Once again, American voters have chosen to entrust the office of the presidency to Donald Trump, one of the most corrupt and unqualified men imaginable, over yet another uniquely qualified woman.
I’ve been trying to organize my angry and anxious thoughts since the election, and I’ve realized that I really want to say two things, so I’ve turned this into a two parter. In this first part, I want to address Trump voters directly—yes I do have some people with whom I am friends, to whom I am related, and who I want to keep loving across political divides that fit into that category. I would imagine it’s unlikely any of you will actually read this (I am painfully aware that we are all in our own information bubbles these days) and to any of you who have gone full MAGA, QAnon, red-pilled conspiracy crazy, this isn’t really for you. This is for people who are what my political podcast folks call "normie" Republicans or for independents/swing voters who ended up pulling the lever for DJT. You who claim to dislike Trump, but maybe you’ve been on the "red team" for so long that you couldn’t fathom voting for the blue team. Who claim not to support Trump’s racist rhetoric, but are apparently horribly concerned about the price of eggs. Who claim not to support Trump’s promise to deport millions of people, but who merely and understandably want the border to be secured. Who claim not to want the subjugation and discrimination of women and LGBTQ+ folks mapped out by Trump and his advisors in Project 2025, but…I don’t know…are worried about your stock portfolio? (note: the stock market has been at an all time high under the Biden administration, but whatevs.)
I should start by saying, I totally don’t get it. I will literally never understand how people would vote for a twice-impeached, self-aggrandizing, completely incoherent, objectively racist, deeply misogynistic, horribly corrupt, convicted felon. Any one of these things would be disqualifying to any other politician in "normal" times, let alone in the aggregate. And even if one is willing to ignore all of those things, the fact that he tried to overturn a free and fair election, incited a violent mob to attack the capital, and STILL has not admitted that he lost the 2020 election should in and of itself be disqualifying. Sure, we’ve had some bad dudes in office, some racists, lots of corruption, and certainly some misogynists, but NEVER one who has so threatened one of the greatest bulwarks of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of power (notice that this was not an issue in 2024). All that to say, I would not vote for this man with a gun to my head. Truly. I don’t get it.
I mean, I kind of get it, but only as a student of history who understands the way authoritarianism takes hold. Many far more intelligent people than I have written extensively on the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement, and I’ll leave the socio-political analysis to the political scientists1. In 2016, Trump’s win was absolutely shocking and devastating to my fellow progressives, but at the time it seemed like an aberration. This time, I was no less devastated, but not at all shocked. Instead, I feel a kind of cold grief and resignation, which comes down to one simple fact: this is what the voters have chosen. This is what a plurality of Americans want. After listening to literally two billion pundits analyze the cause of Trump’s win, I have personally concluded that the answer this time is simple: Trump won because people are dissatisfied with the economy (somewhere I can hear James Carville2 laughing wryly) and there was a "kick the bums out" attitude among a nearly universally dissatisfied electorate that witnessed incumbents fall across the globe. VP Harris got tagged as the incumbent of the unpopular Biden administration, even against a former President, and thus she lost. So, while a 49.9%/48.4% margin is hardly a mandate for Trump, the American electorate has spoken, and spoken fairly clearly…they want another four years of Trump.
So, Trump voters, what happens next is on you.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You are well-meaning. You are not the racist, xenophobic, MAGA base that loves Trump like a cult leader, but found him to be the "lesser of two evils"? Okay. I will take you at your word, but what happens next is on you, and how you respond will show us if you put your money where your mouth is. What do I think is going to happen next? That’s what I want to talk about here.
And I’ve never wanted to be wrong so badly.
It Was Actually Really Bad Last Time
I’m not here to re-litigate the first Trump presidency, but it seems like folks have forgotten how bad it was, or forgotten because COVID somehow wiped out our pre-pandemic lives (which I get). But, in case you want a refresher, I have put a list (that someone else kindly compiled) in the footnotes3, or you can check out Robert Reich’s extensive thread on the site formally known as Twitter (RIP). And since I’m sick of having the discussion about which of Trump’s many failures—the complete mishandling of COVID, the family separation policy, the Muslim ban, the nomination of Justices to the Supreme Court that would overturn Roe and Chevron, the constant cronyism, dining with white supremacists, blah blah—I will just say this one thing AGAIN: even if you can put aside all of his multitudes of character flaws and policy failures (any one of which should have been disqualifying), his failure to concede the 2020 election and commit to a peaceful transfer of power should be disqualifying in and of itself. Hard stop. This kind of undermining of our democratic norms has NEVER happened before (and guess, what? Harris conceded, as we all knew she would). Utterly disqualifying.
The Guardrails are Off
So many of Trump’s worst instincts and agendas were thwarted by institutional guardrails and government institutionalists who kept the former president in check, as well as his general chaos and incompetence. There are countless stories of cabinet members and staffers using kid gloves around Trump to avoid chaos or getting screamed at when they told him that he couldn’t do certain things. To quote his former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, “He didn’t like them telling him that things he wanted to do were unethical or illegal. So he’d scream at them. But then he’d usually listen. And then yell at them again later.” Institutionalists resigned or were fired over time4 and only loyalists remained. The number of former cabinet members, staffers, chiefs of staff, and other government officials who spoke out strongly against Trump during the 2024 election, including his own Vice President (who a Trump mob tried to hang when he wouldn’t overturn the election), is unprecedented.
But those folks are gone now and in their place are some of the most unqualified and frankly ridiculous bunch of cabinet nominees on the planet. A Fox News host who has never successfully managed anything for Secretary of Defense (Hegseth). A dude with brain worm who doesn’t believe in science to lead Health and Human Services (RFK, Jr.). A person who literally published a political enemies list as FBI Director (Patel). I could go on, but this is insane.
Additionally, Schedule F of Project 2025 (The Heritage Foundation backed extreme right-wing Agenda for Trump’s second term, which Trump basically admitted was also his plan after denying it throughout the election) would gut the civil service, turning the administrative state into another place for Trump to place his political loyalists. While there is certainly a good faith argument about making bureaucracy more efficient, the administrative state has largely been run on a merit/skills based system, rather than full of political appointees and toadies. As Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, stated:
“The question is: do you want people with the skills, expertise and credentials to perform their jobs or do you want people who love Donald Trump? If that’s what the main factor is to get a job, you won’t have the same food safety, workplace safety, consumer product safety, mine safety, and clean air and water.”
I personally want experts to run the administrative state, not political lackeys.
The Disappearing Right to Privacy
In addition to the cronyism and incompetence, one of my biggest fears is what will happen to the right to privacy. Aside from the destruction of a woman’s right to her bodily autonomy, SCOTUS’ opinion in Dobbs overturning Roe v. Wade was terrifying because it puts a long line of vitally important cases and a whole area of jurisprudence in jeopardy. I’m going to put on my lawyer hat for a second here and give you a brief rundown on the history of the right to privacy as simply as I can. There is no "right to privacy" explicitly guaranteed in the Bill of Rights (which was why some framers were hesitant to list them in the first place). In the 1960s, Connecticut outlawed contraception (yes, kids, this was merely 60-some years ago), and in short, SCOTUS struck down Connecticut’s ban on contraceptives for married couples. In doing so, the court explained that while not explicit in the constitution, the various guarantees within the Bill of Rights create penumbras, or shadows, that establish a right to privacy and that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the right to privacy (as part of substantive due process). While this case only recognized privacy in marital relations, the right to privacy in matters of contraception was extended to we single folk in Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972). The same rationale stated by Justice Brennan in this case, "If the right of privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child" was extended to the right to reproductive choice in Roe v. Wade (1973). More recently, substantive due process jurisprudence was used to decide Lawrence v. Texas (the right to engage in private, consensual sex) and Obergefell v. Hodges (the right of same-sex couples to marry).
You see where I’m going with this, right? While Trump’s conservative Court in Dobbs said that they were not touching the rest of their SDP jurisprudence (only the right to abortion), Clarence Thomas basically tipped their hand in his concurring opinion and added a giant YET, essentially inviting challenges to any of these cases:
So, yeah, you don’t hate gay people, but were really concerned about the cost of gas? Cool. But what are you going to do when the Trump appointed, conservative majority Supreme Court comes for their marriages and their right to be safe within their own personhood? How attached are you to your birth control?
Immigration and The Economy
Bad enough during his first term and first two campaigns, Trump’s dehumanizing and racist rhetoric on immigrants reached a fever pitch during this election:
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison — mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America. Not just the three or four countries that we think about. But all over the world they’re coming into our country — from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country.” — Dec. 16, 2023, New Hampshire rally
“They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums — that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff.” — March 4, 2024, interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network
“The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals. They’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals’ … Nancy Pelosi told me that. She said, ‘Please don’t use the word animals when you’re talking about these people.’ I said, ‘I’ll use the word animal because that’s what they are.’” — April 2, 2024, Grand Rapids, Michigan, campaign event.
First of all, let me say with my full chest: this language is the language of genocide. This kind of dehumanization of any person or group of people has absolutely no place in society. It denies the image of G-d in every human being.
Yes, we need a full overhaul of our immigration policies and have for decades. No, undocumented people who commit violent crimes should not get to stay here. We can and should have good faith discussions about how best to proceed with immigration policy, how to secure the border, and how to provide amnesty for those fleeing oppression and violence and a pathway to citizenship for those who have lived here for many years. What we cannot do is demonize millions of people who have lived and worked here for many years, who pay taxes, and who are contributing members of our society.
The human cost and cruelty of mass deportations and detention camps would be absolutely horrifying. The human suffering of families ripped apart cannot be overstated. And this is already happening. The Wall Street Journal just reported that Trump will send police to start large scale deportations in Chicago as early as tomorrow. This is to say nothing about the way these folks are vitally important to the economy—their disappearances en masse would completely shatter it.
This is one of those things where my desire for people to see what happens when they actually get what they voted for is at odds with ever other moral scruple in my body. I was talking to a dear friend about this recently (who has taught many children of undocumented folks) who said wisely, "I wish we could send all of the undocumented workers to a really nice resort or something for a year. Then people would see how much the economy relies on these folks without them getting hurt." My feelings exactly. Be careful what you ask for…
The Tech Bros, Gilead Commanders, and Trump…oh my!
It’s been really interesting/horrifying to watch two factions compete for Trump’s "favor" over the last couple of months. Trump himself is not really much of an ideologue, he is a demagogue, which is to say he exploits people, their prejudices, and their ideals in order to gain and maintain his power. He has proven over and over again that he operates transactionally—if people are loyal to him and give him what he wants, he will reciprocate. So now what we have are the MAGA diehards (nationalists) versus the tech oligarchs who are duking it out.
On one hand you have Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, etc. who see an incredible opportunity to further enrich themselves by staying in Trump’s good graces. Several of them were in fact expected to be on the dais with him when he is sworn in on today (I’m not sure how the move indoors affected that). What an awesome populist message. And, of course, Trump will use his office to further enrich himself (he just launched his own new bitcoin grift—Trumpcoin—right before the inauguration—totally normal). Again, let the populism wash over you. Whether this turns into some kind of true oligarchy or plutocracy with these billionaires exercising their control on the government (Musk has already acted a virtual co-president during transition), more of a kleptocracy where they use Trump to steal resources and add to their billions, or (likely) some kind of hybrid of the two, it is very bad for our democracy. Government of, by, and for the billionaires. And I can guarantee that these folks don’t give a rat’s ass about the cost of your groceries.
On the other hand, you have the White Christian Nationalist MAGA diehards who want some version of America as Gilead. These are the J.D. Vance, Mike Johnson, Russ Vought types. Vought, Trump’s nominee for head of OMB, is one of the chief architects of Project 2025. Aside from the gutting of the administrative state that I discussed above, Project 2025 "envisions a federal government that denies the existence of transgender people, undermines the rights of same-sex married couples and dismantles services for LGBTQ+ Americans wherever possible, primarily via the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which the Heritage Foundation proposes renaming the Department of Life." Among other things, it wants the government to adhere to a "biblical" view of marriage, further restrict reproductive healthcare, and to eliminate the Department of Education (which, let’s be frank, Trump has effectively done by nominating Linda McMahon, the former CEO of the WWE as Secretary of Education—you can’t make this shit up). Yep, this is some Handmaid’s Tale shit. To say nothing of (uber-conservative Catholic) J.D. Vance’s horribly toxic masculinity and disdain for women who act outside of his proscribed gender roles of having babies and staying home to raise them. As a childfree woman, he thinks I am "psychotic", so there’s that.
So a theocracy versus a plutocracy? Pick your poison, I guess.
I Hope I’m Wrong
So, why do I want to say all this? While I am admittedly a political hobbyist, I am not a political scientist, writing about politics is not really my focus here, and far smarter people than I have made far more detailed and compelling cases about why Trump is a singular threat to our democracy. I am under no illusion that anything I’ve said will make any difference whatsoever, and as Trump’s GOP holds the trifecta of governmental power (all three branches of government), I see very little that Democrats can do from a standpoint of checks and balances to prevent what is coming next. I will go into where I think that leaves the anti-Trump coalition in the second part of this post.
I should also say that I try very hard not to be a hyper-partisan, which is to say I don’t believe that either political party will save us or has the corner on truth and goodness. The Democratic party screwed up this election so badly it’s really unfathomable that Harris did as well as she did. That said, I do believe that our democracy functions best when we have two healthy parties that can work together.
But I want to go on the record here to say very clearly that I am deeply frightened of what is coming. Trump has been a divisive force in our social fabric for many years now, his governance has already robbed millions of people of their lives and freedoms, and it’s about to get a lot worse for a lot of people. And I may not be one of those people. In fact, as a cis-het, white woman with a good deal of financial security, it’s very likely that I won’t be. And it would be very easy to say nothing, and to move about my life trying to keep the peace. However, more importantly than inauguration day, today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and I often think about this quote from his letter from a Birmingham Jail:
"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
I truly believe that most people are well-meaning and do not want to do harm to their fellow humans. I also believe that most people have difficulty seeing beyond their own needs if it means giving up some of their own comfort or privilege. They prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice. This can look like voting for your perceived financial gain over your neighbor’s civil rights. But sometimes justice REQUIRES something from you. Doing the right thing can require sacrifice. As it depends on me, I will use my voice, my privilege, and the safety of my body to stand up for those whose rights will be affected when justice requires it.
So Trump voters, I don’t want to "other" you or demonize you like Trump demonizes liberals, the press, his political foes, immigrants, etc. I don’t want to do that, and I do want to find ways for us to build bridges of understanding and to love across differences. This is what MLK was so very good at. We are all brothers and sisters, and every human is stamped with the image of the divine. At the same time, I will not go along to get along. I’m not sure exactly what that looks like now, but for today it is me saying this: here I stand, I can do no other. I wasn’t wrong about the first Trump administration…it was way worse than I predicted…but G-d knows how badly I hope I’m wrong now. And I will be the first person to admit it if I am. My hope for you, Trump voters, is that you will do the same. If those of you who took Trump "seriously but not literally" find that he is literally deporting millions of people or literally stripping people of their right to marry or literally taking away more bodily autonomy from your daughters than he already has or literally siding with Putin in his war against Ukraine or literally suing a pollster for a poll he didn’t like (oh wait, that already happened)5, I will expect that you will speak up and hold your party accountable. And let me leave you with this final thought: what you do is far more important that what you say, and your impact matters far more than your intent.
For an in depth analysis of Trump’s rise and the MAGA takeover of the GOP, I recommend Tim Alberta’s American Carnage. For a fantastic analysis of the rise of the Religious Right and White Evangelicalism’s inevitable embrace of Trumpism, I recommend Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne.
James Carville was Bill Clinton’s lead strategist who coined the axiom, "it’s the economy, stupid!".
•He incited an insurrection against the government,
• mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans
• separated children from their families
• lost those children in the bureaucracy
• tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church
• tried to block all Muslims from entering the country
• got impeached
• got impeached again
• had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history
• pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden
• fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia
• bragged about firing the FBI director on TV
• took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community
• diverted military funding to build his wall
• caused the longest government shutdown in US history
• called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate”
• lied nearly 40,000 times
• banned transgender people from serving in the military
• ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions
• vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers
• refused to release his tax returns
• increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion
• had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history
• called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers
• coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist
• refused to concede the 2020 election
• hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House
• walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl
• called neo-Nazis “very fine people”
• suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID
• abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey
• pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans
• incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic
• withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords
• withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal
• withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances
• insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter
• pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op
• failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies
• called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries
• called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation”
• claimed that he single-handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere
• forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader
• believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe
• suggested the US should buy Greenland
• colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges
• repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people”
• claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases
• violated the emoluments clause
• thought that Nambia was a country
• told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public
• called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution
• nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet
• nominated a corrupt head of the EPA
• nominated a corrupt head of HHS
• nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department
• nominated a corrupt head of the USDA
• praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies
• refused to allow the presidential transition to begin
• insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death
• spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president
• falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote
• called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser”
• falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year
• considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions
• mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID
• locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones
• used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus”
• hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser
• pardoned several of his shady associates
• gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories
• got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!)
• had a Secretary of State who called him a moron
• forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history
• botched the COVID vaccine rollout
• tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him
• charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties
• constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate
• claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear
• called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas”
• used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise
• opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling
• got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers
• claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US
• ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings
• blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining
• redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle
• got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters”
• threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution
• botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
• threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them
• pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes
• thought that the Virgin Islands had a President
• drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane
• allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing
• rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos
• pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID
• rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers
• held blatant campaign rallies at the White House
• tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man
• refused to attend his successors’ inauguration
• nominated the worst Education Secretary in history
• threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted
• attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci
• promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t)
• allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues
• struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble
• called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ”
• threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
• went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic
• claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”
• seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution
• demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director
• praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles
• completely gutted the Voice of America
• placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service
• claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower
• suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country
• suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public
• overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported
• reduced the number of refugees the US accepts
• insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames
• gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address
• named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties
• eliminated the White House office of pandemic response
• used soldiers as campaign props
• fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him
• demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade
• hired a ton of white nationalists
• politicized the civil service
• did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government
• falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts
• claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won
• insulted reporters of color
• insulted women reporters
• insulted women reporters of color
• suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs
• attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him
• summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election
• spent countless hours every day watching Fox News
• refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas
• hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer
• tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him
• acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney
• attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault
• held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present
• didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media
• stopped holding press briefings for months at a time
• “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power
• led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform
• claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers
• tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course
• suggested that the government nuke hurricanes
• suggested that wind turbines cause cancer
• said that he had a special aptitude for science
• fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure
• blurted out classified information to Russian officials
• tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida
• fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban
• hired Stephen Miller
• openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them
• interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel
• abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war
• tried to get Russia back into the G7
• held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden
• seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive
• lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated
• falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t
• shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies
• still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan
• still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks"
• forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID
• told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”
• withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic
• did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings"
• stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win
• constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump
• claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened
• said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake
• claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him
• claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President
• created a commission to whitewash American history
• retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain
• claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there
• hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims
• had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others
• bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties
• apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House
• stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians
• falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police
• said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about
• tried to rescind protection from DREAMers
• gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic
• tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax
• said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states
• deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented
• claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln
• touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all
• retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile
• forced through security clearances for his family
• suggested that police officers should rough up suspects
• suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs
• tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender
• suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher
• nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy
• retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event
• hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags
• accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address
• claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia
• mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
• obsessed over low-flow toilets
• ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release
• called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek)
• hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech
• took advice from the MyPillow guy
• claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists
• said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure
• never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign
• falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent
• announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest
• insulted the leader of Canada
• insulted the leader of France
• insulted the leader of Britain
• insulted the leader of Germany
• insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!)
• falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues
• blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually
• continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,
• said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked
• left a NATO summit early in a huff
• stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of five knows not to do that
• called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary
• refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise
And a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment. (Again, this list is not mine, but I think the point is clear).
James Comey’s (I know, problematic) book A Higher Loyalty, was turned into a Netflix series, The Comey Rule, which well-illustrates this dynamic (I haven’t read the book because, well, James Comey).
Trump sued Ann Seltzer because he didn’t like an Iowa poll she released right before the election which had Harris up in Iowa. While the claim itself is baseless, this is a chilling attempt at intimidation. “The odds of success here are slim to none, but winning in court is not likely the real goal of this lawsuit," said Clay Calvert, a media law expert and professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law. "The true motivation is to intimidate the press and journalists. I unfortunately suspect this lawsuit is just a harbinger of things to come.”