The Case Against Trump

The soul of America is greater than any one president. It's time to take a stand for our democratic values.

Trump's Sexism:

- Trump infamously told Billy Bush on Access Hollywood in 2005: "I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything."- Trump told New York magazine: "Women, you have to treat them like shit."- Trump said of Jessica Leeds, who accused him of sexual assault, "believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you."- Trump said of Brande Roderick on Celebrity Apprentice "It must be a pretty picture. You dropping to your knees."- Trump told Howard Stern it's "checkout time" for women after the age of 35.- Trump said of Megyn Kelly: "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her... wherever."- Trump tweeted "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?"- Trump attacked Republican rival Carly Fiorina's appearance, saying "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?"- Trump stated that if he comes home and "dinner's not ready," he "go[es] through the roof."- Trump called Alicia Machado, the 1996 Miss Universe winner, "Miss Piggy" because she gained weight and "Miss Housekeeping" because of her Hispanic heritage.- Trump said about his daughter Ivanka "She does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."- Trump said pregnant employees are an "inconvenience."- In a deposition for the E. Jean Carroll sexual assault lawsuit, Trump claimed that his previous boasts about grabbing women "by the pussy" were historically accurate for "stars" like himself.- Trump bragged to Stern about barging into the Miss Universe dressing rooms while contestants were "standing there with no clothes," saying "I sort of get away with things like that."

Trump's Islamophobia:

- On December 7, 2015, Trump's campaign issued a statement saying "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on."- In a March 9, 2016 interview with CNN, Trump said "I think Islam hates us.“- In a September 2015 town hall in New Hampshire, Trump nodded and did not object when an audience member claimed "We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims" and said "We know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American." Trump replied "We need this question."- At a February 2016 rally in South Carolina, Trump told an apocryphal story about U.S. General John Pershing executing Muslim insurgents in the Philippines with bullets dipped in pig's blood, which is considered haram. Trump said "He took fifty bullets, and he dipped them in pig's blood. And he had his men load his rifles and he lined up the fifty people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the fiftieth person he said 'You go back to your people and you tell them what happened.' And for 25 years there wasn't a problem, okay?"- At a Trump rally, an attendee groused about the TSA hiring Mulsim women that wear hijabs. In response, Trump said "I understand" and indicated that he was "Looking into that", as if this obviously Islamophobic sentiment somehow warranted serious consideration.- On November 16, 2015, Trump said he would "strongly consider" closing mosques in the U.S.- On November 29, 2017, Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from the far-right hate group Britain First: "Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!", "Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!", and "Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!" The assailant in one of them was not a “Muslim migrant” and the other two showed four-year-old events with no explanation.- Michael Flynn (National Security Adviser): Said "Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”- Ben Carson (HUD Secretary): In Sept 2015, Carson said "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.”- Mark Kevin Lloyd (Religious Freedom Advisor, USAID): Called Islam a "barbaric cult.”- Brigitte Gabriel (welcomed to White House in March 2017): Leads ACT for America, the largest anti-Muslim hate group in the U.S. Claimed “every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.”- Steve Bannon (Chief Strategist): Was the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, which he described in 2016 as "the platform for the alt-right." Under Bannon, Breitbart published inflammatory anti-Muslim content, including a 2016 article titled "Political Correctness Protects Muslim Rape Culture.”- Carl Higbie (Chief of External Affairs, Corporation for National and Community Service): Higbie said "go back to your Muslim shithole and go crap in your hands” (he resigned after this was made public).- Frank Wuco (Senior Advisor at the State Department): As a radio host in 2010, Wuco said it’s "very very tough" to be a good American and a good Muslim.- Pete Hoekstra (Ambassador to the Netherlands): In 2015, Hoekstra claimed that there are "no-go zones" in the Netherlands and parts of Europe where there’s "sharia law.” When confronted by a Dutch journalist in 2017, Hoekstra denied making the comments, calling it "fake news," before admitting that he did say it.- Mike Pompeo (Secretary of State): In 2016, ACT for America, an anti-Muslim hate group, awarded Pompeo their highest honor, the "National Security Eagle Award." ACT for America founder, Brigitte Gabriel, has said "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim.”- Frank Wuco (Senior White House Advisor at DHS): Said in 2014 that banning visas from "Muslim nations" is "one of these sort of great ideas that can never happen." He also said that Muslims “by-and-large” will “subjugate and humiliate non-Muslim members” and enact Sharia law.- Katharine Gorka (DHS): Wrote for Breitbart that "Presidents Bush and Obama both publicly declared Islam to be a religion of peace, which struck a sour chord for many.” Her husband Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump advisor, said that religious profiling of Muslims is "a synonym for common sense."

Trump University:

- Trump University, founded in 2004, was not an accredited university and did not offer real degrees, but rather a series of dubious, unaccredited real estate training seminars and mentorships costing up to $35,000.- Trump couldn't name a single one of the "handpicked" professors that Trump University's advertising claimed he had selected, admitting "I don't know the instructors."- A former Trump U employee testified that instructors were unqualified, saying "The Trump University instructors and mentors were a joke.”- Sworn testimony from former Trump University sales worker Ronald Schnackenberg stated he was "reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class." He resigned, calling Trump University "a fraudulent scheme" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated."- A training guide instructed Trump University sales staff to target vulnerable groups, such as "a single parent of three children that may need money for food," and then pressure these individuals to max out their credit cards to pay for the costly courses.- One student, Cheryl Lankford, paid $35,000 from her late husband's military survivor benefits, only to be repeatedly ignored by the mentors she was promised would guide her through real estate transactions.- Another individual described how Trump University was "preying on the elderly" by first luring his 82-year-old father to a "free seminar promising to make him rich through real estate" that was "solely for the purpose of upselling him" into attending a "$1500 three day workshop", and then pressuring the elderly father to spend an additional "$35k MORE", all while the majority of attendees were "SENIORS like him" who were being "tricked into thinking they can make a quick profit."- Another Trump University student, a divorced and unemployed Seattle woman suffering from multiple sclerosis and a recent stroke, was encouraged to max out her credit cards to enroll in more classes.- On November 18, 2016, ten days after the election, Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle the multiple lawsuits against him. This directly contradicted Trump’s vow that he would never settle the Trump U lawsuits.

Trump Foundation:

- The Donald J. Trump Foundation was dissolved in 2018 after the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit alleging "persistently illegal conduct" including self-dealing and political coordination. As part of a settlement, the Foundation agreed to distribute its $1.7 million in remaining funds to approved charities under court supervision, while Trump was forced to pay $2 million in damages.- Donald Trump held a high-profile fundraiser for veterans groups in January 2016 where he claimed to have personally donated $1 million, but he did not actually contribute the money until several months later after media scrutiny over his unfulfilled pledge- Trump used $258,000 from the Foundation to settle lawsuits against his businesses.- Trump used $25,000 in Foundation funds to donate to a campaign committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013, illegally using a charity's money to benefit a political campaign. It made this contribution while her office was considering investigating Trump University.- Trump directed the Foundation to pay $100,000 in 2007 to settle legal claims over an 80-foot flagpole he had built at his Mar-a-Lago resort in violation of local ordinances- In 2007, Trump spent $20,000 in Trump Foundation funds to purchase a six-foot-tall portrait of himself by artist Michael Israel, which was later found hanging at Trump's Doral Golf Club. Tax experts told the Washington Post this could violate IRS rules prohibiting self-dealing.- At a 2012 event, Trump again used Trump Foundation funds to purchase a $12,000 football helmet.- Keep in mind that not only did Trump abuse his foundation for his own personal purposes, this was almost entirely other people’s money he was spending. After 2008, he stopped contributing to it and solicited third parties to donate to it instead.

Birtherism:

- From 2011 to 2016, Donald Trump persistently questioned President Obama's birthplace and, by extension, his legitimacy as the nation's first Black president, despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.- This baseless crusade began on March 17, 2011, when Trump demanded on "The View" that Obama "show his birth certificate."- Even after Obama released his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii in April 2011, Trump doubled down, tweeting in August 2012 that an "extremely credible source" had informed him the document was fraudulent.- He even went so far as to suggest in December 2013 that the death of Hawaii's State Health Director in a plane crash was somehow connected to the birth certificate issue.- Only after securing the Republican nomination in 2016 did Trump finally, and conveniently, concede the obvious reality that Obama was born in the United States, an overdue admission he easily could have arrived at years earlier when the same evidence was readily available.

Abuser Apologism:

- On July 12, 2019, Trump defended his Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who had cut a plea deal with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a prosecutor in 2008, giving Epstein just 13 months in county jail with work release despite a federal indictment detailing his abuse of over 30 underage girls, with Trump stating "I feel very badly, actually, for Secretary Acosta, because I've known him as being somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job.”- On April 5, 2017, Trump defended Bill O'Reilly as "a good person" who he didn't think "did anything wrong" after the New York Times revealed that O'Reilly and Fox News had paid $13 million to settle sexual harassment and verbal abuse lawsuits from five women since 2002, resulting in O'Reilly's firing from Fox.- In February 2018, Trump praised former aide Rob Porter as "a man of true integrity and honor" after Porter resigned due to photographic evidence and witness testimony that he had physically abused both of his ex-wives, one of whom had a protective order against Porter and said he had choked and punched her.- In November 2017, Trump fully endorsed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore despite multiple credible allegations that Moore sexually abused teenage girls as young as 14 while in his 30s.- In July 2019, Trump publicly wished Ghislaine Maxwell "well" after she was arrested and charged with aiding Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking of minors, saying "I've met her numerous times over the years" and "I just wish her well, frankly”- After Fox News CEO Roger Ailes resigned in July 2016 amid sexual harassment allegations, Trump defended Ailes, calling him "a very, very good person.”

Joe Arpaio Pardon

- In 2017, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, after he was convicted of criminal contempt of court for willfully violating a federal judge's order to stop racially profiling Latinos.• In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division released a report finding that Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office "engages in racial profiling of Latinos; unlawfully stops, detains, and arrests Latinos; and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain about or criticize MCSO's policies or practices."• In 2013, a federal judge ruled that Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office had engaged in widespread racial profiling of Latinos in immigration enforcement, with Judge Murray Snow stating the evidence showed the MCSO "specifically equated being a Hispanic or Mexican day laborer with being an unauthorized alien," ordering them to stop “using race or Latino ancestry as a factor in making law enforcement decisions.”• Arpaio was ultimately convicted of criminal contempt in July 2017 for willfully violating the federal judge's order. Just one month later in August 2017, Trump pardoned Arpaio before he could be sentenced.• The racial profiling case has already cost Maricopa County taxpayers over $200 million in compliance costs to implement court-ordered reforms, and is projected to reach $273 million by mid-2024 as the sheriff's office remains under court supervision to fully reform its unconstitutional practices.• Arpaio also once stated "it's an honor" to be compared to the KKK, referred to his jail's outdoor Tent City extension as a "concentration camp,” and forced inmates to wear pink underwear as a form of humiliation.

War Criminal Pardons:

Army Lt. Clint Lorance:- Clint Lorance ordered his troops to open fire on three unarmed Afghan men on a motorcycle who were waving at them, one of whom was a local elder that one of the soldiers recognized.
- Despite protests, Lorance asked "Why aren't you shooting?" and demand that they "Smoke 'em.” A private then killed two of the men, while the third managed to survive by fleeing.
- Not long after, Lorance burst into the platoon headquarters jubilantly exclaiming "That was f---ing awesome." He then tried to reassure his horrified sergeants, stating "I know how to report it up [so] nobody gets in trouble.”
- Lorance's own soldiers turned him in to authorities that very evening.
- At his trial in July 2013, 14 of his men provided testimony under oath about his actions that day.
- Testimony from his fellow soldiers also describes Clint Lorance's "shock and awe" approach, including an instance where he threatened to kill an Afghan farmer and his 3-4 year old son and "pointed at the child... at the little, tiny kid" for asking permission to move a section of razor wire.
- Testimony further reveals that on Clint Lorance's second day, he ordered his sharpshooters to fire within 10-12 inches of unarmed Afghan villagers in order to make them "wonder why the Americans were shooting at them" and attend a village meeting, while describing it as "funny watching those f---ers dance".Blackwater Contractors (Evan Liberty, Paul Slough, Dustin Heard, Nicholas Slatten):
- In 2007, Blackwater contractors shot and killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a 9-year-old boy, and wounded 17 others in Baghdad's Nisour Square.
- Witnesses described Blackwater guards firing on civilians in an unprovoked assault with heavy gunfire and grenade launchers.
- Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of voluntary manslaughter.
- More than 2 dozen Iraqi witnesses volunteered to travel to the US to testify, including a father who sobbed uncontrollably testifying about his 9-year-old son's death.
- A former Blackwater security guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, testified that he and his colleagues did not face any threats or incoming gunfire that would justify their lethal response in the 2007 Nisoor Square shooting in Baghdad. He said he saw no Iraqis pointing guns, heard no gunfire, and observed no evidence of an insurgent attack when the Blackwater guards opened fire.
- In a sworn statement, Blackwater guard Jeremy Ridgeway also said "there was no attempt to provide reasonable warning" before the shooting began.
- The UN Human Rights Office said the decision "contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future."

Roy Moore:

- When asked if electing "a child molester" was better than electing a Democrat when there are this many allegations against him, Donald Trump responded: "Well, he denies it.”Sexual Assault, Harassment, and Pedophile Allegations:- Leigh Corfman alleged that in 1979, when she was 14 and Roy Moore was 32, he "picked her up to drive her to his home where he 'took off her shirt and pants and removed his clothes ... touched her over her bra and underpants ... and guided her hand to touch him over his underwear'," an act that would have been a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison under Alabama law at the time- Beverly Young Nelson said that as a 16-year-old in 1977-78, Roy Moore sexually assaulted her after offering her a ride, groping her, trying to force her head into his crotch, and warning "You're just a child, I'm the district attorney; if you tell anyone about this no one will ever believe you," evidence of which included her high school yearbook containing Moore's 1977 inscription "To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say Merry Christmas. Love, Roy Moore, D.A."- In 1991, Tina Johnson said that while visiting attorney Roy Moore's law office in Gadsden, Alabama to sign custody documents, Moore began uncomfortably flirting with her, commenting on her appearance, and then "grabbed" her buttocks, with Johnson recounting "He didn't pinch it; he grabbed it." This incident is corroborated by court documents from the custody case that list Moore's address and signature.Disturbing Extremism:- Claimed "Homosexual conduct should be illegal" (2005 interview)- Said "Same-sex marriage will be the ultimate destruction of our country because it destroys the very foundation upon which this nation is based." (2012)- Alleged that “Up in Illinois. ... There’s Sharia law” (2017)- Declared Islam a "false religion” (2017)- Described the U.S. as an "Evil Empire" akin to the Soviet Union due to its alleged promotion of "a lot of bad things" globally, including the cultural export of LGBTQ acceptance (2017)- Claimed “the transgenders don’t have rights” (2017)- The non-profit Christian legal organization founded by Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, shared a video on its Facebook page titled "OBAMA THE MUSLIM, HIS OWN WORDS" (2015)- Strongly opposed a state constitutional amendment that would have removed outdated language referring to poll taxes and segregated "white and colored" schools (2004)- Installed massive Ten Commandments monument in state judicial building, leading to its court-ordered 2003 removal and his termination as Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice for noncompliance. (2001)- Suspended from the state's Supreme Court for ordering probate judges to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling (2016)

Callousness:

- After the Baltimore home of Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings was burglarized, Trump reacted with glee, dismissively tweeting "Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!"- In an Axios interview, when confronted with the staggering fact that 1,000 Americans were dying daily from COVID-19, Trump callously dismissed it with the indifferent remark "It is what it is."- At a campaign rally in Hilton Head, South Carolina, Trump mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a condition affecting joint movement, by mimicking and exaggerating his physical movements, saying "You gotta see this guy.”- At a White House coronavirus briefing on March 20, 2020, NBC's Peter Alexander asked Trump "What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?" - to which Trump callously retorted "I say that you're a terrible reporter, that's what I say. I think it's a very nasty question."- During a phone call with Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson on October 17, 2017, Trump reportedly said of her deceased husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, "He knew what he signed up for," a remark confirmed by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.- During a 2015 campaign event in Iowa, when asked about Senator John McCain's war hero status, Trump dismissively stated "He's not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."- Regarding the death of civil rights icon John Lewis, Trump said, "He didn't come to my inauguration."- Even after McCain's death, Trump bitterly complained he "didn't get thank you" for approving the late senator's funeral arrangements, callously adding "I wasn't a fan of John McCain"- Exploiting the brutal home invasion that left 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, with a fractured skull, Trump mockingly asked the crowd "How's her husband doing, anybody know?"- Following protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Trump compared police who use excessive force to golfers who "choke" when putting.- When asked about Putin's actions in Ukraine, Trump praised it as "genius" and "savvy."- After learning that Senator Mitt Romney was in isolation due to possible COVID-19 exposure, Trump sarcastically remarked, "Gee, that's too bad."- After nearly a 36-hour silence, Trump finally responded to the Iowa school shooting that killed a 6th grader and injured 7 others by callously telling his supporters "we have to get over it.”- At Arlington National Cemetery, Trump's staff "abruptly pushed aside" an official, then labeled her "mentally ill" and "despicable" for upholding federal law prohibiting partisan photo-ops in Section 60, prompting an apology from Utah’s Republican governor Spencer Cox who attended alongside him.- When asked about Ghislaine Maxwell's arrest on charges related to Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring, Trump bizarrely said, "I wish her well, frankly," despite the severity of the allegations against her.- On the Jewish New Year, Trump used Truth Social to chastise liberal Jews who didn't support him, claiming they "voted to destroy America & Israel" and patronizingly urged them to "make better choices moving forward."- On June 9th, 2020, Trump baselessly claimed 75-year-old Martin Gugino, hospitalized for nearly 4 weeks with a brain injury after Buffalo police shoved him to the ground during a protest, was an "ANTIFA provocateur" trying to "set up" police.- On September 13th, 2018, Donald Trump baselessly disputed official studies estimating nearly 3,000 Puerto Rican deaths from 2017's hurricanes, tweeting "3,000 people did not die" and accusing Democrats of inflating the toll "to make me look as bad as possible," contradicting the findings of George Washington University and Harvard University researchers.- On July 12, 2019, Trump staunchly defended Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who as prosecutor in 2008 granted notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a lenient 13-month work-release jail term despite federal charges of abusing over 30 underage girls, with Trump lamenting, "I feel very badly, actually, for Secretary Acosta," praising him as "somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job."- In February 2018, Trump praised former aide Rob Porter as "a man of true integrity and honor" after Porter resigned due to photographic evidence and witness testimony that he had physically abused both of his ex-wives, one of whom had a protective order against Porter and said he had choked and punched her.- After the Pentagon reported that 34 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injuries from Iran's retaliatory strike following the U.S. killing of Qasem Soleimani, Trump dismissed the injuries as mere "headaches," prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars to demand "an apology from the president to our service men and women for his misguided remarks."

Racism:

- In 1973, the DOJ sued Donald and Fred Trump for violating the Fair Housing Act through systemic racial discrimination, with four agents admitting under oath to using a covert "C" for "colored" or "9" coding system and being instructed to "discourage rental to blacks," three doormen testifying they were directed to artificially inflate prices, resulting in just 7 of 3,700 Trump Village apartments occupied by African-Americans by 1967, leading to a 1975 consent decree the Trumps signed without admitting guilt, only to violate it within three years, prompting a second DOJ lawsuit in 1978 for brazenly continuing their discriminatory practices.- On October 22, 1989, Trump spent $85,000 on inflammatory full-page ads in The New York Times, The Daily News, The New York Post, and New York Newsday, headlined "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!" targeting Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise—five Black and Latino teens later exonerated by DNA evidence matching serial rapist Matias Reyes in 2002—yet Trump refused to apologize, instead tweeting in 2014 that their $41 million settlement was a "disgrace" and telling CNN's Miguel Marquez in 2016 that "they admitted they were guilty" despite coerced confessions and overwhelming exculpatory evidence.- In a May 2016 interview, Trump suggested that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel, born in Indiana and presiding over a Trump University lawsuit, could not be impartial due to his Mexican heritage, stating "He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico," which House Speaker Paul Ryan called "the textbook definition of a racist comment."- During the September 29, 2020 presidential debate, when pressed by moderator Chris Wallace to condemn white supremacists, Trump instead told the violent neo-fascist Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by," prompting the group's leader Enrique Tarrio to respond "Standing by sir" on Parler and member Joe Biggs to exult "Trump basically said to go fuck them up!" on social media.- During a May 2017 Oval Office meeting, Trump reportedly said that Haitian immigrants "have AIDS" and that Nigerian immigrants would never "go back to their huts" after seeing the United States, according to six officials who attended or were briefed about the meeting, as reported by The New York Times on December 23, 2017.- On July 14, 2019, President Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of color—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib—should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," despite the fact that three of the four women were born in the United States and Omar had been a naturalized citizen since 2000.- At a February 28, 2016 CNN interview with Jake Tapper, Trump refused to disavow former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke's endorsement, claiming, "I don't know anything about David Duke. I don't know anything about what you're even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists," despite having previously condemned Duke in 2000, only to later blame a "bad earpiece" for his failure to denounce Duke and white supremacist groups.- Trump pardoned ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2017, just one month after his criminal contempt conviction for willfully violating a federal judge's order to cease racial profiling of Latinos, following a 2011 DOJ report and 2013 court ruling condemning Arpaio's "widespread" discriminatory practices that "specifically equated being Hispanic or Mexican" with illegal status, costing Maricopa County taxpayers over $200 million in court-ordered reforms for a man who once called KKK comparisons "an honor" and dubbed his "Tent City" jail a "concentration camp."- From 2011 to 2016, Donald Trump persistently questioned President Obama's birthplace and, by extension, his legitimacy as the nation's first Black president, despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. This baseless crusade began on March 17, 2011, when Trump demanded on "The View" that Obama "show his birth certificate." Even after Obama released his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii in April 2011, Trump doubled down, tweeting in August 2012 that an "extremely credible source" had informed him the document was fraudulent. He even went so far as to suggest in December 2013 that the death of Hawaii's State Health Director in a plane crash was somehow connected to the birth certificate issue. Only after securing the Republican nomination in 2016 did Trump finally, and conveniently, concede the obvious reality that Obama was born in the United States, an overdue admission he easily could have arrived at years earlier when the same evidence was readily available.- At a December 16, 2023 New Hampshire rally, Trump dehumanized immigrants with inflammatory rhetoric, claiming "They're poisoning the blood of our country."

Media:

- On February 17, 2017, Trump tweeted that the "FAKE NEWS media" (specifically naming the New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, and CNN) was "the enemy of the American People!", prompting Republican Senator John McCain to warn that "this is how dictators get started."- In a July 2, 2017 tweet, Trump shared an edited video depicting himself body-slamming a person with a CNN logo superimposed on their head.- On October 11, 2017, President Trump publicly threatened NBC's broadcast license, tweeting "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!"- On October 19, 2018, at a campaign rally in Missoula, Montana, President Trump explicitly praised Republican Congressman Greg Gianforte for physically assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs stating "Any guy that can do a body slam, he's my kind of... he's my guy."- On November 7, 2018, the White House revoked CNN reporter Jim Acosta's press credentials after a contentious exchange with Trump, prompting a lawsuit from CNN that resulted in a federal judge ordering the White House to reinstate Acosta's credentials.- In February 2019, President Trump called the New York Times "a true ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!"- In a March 2019 Tweet, Trump labeled the press as the "absolute Enemy of the People and our Country itself"- On April 5, 2019, Trump declared "They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!" referring to the press.- On May 9, 2018, Trump tweeted a threat to take away credentials from White House reporters, stating "The Fake News is working overtime... Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?"- In a June 2019 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump joked about "getting rid of" journalists, saying "Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn't it? You don't have this problem in Russia, but we do."- On September 7, 2019, Trump tweeted that two Washington Post reporters "shouldn't even be allowed on the grounds of the White House because their reporting is so DISGUSTING & FAKE," after they published a critical story.- In May 2020, Trump tweeted an attack against Fox News for "doing nothing to help Republicans, and me, get re-elected," expressing the view that their journalistic duty is to aid his personal re-election.- In September 2023, Trump called for the "lamestream media" like NBC News to "be investigated" and made to "pay a big price."- On November 28, 2023, Trump stated the government should "come down hard on" MSNBC and "make them pay" for their coverage.- On December 5, 2023, former Trump official Kash Patel, positioned to potentially lead the CIA, vowed that if Trump wins "patriots" would prosecute and jail those in the media deemed "conspirators", stating "we are going to come after the people in the media."- At a rally on December 13, 2023, Trump reiterated that the press "are indeed the enemy of the people."- At a rally on January 16, 2024, Trump called for CNN and NBC to "have their licenses taken away" for airing rival Ron DeSantis' speech after his second-place finish instead of his own.

Inspector Generals:

- On April 2, 2020, Trump fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson for fulfilling his legal duty to disclose to Congress an "urgent” and credible" whistleblower complaint prompting Republican Senators Richard Burr's rebuke that "an IG must be allowed to conduct...work independent of pressure" and Susan Collins' assertion the dismissal was "not warranted," while Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz lauded Atkinson's "integrity" and "commitment to the rule of law."- On April 7, 2020, Trump removed Glenn Fine from his position as acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense, claiming without evidence that he was "partisan," despite Fine's long history of nonpartisan service under presidents of both parties, prompting a rare public rebuke from former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who praised Fine as "a public servant in the finest tradition of honest, competent governance."- On May 1, 2020, Trump fired Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, a career official serving since 1999 praised by her Bush-appointed predecessor for her "highly respected" and "longstanding career of public service," after she released a report based on a survey of 323 hospitals documenting widespread shortages of critical medical supplies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.- On May 15, 2020, Trump fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's authorization of an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the UAE without Congressional approval, as well as Pompeo's use of staffers for personal errands, with Trump telling reporters that he had "never even heard of" Linick but fired him after Pompeo “asked me to terminate him." In other words, Trump admitted to firing Linick at the request of the very official he was investigating.

Conspiracy Theories:

- On Aug. 11, 2024, Trump baselessly accused Vice President Harris of using "A.I." to digitally fabricate images of large crowds at her Detroit rally and claimed she should be "disqualified" as a result, a preposterous claim given the voluminous video evidence and on-the-ground media coverage verifying the legitimacy of the large in-person attendance- At a 9/29/23 California rally, Trump alleged "The state is rigged...no way we lose this state in a real election" despite losing there to Biden by over 30 points in 2020's certified results.- On June 9th, 2020, Trump baselessly claimed 75-year-old Martin Gugino, hospitalized for nearly 4 weeks with a brain injury after Buffalo police shoved him to the ground during a protest, was an "ANTIFA provocateur" trying to "set up" police.- On May 26, 2020, Trump Tweeted that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough "got away with murder" regarding his staffer's 2001 death that occurred when he was 800 miles away ruled accidental by a medical examiner.- On Dec 2, 2023, Trump made the baseless claim "I think you can win New York. I think you can win New Jersey. I think we can win Virginia people that— states that in theory would be with But I have a different theory. I think for years we could have won them. These elections are rigged," rejecting without evidence the reality that he had legitimately lost those solidly Democratic-leaning states in past elections.- On Nov 11, 2023, Trump claimed in an interview "I got 75 million votes, much more than that... I think you can double it or almost you can triple it...", numbers exceeding total registered voters.- On December 11, 2023, Trump's campaign released a statement baselessly inflating his 2020 vote total by double to falsely claim legal proceedings against him were "attempts to injure" not just Trump himself, but also "his 150 million supporters, at least": far exceeding the roughly 74 million votes he actually received.- On November 6, 2012, shortly after Barack Obama was declared the winner of the presidential election, Trump tweeted "This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!"- On November 6, 2012, Donald Trump tweeted "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," contradicting the scientific consensus of 97% of actively publishing climate scientists who agree that climate change is human-caused.- On August 13, 2020, Trump promoted the false claim that Kamala Harris was ineligible to serve as vice president due to her parents' immigration status, telling reporters "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," despite Harris being born in Oakland, California, in 1964, making her a natural-born U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment.- Trump falsely claimed the January 6th Capitol attack was "an insurrection caused by Nancy Pelosi," directly contradicted by video evidence of her frantically requesting aid from nearby states' National Guards to defend the Capitol.- On September 8, 2019, Trump claimed without evidence that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, later displaying a National Hurricane Center map altered with a black Sharpie to include Alabama in the storm's projected path, prompting the National Weather Service in Birmingham to issue a correction stating "Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian" and leading to an internal NOAA investigation that found the agency's support of Trump's false claim was "not based on science."- On April 2, 2019, Trump claimed that noise from windmills "causes cancer," contradicting the American Cancer Society's statement that there is "no credible evidence" for such a link and the absence of any studies in the biomedical literature supporting his assertion.- For 5 years between 2011-2016, Trump demanded Obama "show his birth certificate," even after its release in 2011, tweeting it was fraudulent, linking a bureaucrat's death to a coverup - all to deny America's first Black president's legitimacy.- On September 13th, 2018, Donald Trump baselessly disputed official studies estimating nearly 3,000 Puerto Rican deaths from 2017's hurricanes, tweeting "3,000 people did not die" and accusing Democrats of inflating the toll "to make me look as bad as possible," contradicting the findings of George Washington University and Harvard University researchers.- On November 27, 2016, then President-elect Donald Trump tweeted, without any supporting evidence, "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," contradicted by the Republican-majority National Association of Secretaries of State claiming they were "not aware of any evidence that supports the voter fraud claims," his own lawyers confirming the election was "not tainted by fraud or mistake," and his own disbanded voter fraud commission failing to find widespread irregularities.- On November 14, 2020, President Trump tweeted that Dominion Voting Systems had "deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide," citing a debunked report from One America News Network, despite election security experts, including Trump's own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Christopher Krebs, stating there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

First Impeachment:

- On July 25, 2019, Trump explicitly made release of $391 million in vital military aid to Ukraine contingent on President Zelenskyy propping up his personal political fortunes by publicly announcing an investigation for show into his leading political opponent absent any credible predicate. (“For show” is purposeful word choice. Testimony shows he didn’t actually care about whether an investigation happened. Only that one was announced before the cameras)- At an October 2019 press conference, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney defended Trump's solicitation of foreign interference in US elections by telling the American public they need to "get over it" since "there's going to be political influence in foreign policy."- Trump's EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a Republican political appointee who donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration, testified that there was a "quid pro quo.”- Ambassador Mike McKinley, former Senior adviser to Secretary of State Pompeo, testified that he resigned because "the engagement of our missions to procure negative political information for domestic purposes..."- In sworn testimony during the House impeachment inquiry, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, stated he "did not think it was proper" of Trump to have made these demands.- Ambassador Bill Taylor stated "it was becoming clear to me that the meeting President Zelensky wanted was conditioned on the investigations..." directly confirming a quid pro quo, and in a text message to Sondland wrote "I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign."- George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, testified Trump "wanted nothing less than Zelensky to go to microphone and say 'investigations, Biden and Clinton’”- Kurt Volker, former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, provided text messages to Congress showing Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden, with Volker writing on July 19, 2019: "Most impt is for Zelensky to say that he will help investigation."- On October 6, 2019, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) publicly criticized Trump's actions regarding Ukraine, stating, "The President's brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling," and later voted to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge during the impeachment trial on February 5, 2020, becoming the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party.- The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded Trump's hold on aid to Ukraine violated the Impoundment Control Act, as the funds were appropriated by Congress.

Environment:

- On August 20, 2018, Trump's EPA unveiled a plan to scrap the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, as the agency's own technical analysis estimated the repeal would increase carbon emissions and particulate pollution linked to health issues like asthma and heart disease, projecting over 120,000 new asthma cases, 48,000 missed school and work days, 760 non-fatal heart attacks, and 690 ER visits annually by 2030.- On September 19, 2019, the Trump administration repealed the 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, removing Clean Water Act protections for over 18% of the nation's streams and 51% of wetlands, potentially affecting the drinking water sources for over 117 million Americans, with the EPA's own Science Advisory Board warning that the revised rule "decreases protection for our Nation's waters and does not support the objective of restoring and maintaining 'the chemical, physical and biological integrity' of these waters."- The Trump Administration weakened key Obama-era fuel efficiency standards, ultimately allowing automakers to produce fleets averaging only 40 mpg versus the prior 54 mpg target, resulting in an additional 1 billion metric tons of carbon emissions, 80 billion gallons more gasoline consumption, and 2 billion more barrels of oil used, despite the EPA's own data showing the strict standard helped cut CO2 by 500 million metric tons and saved drivers $86 billion in fuel costs.- On December 9, 2020, the Trump EPA finalized a rule radically overhauling how the agency calculates costs and benefits of Clean Air Act regulations, directing it to disregard major public health "co-benefits" like reduced illnesses and deaths from curbing pollutants.- On August 29, 2019, Trump's EPA moved to eliminate regulations requiring oil/gas firms to monitor and repair methane leaks, a greenhouse gas over 25 times more potent than CO2, despite acknowledging this would release an extra 370,000 tons annually, equivalent to 1.8 million more passenger vehicles on the road.- On November 4, 2020, the Trump administration formally withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris Agreement: the global pact to combat climate change that was forged by the U.S. itself and joined by 189 other parties.- For FY2018, Trump proposed a 31% cut to the EPA's overall budget, slashing its funding by $2.6 billion to $5.6 billion, the largest reduction for a Cabinet-level agency, while also planning to eliminate 3,200 positions, driving staffing to its lowest level since 1978. (Denied by Congress)- For FY2019, Trump proposed a 26% EPA budget cut, including eliminating 2,574 employees to shrink the agency to 1984 staffing levels. (Denied by Congress)- For FY2020, Trump once again targeted the EPA for severe budget cuts, proposing a 31.2% reduction compared to the previous year. (Denied by Congress).- Trump's EPA retaliated against three scientists for resisting pressure to misrepresent chemical safety, with supervisors calling them "stupid," "piranhas," and "pot-stirrers," issuing negative reviews, reassignments, and award denials, according to the agency's watchdog.- Trump's first EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, expressed doubt about climate change, stating in 2017 "I would not agree that [CO2 is] a primary contributor to the global warming that we see”- Andrew Wheeler, who led the EPA from 2019 to 2021, had previously lobbied for Murray Energy, America's largest private coal firm, and served as vice president of the pro-coal Washington Coal Club, with coal emitting 72% more climate-changing CO2 per unit than natural gas due to being the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel.- Rick Perry, who served as U.S. Secretary of Energy from 2017 to 2019, expressed skepticism of climate change in his 2010 book "Fed Up!", dismissing it as "all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight."- Trump nominated Kathleen Hartnett White, who described belief in "global warming" as a "kind of paganism" for "secular elites," to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2017, though her nomination was later withdrawn.- Bill Wehrum, Trump's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, suggested during his 2017 confirmation hearing that it is "an open question" whether human activity is the major driver of climate change.- Steven Milloy, part of Trump's EPA transition team, called human-driven climate change "junk science.”- William Happer, appointed in 2018 to Trump's National Security Council as Senior Director for Emerging Technologies, compared the "demonization of carbon dioxide" to the Holocaust persecution of Jews.- Amanda Gunasekara, Trump's principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, is a member of the CO2 Coalition, a group that advocates against CO2 reductions and whose director, William Happer, has described climate change as "a completely imaginary threat".- Trump appointed Jeffrey Wood, a former lobbyist for the coal-reliant utility company Southern Company, as the acting assistant attorney general overseeing the Department of Justice division that prosecutes environmental crimes.

Consumer Protections:

- In November 2017, President Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney, who had previously supported abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and referred to it as a "sick, sad" joke.- On July 7, 2020, the Trump administration's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rescinded an Obama-era rule that required payday lenders to verify whether individuals could afford to repay their high-interest loans, thereby exposing millions of already financially vulnerable Americans to potential debt traps of unaffordable borrowing at annual interest rates averaging nearly 400%.- On November 1, 2017, President Trump signed a Congressional resolution overturning a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that would have allowed consumers to more easily file class-action lawsuits against banks, instead preserving mandatory arbitration clauses that, according to a CFPB study, awarded only around $360,000 total to 78 consumers over a 2-year period through arbitration, compared to over $1 billion paid out to 34 million consumers through class-action lawsuits over 5 years.- Trump's Labor Department weakened the Obama-era "fiduciary duty" rule requiring retirement advisors to act in their clients' best interests, effectively greenlighting advisors to steer retirement savers into higher-cost, lower-quality investments to reap bigger commissions. The Obama administration had estimated that conflicted advice cost Americans $17 billion per year.- In February 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under interim director Mick Mulvaney, dropped a lawsuit against predatory payday lender Golden Valley Lending that had been accused of illegally charging up to 950% interest rates.- On July 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos rescinded the "gainful employment" rule, an Obama-era regulation that aimed to crack down on for-profit colleges and universities whose graduates were burdened with unaffordable debt from low-quality programs.- In September 2020, the Trump administration's Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a final rule that severely weakened the "disparate impact" standard, a critical legal tool used for over 45 years to identify and eliminate discrimination in housing and lending, despite opposition from a broad coalition of civil rights groups, elected officials, and even major mortgage industry leaders who warned the rule would facilitate housing discrimination.- Consumers filed more than 20,000 complaints with the CFPB regarding the Equifax data breach, yet the government agency under acting director Mick Mulvaney at the time had taken no action, and Mulvaney had even proposed making the CFPB's complaint portal private to prevent public scrutiny of the agency's response.- The number of enforcement actions taken by the CFPB declined by 80% in 2018 compared to its 2015 peak under the Obama administration.- The Trump administration undermined protections for U.S. troops by stopping the CFPB from routinely examining lenders for compliance with the Military Lending Act's 36% interest rate cap for military borrowers, despite a DOD study showing losing just one servicemember due to financial issues costs taxpayers over $58,000. The CFPB had previously delivered over $130 million in relief to military consumers from violations like a payday lender issuing high-interest loans from 2011-2018, but halting these examinations left troops exposed.- The Trump administration's Department of Education under Betsy DeVos rapidly denied nearly 94% of claims from students seeking loan forgiveness for being defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges. DeVos' staff were pressured to process claims that sometimes had hundreds of pages associated with them in under 12 minutes, with bonuses for speeding through reviews. A federal judge slammed this "blistering pace" of "perfunctory denial notices utterly devoid of meaningful explanation.”

Labor Rights:

- In FY2019, OSHA had only 875 inspectors, the lowest number since the agency's founding in the 1970s.- Trump signed H.J. Res. 37 repealing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule that required companies bidding on federal contracts over $500,000 to disclose labor violations, enabling firms with histories of workplace safety issues, wage theft, or other abuses to freely secure lucrative, taxpayer-funded government work.
- On August 31, 2017, a federal judge struck down Obama's overtime rule extending overtime pay eligibility to 4.2 million workers earning up to $47,476 annually after Trump's DOL declined to defend it in court.- Trump's EPA proposed weakening the Risk Management Program rule on chemical facility safety put in place after the 2013 West, Texas fertilizer explosion killed 15.- The Trump Department of Labor eliminated the long-standing "80/20" rule for tipped workers, allowing employers to pay the $2.13 tipped minimum wage for any amount of non-tipped work performed conditionally, which the Economic Policy Institute estimated would transfer over $700 million annually from service workers to employers.- The Trump administration delayed implementing an Obama-era rule that would limit construction workers' exposure to silica dust, a known carcinogen, despite OSHA projections that it could save over 600 lives annually.
- Trump's Department of Labor issued a rule making it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees, depriving them of minimum wage, overtime, and other labor protections. The cost to workers was estimated by the Economic Policy Institute to be more than $3 billion annually.- Trump’s DOL rescinded the "persuader rule" that had required disclosure when companies hired anti-union consultants, as Nissan did in its 2017 Mississippi plant unionization fight.
- Trump nominated figures hostile to worker protections like David Zatezalo, a former coal executive whose company clashed with regulators over safety violations, to head important agencies such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).- Trump's budgets proposed eliminating the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that investigates industrial accidents like Deepwater Horizon, though Congress maintained funding.- Trump's proposed slashing funding for the International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) by 78% cut that would have damaged this important agency charged with preventing a race to the bottom undercutting American workers (Congress didn’t grant this fortunately).- The Trump NLRB issued rules that stripped graduate student workers at private universities of their right to unionize.- Trump revoked a union contract with the Education Department, stripping 3,900 workers of their negotiated rights and protections.- The top job at OSHA, the Assistant Secretary of Labor position, remained vacant for the longest period in the agency's history during Donald Trump's presidency.- Trump's NLRB overturned the Browning-Ferris decision in 2015 that had made it easier to hold companies accountable for labor violations by their contractors and franchisees.- The Trump NLRB's decision in the PCC Structurals case made it more difficult for unions to organize bargaining units comprised of smaller groups of employees within a single workplace.- The Trump Labor Department proposed a rule that would have allowed youth aged 16 and 17 to operate patient lifts without supervision, exposing them to potential injury from operating heavy machinery.- In 2018, the Trump administration's OSHA proposed rolling back an Obama-era rule that would have required employers to electronically submit records of workplace injuries and illnesses, depriving OSHA of data it could use to better target its limited enforcement resources to unsafe workplaces.

COVID:

- Jan. 22, 2020: "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It's going to be just fine." - Trump- Jan. 24: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well." - Trump- Feb. 10: "Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away."- Feb. 24: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" - Trump- Feb. 25: "CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus." - Trump- Feb. 26: "The 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero." - Trump- Feb. 27: "One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear." - Trump- Feb 28: At a South Carolina rally, Trump referred to the pandemic as the Democrats' "new hoax" to damage him politically.- March 6: "I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president." - Trump- March 13: Trump finally declares a national emergency.- Mar. 13: Trump states "I don't take responsibility at all."- March 17: "I've always known this is a real—this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic ... I've always viewed it as very serious." - Trump- March 19: "Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion," despite earlier warnings from U.S. intelligence, health official- In private interviews in February and March 2020 with journalist Bob Woodward, Trump admitted COVID was highly contagious, airborne, and "more deadly than even your strenuous flus," while publicly downplaying its severity. "I wanted to always play it down," he told Woodward- April 3: The administration announced guidelines that Americans are recommended to abide by. Trump immediately undercuts this by saying he won't: "You can do it. You don't have to do it. I'm choosing not to do it."- April 3: "I said it was going away - and it is going away." - Trump- April 6: "LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL!" Trump tweeted, even as the U.S. entered what would be the deadliest week of the outbreak to date.- April 23: "I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" - Trump- May 9: As US death toll passes 78,000, Trump says: "This is going to go away without a vaccine, it is going to go away, and we are not going to see it again, hopefully, after a period of time"- May 11: Trump said "We have met the moment and we have prevailed," despite a rising national caseload and death toll, lack of widespread testing, and PPE shortages.- May 18: Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment he long touted even as studies showed no efficacy and potential risks.- June 20: At an indoor rally in Tulsa attended by thousands, Trump said he told officials to "slow the testing down, please" because case numbers were increasing. The White House claimed he was joking.- Aug 22: "Many doctors and studies disagree with this!" Trump tweeted in response to the FDA revoking Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine due to accumulating evidence of poor efficacy and safety risks.- Oct 31: Stanford researchers released a study estimating that 18 Trump campaign rallies between June-September had led to over 30,000 incremental COVID-19 cases and likely over 700 deaths.- Jan: In one of Trump's final days in office, the U.S. recorded over 4,400 daily deaths, the pandemic's deadliest day. Over 400,000 Americans had died in total. The Trump administration left Biden no real vaccine distribution plan to work with.

Abortion:

- Trump's three Supreme Court appointees - Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett - all voted as part of the 6-3 majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years.- After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Trump took credit for the decision, stating the ruling was "only made possible because I delivered everything as promised, including nominating and getting three highly respected and strong Constitutionalists confirmed to the United States Supreme Court."- In October 2020, Trump's State Department signed the Geneva Consensus Declaration, a non-binding pledge co-sponsored by countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Sudan, stating "there is no international right to abortion."- On January 24, 2020, Trump became the first sitting president to directly address the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion rally in Washington D.C.- In 2017, Trump signed legislation allowing states to withhold federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers. Planned Parenthood serves 41% of patients under the Title X family planning program.

January 6th:

- On January 6th, 2021, Trump delivered remarks at the Ellipse where he continually repeated demonstrably false allegations that the election was stolen, exhorted the angry crowd to "fight like hell" to stop Congress from ceremonially certifying Biden's victory, and directly instructed them to "[march] over to the Capitol" where Pence was carrying out his constitutional duty to oversee the count.- All the while, he was well aware that the assembled mob was armed, based on the testimony of White House aide Cassidy Hutchingson, who recounted Trump saying, "I don’t f-in’ care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me.”- Even as violence was already well underway at 2:24 p.m, Trump not only did not condemn the rioters' actions, but actually escalated the mayhem by Tweeting "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done."- As the situation on the ground further spun out of control, those around Trump desperately pressed him to publicly denounce the violence, but he refused to do so, and so it fell to aide Dan Scavino to commandeer his handle and issue a noncommittal tweet that stopped short of admonishment or calling for an orderly evacuation.- Nor would Trump deploy the National Guard to restore order, forcing Mike Pence to take matters into his own hands, all the while under sustained threat of violence and chants to "hang him."- At 4.17 pm., Trump finally recorded a short video hours after the Capitol siege began in which he again insisted the election was "stolen" before concluding with "We love you, you're very special" to the mob that had carried out the assault.- Now, he is calling those same people "hostages" whose criminal acts he vows to pardon.- On January 13, 2021, ten House Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking GOP member, joined all 222 Democrats in voting to impeach President Trump for "incitement of insurrection" related to the January 6th Capitol attack, marking the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in U.S. history, with the Senate trial resulting in 57-43 vote to convict, including seven Republican senators - Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey - marking the largest bipartisan Senate vote to convict a president in American history, despite falling short of the two-thirds majority required for removal.

Laura Loomer:

- Trump has continually heaped praise on far-right extremist Laura Loomer, describing her as "terrific," "very special," and a "strong person," going so far as to fly her on his plane to debate against Kamala Harris and invite her to his exclusive Bedminster club.- Trump's 2024 campaign website has amplified her content no fewer than 12 times—on April 29, 2023, August 30, 2023, September 4, 2023, September 6, 2023, September 23, 2023, November 7, 2023, November 28, 2023 (twice), December 1, 2023, January 8, 2024, and April 5, 2024—by embedding her social media posts and directly linking to her website.- In a January 2019 Instagram video, Loomer stated "Muslims should not be allowed to seek positions of political office in this country.”- On July 18, 2023, Loomer lauded the January 6th insurrectionists who violently attacked the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election, Tweeting "January 6 should be a national holiday called Patriots Day" and proclaiming "The J6ers are patriots & they will go down in history as heroes."- On May 16, 2024, Loomer quote tweeted a video of Black Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett with the racist comment "GHETTO DEI SHANIQUA."- On a 2017 Nationalist Public Radio podcast, Laura Loomer declared herself a "pro-white nationalist."- Immediately after the death of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Laura Loomer referred to the late representative as a "ghetto bitch.”- Still in 2024, Loomer is claiming “Obama is a Muslim.”- On October 3, 2023, Loomer Tweeted that "Obama was just exposed as a gay man” and that his marriage with Michelle is “fake.”- On November 1, 2017, Loomer tweeted "I'm late to the NYPD press conference because I couldn't find a non Muslim cab or @Uber @lyft driver for over 30 min! This is insanity.”- Loomer has labeled herself a "proud Islamophobe.”- In an appearance on Tim Pool’s podcast, Loomer argued that Democrats she deems guilty of "treason" should face the death penalty.- On May 21, 2023, Loomer Tweeted "Diversity is not our strength."- On November 7, 2023, Loomer Tweeted that it "should be ILLEGAL to take your oath of office on the Quran.”- On November 24, 2023, Loomer Tweeted that Derek Chauvin, convicted of murdering George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for over 9 minutes, is "an innocent man."- On June 23, 2024, Loomer tweeted "Why is everyone who works for Joe Biden either gay or degenerate?”- Responding to Republican Congressman Bob Good's marking of Juneteenth, Loomer wrote: "Don't call yourself conservative and then post a stupid post about a made up 'holiday' to appease woke blacks."- On May 1, 2024, Loomer falsely claimed that "Vaccines cause autism in children."- Loomer Tweeted on the prospect of a Harris victory: "the White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center."

Russia:

- On February 23, 2022, Trump lauded Putin's aggression toward Ukrainian as "genius" and "savvy."- As reported by The New York Times on January 14, 2019, citing "current and former officials," Trump privately expressed on numerous occasions a desire to withdraw from NATO, mirroring his public lambasting of allies for not meeting the 2% GDP defense spending target years before the agreed-upon 2024 deadline, calling NATO "obsolete" during his 2016 campaign, and wavering on Article 5.- In a May 10, 2023 CNN town hall, Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine or Russia to win the war, stating "I don't think in terms of winning and losing."- On July 16, 2018, during a joint press conference in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump publicly sided with Putin's denial of election interference over the unanimous conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies, stating "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be," despite the January 6, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment detailing Russia's "influence campaign" aimed at the 2016 U.S. election, the July 13, 2018 indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the DNC and Clinton campaign, and the Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan report confirming "extensive" Russian interference.- Ignoring all-caps "DO NOT CONGRATULATE" warnings from his national security team, Trump effusively lauded Putin's fraudulent March 2018 "reelection"—where key opponent Alexei Navalny was barred and voter fraud rampant—then publicly boasted via Twitter about congratulating the autocrat and proposing a summit, legitimizing Putin's corrupt fourth term as Russian president despite blatant violations of democratic norms.- Post-Ukraine invasion in a March 2022 interview, Trump refused Hannity's continued prompts to criticize Putin as "evil," "enemy," or merely "capable of evil things."- On June 8, 2018, at the G7 summit in Charlevoix, Canada, Trump reportedly asserted to world leaders that "Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian," echoing Kremlin propaganda and contradicting the official U.S. position, UN Resolution 68/262, and the Budapest Memorandum.- In May 13, 2022 statement, Trump criticized Democrats for "sending another $40 billion to Ukraine."- On July 18, 2016, Trump campaign officials, including J.D. Gordon and Paul Manafort, successfully intervened to remove language from the Republican Party platform calling for "providing lethal defensive weapons" to Ukraine, instead softening it to "appropriate assistance."- On August 2, 2017, Trump grudgingly signed the Russia sanctions bill CAATSA that he called "seriously flawed" after it passed with veto-proof majorities, then missed the October 1 deadline to identify Russian entities for sanctions, prompting a bipartisan rebuke from Senators McCain and Cardin for the administration's "lack of responsiveness."- Trump repeatedly equated U.S. actions with Putin's brutal regime, telling Fox News' Bill O'Reilly in 2017 "We have a lot of killers... you think our country is so innocent?" when pressed on Putin being a "killer," echoing his 2015 defense of Putin's oppressive tactics by claiming America "does plenty of killing also."- Contradicting bipartisan condemnation of Russia's egregious hacking of American targets, including during the 2016 election, Trump touted plans for a joint "impenetrable Cyber Security unit" with Putin, only to hastily backtrack after Republicans described such a partnership as "dumb" given Russia's responsibility for the very intrusions they would purportedly combat.- Following Alexei Navalny's death, world leaders condemned Putin's brutality; Trump, however, remained silent for days, then opportunistically used Navalny to highlight his own legal troubles, posting, "The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country..."- Despite Secretary of State Pompeo stating it was "pretty clearly" Russia, Attorney General Barr concurring that it "certainly appears" to be Russia, and a joint FBI, DNI, NSA and CISA statement confirming Russian culpability in the devastating SolarWinds hack of the Treasury, Justice, Energy and Defense Departments, Trump dismissively waved it away as another case of "Russia, Russia, Russia," contradicting his own top officials' assessments of the most significant cyber breach in years.- At the 2018 G7 summit, Trump unexpectedly called for Russia to be readmitted to the group, despite its 2014 expulsion for annexing Crimea and ongoing occupation of Ukrainian territory.- Following Russia's November 25, 2018 seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and 24 sailors, an act Pompeo condemned as a "dangerous escalation" and international law violation, Trump decline to release a prepared statement denouncing the attack, instead offering only a muted response: a cancelled meeting with Putin.- Following his October 16, 2019, Syria troop withdrawal, Trump echoed Kremlin propaganda claiming "Russia hates ISIS as much as the United States does," directly contradicting the State Department's 2015 assessment that over 90% of Russian airstrikes targeted moderate Syrian opposition, not ISIS or al-Qaeda.- Trump personally overruled planned sanctions against Russia for its support of a Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed at least 75, contradicting UN Ambassador Haley's Sunday announcement on CBS's "Face the Nation.”- Just 24 days into his presidency, Trump's National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned for lying to Vice President Pence about pre-inaugural contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak regarding sanctions, exacerbated by Flynn's acceptance of $45,000 from Kremlin-controlled media outlet RT.- Despite meeting twice with Russian Ambassador Kislyak during the 2016 campaign, then-Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump's Attorney General pick, falsely testified under oath to Senator Franken that he "did not have communications with the Russians," necessitating his eventual recusal from the Russia investigation after his undisclosed meetings came to light.- According to his own national security advisor John Bolton, Trump privately complained about U.S. sanctions intended to punish Russia for the attempted assassination of a defector in the UK, which the U.S. and UK blamed on Moscow, and subsequently tried to rescind the penalties, insisting the U.S. was "being too tough on Putin," further demonstrating Trump's alignment with Kremlin interests over American security.- Trump's Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, enjoyed a "very close relationship" with Putin cultivated over two decades working on Russian energy projects for Exxon, culminating in his receipt of the Order of Friendship in 2013, Russia's highest honor for foreigners.- On December 18, 2015, Trump defended Putin against allegations of ordering journalist assassinations, praising him as "at least a leader, unlike what we have in this country."- On December 17, 2015, Trump returned Putin's praise, stating it was a "great honor" to be complimented by a "highly respected" man.- In a September 7, 2016 interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Trump said Putin "has been a leader far more than our president has been a leader."

Dictator Praise:

Jared Kushner:

- In April 2022, the New York Times reported that six months after leaving the White House, Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his new private equity firm, Affinity Partners.- The Saudi fund's investment screening panel expressed serious misgivings about the Kushner deal, including "the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management"; due diligence being “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; and the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk” (NYT).- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) subsequently overruled the panel's concerns and approved the investment.- Kushner developed an exceptionally close rapport with MBS during the Trump administration, taking on the Saudi portfolio, chatting regularly on WhatsApp, and reportedly discussing sensitive matters like the names of Saudis disloyal to MBS.- After the October 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which the CIA concluded MBS ordered, Kushner became MBS's "most important defender inside the White House," according to NYT.- Kushner was also involved in policies favorable to Saudi interests, such as supporting the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's civil war. In May 2017, Kushner pushed for a massive $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia despite concerns from career national security officials. In 2018, he backed MBS during a power struggle when the crown prince detained Saudi royals and businessmen.- Keep in mind that Jared Kushner's top-secret security clearance was initially denied by two career specialists who rejected his application due to concerns raised by the FBI about his foreign contacts related to Israel, UAE, Russia, and his family business ties posing potential conflicts, but after White House Counsel Don McGahn recommended against granting clearance based on these issues, Trump the next day personally ordered his Chief of Staff John Kelly to approve Kushner's clearance anyway.- Jared Kushner secured almost all—99%, per SEC filings—of the $3 billion for his investment fund from foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, and undisclosed sources like Foxconn founder Terry Gou

Healthcare:

- On January 21, 2017, Trump signed an executive order targeting the Affordable Care Act, directing agencies to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" ACA provisions "to the maximum extent permitted by law."- On April 13, 2017, the Trump administration finalized a rule slashing the Affordable Care Act's open enrollment period from 90 to 45 days.- On May 4, 2017, following the House passage of the American Health Care Act of 2017, Trump celebrated the "very incredibly well-crafted" bill in the Rose Garden. Its provisions allowed:
* insurers to charge older Americans up to five times more than younger customers.
* states to permit premium increases for pre-existing conditions after coverage lapses.
* insurers to reinstate annual and lifetime coverage limits.
* states to waive essential health benefits requirements.- Facing Senate defeat of the original AHCA, Trump championed the alternative "Health Care Freedom Act of 2017," projected by the CBO to increase premiums by 20% and leave 16 million more uninsured than under the ACA, a bill ultimately sunk by John McCain's decisive vote against it.- On August 31, 2017, the Trump administration announced a 90% cut to the Affordable Care Act's advertising budget from $100 million to $10 million, despite a study published in Health Affairs demonstrating that counties with higher volumes of local insurance advertisements during the initial open enrollment period experienced significantly larger reductions in uninsurance rates.- In September 2017, the Trump administration announced plans to shut down healthcare.gov, the ACA insurance enrollment website, for 12 hours nearly every Sunday during the upcoming enrollment season.- The Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration repurposed its ACA outreach budget to produce 23 anti-Obamacare video testimonials featuring carefully selected individuals claiming to be "burdened by Obamacare."- On October 12, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13813, allowing for the expansion of association health plans and short-term, limited-duration insurance plans exempt from Affordable Care Act requirements, permitting the sale of policies lacking coverage for essential health benefits like mental healthcare, emergency services, and prescription drugs.- On October 12, 2017, Trump unilaterally terminated cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurers, which had subsidized out-of-pocket costs for 7 million low-income Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act silver plans, despite the Congressional Budget Office projecting this action would increase federal deficits by $194 billion over a decade and cause premiums for silver plans to surge by 20% in 2018 and 25% by 2020.- On July 10, 2018, the Trump administration slashed funding for Affordable Care Act Navigator programs by 84% from $36.8 million to $10 million, following a 41% cut in 2017.- On June 12, 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, under the Trump administration, finalized a rule eliminating Obama-era non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals in healthcare programs covered by the Affordable Care Act.- On June 26, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration filed an 82-page brief with the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, jeopardizing coverage for 23 million Americans and eliminating pre-existing condition protections for 130 million.

Federal Reserve:

- Despite the 1913 Federal Reserve Act explicitly establishing the Federal Reserve's independence from political interference, Trump repeatedly and publicly pressured Chairman Jerome Powell, violating established norms.- In a December 18, 2018 tweet, Trump directly urged the Fed to "Feel the market, don't just go by meaningless numbers.”- On December 24, 2018, Trump tweeted: "The only problem our economy has is the Fed. They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch - he can't putt!"- Trump tweeted on April 14, 2019: "If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points."- According to a June 18, 2019 Bloomberg report, Trump discussed firing Powell in late 2018 and asked White House lawyers to explore options for removing him.- In a July 19, 2019 tweet, Trump stated: "Because of the faulty thought process we have going for us at the Federal Reserve, we pay much higher interest rates than countries that are no match for us economically. In other words, our interest costs are much higher than other countries, when they should be lower. Correct!"- On August 23, 2019, Trump tweeted: "My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?"- In September 2019, Trump called Federal Reserve officials "boneheads" in a tweet and demanded they lower interest rates to "ZERO, or less."- In a September 6, 2019 speech in Zurich, Powell felt the need to state: "Political factors play absolutely no role in our process, and my colleagues and I would not tolerate any attempt to include them in our decision-making or our discussions."- On June 25, 2019, Powell stated: "Congress chose to insulate the Fed this way because it had seen the damage that often arises when policy bends to short-term political interests. Central banks in major democracies around the world have similar independence.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene:

- Donald Trump on Marjorie Taylor Greene: “She’s really highly respected in Washington. She’s fantastic.”- Trump on Marjorie Taylor Greene: "This is the hardest working, most incredible woman, she is respected by everybody, she is very smart."- Donald Trump lavished praise on Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, declaring his "absolute love" for the far-right Georgia Republican and suggesting she would remain a force on his "side for a long time to come."- On February 20, 2023, Marjorie Taylor Greene explicitly engaged in secessionist rhetoric by calling for a "national divorce" on Twitter, stating "We need to separate by red states and blue states..."- After the July 4, 2022 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois that killed 7 people, Greene amplified baseless conspiracy theories on Twitter suggesting the massacre was a false flag attack "designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control.”- In one speech, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed Nancy Pelosi was "guilty of treason," a "crime punishable by death.”- Marjorie Taylor Greene 'liked' a January 2019 social media comment stating that “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.- Inside Speaker Pelosi's office in 2019, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene broadcast on Facebook Live that the Democratic House leader will “suffer death or she’ll be in prison” for her “treason.”- Marjorie Taylor Greene compared Speaker Pelosi's COVID-19 protocols to Jews during the Holocaust being "told to wear a gold star" and "treated like second-class citizens" before being "put in trains and taken to gas chambers."- Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC), an event organized by white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes who has made vile antisemitic statements such as claiming the U.S. has "a Jewish occupied government," calling for "eradicating the Jewish stranglehold" over America, and declaring "We love Hitler."- Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that Jake Teixeira, who repeatedly leaked classified documents in an online gaming chat, was only being pursued by the “Biden regime” for being "white, male, Christian, and antiwar.”- In a text message to Mark Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021, days before Biden was supposed to be inaugurated, Marjorie Taylor Greene relayed that some GOP lawmakers believed "the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law.”- In 2018, Greene claimed that "there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon" on 9/11.- Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed the 2018 midterm elections represented "an Islamic invasion of our government" and said Muslim lawmakers elected at that time "really should go back to the Middle East."- In a 415-2 House vote, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert stood alone against reauthorizing the National Marrow Donor Program's lifesaving aid for leukemia patients.- Marjorie Taylor Greene, during a March 2022 interview, blamed Ukraine for Russia's invasion, alleging they “poked the bear.”- Greene has also claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine.”- Marjorie Taylor Greene nominated Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people in Kenosha during protests but escaped a murder conviction, for a Congressional Gold Medal: the highest honor awarded by Congress. At the same time, she voted against bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal on the U.S. Capitol Police who risked their lives defending lawmakers on January 6th.- At a Georgia Trump rally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made homophobic comments directed at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, stating "he and his husband can stay out of our girls' bathrooms.”

Cabinet:

Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt:
- Resigned in July 2018 amid at least 13 federal investigations
◂ Spent $43,000 on a soundproof phone booth
◂ Spent $1,500 on 12 pens bearing his signature
◂ Spent $3.5 million on 24/7 security detail
◂ Received a sweetheart $50/night condo rental from a lobbyist
◂ Directed staff to seek a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wifeFormer Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke:
- Resigned in December 2018 amid at least 15 federal investigations
◂ Improperly blocked a Native American casino after meeting with MGM lobbyists
◂ Spent $139,000 in taxpayer funds to replace doors in his office
◂ Misused position for private gain by directing staff to arrange meetings and print materials related to a real estate project involving a foundation he establishedHHS Secretary Tom Price:
- Resigned in September 2017
◂ Racked up over $1 million in taxpayer-funded private/military flights in 8 months
◂ Violated rules requiring commercial travel for non-emergency government tripsCommerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr.:
- Never resigned despite numerous ethical issues
◂ Served on the board of a Chinese joint venture for nearly two years during the US-China trade war
◂ Owned stakes in companies co-owned by the Chinese government and a shipping firm tied to Putin's inner circle
◂ Participated in meetings with Chevron executives while his wife owned over $250,000 in company stock
◂ Shorted Navigator Holdings stock after learning of upcoming negative reporting, potentially profiting from insider tradingSecretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin:
- Resigned/fired on March 28, 2018
◂ Misused taxpayer funds, spending nearly half of a $122,000 European trip on sightseeing instead of official business
◂ Improperly accepted expensive Wimbledon tickets worth thousands
◂ Had his chief of staff alter an email to falsely claim he was invited to an honorary dinner to justify paying his wife's $4,000 airfare
◂ Directed an aide to act as a "personal travel concierge"Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson
- Did not resign
◂ Spent $31,561 on a dining room table for his office without required Congressional approval, in apparent violation of federal lawSecretary of Transportation Elaine Chao
- Resigned on January 7, 2021, unrelatedly
◂ Received $5-25 million gift from her father James Chao, who had been the long-time CEO of the family shipping company Foremost Group before stepping down in 2019
◂ Pledged to divest deferred stock units from Vulcan Materials but held onto them until 2019, profiting $50,000
◂ The Trump administration removed the DOT Inspector General who was investigating Chao's potential preferential treatment of Kentucky projects in the state her husband represents
◂ The Trump administration's DOJ denied the DOT Inspector General's request to consider a criminal investigation into ChaoCenters for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma
- Never resigned despite ethical issues
◂ Spent more than $3.5 million on Republican Party-aligned consultants to promote herself
◂ Spent nearly $3,000 in taxpayer dollars on a "Girl's Night" party thrown in her honor
◂ Spent hundreds of dollars on makeup artists and $13,000 to promote herself for awards and speaking engagements
◂ Billed CMS up to $380 per hour for her travel entourage, with drivers costing up to $203 per hour and hotel rooms over $500 per night

LGBTQ+ Rights:

- The DOJ filed court papers arguing that businesses can legally fire employees for being gay or transgender, contradicting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's stance that such discrimination violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.- Trump’s State Department denied citizenship to children of married same-sex couples born via surrogacy or IVF abroad, deeming their births "out of wedlock."- Trump appointed numerous federal judges opposed to LGBTQ+ equality, including Matthew Kacsmaryk to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, who has described homosexuality as "disordered" and transgender identity as "a delusion.”- Trump nominated Jeff Mateer for a federal judgeship, but Mateer was forced to withdraw after Senate opposition arose over past remarks he had made, including describing transgender children as "part of Satan's plan."- Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military, despite a 2016 RAND study commissioned by the Pentagon finding "little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness or readiness" from open service.- Trump's Department of Health and Human Services issued a waiver allowing a South Carolina foster care agency to receive taxpayer dollars while discriminating against Jewish, non-Protestant Christian, and same-sex families.- Trump’s HHS finalized a rule redefining the Affordable Care Act's prohibition on sex discrimination to exclude transgender people, making it more possible for medical providers, for example, to refuse services like routine checkups to transgender patients.- In a reversal of 2009 rules, the Trump administration implemented a policy denying diplomatic visas to same-sex unmarried partners of foreign diplomats, United Nations personnel, and international organization employees, requiring all current same-sex partners to provide proof of marriage within months or face potential deportation.- The Trump administration rescinded the Obama-era Equal Access Rule prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people in federally funded homeless shelters and HUD housing programs.- Trump endorsed Roy Moore, who was suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court for unethically ordering probate judges to defy the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide by denying marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.- The Trump administration rescinded Obama-era guidelines that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.- Trump spoke at the Family Research Council's annual Values Voter Summit, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that has falsely linked gay men to pedophilia.

International Standing:

- Gallup polling across 135 countries revealed a catastrophic decline in U.S. global leadership approval under Trump, plummeting from 48% in 2016 to a record-low 30% in his first year and barely recovering to 33% by 2019.- According to Pew Research Center data, Trump's presidency saw America's global reputation plummet, with confidence in U.S. leadership cratering from Obama-era highs of 80-90% to Trump-era lows of 10-23% among key allies: Sweden (93% to 15%), Netherlands (92% to 18%), Germany (86% to 10%), France (84% to 11%), Canada (83% to 20%), and Australia (84% to 23%).- In a 2018 Pew Research Center survey spanning 25 countries, Trump garnered a mere 27% confidence in global affairs, trailing autocrats Putin (30%) and Xi (34%), while Germany's Merkel commanded 52%.

JD Vance:

- On February 4, 2024, during an ABC News "This Week" interview, Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) admitted he would have violated the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by refusing to certify the 2020 election results unless swing states that Joe Biden legitimately won submitted pro-Trump electors.- On the one-year mark of the January 6th insurrection, J.D. Vance solicited donations for the rioters, baselessly referring to them as "political prisoners" who "haven't even been charged," when court records showed criminal charges had been filed against each and every individual featured.- In a September 2021 podcast interview, J.D. Vance advocated for Donald Trump to "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people" in a potential second term and challenge the Supreme Court to “enforce” any ruling against the move.- On Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast, J.D. Vance declared that he doesn't "really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”- When asked in a September 2021 interview whether anti-abortion laws should include exceptions for rape and incest victims, J.D. Vance responded, "Two wrongs don't make a right," indicating his opposition to such exceptions.- In a September 2021 speech at Pacifica Christian High School, J.D. Vance criticized the "sexual revolution" for making it too easy for people to divorce, or in his words, "shift spouses like they change their underwear.”- At a September 10, 2024 event, Senate candidate J.D. Vance declared he wouldn't have certified the 2020 election, proposing to solicit "alternative slates of electors" despite 60 courts rejecting election fraud claims and voters decisively settling the matter at the ballot box.- Over 20 months leading up to being chosen by Trump, Sen. J.D. Vance engaged in unfiltered text exchanges with Charles Johnson, a far-right figure labeled a "Holocaust denier" by the Republican Jewish Coalition.- J.D. Vance defended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's participation in Nick Fuentes' America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist event where attendees chanted "Putin! Putin!" and Fuentes praised Hitler, with Vance asserting Greene "did nothing wrong."

JD Vance:

- Trump retained ownership of 500+ businesses in the Trump Organization while president, violating precedent set by every modern president since Jimmy Carter in 1977 to divest or use a blind trust.- As of August 28, 2020, Trump spent 500 days (nearly one-third of his presidency) at his own properties, primarily Mar-a-Lago (134 days) and Bedminster (104 days), forcing the Secret Service to pay his businesses exorbitant rates - $650 per room at Mar-a-Lago in 2017, $400 in 2018, plus "resort fees" and "furniture removal" costs.- Trump's presidency saw unprecedented Secret Service expenses, including $17,000 monthly for a Bedminster cottage, $33,000 for 137 nights guarding Mnuchin at Trump's DC hotel, and over $1 million for a two-day Scotland golf trip.- VP Pence's 2019 Dublin visit saw him lodging at Trump's Doonbeg property 181 miles from meetings, racking up $599,454.36 in limo fees alone.- Moments after Trump's inauguration, the White House website brazenly promoted Melania Trump's QVC jewelry line, only removing the commercial plug following public backlash over the blatant use of the presidency for personal profit.- On March 2, 2018, President Trump exploited his office to promote his Scottish golf course, retweeting a Trump Organization ad and dubbing it "perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world" that "furthers U.K. relationship!" - a move denounced by a former ethics chief as "Trump's most explicit commingling of public interests and public office to date."•- The State Department's Share America website, intended for promoting democracy and freedom, featured a promotional piece on Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in April 2017, even shared by U.S. embassies in Albania and the U.K. before being removed amid widespread condemnation from lawmakers and ethics experts citing violation of 5 C.F.R. § 2635.702(c).- Trump repeatedly tweeted promoting son Donald Jr.'s book "Triggered," urging purchases and boasting of its NYT bestseller status, while the RNC spent nearly $100,000 on copies, state Republican parties promoted his tour, and Representatives Gaetz and McCarthy endorsed it, culminating in a $50,000 University of Florida student-funded event featuring Donald Jr. and Guilfoyle.- Between 2016 and 2018, Republican candidates and committees lavished over $4.2 million on Trump properties, with 117 spending at Trump venues during the 2018 midterms; examples include the RNC's March 2018 $271,000 Trump property spend (86% of venue/catering costs), its June 2017 $122,000+ fundraiser at the D.C. Trump International Hotel, the RGA's $400,000+ Doral summit, and Pence's $87,000+ Trump property spend in early 2019, totaling 33 political events at Trump properties in his second year alone.- Republican committees and campaigns spent nearly $1.8 million at Trump businesses in the 2020 election cycle alone, including McCarthy's $246,000+ Trump property spending, the NRSC's November 2019 D.C. hotel retreat with tripled room rates, the RNC's $37,541 monthly Trump Tower rent, its $170,000+ November 2019 Doral payment, and over $305,000 in total 2019 Trump property spending; furthermore, 23 Republican groups spent $537,326 at Trump Doral in January-February 2020 (RNC: $509,000).- At the 2019 G-7 summit, Trump hawked his Doral resort as the next venue, boasting of its "magnificent" amenities before officially announcing it as the 2020 host on October 17, forcing a reversal amid backlash over blatant self-dealing, with Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney revealing Trump's shock at criticism and noting the president "still considers himself to be in the hospitality business" while in office.- Trump's D.C. hotel, netting him $40.4M in 2017 alone, became a hub for potential influence-peddling, hosting 59 political groups, 25 business interests, and 8 foreign governments, while the Trump Organization's claims of donating profits from international guests were undermined by disclaimers that it would be "impractical" to identify all such visitors and their failure to disclose methodology:
• A Saudi lobbying firm spent nearly $270,000 (including $190,272 on lodging, $78,204 on catering) from January 23–26, 2017, booking ~500 rooms across six trips to lure military veterans into a lobbying campaign against a bill opposed by the Saudi government.
• The Kuwaiti Embassy shifted its annual independence day celebration from its decade-long venue, the Four Seasons Hotel, to the Trump Hotel in 2017, repeating this choice in 2018 and 2019, with high-ranking Trump administration officials like Wilbur Ross, Ben Carson, Andrew Wheeler, and Kellyanne Conway in attendance.
• The Trump Hotel hosted American Turkish Council and Turkish government-linked TAIK conferences in May 2017 and April 2019, featuring speakers like Wilbur Ross and Gen. Joseph Dunford, likely generating approximately $400,000 in revenue (with ~$133,000 going to the hotel).
• The Philippines' June 2018 Independence Day celebration at the Trump International Hotel, attended by 300 guests, was framed by the ambassador as signifying a "good relationship" with Trump.
• An Iraqi sheikh lobbying for U.S. military strikes against Iran booked 26 nights at the Trump International Hotel during Trump's presidency.- Two weeks after the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) paid Trump's Doral Hotel $700,650 for its 2017 Annual Meeting, the Trump Administration endorsed AHRI's long-sought policy goal of ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's March 2018 New York visit saw his entourage boost Trump International Hotel Manhattan's room rental revenue by 15% that quarter, single-handedly reversing two years of decline with a 13% overall revenue increase, while Saudi bookings at Trump's Chicago hotel simultaneously surged 169% from 2016-2018.- Breaking with the previous five years' tradition, Romania's Consulate General in Chicago chose Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago to host its Great Union Day celebration in November 2018.Click here for more on this