Donald Trump has returned to the news cycle amid a deluge of stories about a dinner meeting he hosted with a white supremacist and Ye, the rapper previously known as Kanye West.
It’s a reminder of the chaotic years of his presidency, as well as a foreboding ― though hopefully instructive ― warning about how he would wield power if elected again.
If past is prologue, let’s take a moment to remember just how unsettling things got during the Trump administration, with this not-even-remotely-exhaustive list of weird and bad stuff he attempted while in office:
- Tried to buy Greenland.
- Wanted to nuke hurricanes.
- Doctored a hurricane forecast map with a Sharpie.
- Attempted a coup to stay in power.
- Absconded with thousands of classified documents, lied about it and refused to give them back when the feds asked nicely.
- Sent unidentified federal officers to Portland, Oregon, to abduct protesters and spark a conflagration that could be used as a pretence for implementing martial law.
- Ordered peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could pose for a photo-op with a Bible outside a church.
- Tried to blackmail Ukraine into manufacturing dirt for his 2020 campaign.
- Asked Russia for help in his 2016 campaign — and got it.
- Had a weird affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Remember the Helsinki summit?)
- Invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to an in-person meeting in the Oval Office, where he accidentally revealed top-secret intelligence.
- Wanted to withdraw the US from NATO.
- Separated migrant parents from their children, locked the kids in cages and then failed to reunite them.
- Insisted that “raking” would prevent forest fires because “you’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important.”
- Covered for Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a US journalist with a bone saw. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, owes Saudi Arabia $2 billion (£1.64 billion) and the crown prince has reportedly bragged about having Kushner “in his pocket.”
- Intervened to get Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.
- Put Kushner in charge of Middle East peace.
- Embraced rampant nepotism.
- Touted injecting disinfectant as a Covid-19 cure.
- Touted ultraviolet light as a Covid-19 cure.
- Touted hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 cure.
- Touted ivermectin as a Covid-19 cure.
- Told people not to wear face masks to cut down the spread of Covid-19, even though they work.
- Actively discouraged Covid-19 testing.
- Refused to send federal aid to New York City amid the first Covid-19 wave because the virus was hitting Democratic-voting states hardest.
- “Jokingly” said on multiple occasions that he deserved to be president for more than two terms.
- Thought climate change was a Chinese hoax.
- Built an incomplete border wall that doesn’t work, wasn’t needed and wasn’t paid for by Mexico.
- Started a trade war with China that mainly hurt US consumers.
- Threw food when angry.
- Saw no problem with his vice president potentially being hanged by a violent mob he’d summoned and sent to the US Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.
- Stared directly at the sun.
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- Started his presidency with an easily disproved lie about the crowd size at his inauguration.
- Thought people needed an ID to buy cereal.
- Fired James Comey as FBI director because he didn’t like the bureau investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. (Later, it was revealed that Trump’s campaign manager gave detailed internal polling data to a Russian intelligence agent.)
- Was a “fucking moron,” according to Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state.
- Fired the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s China-based pandemic response team — and then when a pandemic happened years later, said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for Covid-19.
- Repeatedly embraced racism.
- Thought repeating “person, woman, man, camera, TV” would assure Americans of his mental stability.
- Tweeted literal gibberish — a lot.
- Lied all the time. (And still does.)
- Openly embraced and amplified QAnon conspiracy theories.
- Got impeached twice.
- Passed huge tax cuts for wealthy corporations ― and massively grew the national debt.
- Flip-flopped on whether the White House had ordered the USS John McCain be hidden so he wouldn’t get mad. (It did.)
- Called American military members who died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers.”
- Claimed to have bone spurs to get out of military service.
- Binge-watched Fox News when he should have been working.
- Played so, so much golf.
- Raked in cash from foreign interests at his Washington hotel in an operation sometimes described as the “epicentre” of a corrupt presidency.
- Held a rally that may have led to the death of Herman Cain.
- Allegedly directed his lawyer to commit campaign fraud to cover up that Trump cheated on his wife after she had recently given birth.
- Was accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women.
- Dismissed any bad news about himself as “fake.”
- Lied about voluntarily turning over his tax returns.
- Ate well-done steak — with ketchup.
- Described white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.”
- Grossly abused the presidential pardon on his way out the door.
- Used private communication services extensively after arguing that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for having a private email server.
- Refused to release White House visitor logs.
- Went to Puerto Rico and threw paper towels at people desperate for actual hurricane aid.
- Discouraged exercise because he believes bodies are like batteries, with a finite amount of energy.