A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 90th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

The Great Divider
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by: Ahmed Baba on October 14, 2018

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Monday, Feb. 22, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

90 weeks into Trump’s presidency and he remains the most divisive figure in the world.

Divisiveness is a foundational component of who Donald Trump is as a man and who he has been as a president.

President Trump’s political platform is based on zero-sum grievance. For him to win, someone has to lose. For him to have something to fight for, he must have something to fight against. In this case, Trump has convinced his base that the Democrats and the mainstream media, their fellow citizens, are the enemies.

President Trump utilizes these tactics when he sends out tweets essentially claiming that Democrats and the press are not just political opponents, but violent enemies of the state. Trump doubled down in his remarks at Brett Kavanaugh’s swearing-in ceremony. Trump apologized to Kavanaugh and, once again, acting as if those who accused him of sexual assault were part of a Democratic smear campaign.

There’s the culture war that President Trump leans on whenever he sees a lull in the news cycle. From attacking kneeling NFL protestors to falsely claiming the #MeToo movement is a covert operation to take down successful white men, Trump derives joy from enraging and dividing the nation.

And of course, there is the ever-present racism. Scapegoating minorities is one of the President’s favorite pastimes, especially Latino immigrants. If you look at Republican ads across the country, they continue to ratchet up the dehumanization of immigrants, claiming that MS-13 is around every corner (in spite of the fact there are only 10,000 members nationwide, and the gang makes up less than one percent of all US gang activity, but I digress).

Since the President has no real policy agenda other than passing legislation that benefits himself and the top 1%, Trump relies on these tactics to get his base riled up. Rhetoric for poor white males, policy for rich white males.

At every turn the sitting President of the United States shamelessly seeks to divide the very people he was elected to govern. That’s why whoever is elected in 2020 must be a complete repudiation of everything Donald Trump stands for. They must be an aspirational leader who not only fights the corrupt forces, domestic and foreign, who seek to undermine our democracy but also reminds us what it means to be American. Someone who leads to unify, not divide and conquer.

Unfortunately for Trump, poll after poll shows the majority of the country, who operate in a fact-based reality, are fed up with his tactics – especially women.

We’ll see how this pans out for Trump and the GOP in November.

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Day 627: Monday, October 8

Confirmation And Climate
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (AP)

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (AP)

After Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court by the consequential votes of Susan Collins (R-ME), Jeff Flake (R-AZ, and Joe Manchin (D-WV), the weekend was full of protests in the nation’s Capitol.

That didn’t stop President Trump from going on a shameless victory lap. On Monday, he held the official ceremony for Kavanaugh’s swearing-in. In it, Trump continued his one-sided approach to governing, completely ignoring the majority of Americans (especially American women) who disapprove of Brett Kavanaugh.

In other news…

Day 628: Tuesday, October 9

Resignation

On Tuesday, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley unexpectedly resigned, setting off a series of theories about what her next move would be. Given her successful tenure as the Governor of South Carolina and her ability to show where she differs from Trump, some thought that she would perhaps try and primary Trump in 2020. That was quickly dispelled by Haley’s statement about her departure.

Others speculated that in the event Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis were to be replaced by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) after the midterms, Haley could then be appointed to the U.S. Senate by the governor.

We’ll see how this plays out.

In other news…

Day 629: Wednesday, October 10

Propaganda
A camera is focused on President Donald Trump as he speaks at a rally Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

A camera is focused on President Donald Trump as he speaks at a rally Wednesday, March 15, 2017, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

On Wednesday, USA TODAY made a terrible editorial decision by publishing President Trump’s op-ed on Healthcare that was filled with falsehoods.

In other news…

Day 630: Thursday, October 11

A Meeting About Nothing
Kanye West shows President Donald Trump a photograph of a hydrogen plane during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Kanye West shows President Donald Trump a photograph of a hydrogen plane during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On Thursday, Kanye West met with Trump in the White House. Rather than touch on that, I’ve republished Rantt Editor Jossif Ezekilov’s great article on what the media should’ve been covering instead of the Kanye-Trump meeting.

  1. 280 people are missing in Florida after Hurricane Michael made landfall yesterday. FEMA has warned the death toll could rise, but there has yet to be an official White House response or comment.
  2. It is very likely Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been murdered, and there is mounting evidence it was committed by the Saudi government. Leaks from the intelligence community indicate the US government may have known about the plan to murder Khashoggi, a contributor for the Washington Post and a US permanent resident. An investigation has been called for by Congress, but the Trump administration has not said how it would deal with one of its key allies if it is found to have been behind the murder.
  3. Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams has called on her opponent Republican Brian Kemp to resign as Georgia’s Secretary of State, after reports of his office suppressing the voting rights of thousands of minorities, ahead of the November elections.
  4. Markets are down 546 points today, after tumbling more than 800 points the day before. Investors are blaming rising interest rates, but fears of rising protectionism, falling markets overseas, and an economic downturn may also be at play.
  5. Washington state’s Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state’s death penalty. Crucially, the court argued that the state’s capital punishment law lacks “fundamental fairness” and that it was racially biased.
  6. Today is The International Day of the Girl. A year after the beginning of the #MeToo movement, and after weeks of the Kavanaugh hearings, this day will have particular significance in the West. However, the UN designated this day to highlight all forms of discrimination that the world’s 1.1 billion girls stand to face, including violence against women, child marriage, wage inequality, and education and health access, among others. The increased attention is welcome, but more than a day’s worth of action is sorely needed.

In other news…

Day 631: Friday, October 12

Family Separation 2.0
A mother migrating from Honduras holds her 1-year-old child as surrendering to U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the border Monday, June 25, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

A mother migrating from Honduras holds her 1-year-old child as surrendering to U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the border Monday, June 25, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The Washington Post revealed that although they still have hundreds of separated children in their custody, the Trump administration looks ready to restart their oppressive policy that caused this humanitarian crisis:

The White House is actively considering plans that could again separate parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to reverse soaring numbers of families attempting to cross illegally into the United States, according to several administration officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

One option under consideration is for the government to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days, then give parents a choice — stay in family detention with their child for months or years as their immigration case proceeds, or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody.

That option — called “binary choice” — is one of several under consideration amid the president’s frustration over border security. Trump has been unable to fulfill key promises to build a border wall and end what he calls “catch and release,” a process that began under past administrations in which most detained families are quickly freed to await immigration hearings. The number of migrant family members arrested and charged with illegally crossing the border jumped 38 percent in August and is now at a record level, according to Department of Homeland Security officials.

In other news…

Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Journalism / Supreme Court
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by: Ahmed Baba

Ahmed Baba is the Co-Founder and President of Rantt. Writer of Unpresidented, Ahmed documented and analyzed every day of the Trump presidency. He's also a columnist at The Independent and his work has been cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, Rolling Stone, BuzzFeed, The New York Post, The Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Blavity, Newsweek, The Telegraph, and more. He can be reached at [email protected] or found on Twitter @AhmedBaba_.

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