’ll see.”!– 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.– 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 2017– 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 1, 2017 – The White House moved to end funding for Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative, which educated young women and girls in developing countries.– May 1, 2017 – The Department of Agriculture terminated Obama-era standards supporting healthy school lunches. Among initiatives eliminated were rules to lower sodium content in lunches and limit consumption of high-calorie chocolate milk. According to the most recent CDC statistics, 1 in 5 American children is obese. Commenting on the Trump administration’s changes, the Department of Agriculture’s Sonny Perdue said, “I would not be as big as I am today without chocolate milk.”– May 1, 2017 – Donald Trump ended an interview when pressed for evidence to support his claim that Obama had illegally ordered surveillance of Trump Tower during the 2016 election. Responding to follow-ups from the reporter asking for proof, Trump said, “I have my own opinions. You can have your own opinions. OK, it’s enough. Thank you.” Trump’s claim of illegal wiretaps has been widely discredited, rebutted by both the FBI and the National Security Division.– 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 appointed Teresa Manning, a former anti-abortion activist, to lead Title X for the Department of Human and Health Services—a program that allocates funding for family planning to America’s low-income citizens. Teresa Manning was a lobbyist for the National Right to Life Committee, the nation’s oldest and largest pro-life organization.– May 2, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted that the country “needs a good ‘shutdown’,” and argued that Senate rules should be change in order to lower the number of votes needed to break a filibuster.– May 2, 2017 – During a CNN interview at a Women for Women International event in New York, Hillary Clinton blamed her election loss on a Russian meddling, a flawed candidacy, and FBI Director James Comey’s surprise announcement that the Bureau would investigate her emails just days before the election. Donald Trump took to Twitter to respond to her interview, posting Comey was, “The best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!” and the “phony Trump/Russia story was an excuse used by the Democrats as justification for losing the election.”– 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 4, 2017 – House Republicans narrowly passed a healthcare bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. In response, Donald Trump held a press conference in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate what had been his only major legislative victory to date. He said, “[I’ve] only been a politician for a short period of time. How am I doing? Am I doing okay? I’m president. Heh! Hey, I’m president!” The American Health Care Act eventually failed to earn enough votes in the Senate and did not pass into law.– 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.”– May 8, 2017 – The EPA announced it would not renew terms of employment for half of the scientists on its advisory board. These academics consulted the federal government on the scientific foundations and implications of new legislation. Among the committees affected would be the Board of Scientific Counselors, which evaluated whether scientific studies conducted by the federal government have met a sufficient standard of rigor.– May 8, 2017 – White House advisers began drafting an executive order which would unilaterally withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement. In an attempt to rescue NAFTA, White House officials broke with custom and called the office of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directly, requesting that he convince Donald Trump to reconsider. One Canadian official suggested the Americans’ unusual diplomatic move could have been “theater.” He followed up saying, “Maybe they’re just learning how to be a government.”– 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 9, 2017 – Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in the midst of the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Before his dismissal, Comey had been leading the federal investigation into Trump’s potential collusion with Russia during the 2016 election. Comey was speaking to a crowd of Bureau agents when he heard the news and initially thought the announcement was a prank.– May 10, 2017 – In the Oval Office, Donald Trump told the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian Ambassador to the United States, “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job… I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”– 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.”– May 11, 2017 – Donald Trump signed an executive order to form a task force that would review purported voter fraud. Despite not having evidence to prove his claim that millions of people voted illegally, he returned to the issues of voter registrations and “election integrity” repeatedly. Trump’s ongoing argument about illegal voting has been widely discredited.– 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 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 12, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions changed criminal charging policy, instructing federal prosecutors to pursue the “most serious, readily provable offense.”! This shift returned to prominence the mandatory minimum sentences that had been against policy during the Obama administration. The last time the Justice Department held prosecutors to this standard, the number of federal prisoners skyrocketed almost 30 percent in ten years—from 172,000 to 220,000.– May 12, 2017 – Morgan Lewis Tax Partners reviewed ten years of Donald Trump’s tax returns and reported that, with “a few exceptions,” he had no financial ties with Russia. After investigation of Morgan Lewis, the Guardian found the tax firm had been named Russia Law Firm of the Year by an industry publication which ranks law firms by region.– May 12, 2017 – The Environmental Protection Agency announced it would withdraw mining restrictions on Alaska’s headwaters, opening the door to a major mining facility in the area. This reversal came after an EPA study concluded the mine could decimate salmon populations in the area, and thereby harm native Alaskans whose culture depended heavily on salmon.May 12, 2017 – Donald Trump shared highly classified information with the Russian foreign minister and Russian ambassador at a White House meeting. The disclosure jeopardized the identity of a source that has infiltrated the Islamic State—an extremely sensitive piece of information. One U.S. official was quoted by the Washington Post as saying Trump had, “revealed more information to the Russian Ambassador than we’ve shared with our own allies.”– May 16, 2017 – A company called Summerbreeze LLC took out a $3.5 million mortgage on Paul Manafort’s home in Bridgehampton, New York. The company never filed the paperwork with Suffolk County to indicate who was accountable for the multimillion-dollar mortgage, nor did the company pay the $36,000 in taxes incurred by the agreement.– May 17, 2017 – Speaking to graduating cadets of the U.S. Coast Guard, Donald Trump said about himself , “No politician—and I say this with great surety—has been treated worse or more unfairly.”– May 17, 2017 – Shortly before Donald Trump took office, Michael Flynn discouraged White House officials from pursuing a U.S. military operation against the Islamic State which would have paired the United States with Kurdish forces. In May of 2017, McClatchy reported that Michael Flynn had been paid over $500,000 by the Turkish government, which had long been opposed to the United States allying with the Kurds.– May 17, 2017 – Before Donald Trump hired Michael Flynn as national security adviser, Flynn had told President Trump that he was under investigation for remunerated lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government. Trump appointed him anyway.– May 18, 2017 – Calling the Russia investigation a “witch hunt,” Donald Trump denied former FBI Director James Comey’s claim that Trump had asked Comey to end the investigation. Trump asserted, “There is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign.”– May 18, 2017 – Reuters reported the Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russian state officials or individuals with Kremlin ties during the final months of the 2016 election. Six of these 18 unreported contacts were direct calls to Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.– May 18, 2017 – White House Communications Director Mike Dubke resigned after just three months at his post, citing personal reasons. At the time of Dubke’s exit, Donald Trump was reportedly considering a bigger staff shakeup in the midst of a growing number of staff exits.– May 19, 2017 – Four months after his inauguration, almost 700 positions still remained empty at the Center for Disease Control. The vacancies appeared at every level—from administrative roles to scientific advisers to director-level positions.– May 21, 2017 – In an effort to balance the budget after billions of dollars in new defense spending, Donald Trump proposed slashing $1.7 trillion over the next ten years from programs supporting low-income Americans. Among the social programs to lose substantial portions of their funding in the proposal were food stamps (losing $193 billion) and Medicaid ($800 billion). According to statistics from 2018, 42 million Americans depended on food stamps and 68 million Americans had their healthcare covered through Medicaid.– May 22, 2017 – Due to the Trump administration’s ambiguity on the future of the Affordable Care Act, health insurance providers raised premiums substantially — some by as much as 50% — to account for the possibility that federal support may change at any time.– May 24, 2017 – Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said that poverty was “a state of mind.” The former neurosurgeon, now in charge of programs responsible for low-income housing, had previously said that low-income housing should not be a “comfortable setting that would make somebody want to say: ‘I’ll just stay here.’”– 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.– 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!”– May 29, 2017 – CIA Director Mike Pompeo said top-secret daily briefings must be short and filled with “killer graphics” to hold the attention of President Trump.– May 31, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Despite the negative press covfefe.” He offered no follow-up and never explained the incomplete thought or potential misspelling.– May 31, 2017 – The Trump administration created a new questionnaire for all visa applicants that asked applicants for their social media handles. The administration announced their intention was to examine the last five years of an applicant’s internet activity.– 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.- – -JUNE 2017– June 1, 2017 – Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, saying the global climate accord would “undermine our economy.” Signatories of the global pact promised to lower greenhouse gas emissions, in an international effort to keep global temperature below two degrees Celsius over the planet’s pre-industrial levels. Besides Nicaragua, which eventually signed, the United States and Syria were the only countries to reject the agreement.– June 1, 2017 – The Trump administration considered lifting Russian sanctions immediately after the inauguration, according to commentary from former State Department official Dan Fried.– June 1, 2017 – At the onset of hurricane season, leadership positions remained vacant for the NOAA and FEMA. These agencies are responsible for monitoring weather patterns incoming for natural disasters and addressing natural disaster recovery, respectively.– 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 5, 2017 – The U.S. Ambassador to China resigned from his position, citing Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement.– 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 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 6, 2017 – White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer announced that Donald Trump’s tweets are official statements from the president.– 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 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 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 14, 2017 – Officials announced that Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller would investigate Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. This was part of Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.– June 15, 2017 – Donald Trump selected the person who planned Eric Trump’s wedding to run federal housing for the city of New York. In her new position, Lynne Patton, who had also helped organize some of Trump’s celebrity golf events, would control a multibillion-dollar budget to manage housing for thousands of New Yorkers.– June 16, 2017 – In another rollback of a signature policy from the Obama administration, Donald Trump partially reversed Barack Obama’s effort to open diplomatic ties with the Cuba. Obama’s policy allowed American businesses and travelers to interact with Cuba for the first time in decades. Trump’s changes would “enforce the ban on tourism, enforce the embargo,” in response to what he called “the last administration’s completely one-sided deal with Cuba.”– June 16, 2017 – The White House sought to soften a bipartisan bill crafted to put new sanctions on Russia and limit Donald Trump’s power to alter sanctions in the future.– 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 19, 2017 – Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced he did not believe carbon dioxide causes climate change. This view contradicts numerous studies conducted by agencies like NASA, the EPA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.– June 19, 2017 – During a security clearance renewal process, Michael Flynn failed to disclose a business trip to the Middle East during which he represented Russian and U.S. business interests as they planned to build a series of nuclear reactors. Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland said of Flynn’s omission, “General Flynn’s actions are part of a broader pattern of concealing his foreign contact, payments, travel and work on behalf of foreign interests.”– June 20, 2017 – The Trump administration planned to cut more than 1,200 jobs from the EPA, shrinking the workforce by 15 percent while slashing the EPA budget by 31 percent.– 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 Policy– June 21, 2017 – Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tapped the CEO of a private student loan company to lead the Federal Student Aid program. This program handles $1.3 trillion in federal student loans for American citizens.– 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.– 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 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 27, 2017 – Scott Pruitt and the EPA rolled back Obama-era protections that ensured drinking water was clean and safe for consumption.– 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.– 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 30, 2017 – For the position of senior adviser in the Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, Donald Trump appointed an activist who led a campaign to restrict transgender access to bathrooms. Under the Obama Administration, the Office of Gender Equality supported LGBT empowerment both domestically and abroad. Bethany Kozma, the activist and new senior adviser, has said in the past, “With Trump, we now have a president who is focused on remedying the lawlessness of the previous administration.”– June 30, 2017 – Referring to the House’s passage of a second repeal-and-replace bill, Donald Trump tweeted, “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!” If Obamacare were repealed without an alternative to replace it, 32 million Americans would lose health care coverage.– 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.”– 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 2017– 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 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.– July 8, 2017 – After Donald Trump left his seat among other world leaders during the G20 summit in order to attend another meeting, Ivanka Trump took his place. Given that Ivanka is his daughter, a business owner, and an unelected figure in the White House, many questioned the propriety of her presence at the high-level diplomatic meeting.– July 9, 2017 – The New York Times reported Donald Trump Jr. “was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign.” Trump Jr. admitted to the meeting, saying he went because the Russian “might have information helpful to the campaign.” Reportedly he left the meeting disappointed, and didn’t uncover any useful information on Clinton.– July 12, 2017 – In defending his son after news surfaced that Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeated said again the Russia investigation is “"the greatest Witch Hunt in political history":.”– July 13, 2017 – Donald Trump told Brigitte Macron, the first lady of France, that she was "in such good shape,” during his first state visit to France as president.– 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.– 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.– July 21, 2017 – Sean Spicer resigned as White House press secretary after Donald Trump chose Anthony Scaramucci to serve as communications director. The Obama administration had three press secretaries in eight years, and each of them held their position for more than two years. Sean Spicer held the position for 182 days before quitting.– July 22, 2017 – In a call to The New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza, Donald Trump’s newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci ranted about White House staff in a stream of expletives and insults. Some of the highlights: Scaramucci called Chief of Staff Reince Priebus a “fucking paranoid schizophrenic;” he said of Steve Bannon, “I’m not Steve Bannon. I’m not trying to suck my own cock;” he threatened to fire the whole White House communications team; and he said of his federal financial disclosure, “They’re trying to resist me, but it’s not going to work. I’ve done nothing wrong on my financial disclosure, so they’re going to have to go fuck themselves.” Scaramucci was asked to resign the following week.– 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!”– 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.– July 26, 2017 – The Trump administration began the process of rolling back an Obama-era rule that would have allowed 4.2 million more people to qualify for overtime pay. Obama’s legislation lowered the salary threshold at which employees would be eligible for overtime pay. Under the original proposal, any worker making $23,660 per year and working over 40 hours would either have to have their hours cut or their salary raised. The state of Texas awarded a temporary injunction, so Obama’s policy never took full effect. Trump eliminated that possibility.– July 27, 2017 – White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus resigned.– July 29, 2017 – Donald Trump blamed China for remaining neutral amidst growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. His tweet came the day after North Korea tested a ballistic missile it claimed could reach the United States.– July 31, 2017 – New White House Chief of Staff John Kelly fired Anthony Scaramucci ten days into Scaramucci’s tenure as communications director.– July 31, 2017 – Donald Trump dictated a public statement on behalf of his son, Donald Trump Jr., regarding a meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. President Trump’s dictation stated the meeting "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” A subsequent release of Trump Jr.’s email thread on the topic indicated that the topic of the meeting was regarding Clinton and Russian support for Trump’s campaign.- – -AUGUST 2017– August 1, 2017 – The Trump campaign chose a noted white nationalist, William Johnson, to serve among California’s delegates for the next presidential election. Johnson leads the American Freedom Party, which operates with the stated mission of upholding “the customs and the heritage of European American People.” Johnson said after his appointment to the delegation, “I can be a white nationalist and be a strong supporter of Donald Trump and be a good example to everybody.”– August 2, 2017 – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided not to spend the $60 million allocated to the State Department for the express purpose of battling foreign propaganda, including disinformation campaigns from countries like Russia and China. One of Tillerson’s aides, R.C. Hammond, suggested a major influence in Tillerson’s anomalous decision to decline funding for his own department was an internal concern for the Kremlin’s sensitivity about addressing Russia’s media influence.– August 2, 2017 – Sam Clovis, Donald Trump’s nominee to be the top scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture, once ran a blog where he called progressives “race traders and race ‘traitors.’” A USDA spokesperson justified the choice saying, “All of [Clovis’s] reporting either on the air or in writing over the course of his career has been based on solid research and data. He is, after all, an academic.”– August 2, 2017 – During a single two-hour session in the situation room, White House officials said Donald Trump complained openly about his NATO allies, wondered aloud about how the U.S. could get a piece of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth, and then repeatedly argued the U.S.’s top general ought to be fired.– 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 7, 2017 – By August of his first year as president, Donald Trump had confirmed only 45 percent of his nominees to executive branch roles. This is a lower rate than his three immediate predecessors: at the same points in their presidencies, Barack Obama had confirmed 72 percent of nominees, George W. Bush had confirmed 71%, and Bill Clinton had confirmed 73%. Of the 577 executive branch positions deemed essential by the Partnership for Public Service, Trump had only successfully filled 20% of them.– 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 9, 2017 – VICE News reported that White House officials, including Reince Priebus and Sean Spicer, twice daily would deliver a folder to President Trump filled with positive news coverage and supportive tweets.– 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 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 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!”– August 14, 2017 – The Trump administration began rolling back emissions standards for America’s cars and light trucks. “We are moving forward with an open and robust review of emissions standards, consistent with the timeframe provided in our regulations,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. In 2012, Obama drafted a plan to raise fuel efficiency standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The newly announced review was the first step to repealing these standards, and reopened “questions that have already been asked and answered,” according to the policy arm of Consumer Reports.– 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 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 16, 2017 – Donald Trump abruptly dissolved the American Manufacturing Council and the Strategy & Policy Forum, tweeting “thank you all!” without further explanation.– 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 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 20, 2017 – The Trump administration ended a $400,000 federal grant for Life After Hate, an organization devoted to eradicating white nationalism and helping young people escape white supremacist gang membership. The grant money was awarded annually by the Countering Violent Extremism task force. Originally founded in 2011 by Barack Obama, the CVE task force sought to combat a wide range of violent ideologies—from white nationalism to Islamic extremism—and presented $10 million in grant money to nonprofits pursuing that mission. Among all the CVE grant recipients, Life After Hate was the only one addressing white supremacy. The Trump administration defunded the group at a particularly pivotal moment: Life After Hate has reported a 20-fold increase in requests to help young white nationalists since Trump’s election.– August 21, 2017 – Eight months into his presidency, the Secret Service exhausted the annual funding allocated to agents to protect the Trump family, mostly due to the frequency of the first family’s travels. By August 2017, more than 1,000 agents had already hit the federally mandated cap for salary and overtime allowances meant to last the entire year.– August 21, 2017 – In a nationally televised speech on strategy in Afghanistan, Donald Trump gave no indication of how many troops the U.S. would commit to war efforts, nor any criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of those operations. Trump warned that “a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for terrorists,” but gave no indication of the Pentagon’s definition of success or failure. He concluded the address by saying simply, “in the end, we will win.”- 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.– August 22, 2017 – During an Arizona rally, Donald Trump blamed American news media for the vehement public reactions after the white supremacist-led “Unite the Right” rally. He declared, “It’s time to expose the crooked media deceptions… the only people giving a platform to these hate groups is the media itself and the fake news.” Trump drew applause for trumpeting his upcoming pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who he said was “convicted for doing his job.” Arpaio had a reputation for illegally detaining Latinos on the suspicion that they were in the country without documentation. In July 2017, an Arizona judge convicted Sherriff Arpaio of criminal contempt for defying a court order to cease his practice of arresting Latinos based on their racial profile.– 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.-August 25, 2017 – Sebastian Gorka, White House Deputy Assistant to the President, was ousted from office. Trump gave no explicit reason for his departure, but one White House official wrote, “Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works in the White House.” Long seen as a controversial figure who was outspoken about his anti-Islamic views, Gorka had said publicly that white supremacists were “not the problem” in America. Gorka was a former editor at Breitbart News, aligning on many issues with fellow Breitbart leader Steve Bannon—who had been forced out of the White House one week earlier.– 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.’”– 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 2017– September 1, 2017 – Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, appointed by Donald Trump to lead investigations of voter fraud for the 2016 election, was a paid columnist for the alt-right website Breitbart while the voter fraud investigation was still underway.– September 4, 2017 – Donald Trump appointed Representative Jim Bridenstine to lead NASA, despite the fact that Bridenstine has said repeatedly he does not believe humans cause climate change. Among NASA’s many active projects are 27 missions= devoted to monitoring climate change.– September 5, 2017 – Donald Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, inviting Congress to take the necessary actions to offer its replacement. One of Barack Obama’s signature pieces of legislation, DACA protects against the deportation of nearly 800,000 young people who arrived in the United States as children. Trump gave Congress six months to act on his order before he would begin phasing out the DACA protections. Among Trump’s most oft-repeated arguments against the program is that DACA beneficiaries would take jobs from natural-born American citizens. Many economists vehemently disagree with Trump on this point, citing the fact that a) immigrants are more likely than natural-born Americans to start companies (employing new workers in the process), and b) the number of individuals retiring from the workforce will outpace the number of young people entering it by 55 million in 2020.– 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 7, 2017 – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called campus sexual assault enforcement a “failed system” and vowed to review the Title IX guidelines put in place by the Obama administration. DeVos claimed the current system “clearly pushed schools to overreach” by using “intimidation and coercion.”– 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.– September 14, 2017 – The Trump administration made plans to cut 92 percent of federal funding for grassroots groups that help Americans sign up for healthcare.– 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 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 20, 2017 – It was revealed in September of 2017 that Trump’s election campaign manager, Paul Manafort, had offered a “private briefing” to a Russian billionaire named Oleg Deripaska just two weeks before the election took place. Deripaska is one of the richest men in Russia, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, and a former client of Paul Manafort’s consultancy.– September 20, 2017 – Nicaragua announced it would soon sign the Paris Agreement to fight global climate change. After Nicaragua’s signature and Donald Trump’s withdrawal earlier in the year, only two countries in the world wouldn’t uphold the environmental accord—the United States and Syria.– 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.”– September 21, 2017 – Twenty-two of Donald Trump’s appointees to the Department of Agriculture had no prior experience with agriculture. Some even lacked a college degree. However, all 22 did work on the Trump campaign in 2016.– 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!”– September 22, 2017 – The Education Department formally rescinded legal instruction for universities that dictated how they should handle allegations of sexual assault. Six years earlier, in response to statistics that found 1 in 5 women were victims of sexual assault while in college, the Obama administration released the “Dear Colleague Letter,” which required federally funded schools to toughen their stance on sexual assault accusations. In practice, this meant victims of assault had more power during the legal process. Under the Dear Colleague Letter’s guidance, victims could appeal any not-guilty findings for further consideration, and schools were required to evaluate sexual assault reports according to a “preponderance of the evidence" (rather than the more burdensome “beyond a reasonable doubt”). Education Secretary Betsy DeVos claimed the letter had denied due process to accused individuals, choosing to scrap the instructions entirely, along with the new powers given to victims of sexual assault.– 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.”– September 26, 2017 – Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and previous chief of staff for former FBI Director James Comey, announced he would resign from his post because he did not believe Donald Trump had a moral grasp of justice. In an agency-wide memo he sent a month before his resignation, Rosenberg had said, “The President, in remarks delivered yesterday in New York, condoned police misconduct regarding the treatment of individuals placed under arrest by law enforcement. […] I write because we have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong.” The rebuke came after Trump had said to an audience of police officers in New York, “When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon—you just see them thrown in, rough—I said, please don’t be too nice.” He continued, “Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over? Like, don’t hit their head, and they’ve just killed somebody—don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, OK?” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed the president’s statement had been a “joke.”– 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 2017– October 4, 2017 – The Trump administration denied endangered species protection for 25 highly imperiled species. Among them were seven animals—the Pacific walrus, Florida Keys mole skink, Bicknell’s thrush, Kirtland’s snake, the northern Rockies population of fisher, Nevada springsnail, and Big Blue Spring Cave crayfish—whose habitats were gravely threatened by climate change.– October 3, 2017 – EPA director Scott Pruitt’s schedule showed he held near-daily meetings with oil lobbyists, automobile company executives, and other industry leaders, while making almost no time for environmental advocates. The New York Times reported that, in the first half of May, “Mr. Pruitt met with the chief executive of the Chemours Company, a leading chemical maker, as well as three chemical lobbying groups; the egg producers lobby; the president of Shell Oil Company; the chief executive of Southern Company; lobbyists for the farm bureau, the toy association and a cement association; the president of a truck equipment manufacturer seeking to roll back emissions regulations for trucks; and the president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.”– October 4, 2017 – The House Homeland Security Committee approved a $15 billion dollar bill to fund Donald Trump’s border wall and employ border patrol. While most in Washington saw this as a publicity stunt—seeing as the bill had very little chance of garnering the 60 votes needed from the Senate in order to pass—the proposal was likely a negotiation tactic for the ongoing conversation about the Dreamers program.– 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, andspoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”– October 6, 2017 – On Wednesday, October 4, 201, the official FEMA website listed two statistics quantifying slow recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. According to FEMA, only 50 percent of Puerto Ricans had access to drinking water nearly one month after Hurricane Maria had struck land, and 98% of Puerto Ricans were still without electricity. By the morning of Thursday, October 5, the statistics had been deleted from the website. When reached for comment amid uproar about the removal, a FEMA spokesperson offered no explanation for the change. By Friday afternoon, amid an uproar about the censorship, the figures had returned to the site.– 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 5, 2017 – For the second most powerful position at the Environmental Protection Agency, Donald Trump nominated Andrew Wheeler, a long-time coal lobbyist who had served as legal counsel for some of the largest coal mining companies in America.– 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 5, 2017 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a memo saying the Civil Rights Act would no longer protect transgender workers from employer discrimination.– October 6, 2017 – The Trump administration released a mandate reversing an Obama-era protection on employees’ right to employer-provided birth control. Under Trump’s new mandate, employers could cite religious objection as grounds to withhold free birth control from employee health care plans.– October 8, 2017 – In exchange for an extension to the Dreamers program:, Trump demanded funding for his border wall, a massive increase in border security personnel, more stringent qualifications for asylum-seekers, and a moratorium on federal grants for “sanctuary cities.”– 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 9, 2017 – Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt moved to repeal the Clean Power Act, introduced by Obama to lower carbon dioxide emissions 32 percent by 2030. Trump and Pruitt had long seen the act as an attack on coal mining jobs and reversed the environmental regulations as a gesture to the coal industry. In spite of the many well-publicized pieces of legislation Trump has influenced in order to create more jobs for coal miners, employment in the industry has grown just 4 percent since he was inaugurated. To put the size of the coal mining industry in perspective, the industry as a whole employs about 65,000 people nationally—about 1/5 the number of Americans employed in solar energy alone.– October 9, 2017 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told a crowd at the Kentucky Farm Bureau that he would like to remove all tax credits given to wind and solar energy. “I’d let them stand on their own and compete against coal and natural gas and other sources.” The subsidies for renewable energy were meant to stimulate development and use of new energy technologies. Thus far, the subsidies have already had a measurable impact. Berkeley National Laboratory found that oil and coal that we avoided burning between 2007 and 2015 equated to saving between 3,000 and 12,500 premature deaths in eight years. Beyond the health and environmental advantages of subsidizing new sources of energy, Pruitt also ignored the question of whether the oil and coal industries could ‘stand on their own’ without federal support. The fossil fuel industries have received about $20 billion dollars annually in federal tax subsidies.– 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 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 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 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 11, 2017 – In the EPA’s four-year strategic plan covering Donald Trump’s tenure in office, the term “climate change” did not appear once in the document’s 33 pages.– October 12, 2017 – Donald Trump scrapped a healthcare subsidy that helped low-income Americans with out-of-pocket expenses at the time of treatment. In addition to endangering citizens who cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket, the elimination of subsidies could cause insurance premiums to rise even further, as insurance companies would need to cover the difference. Insurance premiums had already risen almost across the nation since Trump took office, spiking 27 percent for Californians, 30.6 percent for Pennsylvanians, and 44 percent for Idahoans.– 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 12, 2017 – White House Chief of Staff John Kelly was overheard in numerous shouting matches with Donald Trump, underscoring ongoing rumors of chaos within the White House. In a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing, Kelly responded to inquiries about his job status saying, “I’m not quitting today. I don’t believe, and I just talked to the president, I don’t think I’m being fired today. And I’m not so frustrated in this job that I’m thinking of leaving.” Kelly went on to add, “Unless things change, I’m not quitting, I’m not getting fired, and I don’t think they’ll fire anyone tomorrow.”– October 13, 2017 – Donald Trump nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the Council on Environmental Quality, which advises the White House on environmental policy. Before her position on the council, Kathleen Hartnett White worked on the Texas Public Policy Foundation where she authored a paper that included this sentence: “Whether emitted from the human use of fossil fuels or as a natural (and necessary) gas in the atmosphere surrounding the earth, carbon dioxide has none of the attributes of a pollutant.” She also wrote a 2014 paper that argued, “global warming alarmists are misleading the public about carbon dioxide emissions.”– 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.”– October 13, 2017 – Donald Trump announced he would decertify the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program and instead consider new sanctions on Iran. Meanwhile, the UK, France, and Germany—other signatories on the initial agreement—all announced they would remain “committed” to the original pact.– 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 16, 2017 – The EPA changed the rules on what constitutes a “dangerous” amount of radiation, multiplying by 10 the threshold set by Obama.– October 18, 2017 – Donald Trump thanked @TEN_GOP on Twitter when the account posted, “We love you, Mr. President.” The @TEN_GOP profile, which had 150,000 followers and described itself as “the Unofficial Twitter of Tennessee Republicans,” was the most influential Russian account on Twitter before its suspension.– 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.– October 20, 2017 – The EPA deleted resources from its website that provided information to local governments on steps they could take to help address climate change. One example was an EPA site titled “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments” being renamed “Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments,” with 15 mentions of “climate change” being removed from the home page alone.– October 21, 2017 – The families of four fallen American soldiers received rush-delivered UPS messages from Donald Trump after he stated in a phone interview that he had contacted “virtually all” Gold Star families.– October 22, 2017 – The EPA canceled speaking engagements for three agency scientists who had been scheduled to present findings on the effects of climate change. An agency spokesperson offered no explanation for the abrupt cancellation.– 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!”– 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.– October 23, 2017 – Myeshia Johnson, the widow of a fallen US soldier, said Donald Trump forgot her husband’s name when calling to console her. On Twitter, Trump denied the Gold Star widow’s allegations, saying he had said her husband’s name without hesitation.– October 24, 2017 – Vice President Mike Pence helped Republicans in the Senate win a tie-breaker to defeat a new piece of legislation that would have made Wall Street more accountable to consumers. The law itself would have enabled citizens to form class-action lawsuits against large financial institutions. The rule had been in the works for five years, and was born out of the 2008 financial crash as a means of giving consumers more leverage in legal battles against massive banks. In response to the Senate’s vote, the Director of the Consumer Bureau said, “Tonight’s vote is a giant setback for every consumer in this country. As a result, companies like Wells Fargo and Equifax remain free to break the law without fear of legal blowback from their customers.”– 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!”– October 26, 2017 – After Donald Trump gave the go-ahead for the Keystone XL pipeline project, he pledged that he would require the pipeline be made of American steel. He backtracked on that promise, allowing foreign steel as a primary material for the pipeline. The steel industry has suffered under Trump’s leadership, and total imports of foreign steel rose 24 percent in his first year as president.– October 26, 2017 – Instead of declaring the opioid crisis a “national emergency,” Donald Trump announced the he would officially label the epidemic a “national public health emergency.” The distinction is that a “national emergency” would trigger access to FEMA’s disaster relief funds, amounting to millions of dollars in aid. Instead, Trump’s decision to designate the American opioid epidemic a “national public health emergency” allowed access to only $57,000 in emergency funding.– October 26, 2017 – The Government Accountability Office announced it would investigate Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission after concerns that they may be misusing federal funds. The commission had met only twice since its inception, and had not released any information on its work—including its methodology for uncovering voter fraud or measures it had taken to prevent fraud in the future. The claim that illegal voting swayed the 2016 popular vote had been a talking point for Trump, despite having been widely discredited.– October 29, 2017 – According to analysis by The Daily Beast, 50 percent of Donald Trump’s nominees for Senate-confirmed positions held significant conflicts of interest. The review of Trump’s 341 nominations also found 63 had lobbied actively in the industries they were to oversee, and 11 received direct payments from companies in the industries they were nominated to regulate.– October 30, 2017 – Before the election in 2016, a college professor contacted Donald Trump aid George Papadopoulos to tell him the Russians had harmful information on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos eventually pled guilty to lying when FBI investigators asked him about the conversation in October of 2017. At the time, Papadopoulos’s proven contact was the most direct evidence that the Trump campaign had knowledge of Russia’s ability and intention to help them sabotage Clinton’s campaign.- – -NOVEMBER 2017– November 2, 2017 – Donald Trump’s nomination for chief scientist at the Department of Agriculture, Sam Clovis, announced he would bow out of consideration for the position due to concerns about “political climate inside Washington.” Clovis had recently been swept up in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which had turned its attention to Clovis’s contacts with Russia during his time as a Trump campaign aid. Clovis had hired George Papadopoulos to the Trump campaign, and was likely implicated when Papadopoulos admitted he had spoken with Russian entities about the Clinton campaign. Outside of the investigation into his relationship with Russia, Clovis almost no scientific experience. Prior to joining the Trump campaign as co-chair, Clovis had taught Business Administration and policy at Morningside College in Iowa.– November 2, 2017 – In a statement during the NBC television program Meet the Press, Energy Secretary Rick Perry seemed to suggest that fossil fuels could lower rates of sexual assault. Perry asserted that Africa lacked access to electric light, and said, “But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts. [sic]”– November 2, 2017 – When asked about the many vacant leadership positions in the State Department, Donald Trump replied, “I’m the only one that matters, because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be. You’ve seen that, you’ve seen it strongly." By November of his first year, Trump had yet to hire 75 percent of the State Department positions that require Senate approval.– November 7, 2017 – Syria signed the Paris Agreement, an international accord to globally address climate change. This left the United States as the only country in the world to not agree to the environmental pact, after Donald Trump had withdrawn earlier in the year.– November 8, 2017 – Donald Trump appointed Eric Trump’s brother-in-law to be the chief of staff for the Department of Energy.– November 8, 2017 – Donald Trump marked the one-year anniversary of his election to the presidency by tweeting about his victory. Below a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up, Trump wrote, “Congratulations to all of the “DEPLORABLES” and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory!”– November 9, 2017 – The US Foreign Service lost an unprecedented number of diplomats during Trump’s first year in office. Three of the Foreign Service’s five career diplomats—the highest rank for a diplomat in the U.S.—left their post during Donald Trump’s first year. On the level below career diplomat, career ministers, 14 of the active 33 submitted resignations. Beyond the mass departures at their highest levels, the Foreign Service has also reported a steep drop-off in the number of young people joining the diplomatic ranks. In 2015, over 17,000 people applied to enter the foreign service; in 2017, that number had been cut in half.– November 9, 2017 – While in Asia, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Elaine Duke, the acting head of the Department Homeland Security, to pressure her into denying residency permits for tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the U.S. Duke refused Kelly’s request and granted the permits anyway, making the decision based on her interpretation of what was in line with the United States law. One DHS official familiar with the situation said, “She was angry. To get a call like that from Asia, after she’d already made the decision, was a slap in the face.”– November 11, 2017 – Despite escalating tensions with North Korea, Donald Trump tweeted, “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend — and maybe someday that will happen!”– November 15, 2017 – After a mass shooting in northern California, Donald Trump appeared to copy-and-paste an earlier tweet from a different attack and forgot to change the city. Though the shooting occurred in Rancho Tehama, California, Trump tweeted, “May God be with the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI and Law Enforcement has arrived.”The Sutherland shooting had occurred one week earlier. In his condolence tweet for the Sutherland attack, Trump tweeted, “May God be w/ the people of Sutherland Springs, Texas. The FBI & law enforcement are on the scene.”– November 16, 2017 – After the public revelation of former senator Al Franken’s sexual assault scandal, wherein Franken was photographed groping a female soldier, Trump tweeted, “The Al Frankenstien [sic] picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps? …..” Trump has been accused by several women of sexual misconduct and assault.– November 16, 2017 – The Trump administration denied a large number of applications from prospective Dreamers on the grounds that they were “late.” At least 20 of these applications arrived in time and were ignored as they sat in the mailbox for processing. After reporting by The New York Times and Vox on the issue, the Trump administration announced they would reverse their verdict and consider these applications.– November 17, 2017 – The FCC announced it would repeal 42-year-old regulations that limited media mergers and prevented media conglomerates from growing too powerful. The repeal came at a convenient time for the Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative pro-Trump media group that is already the largest broadcasting company in America. Sinclair had been trying to buy Tribune Media for some time, but, in order to do so under FCC law, would need to divest a sizable share of its local news channels. With the FCC’s update to Ownership regulations, Sinclair’s hurdles disappeared. As of August, Sinclair’s television broadcasts already reached 72 percent of American homes.– November 17, 2017 – The Keystone Pipeline, which is the sister project of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline approved by President Trump, spilled 210,000 gallons of oil near the border of South Dakota and North Dakota. The oil spill resurrected concerns about the environmental impact of the new XL pipeline, which had been the subject of fervent protest before Trump decided to greenlight the project.– November 18, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Crooked Hillary Clinton is the worst (and biggest) loser of all time. She just can’t stop, which is so good for the Republican Party. Hillary, get on with your life and give it another try in three years!” In the first year of his presidency, Trump tweeted about Hillary Clinton 77 times, an average of once every 4.7 days.– November 19, 2017 – Donald Trump publicly feuded with LaVar Ball, who is the father of a UCLA basketball player, after Ball’s son was arrested for shoplifting in China during a team trip. Trump reportedly called Chinese President Xi Jin Ping and requested LaVar Ball’s son’s release. Ball disparaged Trump’s role in freeing his son, saying, “Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.” Trump retaliated over Twitter, writing, “Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!”– November 20, 2017 – The Trump administration chose to end the Temporary Protected Status program for 59,000 Haitians, forcing them to leave the United States by July 2019 or face deportation. After the Haitian earthquake in 2010, millions of Haitians lost their homes. A massive outbreak of Cholera endangered hundreds of thousands more during recovery from the hurricane. In 2011, the Obama administration deemed the situation in Haiti precarious enough to grant Temporary Protected Status to Haitians staying in the U.S., allowing these Haitian citizens to live in the U.S. while conditions remained dangerous in their homeland. Obama renewed their TPS status multiple times during his time in office, through his final year when Hurricane Matthew decimated the island again. After Trump decided to end the Temporary Protected Status program in his first year, Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote over Twitter, “I traveled to #Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and after hurricane Matthew in 2016. So I can personally attest that #Haiti is not prepared to take back nearly 60,000 #TPS recipients under these difficult and harsh conditions.”– November 20, 2017 – “Donald Trump took steps to close his charitable organization one year after he had promised he would. The organization explained that they could not shut earlier because they were technically still under investigation for “self-dealing”—a prohibited practice where the owner of a charitable organization secretly funnel money from the charity into their own bank account. Trump violated this rule in 2015.– November 24, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “Time magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man (Person) of the Year,” like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo-shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!” Time magazine eventually awarded Person of the Year to the women of the #MeToo movement.– November 27, 2017 – At a speech to Native American veterans of World War II, Donald Trump digressed to reference Elizabeth Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry, saying to the veterans, “I just want to thank you because you’re very, very special people. You were here long before any of us were here, although we have a representative in Congress who, they say, was here a long time ago. They call her ‘Pocahontas.’ But you know what, I like you because you are special. You are special people.”– November 27, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted, “We should have a contest as to which of the Networks, plus CNN and not including Fox, is the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me). They are all bad. Winner to receive the FAKE NEWS TROPHY!”– November 29, 2017 – Donald Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the ultranationalist hate group Britain First. Fransen, who has a long history of posting Islamophobic content on social media, was found guilty in 2016 for aggravated harassment of a Muslim woman. In response to one of the videos, “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches,” the Dutch embassy in Washington tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump Facts do matter. The perpetrator of the violent acts was born and raised in the Netherlands.” U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May joined worldwide condemnation of Trump’s retweets, saying, “It is wrong for the president to have done this” and explaining Britain First spreads “hate-filled narratives to peddle lies and stoke tensions.”– November 29, 2017 – Donald Trump tweeted about the Republican tax bill, saying, “The only people who don’t like the Tax Cut Bill are the people that don’t understand it or the Obstructionist Democrats that know how really good it is and do not want the credit and success to go to the Republicans!” He had cited the tax bill as a way to “RESTORE AMERICAN PROSPERITY – and RECLAIM AMERICA’S DESTINY” in another tweet on the same day. The Senate’s tax bill will not benefit the majority of Americans and provides massive tax cuts to the wealthy.- November, 2017 – As of November 2017, Donald Trump was confirmed to have played golf 35 times. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Trump repeatedly chastised Obama for playing golf. At the same point in his presidency, Barack Obama had played 11 times.– November, 2017 – After CNN published a report on the Libyan slave trade in November, media outlets in Libya doubted the authenticity of CNN’s reporting, calling on CNN’s reputation for reporting “fake news.” This marked a growing global trend whereupon one of Donald Trump’s frequent catchphrases has caught on and been used as a defense against negative press coverage elsewhere in the world.- – -DECEMBER 2017– December 4, 2017 – Following allegations that Roy Moore, a candidate for Alabama senator, had sexually abused teenage girls, Donald Trump endorsed Moore’s campaign for Senate.– December 6, 2017 – Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced plans to move the US Embassy to the holy city. Admonitions immediately sprung up from around the international diplomatic community. The European Union’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, said peace in the region was extremely precarious, adding, “We believe that any action that would undermine these efforts must absolutely be avoided.”– December 13, 2017 – White House adviser Omarosa Manigault-Newman left her position in Donald Trump’s administration, amid a swirl of speculation about the cause for her departure. She later said, “It has been very, very challenging being the only African American woman in the senior staff.”– December 13, 2017 – Donald Trump retaliated over Twitter when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand spoke out on behalf of the women who have accused Donald Trump of sexual harassment. Trump tweeted: “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”– December 14, 2017 – Led by Donald Trump appointee and former Verizon Counsel Ajit Pai, the FCC voted to repeal net-neutrality regulations.– December 14, 2017 – For all official documents, staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were instructed not to use the terms “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” or “science-based.”– December 20, 2017 – As of December 20, 2017, Donald Trump had tweeted about “fake news” or “fake media” 176 times—roughly once every two days for a year.– December 22, 2017 – Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law. The legislation, which costs $1.5 trillion, cut the corporate tax rate to its lowest point since 1939, temporarily lowered tax rates for individuals, and repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. While economists were split, often along party lines, about the effect of the tax cut, Goldman Sachs’ chief United States political economist, Alec Phillips, said, “We note the effect in 2020 and beyond looks to be minimal and could actually be slightly negative.”– December 23, 2017 – Trump renewed leases for copper and nickel mining next to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, a protected wilderness area. The wilderness contains over 100 species of birds and an active fishery, and, in a finding last year, the Department of the Interior concluded mining could cause “serious and irreplaceable harm.” Various parties with interests in the mining leases had been actively lobbying Trump administration officials. Shortly after Trump took office, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with lobbyists from Twin City Metals—a subsidiary of the Chilean mining company Antofagasta PLC. Andronico Luksic, a lead executive at Antofagasta PLC, also rents a home in Washington D.C. to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.– December 27, 2017 – On December 27, 2017, Donald Trump stated that he had signed more legislation than any president since Truman. Almost the opposite is true, according to public record. Through his inaugural year, Trump has signed the fewest pieces of legislation for any president since Eisenhower.– December 28, 2017 – With an uptick in cold temperatures on the east coast during December 2017, Donald Trump tweeted the U.S. could “use some good old global warming.” Trump has repeatedly misunderstood the difference between “weather” and “climate.”– December 28, 2017 – Trump rolled back offshore drilling regulations put in place after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill which, in 2010, had killed 11 people and released millions of barrels of oil into the ocean. It’s estimated Trump’s decision to eliminate the regulations will save drilling companies $288 million over the next decade.– December 29, 2017 – In 2017, Donald Trump spent nearly one-third of his time in office at a property that bears his name or that his company owns.- – -JANUARY 2018– January 1, 2018 – Representative Devin Nunes sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein indicating that the House Intelligence Committee would be expanding its investigation to include the Justice Department’s handling of the Russia investigation. Nunes’s announcement included a request for access to the documents of the ongoing investigation. This statement arrived about one month before the release of the infamous Nunes Memo, and was likely a precursor to its release.– January 2, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”– January 2, 2018 – After months of lambasting journalists and attacking the press as “fake news,” Donald Trump tweeted to announce “THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR,” where “subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media.”– January 4, 2018 – The Trump administration drafted a proposal to open 94% of previously protected American shorelines to offshore drilling. The plan, entitled the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft Proposed Program, would distribute the first drilling leases for the California coast in 49 years, while also adding nearly a billion acres of new drilling area in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard. Trump’s plan would be the single largest expansion of offshore drilling in American history. The Obama administration had spent about five years and hundreds of millions of dollars to lay down protections for the Arctic and Atlantic Seaboards in 2015 and 2016. Of the 22 governors representing coastal states effected by the new proposal, 15 of them disagreed with the president’s plan to open drilling (1/3 of these dissenting governors were from the Republican party). In an article on the threat the new drilling would pose to the environment and marine wildlife, the Director for Federal Affairs at the National Resources Defense Council called Trump’s proposal, “the most extreme fossil fuel assault on our nation’s public oceans—ever.”– January 4, 2018 – Donald Trump dissolved his commission on voter fraud in the 2016 election. The commission found no verifiable evidence of voter fraud.– January 8, 2018 – A study by Factbase’s Bill Frischling found that Donald Trump speaks at a fourth-grade level. After evaluating Trump’s speech patterns and vocabulary on the Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale, Factbase determined Trump communicates at the lowest level of any president since Herbert Hoover. (Herbert Hoover actually spoke at an eleventh-grade level; Factbase’s study didn’t analyze any president from before 1929.) The fourth-grade competency discovered by Frischling resonated with another review nearly three years earlier conducted by the Boston Globe. The Globe had analyzed the verbal fluency of all presidential candidates based on their statements during presidential debates. Their review determined Trump’s language was the least sophisticated of all 19 candidates—including both Democrats and Republicans. Mirroring the results of the Factbase study in 2018, Trump’s verbal fluency during 2015 presidential debates equaled that of a fourth grader.– January 11, 2018 – According to an account of an immigration meeting with members of Congress, Donald Trump allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and nations in Africa as “shithole countries.” In regard to the 60,000 Haitian immigrants sheltered in America following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Trump purportedly said, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?” Trump followed this saying that the U.S. should admit more people from places like Norway, and that he would accept more Asian immigrants because he believed them to be beneficial to the economy.– January 14, 2018 – Taylor Weyeneth, a 24 year-old whose only professional experience after college was as a staffer for the Trump campaign, was assigned the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The agency helps lead anti-drug campaigns for the federal government, which include the herculean task of addressing the American opioid epidemic. After the chief of staff for the ONDCP left the agency, the director of the agency announced in a memo that the chief of staff’s duties would fall to Wyeneth and himself.– January 16, 2018 – The Daily Stormer, a virulent white supremacist website, wrote that they found Trump’s policies “encouraging and refreshing,” and “Trump is more or less on the same page as us with regard to race and immigration.”– January 17, 2018 – In January of 2018, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels announced that she had an affair with Donald Trump in July of 2006 after a celebrity golf tournament. Just four months before Trump’s infidelity with the porn star, President Trump’s wife Melania had given birth to Barron Trump. Daniels said she and Trump met several times after their first encounter. Then, a few weeks before the 2016 election, Donald Trump’s lawyer paid Daniels a sum of $130,000 to keep her affair with Trump from public knowledge.– January 18, 2018 – Donald Trump appointee Carl Higbie, Chief of External Affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service, resigned after racist, sexist, anti-Muslim, and anti-LGBT comments he made on the radio surfaced due to reporting from CNN’s KFile. Higbie had said, “I’m not afraid of [Muslim people]. I don’t like them. Big difference,” and, “the black race” had “lax” morals.– January 18, 2018 – The Department of Health and Human Service opened the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, which had the stated goal of protecting doctors who cited religious objections against providing their patients with medical care.– January 19, 2018 – Donald Trump’s administration’s turnover rate was setting records. In Trump’s first year in office, 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired, or moved into different positions, according to a report from the Brookings Institution.– January 20, 2018 – As of January 20, 2018, Donald Trump had spent 94 days as president at one of his golf properties.– January 25, 2018 – The New York Times reported that Donald Trump had ordered the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller in June 2017. White House counsel Donald McGahn refused to carry out Trump’s order, threatening to step down if the president followed through on it. McGahn disagreed with Trump’s reasoning and worried that firing Mueller would suggest the White House was trying to derail the Russia investigation. After hearing McGahn’s threat to leave, Trump backed off.– January 29, 2018 – White Supremacist propaganda on college campuses tripled in 2017, according to research conducted by the Anti-Defamation League. These instances varied from hanging banners adorned with swastikas to a full-fledged private speaking event—held on the campus of UC San Diego—called “A Brighter Future” which distributed pamphlets regarding “The Color of Crime” and “Protecting Our Heritage.”– January 29, 2018 – Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee voted to disclose Representative Devin Nunes’s memo on the purported surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign by the FBI and Department of Justice. Donald Trump Jr. and members of the Trump administration supported the Committee’s decision, while others suggested this was an attempt to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into the collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia (See entry 136 for more on the relationship between Nunes and Trump).– January/February 2018 – Responding to the pending release of the Republican-generated Nunes memo and its alleged revelations about surveillance of the Donald Trump campaign by the FBI, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said, “I think the people at the FBI, at the DOJ need to cleanse their own house if there are problems in their own house,” claiming that, “there’s a very legitimate issue here as to whether or not an American’s civil liberties were violated in the FISA process. Members of the Trump administration like Donald Trump Jr. also spoke to the memo’s allegations of FBI wrongdoing, later calling its release “sweet revenge” for the Trump family.– January 30, 2018 – Donald Trump’s appointee for Director of the CDC, Brenda Fitzgerald, was found to have personally profited from investments in the tobacco industry.– January 31, 2018 – Donald Trump’s first State of the Union Address received public praise from known white supremacists like David Duke and Richard Spencer. Following the speech, Spencer tweeted, “Trump said that he wants to maintain the “nuclear family” by ending chain migration. Basically, he’s implying the superiority of the Prostestent [sic] “wife and kids” over the South American and African extended family. Interesting rhetoric.”- – -FEBRUARY 2018– February 2, 2018 – Donald Trump declassified and publicly released the Nunes memo, despite the FBI’s “grave concerns” over its contents. Members of Congress argued this was an effort on behalf of Trump to undermine the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.– February 3, 2018 – Referring to the Nunes memo, Donald Trump tweeted, “This memo totally vindicates ‘Trump’ in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!” Republican and Democratic lawmakers disagreed.– February 5, 2018 – During a speech at a factory in Ohio, Trump wondered aloud whether Democrats had committed treason against the United States for withholding their applause during his State of the Union Address. “Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”– February 6, 2018 – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt suggested climate change could be beneficial for humans.– February 6, 2018 – In response to Hurricane Maria, the Trump administration awarded a $156 million contract to Tribute Contracting LLC to provide 18.5 million emergency meals to victims of the hurricane. By the deadline, just 50,000 meals had been delivered to Puerto Rico.– February 8, 2018 – White House staff secretary Rob Porter was forced to resign amid credible allegations of domestic abuse. Both White House Counsel Donald McGahn and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly were reported to have known about the allegations for months.– February 8, 2018 – The Department of Homeland Security drafted rule changes to immigration statutes, allowing the DHS to review whether applicants for U.S. immigration may need support from federal benefits. These statutes protect new arrivals to the country that may need non-cash benefits like Head Start, which gives low-income children access to early education. These non-discrimination rules have been in place for nearly 20 years.– February 9, 2018 – Trump renewed a law that he himself had repealed one year earlier. In March of 2017, during a mad-dash to repeal as much Obama legislation as possible with the Congressional Review Act, the Trump administration eliminated a rule which allowed employers to randomly drug-test workers who received unemployment insurance. In 2018, almost exactly one year after the initial repeal, Trump renewed the law with even broader powers for employers to randomly drug-test their employees.– February 9, 2018 – The U.S. Government shut down for five hours amid disagreements on a spending bill that was proposed by Senate Republicans and backed by Donald Trump. The shutdown was so unexpected that the Department of Management and Budget didn’t start warning agencies to prepare for it until hours before it happened. This was the second time in two weeks that the government had shut down.– February 10, 2018 – Rachel L. Brand resigned from the Justice Department. Brand’s position was one step behind Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Brand’s replacement—who may be appointed to the position for up to 210 days by Donald Trump (without direct Senate confirmation)—will take charge of the Russia investigation if Rod Rosenstein leaves his position.– February 12, 2018 – The Department of Education announced it would no longer investigate claims of discrimination from transgender students regarding bathrooms in schools.– February 12, 2018 – Attorney General Jeff Sessions called sheriffs a critical part of “Anglo-American heritage.” While speaking to the National Sheriff’s Association, Sessions reaffirmed his commitment to helping them remain strong. “We must never erode this historic office," Sessions said, “I know this, you know this. We want to be partners, we don’t want to be bosses. We want to strengthen you and help you be more effective in your work.”– February 12, 2018 – In an interview for a Las Vegas local TV station, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt insinuated that global warming might benefit humanity. “Is it an existential threat? Is it something that is unsustainable, or what kind of effect or harm is this going to have? I mean, we know that humans have most flourished during times of what? Warming trends.” This runs contrary to a library’s worth of reports explaining the dangers of climate change. The U.S. Global Change Research Program said in their National Climate Assessment, “climate change presents a global public health problem, with serious health impacts predicted to manifest in varying ways in different parts of the world."– February 18, 2018 – In a tweet after the massacre in Parkland, Florida, President Trump said the FBI couldn’t capture the school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on the Russia Investigation. The statement was widely criticized, by everyone from Republican senators to survivors of the massacre. One Parkland student tweeted, “17 OF MY CLASSMATES AND FRIENDS ARE GONE AND YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO MAKE THIS ABOUT RUSSIA???!!”– February 21, 2018 – The Southern Poverty Law Center tracked a 4 percent increase in the number of hate groups during 2017. These groups represent a diverse set of ideologies, from anti-Muslim white supremacists to black nationalist organizations with hateful views toward LGBT and Jewish communities. The largest growth during Trump’s first year were in neo-Nazi circles; 22 new neo-Nazi chapters assembled across the nation during 2017.– February 22, 2018 – A Trump-appointed federal judge decided not to recuse himself from a case involving Fusion GPS, the research firm responsible for the controversial Trump dossier. With a line of reasoning that could have far-reaching effects for other Trump appointees, U.S. District Court Trevor McFadden explained his decision to hear the case: “Fusion’s argument that I should look beyond the traditional grounds of disqualification to consider President Trump’s alleged political interests proves too much,” McFadden wrote, “such an argument would lead to the disqualification of numerous judges appointed by the sitting president on a wide range of cases.” As of February 27, 2018, Trump has appointed 20 federal judges, with nominations pending for another 76.– February 23, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt justified his stance on coal by referencing the Bible. In an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network, he said, “The Biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we’ve been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind.”– February 27, 2018 – After special counsel Robert Mueller filed 24 charges of tax and bank fraud against him, Richard Gates, the former deputy chairman of Trump’s campaign, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of making a false statement to investigators.– February 27, 2018 – During a series of raids, Immigration officials arrested 150 people around California’s Bay Area. The arrests come just two days after Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf publicly warned her residents that the raids were imminent. “My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options,” said Schaaf, “It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.” ICE leaders criticized Schaaf’s decision to alert her community to the raids. The conflict between federal immigration forces and local governments underscored an ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and sanctuary cities.– February 27, 2018 – The Department of Housing and Urban Development planned to spend $31,000 on a dining set for Ben Carson’s office, plus another $165,000 for lounge furniture in their Washington office. The spending came after Donald Trump cut HUD’s annual funding by $6.8 billion.– February 28, 2018 – Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s communications director and one of his longest-serving aides, resigned the day after she gave hours of testimony to Congress, and had been implicated in the Rob Porter scandal. She was reportedly dating Porter.– February 28, 2018 – One day after resigning from the White House, former communications director Hope Hicks testified for nine hours in a closed-door session with the House Intelligence Committee. While she insisted in her testimony that she knew nothing about collusion with Russia in the 2016 election, Hicks admitted to telling white lies on behalf of the president.– February 28, 2018 – Months after series of meetings held in the White House between Jared Kushner and the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a massive wealth management fund, Apollo lent Kushner Companies $184 million dollars to refinance their mortgage on a Chicago skyscraper. Earlier last year, Kushner’s firm received an even larger loan of $325 million from Citigroup shortly after Kushner met the CEO of Citigroup at the White House.– February 28, 2018 – An unidentified entity forged an official nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Donald Trump. This wasn’t the first time such a fraud happened in Trump’s favor. In 2017, an unknown party submitted another forged nomination for the US president. A variety of different people qualify as nominators—from heads of state to political policy academics to previous prize winners—but when the nominator listed on Trump’s forms was contacted about the nomination, they said they had no knowledge of the submission. The police were immediately alerted to the forgeries.- – -MARCH 2018– March 1, 2018 – The FBI announced it was investigating a Russian oligarch, Alexander Torshin, for funneling money through the National Rifle Association to Donald Trump’s campaign. Torshin, who is the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, carries close interpersonal ties to the Kremlin.– March 2, 2018 – William G. Otis, Donald Trump’s appointee for the Sentencing Commission, which sets policy for punishing federal prisoners, has favored abolishing the agency. Otis has also written a variety of racially charged statements on subjects ranging from violence to family structure. In one post on the legal blog “Crime and Consequences,” Trump’s new pick for the commission wrote, “When Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones said at a University of Pennsylvania Law School talk that blacks and Hispanics are more violent than whites, a consortium of civil rights organizations filed a complaint. The complaint calls for stern discipline, on the grounds that the remarks were ‘discriminatory and biased.’ …So far as I have been able to discover, it makes no mention of the fact that they’re true.”– March 3, 2018 – Ignoring advice from his economic advisors, Donald Trump chose to create steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. White House officials said Trump’s decision, which could result in a trade war, was spur-of-the-moment—made without a strategy to alert trade partners, without a legislative plan submitted to Congress, and without any scheduled remarks beyond an email from the Commerce department drafted late at night on February 28th.– March 3, 2018 – After Chinese President Xi Jinping altered the Chinese constitution to abolish his term limits—allowing him to retain power indefinitely—Donald Trump was recorded in a closed-door meeting as he said, “[Xi’s] now president for life. President for life… I think it’s great. Maybe we’ll have to give that a shot someday.”– March 4, 2018 – With midterm elections approaching, the State Department was issued $120 million to combat election meddling from Russia; as of March 2018, they hadn’t spent any of it.– March 5, 2018 – In a move that may violate federal law, the Trump Organization ordered new tee markers bearing the official presidential seal for one of their international golf courses. The law in question states the presidential seal, “or any facsimile thereof” may not be used for any commercial purpose.– As of March 2018 – Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate used the Congressional Review Act with an unprecedented frequency. The act allowed the House to remove any regulation within 60 days of its enactment, and has been the administration’s weapon of choice in rolling back Obama-era regulations. Before Trump, The Congressional Review Act had been used only one time; since Trump took office it has been exercised 15 times, with dozens more rules proposed for removal.– March 5, 2018 – The Trump administration announced it would allow hunters to import sport-hunted African elephant trophies on an “application-by-application” basis. The controversial hunting practice had been outlawed during the Obama administration. The U.S. Forest and Wildlife Service justified the decision by saying that findings on endangered species were “no longer effective for making individual permit determinations for imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies.” The findings referenced as “no longer effective” were published just the year before.– March 6, 2018 – The US Office Special Counsel announced Kellyanne Conway twice violated the Hatch Act, a regulation which prohibits federal employees from publicly endorsing or criticizing candidates running for high-level positions. Conway had been a vocal advocate for Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race last year, speaking on Moore’s behalf during two Fox News interviews last year.– March 6, 2018 – Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn resigned from the Trump Administration. Though no explicit reason was given for Cohn’s departure, Trump had ignored Cohn’s long-standing advice against raising steel and aluminum tariffs earlier in the week, causing many to speculate this was the impetus for Cohn’s exit.– March 7, 2018 – Trump’s chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Tony Tooke, resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct. PBS had released conversations with 34 women from the Forest Service discussing a culture of discrimination and sexual harassment. After the documentary aired, it appeared Tooke was among those accused of sexual misconduct. The chief resigned from his post in an email to the agency. Tooke’s appointment occurred in August 2017, at the direction of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.– March 7, 2018 – Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto without the current US Ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson. Kushner had almost no experience in international diplomacy, while Jacobson served the US Government for 31 years as one of the nation’s leading experts on Latin America. Columbia University’s Christopher Sabatini told the New York Times, “The sending of the president’s son-in-law — someone with no experience in Mexican-U.S. relations — is another example of the de-professionalization and personalization of diplomacy that will hurt U.S. interests and leverage in the region.”– March 7, 2018 – During questioning, former Communications Director Hope Hicks revealed that two of her email accounts had been hacked, and she still could not access either account. One of the hacked email addresses served as her primary contact while campaigning for Trump, and the other was a personal address. Both the identity of the hackers and the sensitivity of the compromised information remained unknown.– March 8, 2018 – The AP reported that one-third of the 59 people appointed to the EPA by President Trump have direct ties to fossil fuel companies, either as registered lobbyists or as lawyers for chemical manufacturers.– March 8, 2018 – The Interior Department planned to spend $139,000 on six doors for Secretary Ryan Zinke’s office.– March 9, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wanted to hold a series of public debates on whether or not climate change was real. Chief of Staff John Kelly deemed the debates unwise and told Pruitt to drop the idea, according to White House officials. Those in the meeting with Kelly and Pruitt said Kelly considered the debates a distraction from the Trump administration’s rollbacks of Obama-era legislation on climate change.– March 10, 2018 – Donald Trump advocated for the execution of drug dealers as a means of addressing America’s drug problem. The previous year, Trump was complimentary of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte—going so far as to invite him to the White House—after Duterte had been condemned by human rights groups for his extrajudicial killing of Filipino drug dealers.– March 10, 2018 – Trump announced the US military would stage a military parade in Washington D.C. for veterans day in November 2018. After a trip to Paris for Bastille Day, which included a French military parade, Trump returned to the U.S. inspired to hold one himself. Criticism of the idea came from both sides of the aisle. At the very least, it was considered a waste of resources, as the parade will likely cost between $10 and $30 million.– March 12, 2018 – House Republicans declared the Mueller investigation had failed to find any collusion between Donald Trump and the Russian. The statement, released by the House Intelligence Committee, was not reviewed by any of the Democrats on the committee before its publication. Rep. Adam Schiff, one of the ranking Democrats on the committee, tweeted “BREAKING: GOP just shut down House Intel investigation, leaving questions unanswered, leads unexplored, countless witnesses uncalled, subpoenas unissued. If Russians have leverage over the President, GOP has decided that it would rather not know. The minority’s work continues:”– March 12, 2018 – Department of Education head Betsy DeVos was interviewed on 60 Minutes, and admitted she hadn’t visited any underperforming schools and did not know basic public school statistics in her home state of Michigan.– March 13, 2018 – Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Trump had clashed with Tillerson in the past on everything from the Iran nuclear deal to issues of “personal chemistry.” In October it was rumored that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron” to senior staff members. To replace Tillerson, Trump chose CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who the president described as having “a very similar thought process.”– March 20, 2018 – A citizen watchdog group named Public Citizen filed ethics complaints regarding significant conflicts of interest for 36 appointees in the Trump administration. These conflicts of interest in the administration violated Trump’s own rules for ethical standards. In Executive Order 13770, Trump declared all federal appointees should pledge the following: “If I was a registered lobbyist within the 2 years before the date of my appointment, in addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraph 6, I will not for a period of 2 years after the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment or participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls.” The Public Citizen attached a comprehensive report to each complaint which provided the full list of 36 individuals who were suspected to have violated Executive Order 13770. (– March 22, 2018 – Donald Trump may have stoked a trade war with China by imposing tariffs on up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods. While China’s theft of American intellectual property has long struck economists as a serious problem in the economic relationship between the two world powers, many economists viewed Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Chinese goods as a poor strategy for addressing the issue. Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, said “Any good strategy has to include getting other countries on your side. If it’s the United States versus China, we’re similar sized economies. If it’s the United States and the world versus China, that’s not something China can win.”– March 22, 2018 – Trump fired national security adviser General H.R. McMaster, replacing him with former Fox News pundit John Bolton. McMaster and Trump had clashed frequently, with McMaster telling Secretary of Defense James Mattis, “He treats me like a three-star rather than a coequal” (McMaster is a four-star Marine Corps general). McMaster’s replacement, John Bolton, was in Trump’s original consideration for the position, but lost the spot because the president didn’t like his mustache. The new hire would likely affect U.S. strategy for the upcoming diplomatic talks between the United States and North Korea, as Bolton has long expressed hawkish views on North Korea. As recently as February 28, 2018, Bolton wrote about the futility of conversation with North Korea, favoring pre-emptive strike as the only viable option for the United States.– March 25, 2018 – Ever since Trump was $1.6 billion in funding for his proposed border wall, the president has privately argued for the construction funding to come from military budget. He then tweeted, "Because the $700 & $716 Billion gotten to rebuild our military, many jobs are created and our military is again rich. Building a great border wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about national defense. Build WALL through M!”– March 26, 2018 – The Census Bureau announced it would include a question regarding citizenship status on the 2020 U.S. Census. The question hasn’t been on the census since 1950. Critics of the move explained the question would discourage undocumented immigrants from responding to the census, and thereby skew the population data significantly. The information gathered in the census has a bearing on everything from government policy to funding to boundaries for voting districts. Almost immediately, the State of California sued the Trump administration over the constitutionality of the question. The Constitution states a census, or “actual enumeration,” must take place every 10 years, and the enumeration must include “the number of free persons.” The State of California alleged this would include citizens and non-citizens alike.– March 26, 2018 – Donald Trump kept in touch with Rob Porter after Porter left the White House amid credible allegations against him of domestic abuse from two of his ex-wives. In the final few weeks of March, Trump’s phone calls with Porter became increasingly frequent, with some speculating Trump would bring Porter back to the White House soon. (March 25, 2018)– March 28, 2018 – The EPA sent an internal memo to staff describing a list of “approved talking points” downplaying the certainty of climate change. These included statements like, "While there has been extensive research and a host of published reports on climate change, clear gaps remain in our understanding of the role of human activity and what we can do about it.”- – -APRIL 2018– April 2, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rented a condo from a lobbying firm called William & Jensen, paying $50 per day for the space (well below market rate according to the New York Times). William & Jensen represented the Enbridge pipeline project, which had been awaiting approval from the EPA confirming the agency had no environmental objections. In March of 2017, Enbridge received the approval from Pruitt’s agency.– April 3, 2018 – Alex van der Zwaan plead guilty to charges filed by Robert Mueller that accused van der Zwaan of lying to federal investigators about his contacts with the Trump campaign and a Russian intelligence operative named Konstantin Kilimnik Van der Zwaan was the first individual sentenced in Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation, receiving a 30-day sentence and a $20,000 fine.– April 4, 2018 – Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard to the southern border of the United States. Trump said of the decision, “We’re going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step.” Trump was not the first president to send National Guard troops to the border; both George W. Bush and Barack Obama also sent the National Guard to support border patrol.– April 6, 2018 – Sinclair broadcasters across the country read an identical script warning of biased and misleading news. A video by Deadspin stitched together the segments from dozens of local anchors, so they all said in chorus, “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country […] this is extremely dangerous for our democracy.” After the internet uproar over the hypocrisy evident in the video, Trump tweeted a defense of Sinclair, saying, “So funny to watch the Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more fake NBC, which is a total joke.” Sinclair was among the largest media organizations in America; if its purchase of Tribune Media gained approval from the FCC, Sinclair would broadcast local news for 72% of American households.– April 7, 2018 – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had a 20 person security detail, costing more than $3 million dollars with travel expenses included. Pruitt’s security escort was three times larger than the previous EPA Administrator under Obama. Unlike his predecessor, Pruitt also insisted on traveling first class with his detail, even going so far as to bring them on a family vacation to Disneyland.– April 9, 2018 – The FBI raided Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office in New York City. While the likely impetus for the raid was an ongoing legal battle with adult film star Stormy Daniels, the raid was likely approved by Rod Rosenstein—who was also overseeing the Robert Mueller investigation. Trump was furious after the raid, saying, “It’s an attack on our country in a true sense.” For a while after the raid, rumors swirled that Trump was considering the dismissal of both Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein.– April 12, 2018 – Former FBI Director James Comey published a book on his time in the Trump administration, calling Trump “unethical” and “untethered to the truth and institutional values.” In response to Comey’s publication, Trump tweeted that Comey was “a proven LEAKER & LIAR,” in addition to “weak” and an “untruthful slime ball.”– April 18, 2018 – Donald Trump ended funding for NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System, used to measure carbon dioxide and methane and verify the national emission cuts agreed to in the Paris climate accords.– April 18, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted, “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!” Though it was unclear what “breeding concept” referred to, the animalistic connotation of breeding, CNN commented, was clear: “Taken literally, the most likely explanation is that he’s talking about sanctuary cities as places where undocumented immigrants breed.”- – -MAY 2018– May 8, 2018 – Donald Trump announced the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the 2015 agreement reached by seven countries after more than two years of negotiations. The deal granted billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for Iran’s agreement not to develop or acquire any nuclear weapons. The United States reimposed pre-deal sanctions on Iran.– May 16, 2018 – The Senate judiciary committee released 2,500 pages of testimony with Donald Trump Jr. and top aides who met with Russian delegates at Trump Tower in 2016, providing evidence of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia) stated, “Our staff concluded that the … conclusions were accurate and on point. The Russian effort was extensive, sophisticated, and ordered by President Putin himself for the purpose of helping Donald Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton.”– May 25, 2018 – In three executive orders, Donald Trump made federal employees easier to fire while cutting back on union time. “President Trump’s executive orders do nothing to help federal workers do their jobs better. In fact, they do the opposite by depriving workers of their rights to address and resolve workplace issues such as sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation against whistleblowers, improving workplace health and safety, enforcing reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities, and so much more,” said American Federation of Government Employees President J. David Cox Sr.- – -JUNE 2018– June 9, 2018 – Donald Trump left the 44th G7 summit early and withdrew the United States’ endorsement of a joint communique. In the communique, Canada, the US, the UK, France, Italy, Japan and Germany magreed on the need for “free, fair, and mutually beneficial trade” and the importance of fighting protectionism. Trump tweeted that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was, “Very dishonest & meek.”– June 10, 2018 – Politico reported that Donald Trump routinely tore up papers he received, resulting in government officials taping them together for archiving to ensure that Trump did not violate the Presidential Records Act, which states the White House must preserve all memos, letters, emails, and papers that the president touches, sending them to the National Archives for safekeeping as historical records.– June 15, 2018 – Following the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy announced in April 2018, The Department of Homeland Security stated that between April 19 to May 31, 2018, at the Mexico–United States border, there were 1,995 migrant children separated from 1,940 adults being held for criminal prosecution for an illegal border crossing. Trump blamed the Democrats, tweeting, “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.”- – -JULY 2018– July 5, 2018 – The Trump administration imposed a first round of tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products following failed negotiations in Beijing in May. China retaliated with similar tariffs on American goods. China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the United States had “launched the biggest trade war in economic history so far.”– July 5, 2018 – Donald Trump appointed Andrew Wheeler as Deputy Administrator of the EPA, a lobbyist and critic of nationwide limits on greenhouse gas emissions who’s supported the continued use of fossil fuels. In March 2018, Wheeler commented to CNN that the EPA is “brainwashing our kids.”– July 15, 2018 – At a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Donald Trump sided with Putin over American intelligence. When asked about Russian collusion in the 2016 election, Trump said, “They said they think it’s Russia; I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”– July 21, 2018 – Echoing earlier threats to North Korea, Donald Trump tweeted a threat to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS.” The tweets followed Trump’s announcement in May that the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, and that the US would impose sanctions on all exporters of Iranian oil.– July 24, 2018 – Reversing his statements on Russia meddling in US elections, Donald Trump tweeted that Russia would help Democrats win in the 2018 midterm elections. “I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election,” Trump wrote. “Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats.”– July 29, 2018 – Donald Trump raised the possibility of a government shutdown over the Wall, tweeting, “I would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats do not give us the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall! Must get rid of Lottery, Catch & Release etc. and finally go to system of Immigration based on MERIT! We need great people coming into our Country!”- – -AUGUST 2018– August 13, 2018 – With the approaching publication of Omarosa Manigault Newman’s Unhinged, an account of working in the White House, Donald Trump went on a sexist, racist rant on Twitter, calling Omarosa “a dog” and “a crazed crying lowlife,” and claimed that she “begged [Trump] for a job, tears in her eyes.” Manigault Newman, a former Apprentice contestant and Trump aide who announced her resignation in December 2017 citing concerns with the administration, suggests in Unhinged that there are recordings of Trump using the N-word.– August 21, 2018 – The Trump administration announced plans to cut back Obama’s coal emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, calling them “overly prescriptive and burdensome.” The Trump plan increased the state authority to make decisions on coal emission standards, saying it “empowers states, promotes energy independence, and facilitates economic growth and job creation.”– August 21, 2018 – Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The trial focused on the millions of dollars Manafort made advising a political party in Ukraine that backed pro-Russia policies and his “sumptuous lifestyle, including his $15,000 ostrich-skin jacket and $1,500 dress shirts, and the meticulously landscaped flower bed in the shape of a giant “M” at his 10-bedroom Hamptons estate in New York.”– August 21, 2018 – On the same day Manafort was convicted, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, plead guilty in a federal court in New York to, among other charges, campaign finance violations for paying hush money to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. The following day, Trump tweeted, “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”– August 23, 2018 – The US and China implemented a second round of tariffs on $16 billion worth of imports on both sides. China filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization about the tariffs.– August 27, 2018 – In response to the death of Senator John McCain, Donald Trump issued no public statement and declined to answer questions about McCain, a veteran who spent 31 years in the Senate. Flags at the White House were lowered on Saturday night after McCain’s death and raised again Sunday, the bare minimum required by law. Trump issued a tweet “My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!”– August 28, 2018 – Donald Trump accused Google of being biased against conservatives and hiding information. He tweeted, “Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out.”– August 30, 2018 – Despite his boasts of the country’s economic strength, Donald Trump announced the government was canceling an automatic 2.1 percent pay increase for federal workers scheduled for Jan. 1, citing budget constraints. Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) stated, “It is unacceptable that after last year signing a Republican tax bill that gave away tens of billions in corporate tax cuts and added more than $1 trillion to the national debt, President Trump cites the need for government belt-tightening in his decision to slash a planned pay increase.”– August 30, 2018 – During a speech in Evansville, Indiana, Donald Trump alleged that TV cameras were faking technical difficulties to deny him coverage. Trump said, “But when I start screaming ‘fake news,’ you see those red lights go off for a little while. You know, excuse me, we have technical difficulties, OK, then they go back.”- – -SEPTEMBER 2018– September 3, 2018 – Politico reported that health providers are receiving panicked phone calls from documented and undocumented immigrant families demanding to be dropped from the WIC program after news reports that the White House is planning to deny legal status to immigrants who’ve used public benefits. Agencies in 18 states reported drops of up to 20 percent in enrollment.– September 5, 2018 – An anonymous op-ed from a White House insider published in the New York Times described the chaos in the Oval Office and the resistance working within it to contain a “impetuous, adversarial, petty, and ineffective” president. “Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.”– September 11, 2018 – Bob Woodward published Fear, giving an inside view of the instability of Trump’s White House. Woodward wrote, “The reality was that the United States in 2017 was tethered to the words and actions of an emotionally overwrought, mercurial and unpredictable leader. Members of his staff had joined to purposefully block some of what they believed were the president’s most dangerous impulses. It was a nervous breakdown of the executive power of the most powerful country in the world.”– September 12, 2018 – The existence of a letter from a constituent to Senator Dianne Feinstein leaked to The Intercept allegedly detailing sexual misconduct of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Dianne Feinstein confirmed the existence of the letter, but said she was honoring the anonymity of its author and handed the case to the FBI. California psychology professor Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would come forward later that week identifying herself as the author of the letter, detailing how Kavanaugh had assaulted her at a party when they were in high school. In a statement sent by The White House, Kavanaugh responded, “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”– September 19, 2018 – In an interview with The Hill, Donald Trump criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russian investigation. “I don’t have an attorney general. It’s very sad,” Trump said. He’d previously called Sessions “weak” and “disloyal.”– September 23, 2018 – The US-China Trade War escalated to a third list of tariffs, encompassing a total of $250 billion worth of Chinese goods with virtually all Chinese goods coming to the U.S. levied with a 10% import tariff. The import tariff will rise to 25% at the beginning of 2019.– September 25, 2018 – Donald Trump addressed the United Nations address and was laughed at after stating, “In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” As the audience laughed, Trump added, “So true.” Trump later claimed that that “They weren’t laughing at me, they were laughing with me.”– September 26, 2018 – In a news conference, Trump responded defensively to the allegations of sexual misconduct raised against Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. “Look, if we brought George Washington here… the Democrats would vote against him, just so you understand,” the president said. “Didn’t he have a couple of things in his past? George Washington would be voted against 100 percent by Schumer and the con artists.” Trump also cited the women who have raised sexual misconduct allegations against him: “I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me.”– September 28, 2018 – In a 500-page environmental impact statement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Trump administration announced that on its current course, the planet will warm seven degrees by 2100, but that there is nothing that can be done to avert it. The document outlined why freezing fuel-efficiency rules for cars and light trucks for six years will do little to stop a global temperature rise.– September 28, 2018 – A record number of migrant children — 13,000 — are reported to be held in a West Texas tent city without access to legal services or education. “The average length of time that migrant children spend in custody has nearly doubled [since last year], from 34 days to 59,” the New York Times reported.- – -OCTOBER 2018– October 2, 2018 – At a rally in Mississippi, Donald Trump mocked the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and extended his sympathies to Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Impersonating Dr. Ford’s testimony, Trump said, “What neighborhood was it? I don’t know. Where’s the house? I don’t know. Upstairs? Downstairs? Where was it — I don’t know. But I had one beer, that’s the only thing I remember.” He added, “And a man’s life is shattered.”– October 2, 2018 – A special tax fraud investigation in the New York Times, based on tax returns and financial records, revealed that Donald Trump received the equivalent of $413 million from his father’s real estate empire in tax schemes dating back to his childhood. The findings countered Trump’s narrative of how he built his multi-billion dollar empire through his own hardwork and deal-making.– October 6, 2018 – The Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after multiple women came forward with allegations of sexual assault.– October 9, 2018 – As protestors rallied against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump continued to push a conspiracy theory that leftist protestors are paid by wealthy Democrats. “The paid D.C. protesters are now ready to REALLY protest because they haven’t gotten their checks — in other words, they weren’t paid! Screamers in Congress, and outside, were far too obvious — less professional than anticipated by those paying (or not paying) the bills!” Trump tweeted. “The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers”– October 15, 2018 – In an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes, Donald Trump defended mocking Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford. Pressed by Stahl on whether he thought he had treated Dr. Ford with respect, Trump said, “It doesn’t matter — we won.”– October 16, 2018 – The Trump administration showed support for Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had been linked to the disappearance and possible murder of a journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump said in an interview with the Associated Press: “Here we go again with you’re guilty until proven innocent.” That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh smiling and shaking hands with the crown prince.– October 16, 2018 – After a federal judge threw out Stormy Daniels’ defamation lawsuit against him, Trump tweeted, “’Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!"– October 18, 2018 – Donald Trump threatened to close the US-Mexico border by military force as a caravan of more than 3,000 migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras traveled north. Trump tweeted, “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught — and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”– October 19, 2018 – At a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana, Donald Trump praised Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte, who plead guilty to assault for body-slamming Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs. To cheers from the crowd, Trump said, “Any guy that can do a body slam — he’s my kind of guy.”– October 21, 2018 – The Trump administration revealed its attempt to define gender as a binary that is determined at birth on the basis of genitalia, reversing recognition of over 1.4 Americans who identify as transgender. “Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services read. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”– October 29, 2018 – The United States Government planned to send 5200 troops to the US-Mexico border to guard against what Trump called, “an invasion of our country” by a caravan of 3500 Central American migrants, many of whom were children.– October 30, 2018 – Days before the midterm elections, Trump stated that he would sign an executive order to end birthright citzenship in the United States.– October 31, 2018 – Donald Trump tweeted a racist political ad depicting an undocumented immigrant who had been convicted of murdering two police officers. The ad featured the tagline, “Democrats let him into our country. Democrats let him stay.” Luis Bracamontes, the convicted man, had a history of crime and was originlly released by a sheriff’s department that was headed by Republican Joe Arpaio. He later illegally re-entered the United States during the presidency of George W. Bush