This diary will be the second part of a 2-parter focusing on the transition from Barack Obama to Donald Trump as our next Commander-in-Chief and Joe Biden to Mike Pence as our next Vice-President. The first focused on Obama/Biden, and we now focus on Trump/Pence.
We’ll end the 2-parter diary with the incoming “President” in Donald Trump and Vice President in Mike Pence.
Pre-Presidential Run Career
In the 17th century, during the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, his family’s surname was changed from Drumpf to Trump.
On June 14th, 1946, Donald Trump was born in Queens, New York to Fred and Mary Anne Trump. His father has had ties to the KKK.
In 1968, he graduated from Wharton School.
In 1971, he took over the Trump Organization (then called Elizabeth Trump and Son) from his dad Fred. Shortly after taking over the company he renamed it to the name it’s known for today: The Trump Organization.
On April 7th, 1977, he married his first wife Ivana Zelníčková, who was born in the Czech Republic. She later became Ivana Trump. Their marriage spawned three births: Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump.
In 1978, the city of New York selected his site on the West Side of Manhattan to build the Javits Center. The Javits Center was the site of his opponent Hillary Clinton’s election night rally on November 8th, 2016.
In that same year, his first big deal in Manhattan was to construct the Grand Hyatt Hotel, next to Grand Central Terminal.
On November 30th, 1983, the co-flagship Trump Tower opened. The building will serve as a second White House for his “Presidency.”
On May 15th, 1984, he opened a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, called Harrah's at Trump Plaza. As of September 16th, 2014, the casino closed down.
In 1984, Trump took over as the owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals. His insistence on a fall schedule for the league to compete head-to-head against the NFL was seen as the downfall of the USFL, along with Trump himself.
In 1985, he acquired the Mar-A-Lago estate. Nowadays, this is seen as a co-flagship HQ for Trump alongside Trump Tower in NYC.
On November 1st, 1987, his first ever book came out. It was entitled Trump: The Art of the Deal.
On April 2nd, 1990, the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey opened. As of October 10th, 2016, the casino was closed.
In 1992, he divorced his first wife Ivana.
On December 20th, 1993, he married Marla Maples. She later became Marla Trump. Their marriage spawned one birth: Tiffany. Unlike Ivana, Marla reverted back to her original surname once he divorced Donald.
From 1996-2015, he owned all or part of three beauty pageants: Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA.
On June 8th, 1999, he divorced his second wife Marla. She reverted to using Maples as her surname.
In January 2000, while running for President on the Reform ticket, he released The America We Deserve.
In 2001, Trump flipped to the Democratic Party from the Reform Party over the presence of David Duke, Pat Buchanan, and Lenora Fulani. The former two became endorsers of his 2016 campaign.
On January 8th, 2004, NBC’s The Apprentice debuted. The show featured his well-known catchphrase “you’re fired.”
On January 22nd, 2005, he married his third wife Melania Knauss (born as Melanija Knavs), who was born in Slovenia. She later switched her surname to Trump, thus becoming Melania Trump. Their marriage has so far spawned one birth: Barron.
On May 23rd, 2005, the scandal-ridden Trump University opened.
In 2006, he bought the Menie Estate in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland to create a golf course resort, against the wishes of the town’s residents.
On January 3rd, 2008, his Apprentice spin-off Celebrity Apprentice debuted. As of 2015, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now hosts the show, called The New Celebrity Apprentice. Trump remains in a credited role as executive producer.
In June 2010, Trump University became Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.
On February 10th, 2011, he made his first ever CPAC appearance.
In September 2011, he filed an objection against the construction of a wind farm near his Aberdeenshire golf course. His appeals ultimately failed.
On November 6th, 2012, he launched a tweetstorm tirade when President Barack Obama (D) was re-elected and demanded the abolishment of the Electoral College when it was thought that Mitt Romney (R) would win the popular vote. Obama ultimately won the popular vote.
In 2013, he was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.
In April 2014, he purchased the Turnberry golf course resort in Ayrshire, Scotland.
In February 2015, as a sign that he was about to run for President again, he did not renew his contract to host The Apprentice.
He switched parties multiple times:
- Prior to 1987: unaffiliated, but lean Republican.
- 1987-1999: Republican Party
- 1999-2001: Reform Party
- 2001-2009: Democratic Party
- 2009-Dec. 2011: Republican Party
- Dec. 2011-April 2012: Independent
- April 2012-present: Republican Party
His Failed/Aborted Presidential Runs of 2000 and 2012
On October 7th, 1999, during an appearance on CNN’s Larry King Live, he announced that he was running for President. On Valentine’s Day (February 14th) in 2000, he dropped out of the presidential race for the Reform Party, believing it to be a dysfunctional party that got hijacked by the Buchanan wing. In contrast to both his failed 2012 and successful 2016 runs, his 2000 run featured several left-leaning stances alongside some standard right-leaning stances (law and order, capital punishment) that he advocated, most notably universal healthcare and fair trade. Like in his 2016 campaign, GOP activist Roger Stone played a major role.
On May 17th, 2011, Trump decided not to run for President on the GOP ticket for the 2012 campaign. By this time, he started to adopt a right-wing posture on policy, as evidenced by his racist fact-free Birther crusade against President Obama. Five years later, he finally gave up the ghost and admitted that Obama was indeed born in the USA, but in doing so, he falsely blamed Hillary for it.
Romney ended up being the nominee that year, who would go on to lose to Obama in the general on both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
Nearly four years later, he did run for the office for real.
Path to the Nomination: The Debates
On June 16th, 2015, at Trump Tower, he announced that he was running for President in 2016 due to incumbent Barack Obama (D) being termed out of office. His slogan was “Make America Great Again!” or MAGA for short. We all thought at that point it was going to be a quick entry and quick exit campaign. We were way wrong on that one.
On August 6th, 2015, Trump attended the first of many debates in the primaries, which started in Cleveland, Ohio and was broadcasted on Faux “News”. He clashed with moderators Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace over his sexist statements (Kelly) and immigration (Wallace). He also made noises about a third party independent bid if he wasn’t treated fairly. This was arguably the turning point that Trump was seen as a semi-serious Presidential contender.
On September 16th, 2015, in the 2nd debate at Simi Valley, California that was on CNN, Carly Fiorina blasted Trump’s “Look at that face!” remark made in an interview with Rolling Stone. He also sparred with Jeb Bush over foreign policy.
On October 28th, 2015, in the 3rd debate at Boulder, Colorado on CNBC, Trump, along with Cruz, Rubio, Christie, Huckabee, and Carson, all criticized the moderators of that debate. The debate resulted in CNBC’s (and by extension NBC News’ and MSNBC’s) credibility to host an impartial debate in serious jeopardy.
On November 10th, 2015, three days before the Paris attacks, the 4th debate was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was Faux “Business” Network’s first-ever major party debate aired. Trump and John Kasich attacked each other on immigration. He was booed when he uttered this line about Fiorina: “Why does she keep interrupting everybody?”
On December 15th, 2015, after the Paris attacks and San Bernardino shooting, the 5th debate was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on CNN. He defended his highly unconstitutional ban on Muslim immigrants entering the United States. He was called out by Bush for “insulting his way to the Presidency.” At this point, he is now seen as a serious Presidential contender for the nomination.
On January 14th, 2016, two days after the final State of the Union speech from Obama, the 6th debate was held in North Charleston, South Carolina on Faux “Business” Network. Trump and Ted Cruz got into several slams, most notably the “New York Values” jab aimed at him from the Texas Senator. He also push a reckless Birther conspiracy that Cruz wasn’t eligible to be President, similar to his repeated claims he’s made against Obama.
On January 28th, 2016, just a few days before the Iowa Caucuses, the 7th debate was held in Des Moines, Iowa on Faux “News.” Trump was a no-show due to the presence of Megyn Kelly as one of the moderators. Cruz, by default, was the lead candidate of that debate. His decision to skip this debate may have very well cost him a victory in the Iowa Caucus.
On February 6th, 2016, just a few days after Cruz won Iowa and before the New Hampshire Primaries, the 8th debate was held in Goffstown, New Hampshire on ABC. Trump returned to the debate stage, and he and Bush clashed over the role of eminent domain. This debate had an introduction snafu involving Trump, Carson, and Kasich (who was skipped over). This debate ended any chance of Marco Rubio becoming a serious contender to Trump.
On February 13th, 2016, just a few days after the New Hampshire Primary that Trump won and on the same day that Justice Antonin Scalia died, the 9th debate was held in Greenville, South Carolina on CBS. Not content with sitting with the lead, Trump attacked every single opponent, especially Bush and Cruz. He sparred with the former Florida Governor over his brother George W. Bush’s role in the 2003 Iraq War and Trump’s insults towards his family, and with Cruz over the appointments of Supreme Court justices and the role of Planned Parenthood.
On February 25th, 2016, the 10th debate was held in Houston, Texas on CNN. This debate was originally scheduled to air on CNBC, but due to the channel’s moderators controversy in the 3rd debate at Boulder, it was moved to CNN. He was attacked by both Rubio and Cruz, most notably over immigration (particularly favoring foreign undocumented workers over American ones), taxes, Trump University, his past support for Canadian-style single payer health care, and foreign policy.
On March 3rd, 2016, the 11th debate was held in Detroit, Michigan on Faux “News.” Unlike the last Fox-hosted debate, he didn’t skip this one. This debate focused on Rubio’s “small hands” comment directed at Trump, his donations to Democrats (most notably his opponent Hillary), outsourcing jobs, torture and waterboarding, and Trump University.
On March 10th, 2016, the 12th and final debate was held in Coral Gables, Florida on CNN. He kept up the Islamophobic rhetoric like “Islam hates us.” He defended violent actions against protesters at his rallies instigated by his supporters. He also faced attacks from Cruz and Rubio and the moderators on Israel/Palestine, undocumented and guest workers, US/Cuba relations, violence at his rallies instigated by his supporters, and trade.
Path to the Nomination: The Primaries
On November 3rd, 2015, while running for President on the GOP ticket, he released a book called Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again.
On January 13th, 2016, at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, the USA Freedom Kids performed Freedom’s Call, based on the 1917 George M. Cohan song Over There. The group was widely panned afterwards. They later sued his campaign in August 2016 over lack of payments for their performance.
On February 1st, 2016, the first race to decide the GOP nominee happened. Ted Cruz won the Iowa Caucus. Cruz won 8 delegates, Trump and Rubio won 7 apiece. The previous two Iowa Caucus winners Huckabee and Santorum exited the race, but not before the former got a delegate to show for it.
On February 9th, 2016, in the New Hampshire Primary, Trump won his first of many primaries. He won 11 delegates. Christie, Fiorina, Gilmore, and Paul exited the race after poor results in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
On February 20th, 2016, in the South Carolina Primary, Trump won the state and took all 50 of the delegates. Bush exited the race.
On February 23rd, 2016, in the Nevada Caucus, Trump won the state and 14 of the delegates.
After the first four, he led the way with 82 delegates to Cruz’s 17 and Rubio’s 16.
On Super Tuesday (March 1st) 2016, he won 7 states (AL, AR, GA, MA, TN, VA, VT) and 255 delegates. Cruz got 3 states (AK, OK, TX) and 218 delegates and Rubio got 1 state (MN) and 96 delegates. Carson withdrew from the race after this.
In between the Super Tuesdays, Trump won 5 states (HI, KY, LA, MI, MS) and 140 delegates. Cruz got 3 states (ID, KS, ME) and 137 delegates, Rubio got zero states, but he did get DC and 1 territory (PR) and 48 delegates. Uncommitted won the territories of the US Virgin Islands and Guam and 12 delegates.
On March 11th, 2016, just a few days before Illinois was scheduled to vote in the primary, his Chicago rally was shut down by protesters. It can be argued that it helped motivate Trump in his wins on that Tuesday, especially in Missouri, in where he eked out a win there.
On Super Tuesday II (March 15th, 2016), Trump won all contests except for Governor John Kasich’s home state of Ohio. He got 228 delegates out of that day, Cruz 51, Kasich 81, and Rubio 6. Rubio exited the race after getting pasted in his home state.
On March 22nd, 2016, Trump won Arizona and all 58 of its delegates. Cruz won Utah and all 40 of its delegates. American Samoa had all of its delegates go uncommitted.
On April 5th, 2016, in a bid to derail or slow down Trump, Cruz won Wisconsin and 36 of its delegates. This was the last bit of good news for him.
On April 26th, 2016, Trump romped in the Northeastern primaries, most notably New York State. At this point, Trump got 111 of the 124 delegates available, and was pretty much the nominee.
On May 3rd, 2016, with Trump’s win in Indiana, Cruz dropped out. The next day, Kasich dropped out, thus leaving Trump as the only contender left standing.
On May 24th, 2016, with his big win in Washington, he basically clinched the nomination.
Clinching The Nomination
On May 26th, 2016, when Trump clinched the magical 1,237 delegates and being the last one standing at that point, he was the GOP nominee for President.
There would be no contested convention.
The Pick of Mike Pence as his VP
On July 14th, 2016, according to many media reports, Trump picked Governor of Indiana and former Congressman Mike Pence (R) to be his running mate. The two differ in approaches, whereas Trump is seen as a right-wing populist, Pence is seen as an evangelical social conservative and pro-free trade. The pick ultimately ended up being a shrewd one for him.
The Road To Victory
On June 20th, 2016, he fired Corey Lewandowski and was replaced with Paul Manafort for the campaign manager role. Lewandowski went to CNN, in which his hiring was seen as a conflict of interest. He has since resigned from CNN.
On July 18th, 2016, his wife Melania spoke at the 2016 RNC convention in Cleveland, in which it became best known for the scandal that she plagiarized parts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech.
On July 20th, 2016, Trump’s VP spoke at the 2016 RNC convention in Cleveland.
The next night, he spoke at the 2016 RNC convention in Cleveland, and gave a speech that was based in fear and lies on the subjects that he focused on the most: terrorism, law and order, and immigration.
By the end of the RNC, his election path included one last obstacle: Hillary Clinton (D) and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D).
On August 17th, 2016, to fill the vacancy of Manafort, he promoted Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager and hired Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon as his campaign CEO. This was seen as a losing strategy at the time, but it ended up paying dividends.
On September 2nd, 2016, he hired right-wing operative and Citizens United president David Bossie as his deputy campaign manager.
There were three debates and a vice presidential one:
- 09.26.2016: Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY. This debate was originally going to be held at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio. [Moderator: Lester Holt, NBC]
- 10.04.2016 (VP): Longwood University, Farmville, VA. [Moderator: Elaine Quijano, CBS/CBSN]
- 10.09.2016: Washington University, St. Louis, MO. [Moderators: Martha Raddatz, ABC and Anderson Cooper, CNN]
- 10.19.2016: UNLV, Paradise, NV. [Moderator: Chris Wallace, Fox/FNC]
On to the debates: The first presidential debate was seen as a Clinton win. The VP Debate was seen as a narrow Pence win, with interruptions galore from both sides (especially Kaine). The second presidential debate was seen as a slightly closer Clinton win. The debate featured the presence of Ken Bone (the 2nd to last audience questioner), who became a meme sensation. The third and final presidential debate was seen as a Clinton victory.
Trump’s multiple scandals during the campaign-- most notably the Curiel, Khans, Megyn Kelly, and Alicia Machado fights, Access Hollywood “grab ‘em by the pussy” tape and sexual harassment scandals, refusal to release his taxes, and the mocking of Serge Kovaleski-- should’ve killed his chances of winning the Presidency, but instead, we got this (see below)…
The Victory: Shockwave Upset
Donald Trump and Mike Pence defeated Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in a 306-232 [+74 ECVs] Electoral College victory prior to faithless electors changing the calculus to a 304-227-7 [+77 ECVs] victory. They lost the popular vote by a 65,844,954-62,979,879 [+2,865,075 PV] margin, which sadly doesn’t decide the Presidency. The election was the 5th time in history and 2nd in the last 16 years that the national popular vote winner differed from that of the Electoral College’s.
On November 8th and 9th, 2016, in the Presidential election to replace the termed-out Barack Obama (D), Donald Trump (R) won the election to become our 45th President of this nation, and the GOP kept control of the House and the Senate.
At between 2:30AM EST/1:30AM CST/11:30PM PST and 3AM EST/2AM CST/12Midnight PST, depending on the news source, when Wisconsin was called for Trump/Pence, he was declared the “President-Elect.”
At 2:49AM EST/1:49AM CST/11:49PM PST, he held his victory speech at the Hilton Midtown in New York.
Shortly afterwards, Clinton called and conceded to Trump. Her concession speech would wait a few more hours.
At 11:40AM EST/10:40AM CST/8:40AM CST the next morning, she made her concession speech.
His election drew massive protests across the country and the world in the aftermath of his win. Protests against him are expected throughout his four (or eight) years.
Why Trump won?
He flipped usually Democratic-voting states in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Maine-02. He also won the swing states of Ohio and Iowa bigly and Florida narrowly that voted in President Obama twice. He did so by pushing nakedly nativist appeals on immigration and law and order issues and promises to end NAFTA/TPP-like trade deals to the white working class who usually voted Democratic, including for Obama at least once or twice. He also won with the help of FBI director James Comey’s October 28th stunt with Hillary’s emails, Russia’s interference in the elections, and the announced Obamacare premium hikes.
The Transition
Early on November 9th, after the election was called for Trump, he called to congratulate the soon-to-be next leader of the free world on winning the election.
Later on that same day, his transition team created greatagain.gov.
On November 10th, 2016, he had a meeting between him and the next President to discuss the transfer of power.
On November 11th, 2016, Mike Pence became the head of his Transition Team, replacing the scandal-ridden Governor Chris Christie (R).
On November 17th, 2016, his daughter Ivanka sat in with his father while meeting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
On December 6th, 2016, in the wake of the “alt-right”-created Pizzagate conspiracy theories, Michael Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr., was forced out of the transition team.
On December 19th, 2016, the Electoral College officially declared Trump the winner 304-227-7. The seven faithless electors voted as follows: Colin Powell got 3, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich, Ron Paul, and Faith Spotted Eagle got one apiece.
On December 24th, 2016, he announced the closure of the Trump Foundation.
On January 11th, 2017, just nine days before he takes over as “President”, it was announced that he would step down from his managerial roles at Trump Organization. They would be given to his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric.
The key appointments that the President made for his cabinet were as follows (subject to Senate confirmation on some of these posts):
- Reince Priebus as Chief of Staff.
- Stephen Bannon as Senior Counselor to the President.
- Kellyanne Conway and Dina Powell as Deputy Counselors to the President.
- Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner as Senior Advisors to the President.
- Sean Spicer as Press Secretary.
- Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
- Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture.
- Elaine Chao as Secretary of Transportation.
- Andy Puzder as Secretary of Labor.
- Steven Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury.
- Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior.
- Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy.
- Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.
- Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.
- Scott Pruitt as head of EPA.
- Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce.
- James Mattis as Secretary of Defense.
- Jeff Sessions as Attorney General.
- Linda McMahon as Small Business Administration head.
- John Kelly as Secretary of Homeland Security.
- Ben Carson as Secretary of HUD.
- Mike Pompeo as Director of the CIA.
- David Shulkin as Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
- Nikki Haley as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump and the White Nationalist “Alt-Right”
Several prominent white supremacists and white nationalists endorsed Trump’s 2016 campaign, some of which included the so-called “alt-right”, a far-right populist movement focused on opposition to multiculturalism and “political correctness”, with doses of rampant Islamophobia, antisemitism, xenophobia, sexism, anti-feminism, and pro-white/anti-minority racism.
These backers ranged from the “Alt-Right” like Milo Yiannopoulos, Stephen Bannon, Jack Posobiec, Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones, and Mike Cernovich, outright white supremacists in David Duke, Richard Spencer, Vox Day, Tila Tequila, and several branches of the KKK, and sexist MRAs like Matt Forney and Dilbert creator Scott Adams.
The movement heavily trafficked in fake news and baseless conspiracy theories to aid him and hurt Hillary, such as Pizzagate, Hillary’s health, “Spirit Cooking”, and more.
The “alt-right” movement popularized the term “cuckservative” as a jab at conservatives who are insufficiently supporting of white nationalist interests and/or critical of Trump. They also co-opted a formerly harmless Pepe The Frog for their own nefarious uses to promote a far-right ideology.
Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe The Frog who has supported Hillary Clinton, has admitted that wasn’t the first time the Pepe was used in a derogatory way.
Controversies
In 1973, the US DOJ’s Civil Rights Division filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Trump Organization over the fact that it refused to rent its apartments to African-Americans in violation of the Fair Housing Act. This would be the first of many racism-related controversies involving the man and his organization.
In the early 1980s (discovered in October 2016), in what is seen as the first of many sexism and misogyny-related controversies involving the man, he was accused of groping Jessica Leeds on a flight. It was the first of many women coming forward in the wake of the Access Hollywood tape.
In 1989, New York State officials ordered the Grand Hyatt (a hotel owned under Trump and Hyatt at the time) to pay $2.9 million in rent to the city of New York.
In 1989, as a result of Donald’s cruelly sexist treatment of his first wife Ivana, they broke up.
In 1992, he defended Mike Tyson after his conviction of raping an 18-year old beauty pageant contest.
In 1993, while trying to get a casino built there, at a Congressional testimony, he stated that the Mashantucket Pequots "don't look like Indians to me". It was the impetus to his racist “Pocahontas” insult hurled at Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) in 2016.
In 1997, he also entered the dressing the room of the Miss Teen USA pageant, in which the contestants were either partially or completely nude.
On June 16th, 2015, the day that he announced his run for President, the most talked about statement of his announcement was his xenophobic quote of "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with [them]. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." That statement ended up having companies like NBC and Macy’s cut ties with him. This was a sign of things to come with his rampant racist and xenophobic anti-Mexican sentiment.
On November 25th, 2015, at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, he was making gestures mocking the disability of reporter Serge Kovaleski. Trump apologists like to claim that “he wasn’t mocking his disability”; however, the facts and the video prove otherwise.
On December 7th, 2015, he called for a complete shutdown of all Muslims immigrating to the United States. This proposal was seen as highly unconstitutional. This wasn’t surprising, coming from the man who’s repeatedly pushed xenophobic and Islamophobic conspiracy theories about Syrian refugees and Islam in general.
In the aftermath of Scalia’s death in February 2016, he misleadingly asserted that his death was caused by natural causes.
On March 8th, 2016, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski forcefully grabbed then-Breitbart employee Michelle Fields. In a situation like this, Breitbart News would stand with Fields? WRONG. In a sign that Breitbart was becoming Trumpbart, they ended up kissing Trump and Lewandowski’s rear-end, forcing Fields and Ben Shapiro, along with a few others out of there. Trump stood with Lewandowski.
On May 3rd, 2016, during an appearance on FNC’s Fox and Friends, he pushed the conspiracy theory that “Cruz was with Lee Harvey Oswald.”
Throughout the primaries and afterwards in 2016, he kept on attacking Indiana-born judge Gonzalo Curiel as a “Mexican” because Curiel didn’t give him a favorable ruling.
On July 2nd, 2016, just a few days before Comey announces that he’s recommending no indictment against Hillary for her roles in the email “scandal”, he posted an antisemitic Star of David meme attacking Hillary Clinton on Twitter was rightfully criticized for doing so. He later posted an amended issue.
In late July/early August 2016, he attacked the Khans over Khizr and Ghazala’s appearance at the 2016 DNC in a speech that criticized Trump’s anti-Islam sentiments.
On August 31st, 2016, in Phoenix, Arizona, he made a speech on immigration resembling that of a xenophobic screed found at FAIR’s anti-immigrant Hold Their Feet To The Fire rallies.
On September 9th, 2016, when his opponent Hillary Clinton correctly called at least half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorable”, he and his supporters ran with the term for their own use.
On September 25th, 2016, when Hillary Clinton brought up Trump’s treatment of Alicia Machado by calling her “Miss Piggy” up at the first debate, Trump predictably went on his sexist and misogynistic attacks.
On October 2nd, 2016, he claimed a loss of $916 million on his 1995 tax return.
On October 7th, 2016, two days before the 2nd debate, the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape that featured him saying “grab ‘em by the pussy” leaked. The tape was sexist, misogynistic, and promoting sexual assault and rape culture, despite Trump apologist claims of “locker room talk” otherwise. His defenders went to minimize the impact of the words and actions described with “What about Bill Clinton?” or “Trump said some naughty things, but Hillary did worse things” or even defending it as a way to stick it to their critics. The tape’s leak and its aftermath cost Billy Bush his NBC job.
On October 9th, 2016, two days after the infamous tape, he held a surprise press conference with Bill Clinton sexual misconduct accusers Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Kathy Shelton.
On October 31st, 2016, in a Newsweek article from Kurt Eichenwald, he and his companies destroyed several thousand emails and documents from court cases as far back as 1973. Coming from the same man who’s attacked Hillary’s emails repeatedly, that’s kinda hypocritical.
On Election Day 2016, he filed a lawsuit that Clark County, Nevada early voting places closed too late. He lost the lawsuit and the state to Hillary in the election.
On November 19th, 2016, he launched a Twitter tantrum when his ticketmate was booed and criticized by the cast of Hamilton on the night before.
On November 24th, 2016, he falsely touted that he saved 2,000+ jobs at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. The facts show that only about a third of the 2,100+ jobs will stay at the plant. Most of those will head to Mexico or to automation.
On December 5th, 2016, he launched a Twitter tirade on China.
On December 28th, 2016, he baselessly touted that he “created” 5,000 jobs for Sprint in the USA. The facts show that the 5,000 jobs announced came before Trump declared his run for President in April 2015.
On January 14th, 2017, after Congressman John Lewis (D) correctly called his election illegitimate and decided to boycott his “inauguration,” he attacked the man and inaccurately painted his Congressional district as a “crime-ridden hellhole.”
My Recap of Election Night
Going into the night of November 8th, 2016, I voted for Clinton/Kaine and all downballot Democrats, and was fully confident that Hillary would win and the Donkeys would take the Senate back, meaning control of SCOTUS went to the liberals, while the GOP would keep the House.
At around 8:45PM EST/7:45PM CST/5:45PM PST, the mood shifted from Clinton landslide to it’s anyone’s ballgame.
At just after 10:30PM EST/9:30PM CST/7:30PM PST, it shifted from a tossup one to a Trump-favored win.
At around 12:30AM EST/11:30PM EST/9:30PM PST, the mood in the Senate was shifted from Dem control to GOP control and a chance at flipping the composition of SCOTUS gone.
At around 2:30AM EST/1:30AM CST/11:30PM PST, my worst fears were recognized: Trump/Pence won, and the GOP got to keep the House and the Senate, and by extension, the Supreme Court.
Conclusion
Here’s why: This result legitimizes racism, sexism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, Hispanophobia, anti-refugee/anti-immigrant sentiment, antifeminism, antisemitism, and ableism as acceptable in America. This result legitimizes the “Alt-Right”, KKK, authoritarianism, and right-wing extremism. This result was aided by Russia and James Comey’s foolish stunts. This results shows that despite several scandals that should have disqualified him from the Presidency (most notably Gonzalo Curiel, Khizr Khan, Alicia Machado, rampant racism and sexism, and the sexual assault scandals), he still won. This result ensures that Roe v. Wade is likely toast and that draconian anti-abortion policies rule the day. This result means that the Supreme Court stays in conservative hands for quite awhile. This result means Planned Parenthood funding is in jeopardy. This result means that there won’t be any sensible gun safety reforms. This result ensures that Obamacare (aka Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and all of President Obama’s achievements are hollow at best and likely kaput. This result means that progress on criminal justice reform is severely stunted. This result means that voting rights are severely impacted in a harmful way. This result means that the whole USA would be bad for union rights, such as a nationwide right-to-work for less law. This result means that most (if not all) LGBTQ and transgender rights are in jeopardy. This result means that the freedom of the press will be adversely affected. This result means that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are in peril. This result means reasonable immigration reform is dead in the water. This result means that liberal/progressive ideas are in great harm. This result means that polling and data is not all that reliable. This result means a better ground game doesn’t always guarantee a win. This result means that newspaper endorsements hold less relevance than ever (at the Presidential level at least). This result shows that white privilege and male privilege rule the day in this nation. This result shows that hate trumps love.
This election result is worse than the 2000 election outcome that handed Bush due to Florida and the Supreme Court. This election result is worse than the 2010 and the 2014 midterms combined. This election result is worse than some of the police officers being wrongly let off the hook. This election result is worse than Brexit. This election outcome is worse than the Citizens United v. FEC, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, and Shelby County v. Holder rulings.
As for now, it’s Mourning (or Midnight) in America, NOT Morning in America.
Why he’s a downgrade?
We have downgraded from an earnest man in office to a habitual liar in the office. We have downgraded from an authentic Christian in office to a phony one in office. We have downgraded from a President subjected to racist smears in office to a racist man in office. We have downgraded to from a President who supports women’s rights and reproductive justice in office to a sexist and misogynistic manbaby and one hostile to reproductive justice in office. We have downgraded from a President who believes in LGBTQ equality in office to a man whose commitment in LGBTQ equality is suspect at best and hostile at worst in office. We have downgraded from a President who’s created jobs to one who’ll likely lose jobs (even though he touts himself a jobs creator) in office. We have downgraded from a Presidency who believes in the concept of #BlackLivesMatter to one who’s opposed to such an concept in office. We have downgraded from a President whose immigration policies are largely human to one whose policies are extremist and hostile in office. We have downgraded from a President who took national security and foreign policy seriously to one who treats it like an afterthought and a plaything in office. We have downgraded from a President who respects the religious beliefs of all faiths or those lacking a faith belief to one who maligns Muslims in office. We have downgraded from a President who believes in the freedom of the press to one who demeans it in office.
These next four (or eight) years are going to be rough for us progressives and liberals on the issues concerning Americans, especially those that didn’t vote for him. There is no question that going from President Obama to “President” Trump will be a massive downgrade in the prestige of our nation and an embarrassment to the highest office in the land and to common sense.
He will be likely breaking at least of lot of promises-- if he hasn’t done so already-- to his supporters, such as not “draining the swamp” but putting in more alligators into the swamp instead, refusing to build the wall on the US/Mexico Border, not making Mexico pay for the wall, not putting Hillary Clinton in jail, reneging on his pledge to keep Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security intact (or expanded), and failure to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).
He will be very lucky if he avoids impeachment, and I believe that he’ll go down in 2020, as long as the Democrats get their act together.
On January 20th, I plan on NOT giving him legitimacy by watching any of the Kremlin Puppet’s farce of an “inaugural.”
In closing, he and his policies need to be resisted, and he is not a moral character or a role model and is most certainly NOT my “President”.
#NotMyPresident #ResistTrump #Resist45 #TheResistance