A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 134th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

President Trump's trade war is gambling with America's economic future and his bigotry is a threat to America's national security.
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by: Ahmed Baba on August 18, 2019

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, at the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Pa. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019, at the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Pa. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

Trump’s first major typo after winning the election was spelling Unprecedented incorrectly. He infamously tweeted “Unpresidented.” This typo is emblematic of his administration: An impulsive, frantically thrown together group of characters with virtually no oversight. After Trump was sworn in, I started writing the weekly “Unpresidented” column, analyzing his every move. This is week 134.

President Trump is guilty of everything the Republican Party falsely accused President Obama of being. They accused Obama of fueling and being soft on terrorism but say nothing while Trump fuels and stifles efforts to combat white supremacist terrorism. Republicans accused Obama of being unpatriotic but remain complicit as Trump sells out America to autocracies. Republicans accused Obama of tanking the economy but stand behind Trump as his trade war gambles with America’s economic future.

This week, recession fears increased, Trump’s white supremacist rhetoric continued, and Trump made a disgraceful move by colluding with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to punish dissent from US congresswomen.

Let’s dive into yet another Unpresidented week.

This comprehensive column sources great reporting from top news organizations, but it’s also built on brilliant analysis from my team at Rantt Media. We are independently-owned, completely ad-free, and take pride in being reader-funded so that we are beholden to you, not corporate interests. If you like the work we do, please consider supporting us by signing up for a monthly subscription. Below, you’ll see daily breakdowns that are derived from our exclusive Rantt Rundown newsletter. If you like the work we do, please consider supporting us by signing up for our newsletter or joining our community chatroom where you can talk news with our team and other like-minded individuals:

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Trump’s White Supremacist Policies

Day 935: Monday, August 12

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)

President Trump made clear in his reported “shithole countries” remarks in 2018 that he prefers white wealthy immigrants over poor brown immigrants. Today, we saw that attitude reflected in policy. CNN reported:

The rule means many green card and visa applicants could be turned down if they have low incomes or little education, and have used benefits such as most forms of Medicaid, food stamps, and housing vouchers, because they’d be deemed more likely to need government assistance in the future.

…

The 837-page rule applies to those seeking to come to or remain in the United States via legal channels and is expected to impact roughly 382,000 people seeking to adjust their immigration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. However, immigration advocates say millions of people could be affected by the regulation.

Andy Slavitt—former head of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act for President Barack Obama—put this in perspective.

Make no mistake, this has never been about curbing illegal immigration or creating a “merit-based” system. This is about preserving the white majority that Trump’s base fears losing. The United States Census projects that America will become “minority white” by 2024.

Fox News Anchor Tucker Carlson has echoed white nationalist fears of diversity in America and has fear-mongered about an imminent diluted American culture. Many of Trump’s actions, partially engineered by White House Advisor Stephen Miller, align with the white supremacist mission of creating a white ethnostate.

President Trump previously implemented the cruel “zero tolerance” policy which led to over 3,000 migrant children to be separated from their parents. Trump currently has in place metering policies that limit the number of asylum claims that can be processed at the border. Trump has made illegal efforts to end the asylum process as we know it, made continued calls to end due process rights for migrants, and detains migrants in inhumane conditions.

Today, President Trump moved to limit legal immigration. 9 days ago, a white supremacist terrorist echoed Trump’s anti-immigrant cries of an “invasion” and targeted Latinos in El Paso, murdered 22 people and injuring 24. Last week, ICE detained 680 immigrant workers in Mississippi.

Over the past two years, President Trump’s racist rhetoric has fueled the threat of white supremacist terrorism while he has actively restrained government efforts to combat it. If you’re still wondering why 2020 Democratic candidates are accusing Trump of being a white supremacist himself, and his well-documented history of racist comments wasn’t enough, look no further than his bigoted policies.

In other news…

SIGN THIS PETITION AND DEMAND THE IRS RELEASE TRUMP TAX RETURNS

Trump’s Unhinged Twitter

Day 936: Tuesday, August 13

President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington — Thursday, June 1, 2017 (AP/Rantt Media Edits)

President Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington — Thursday, June 1, 2017 (AP/Rantt Media Edits)

Donald Trump has had an infamously unhinged Twitter feed throughout his presidency. Trump has tweeted a video of him body-slamming CNN, shared a video of him putting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, retweeted bigots, and shared conspiracy theories. But in recent weeks, Trump’s tweets and retweets have been increasingly wild, and they’ve been met with a reduced level of outrage from a desensitized media.

On Saturday, after pedophile Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in prison, President Trump shared a dangerous conspiracy theory accusing former President Bill Clinton of murdering Epstein.

President Trump defended the fact he retweeted the conspiracy theory by saying:

“That was a retweet. That was from him, it wasn’t from me. But he’s a man who has half a million followers. A lot of followers, and he’s respected … so I think I was fine.”

President Trump hasn’t let the amount of Twitter followers someone has determine whether he retweets them in the past. Trump has retweeted accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory on many occasions, even after the FBI has deemed them a domestic terrorism threat.

President Trump has been retweeting far-right figures like Dinesh D’souza, James O’Keefe, and racist British commentator Katie Hopkins as well.

It was only last month that President Trump sent his tweets targeting “the Squad,” telling them to go back to their countries in spite of the fact they are sitting congresswomen. Just a few weekends ago, President Trump sent his bigoted “infested” tweets targeting House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and Baltimore.

And of course, if you look on Trump’s timeline, you’ll see your regularly scheduled programming of fear-mongering, disinformation, and attacks on the media and Democrats.

This all occurs due to the circle of idiocy that the President is a part of. Fox News isn’t just radicalizing Trump’s base, it radicalizes Trump himself. Trump also radicalizes his base while driving Fox News coverage, which then drives Trump’s radicalizing actions, and so on and so forth.

This is why President Trump signed an executive order trying to get the FCC to exert more control over social media companies and to ensure conservatives don’t get banned for hate speech.

In other news…

Recession Looms, Trump Deflects

Day 937: Wednesday, August 14

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township, Pa., Saturday, March 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation in Moon Township, Pa., Saturday, March 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Wall Street just had its worst day of the year and markets saw a fluctuation we haven’t seen since before the last recession. The Dow closed down 800 points after the price of 10-year treasury bonds were briefly valued lower than 2-year treasury bonds.

This is known as a yield curve inversion, and it has preceded every recession since 1955. The last time we saw this occur it was 2007, right before the 2008 Financial Crisis.

This is a signal that confidence in long-term yields is lower than short-term yields. This sentiment leads banks to issue higher short-term interest rates than long-term rates, which will lead to less borrowing by businesses and layoffs, leading to reduced consumer spending and contracting economic growth. In other words, a recession.

President Trump reacted to the news by blaming the Federal Reserve and Germany (whose economy is contracting).

But President Trump is far from blameless. Much of the volatility we’ve seen in the market over the last year has been a result of Trump’s reckless trade war with China, in which he has utilized tariffs that have harmed Americans – especially farmers. Even after Trump backed off from tariffs that were set to be put in place against China this fall and the Fed cut interest rates, the market has still signaled trouble ahead.

After inheriting President Barack Obama’s booming economy, President Trump didn’t double down on the policies that would further stimulate economic growth. Instead, Trump and the GOP passed a $1 trillion tax cut that ballooned the U.S. deficit and disproportionately helped the top 1% and corporations.

Rather than being invested into their employees, the tax cut surplus corporations received largely went straight to stock buybacks that only benefitted shareholders and perpetuated income inequality. In an economy like America’s in which economic growth has largely been tied to consumer spending, this was bad policy.

Source: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/02/13/6-reasons-trump-did-not-inherit-a-mess-from-obama/#74728cbd75ef">Forbes</a>

Source: Forbes

The U.S. Treasury Department is projecting a deficit this year of over $1 trillion. This all comes amid global trends of instability as protests rattle Russia and Hong Kong, China’s economy is slowing, and Germany and the United Kingdom are seeing contracting economies as well.

Today’s inverted yield curve doesn’t mean we’ll see a recession tomorrow, or even in the next few months, but it is a sign of slower growth ahead. The economy moves in cycles, and it appears we are set for another contraction. The question is, how intense will it be this time? One thing is for sure: since President Trump spent so much time taking credit for Obama’s recovery, he won’t be able to abdicate responsibility for his recession.

In other news…

Trump and Netanyahu Collusion

Day 938: Thursday, August 15

Top: President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the United Nations General Assembly (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead). Bottom: Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) (Official Photos)

Top: President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the United Nations General Assembly (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead). Bottom: Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) (Official Photos)

Rabbi Shaina Bacharach shares her opinion on Omar and Tlaib’s blocked Isreal visit:

I write as an American, a rabbi, a Jew, and a lover of Israel. I’m not a fan of the present Israeli government, but neither am I a fan of the present American administration. But today, both of these governments reached a new low. And I am ashamed of both.

Two duly elected representatives of the U.S. Congress, Ilhan Omar (D-MN)} and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), were barred entry into Israel.

Both congresswomen are Muslim and have been critical of Israel. They supported BDS, a boycott of Israeli products. That said, both Israel and the United States are democracies that support free speech. Further, there are Jews who agree with them. Disclaimer: I don’t agree with the boycott, but that is beside the point. Free speech means we do not have to agree.

This comes after weeks of racist attacks from President Trump on these congresswomen of color and calls for them to be sent back to their countries even though they’re citizens.

Read The Full Article

In other news…

Trump and Netanyahu Collusion

Day 939: Friday, August 16

SOM, MIT, and ESA&#8217;s concept of an international lunar base

SOM, MIT, and ESA’s concept of an international lunar base

The original Moon landing was seen as a publicity stunt during the Cold War by politicians and voters. The future of space exploration must be more than that.

Rantt’s Politech Editor Greg Fish makes the case for why we need to go back to the moon.

Read The Article

In other news…

Over the weekend…

President Trump sent the following tweet out ahead of a Proud Boys rally in Portland, Oregon. It sent a clear message.

Rantt Media’s comprehensive articles source reporting from top news organizations, but they’re also built on brilliant analysis from our team. We are independently-owned and completely ad-free. We strive for quality, not clicks. We take pride in being reader-funded so that we are beholden to you, not corporate interests. If you like the work we do, please consider supporting us by signing up for our newsletter or joining our community chatroom where you can talk news with our team and other like-minded individuals:

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Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Economy / Ilhan Omar / Rashida Tlaib / Recession / White Supremacist Terrorism / White Supremacy
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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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