Comprehensive Impacts of Trump’s Second Year: General Governance
This publication is meant to be a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the Trump administration. There are many things that happened during the campaign that are not included. For this series covering the second year, impacts from about January 20, 2018, to January 31, 2019, are included. An introduction to this year’s series is here.
You can read the complete series on the first year of the administration here.
There are sure to be things missing, but I have done my best to record these impacts. The impacts are compiled under 20 different categories, or articles:
1. Cabinet and Other Appointments;
3. Women & Families;
4. LBGT;
6. Ethics;
7. Targeting free press/free speech/Privacy;
8. Health & Safety;
10. Education;
11. Transportation/Infrastructure/Housing;
12. Immigration;
13. Social Contract;
14. Business/Economy;
15. Budget;
16. General Governance;
17. Character;
18. Military/Defense/Police;
19. World; and
20. Some good news. Because there is always some good news.
Since this series takes a long time to write, I will publish each section as I complete it. This article is on Trump’s impacts on the budget.
Although we have moved on from Trump’s dark ages with the 2020 election, I will attempt to complete this entire series because it’s so important that we never forget the damage done to millions of people, the fabric of the country, and basic democracy by the Trump administration.
General Governance
From the start and throughout his administration, Trump has shown through his words and actions that he has zero interest in the things that have preoccupied all previous leaders: “the centrality and fragility of the institutional underpinnings of American life.” Writer Jonathan Lemire wrote how in Trump’s Washington, facts are no longer relevant, press briefings are almost gone, international summits are optional, the arts are an afterthoughts, everything is for political gain, and diplomacy is replaced with transactional relationships. Writer James Fallows described how a history of financial payoffs, varying brands of corruption, the corrosion of law enforcement standards, and the current brand of tribalism the GOP is using to defer completely to Trump are all part of what could be called “Trumpocracy,” “dying democracy,” or “fascism.” Others have written about how dangerous it is for the country for the entire Republican Party to be organized around one man and an organizing principle of loyalty to that man no matter what.
At the end of the day, Trump has rejected every fundamental American value, insulting America’s allies while embracing and praising dictators for actions such as executing dissenters and other extrajudicial killings, sending dissenters and opposition to labor camps, facilitating mass starvation, and bringing military violence to peaceful protests. He has rejected democracy, freedom, and respect for human rights, advocating for bringing back torture, murdering the families of suspected criminals, and disregarding civilians and families when conducting drone strikes. The Trump administration has also put an end to the federal initiative that had been used to reform local police departments that showed a pattern of abusing citizens and improve police-community relations. Trump has also scaled back civil rights enforcement and moved to ban Muslims from entering the country. He separated children from their families and eliminated domestic violence and gang violence as acceptable grounds for asylum, reversing decades of women’s rights progress. He also had the US Citizenship and Immigration Services change its mission statement to eliminate the passage describing the country as “a nation of immigrants.” He regularly derides the media as the “enemy of the people” and tried to make protesting illegal.
It’s no wonder that Trump was ranked the worst president in US history by nearly 200 of the country’s top political scientists. Since Trump was elected, the United States has been ranked as a “flawed democracy” rather than a “full democracy,” ranking 21st out of 167 countries on the Democracy Index. In fact, one of America’s most eminent and well-respected historians of the Holocaust, Christopher Browning, warned that American democracy is under serious threat in the same way that German democracy was prior to Hitler’s rise and really could topple altogether. A Holocaust survivor warned that Trump’s American feels like Germany just before the Nazis took over. He said, “Perhaps more alarming than the far-right getting braver is the seep into mainstream politics of their hate, their talking points, their rhetoric. It feels like 1929 or 1930 Berlin.” And other historians and experts agree, including Madeleine Albright, who herself survived fascism. In discussing Trump’s disturbing style of leadership and how he is intentionally dividing the country for his own personal gain and amusement, Doris Kearns Goodwin also said that he seems to be leading the country to fascism. And writer Henry Giroux talked extensively about how Trump’s language and behavior are “demolishing democracy and paving the way for a revival of fascism” with his rhetoric embracing extreme forms of nationalism, the cult of a leader, systemic racism, violence, a culture of fear, a hatred of dissent, demonization of “the other,” and a disdain for the truth.
According to Vox Editor-in-Chief Swati Sharma, “The threat to the United States isn’t so much Trump alone as it is the breakdown in the practice of American democracy, and the Republican Party’s commitment to extreme tactics in pursuit of its policy goals in particular.” When pointing out that Trump turned America from “We the People” to “Me the President, Colin Powell asked Republicans to take a hard look at themselves to realize what they’re doing to keep Trump’s forces in check.
· Writer and Editor-at large Chris Cillizza pointed out some of the most dangerous things Trump said in just one speech, things that no president would have ever said in the past:
o Stating that Hillary Clinton got special treatment, undermining the Justice Department and suggesting the Department is biased and can’t be trusted
o Saying our system is rigged, egging on the feigned outrage and resentment that many people feel toward government in general, playing into the idea that some obscure “they” are trying to keep people down
o Overstating nonexistent foreign policy agreements to minimize serious issues such as denuclearizing in North Korea
o Saying the press are actually making things up when they use unnamed sources and suggesting a mass shooter at a local newspaper was motivated by “fake news,” undermining the free press
o Stating that “a vote for democrats is a vote to let MS-13 run wild” and that “democrats want anarchy, weaponizing fear for political gain with hyperbolic and completely false statements
o Saying that democrats “don’t know who they’re playing with, making dangerous threats that incite using “any means necessary” to win in politics
o Saying that prominent Black women have low IQs, propagating his inherent racism and misogyny in one statement (And the irony….)
o Making repeated claims of widespread voter fraud despite all evidence and facts to the contrary, attempting to disqualify election results and undermining free and fair elections
o Rambling about the #MeToo movement and the Native American community, saying that people should throw ancestry kits at women, but gently so women can’t claim to be hurt, suggesting that the movement is simply political correctness to be mocked
· Trump is so focused on politics and winning, he publicly blasted on Twitter his own attorney general for bringing criminal charges against two republicans with long-standing investigations against them before the midterm election, suggesting that the attorney general should have waited so they could win their elections.
· He was also known for firing anyone who disagrees with him. As one example, White House counsel Donald McGahn’s departure was announced by Trump on Twitter after advisors described McGahn as someone who “had to tell him ‘no’ on some issues and never clicked with them personally.” By the middle of Trump’s second year, more than 40 people had left the White House under varying circumstances. By the end of his second year, turnover among the most influential positions within the executive office, not including cabinet secretaries, was 92 percent.
· He frequently privately questioned Vice-President Pence’s loyalty and allegiance.
· In addition, Trump targeted career civil servant federal employees for not backing him. There were several reports of political attacks on civil service employees at the State Department, including employees being removed from their detail because they worked under the Obama administration.
· Trump broke tradition for political reasons in other ways too. He refused to invite any Democrats or members of the media to his first state dinner with President Macron.
· He used politics as reasoning for his decisions. For example, he opposed statehood for Puerto Rico because San Juan’s mayor criticized him.
· Trump’s entire being is motivated by what writer Noah Berlatsky describes as a frightening message, abandoning issues altogether and simply claiming that political opposition in general is illegitimate, “abandoning democracy altogether and laying the ideological groundwork for an authoritarian agenda.”
· His US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, refused to acknowledge or discuss with Trump a UN report about American poverty and how political choices impacted that poverty.
· When facing domestic terrorism with mail bombings, Trump’s response was frustration with “this bomb stuff” potentially hurting Republicans’ momentum for the midterm election, even buying into conspiracy theories that they were a liberal hoax.
· The entire administration is anti-science and, importantly, anti-advice regarding science. Trump is the first president since 1941 to not name a science advisor, including before talking about denuclearization with Kim Jong-un. Trump instead “proudly been guided by his instincts.”
· Trump held the first bible study group for an administration in the White House in at least 100 years. It was led by an anti-LGBT, anti-women, and anti-Catholic pastor who believes homosexuality is “illegitimate,” who doesn’t believe women should preach, and who has described Catholicism as a “false” religion.
· Trump’s inclination to lie is well-noted — he made more than 30,000 false or misleading statements in in 4 years in office. Fact checkers of Trump’s USA Today op-ed found that almost every single sentence in that op-ed contained a misleading statement or complete falsehood.
· Trump reversed a long history of using stenographers to ensure the press accurately quote the president. The White House stenographers were not included in meetings. This allowed Trump to deny claims of things he, in fact, said.
· He also has been basing federal policies on lies. In particular, he crafted immigration policies based on lies rooted in racism and xenophobia.
· The Trump administration wanted to charge politicians in sanctuary cities with crimes.
· In trying to argue for stricter voter ID laws, Trump claimed that photo IDs are required to buy groceries.
· His racism and anti-science sentiment combined to make him reject a study showing positive impacts of refugees on the country and the economy. He believed the study would undermine his desire to reduce the number of refugees allowed into the country.
· And sometimes Trump isn’t shaping policy at all. A ProPublica report found that three civilian men operating from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, including the chairman of Marvel Entertainment, have been shaping policy for the Department of Veterans Affairs, actively reviewing and weighing in on policy and personnel decisions and “working behind the scenes to push for projects, benefit their own interests, and push out people within the department’s leadership who opposed them.”
· Perhaps that’s because Trump barely worked at all. A report showed that Trump’s schedule typically contained nine hours of “Executive Time” consisting of unstructured screen time and about three hours of work. He did not schedule meetings or commitments before 11 a.m.
· From the beginning, Trump didn’t seem to want to actually do the job. Before the election takes place, all of the candidates in the race meet at the White House with the current president under the idea whomever wins will need to start preparing to run the government. Trump didn’t take this seriously and told Chris Christie that he didn’t want a transition team and didn’t understand why anyone needed to plan anything before actually becoming president. Trump didn’t want to pay for a transition team.
· Despite rallying people against Hillary Clinton because of her use of a private email server, Trump also makes calls using an unsecure iphone while knowing that Chinese and Russian spies routinely eavesdrop on the calls.
· As reported in the Budget article, Trump has been pushing federal officials to sell off, privatize, or otherwise dispose of government assets, including Reagan National Airport, the Washington Memorial Parkway, and many properties held by federal agencies across the country.
· In a weird Twilight Zone revisionist history moment, the Trump administration inducted Ronald Reagan, “the only president to lead a major union,” into the Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor, which recognizes Americans who have elevated working conditions, wages, and overall quality of life for families.
· Trump also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the wife of GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson. Apparently, donating millions to the GOP is considered an “especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States.”
· At a cost of $92 million — $80 million more than the initial estimate — and over the objections of the D.C. City Council, Trump insisted on having a military parade. Military parades are often used in places like North Korea, China, and Russia as part of their propaganda campaigns.
· Over strong objections of his own Justice Department, Trump declassified a memo written by Rep. Devin Nunes about the Russia investigation, suggesting “bias” in the FBI and the Justice Department, demonizing the country’s intelligence agents while the agencies have “grave concerns about the memo’s accuracy.” The memo was declassified after “material changes” were made that were not approved by the House Intelligence Committee. The memo was meant to undermine Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden stated that Trump’s actions could harm US intelligence agencies, and many have said its release could harm national security and mislead the public. As it turned out, the memo revealed no new information and was actually full of inaccuracies and omissions. When Democrats wrote a rebuttal memo, Trump refused to declassify it, leaning on Nunes’ new advice that releasing it would create “significant concerns for national security,” as if he’s suddenly concerned about these things.
· Trump spent his entire administration undermining federal agencies. He purged the FBI of the people who started the Russia investigation to begin with. He also publicly railed against not only Justice Department officials who were working on the investigation, but also their spouses. He also threatened to interfere with the Justice Department and the FBI for cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s campaign ties to Russia and obstruction of justice.
· According to Bob Woodward’s book based on hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses, as well as meeting notes, personal diaries, and government documents, Trump’s anger and paranoia about the Russia investigation was unrelenting, sometimes paralyzing the West Wing for entire days.
· Speaking of Russia, Trump publicly congratulated Putin on his “reelection” despite explicit warnings from his national security advisors to not do so. There was a section in Trump’s briefing that had in all-capital letters, “DO NOT CONGRATULATE.” Trump also ignored his advisors telling him to condemn the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
· Trump also portrayed a “Russia First” sentiment while standing with Putin at the Helsinki summit. In what writer Garry Kasparov called “a new low in the history of the US presidency,”
Standing next to a dictatorial leader accused by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement of attacking the foundations of American democracy, Trump often appeared confused and incoherent — and those were his best moments at the podium. The rest of the time he spent praising the KGB dictator to his left and attacking the institutions he swore an oath to defend. It was a Russia First performance, from beginning to end.
· Trump first said he accepted the US intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, but after meeting with Putin, he said that “other people also could have been involved,” trying to cast doubt on Russia’s involvement.
· As new evidence piled up about Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Trump administration refused to acknowledge what has been referred to as “the dangerous problem of foreign influence operations in America.” Republican Rep. Richard Burr summed things up this way: “Some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room, calmly drinking a cup of coffee, telling ourselves, ‘This is fine.’ That’s not fine. We should no longer be talking about if the Russians attempted to interfere with American society. They’ve been doing it since the days of the Soviet Union, and they’re still doing it today.”
· Trump’s press secretary reported that Trump was discussing allowing Russian investigators to come to the US to question US citizens.
· Former CIA officer and Republican congressman Will Hurd warned that Putin was directly manipulating Trump, saying,
The president’s failure to defend the United States intelligence community’s unanimous conclusions of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and condemn Russian covert counterinfluence campaigns and his standing idle on the world stage while a Russian dictator spouted lies confused many but should concern all Americans. By playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands, the leader of the free world actively participated in a Russian disinformation campaign that legitimized Russian denial and weakened the credibility of the United States to both our friends and foes abroad.
· Trump blocked the Secure Elections Act, a bipartisan bill to safeguard US elections from foreign interference. He had the chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee cancel the session that would have led to a full Senate vote on the bill.
· In another play of Intro to Fascism, Trump talked about “closing up the country” in order to get what he wants from Congress. In fact, he said he’d be “proud” to shut down the government if he didn’t get his border wall funding.
· When he did, in fact, shut down the government, 800,000 federal employees went without pay while Trump administration officials were getting $10K raises.
· Turned out, no one in Trump’s administration understood what would actually happen during a shutdown, and Trump had no endgame in mind. They didn’t understand how air safety, food inspection, scientific research, Coast Guard services, Native American health services, immigration courts, Smithsonian museums, national parks, and so many other people and institutions would be impacted.
· In a meeting with Democratic leaders to discuss ending the shutdown, Trump had a temper tantrum when he realized he wasn’t going to get his border wall funding and simply walked out.
· After the government re-opened, Republicans were universally opposed to providing back pay to hundred of thousands of federal contractors who went unpaid during the shutdown. They were too busy trying to repeal the estate tax, which is paid by fewer than 2,000 of the wealthiest Americans each year.
· Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative activist who regularly peddles conspiracy theories after he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.
· Trump went out of his way to publicly endorse an open apologist for white supremacy.
· Trump issued a report attempting to reorganize the entire federal government, including consolidating and cutting welfare programs and moving them to then renaming the Health and Human Services Department. Other changes include cuts at the US Agency for International Development and the State Department.
· Trump seemingly went out of his way to be harsh and try to damage women leaders from the UK and Germany who would not cater to his ego, first criticizing them then praising them when standing next to them. He seems to generally have a problem with strong women.
· He used Thanksgiving to rail against “liberal” courts while casting doubt on his own intelligence community and praising Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman, who had just been found to have personally approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
· He also disparaged American intelligence officials by calling them names when they publicly broke with some of his talking points on core foreign policy views, such as about North Korea and ISIS.
· In fact, Trump proudly governs despite what his national security advisors tell him.
· World-renowned scientist Jane Goodall compared Trump to a chimpanzee, saying, “In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: Stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks because a more aggressive display was likely to lead the male to higher positions in the hierarchy and allow it to maintain its status for longer.” If that doesn’t sound like Donald Trump, nothing does.
· A group of conservative lawyers from the Federalist Society said that Trump has undermined the rule of law and urged other conservatives to speak up about Trump’s betrayals of bedrock legal norms.
· Trump’s Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, stated that encounters with Trump grew rocky because Trump gave him directives to do things that were illegal. Trump also forced him to cut staffing at the State Department, decimating morale. He also talked about a “growing crisis of ethics and integrity” at the White House and said that “truth was the essence of freedom.”
· Trump’s chief of staff found managing Trump “an impossible task.”
· According to Trump’s National Economic Council director, Trump lacked a basic understanding of how federal debt and inflation work.
· A former White House deputy chief of staff said that working with Trump was “like trying to figure out what a child wants.”
· Trump’s own aides and advisors viewed him as such a danger to national security, they worked to circumvent him, taking measures to stop his “dangerous impulses,” hiding papers from his desk so he couldn’t sign them. According to Bob Woodward, Trump’s closest advisors and chief of staff describe Trump as “unhinged,” as having the understanding “of a fifth or sixth grader,” and as “a fucking liar.” And another member of his administration, later self-identified as chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security, wrote a scathing essay describing how senior officials in Trump’s own administration are “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations” because he and others believe that “the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.” [editor’s note: This essay is worth reading in its entirety.] He went on to write, “The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.” He describes Trump’s impulses as “generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.” Members of his own administration vowed to thwart Trump’s “more misguided impulses until he is out of office.” Other former West Wing officials described Trump as “nuts” as he “gleefully acted on his most self-destructive impulses” and only “got joy” from stripping people of their security clearance.
The next article will will cover Trump’s character during his second year in office.
