A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 161st Unpresidented Week As POTUS

President Trump is corrupting the Intelligence Community and seeking to use it as a political weapon. He's also gathered a "deep state hit list."
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by: Ahmed Baba on February 24, 2020

President Trump speaking with supporters at a “Keep America Great” rally at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America/Creative Commons)

President Trump speaking with supporters at a “Keep America Great” rally at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America/Creative Commons)

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 every week of his presidency. This is week 161.

This was a week of more overt corruption in Trump’s post-acquittal America.

Fresh off of triggering internal turmoil in the DOJ by having Attorney General William Barr seek to interfere in Roger Stone’s case, President Trump has set his sights on the Intelligence Community.

President Trump replaced the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire because his aide briefed Democrats on the fact Russia is helping Trump’s 2020 campaign. President Trump has installed partisan loyalist Richard Grenell to oversee DNI. If there was any doubt that Grenell would corrupt the DNI, former aide to Devin Nunes, Kash Patel, was appointed as Grenell’s senior adviser.

This is concerning because Barr’s review of the Mueller probe seeks to undermine the conclusive finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. One has to wonder if Grenell will assist in these efforts and there is no telling what the Trump Administration will prevent the Intelligence Community from telling Congress and the American people. In a nutshell, President Trump is preemptively trying to cover up for Russia and his campaign and weaponize the Intelligence Community to his partisan advantage.

Trump Administration officials have already gone on national TV and claimed they’ve seen no intelligence that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to assist Trump. They are, however, confirming that Russia is seeking to help Democratic Candidate Bernie Sanders. That, of course, isn’t entirely the case because any Russian effort to help Bernie is because they, like Trump, believes Trump can beat Bernie.

The entire US Intelligence Community conclusively determined that Russia sought to help Candidate Trump win the 2016 election. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report corroborated those findings. Our own eyes and ears saw them boost Trump and saw the Trump Administration’s subsequent capitulation to Russia. It’s common sense Russia prefers Trump, so his spin is falling on deaf ears.

In other news, the new head of President Trump’s personnel office, Johnny McEntee, has been gathering a list of “disloyal” Trump Administration officials. This fits into an 18-month long effort to identify “Never Trumpers,” or as Axios called it, “a deep state hitlist.” This is not how democratic Presidents run the government. It’s how authoritarian despots do it.

There was some justice done this week. Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone has been sentenced to 40 months in prison. Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued this sentence after proclaiming that “the truth still exists. The truth still matters.” Jackson also said Stone was prosecuted for “covering up for the president.”

Judging by the events of the past few years, if you yell “lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton publicly enough times, you yourself will inevitably end up going to prison.

Jokes aside, this was yet another consequential week. It’s important we keep track of all of this, as President Trump becomes increasingly untamed. Let’s dive in.

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DOJ Revolt

Day 1,124: Monday, February 17

Attorney General William P. Barr addresses the 276th graduating class of the National Academy on June 7, 2019 (FBI)

Attorney General William P. Barr addresses the 276th graduating class of the National Academy on June 7, 2019 (FBI)

Monday’s top stories:

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Abuse Of The Pardon Power

Day 1,125: Tuesday, February 18

President Donald Trump signs an executive order (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Tuesday’s top stories:

A Crisis Of Intelligence

Day 1,126: Wednesday, February 19

President Donald J. Trump talks to members of the press on the South Lawn of the White House Saturday, November 2, 2019, prior to boarding Marine One to begin his trip to New York City. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

President Donald J. Trump talks to members of the press on the South Lawn of the White House Saturday, November 2, 2019, prior to boarding Marine One to begin his trip to New York City. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Wednesday’s top stories:

Stone Sentenced And Russia Strikes

Day 1,127: Thursday, February 20

Former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone walks out of the federal courthouse, in Richard Nixon’s signature pose, after being indicted a hearing, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Former campaign adviser for President Donald Trump, Roger Stone walks out of the federal courthouse, in Richard Nixon’s signature pose, after being indicted a hearing, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Thursday’s top stories:

Russia Interfering In Dem Primary

Day 1,128: Friday, February 21

Bernie Sanders rally in Traverse City, Michigan March 4, 2016 (Todd Church/Creative Commons)

Bernie Sanders rally in Traverse City, Michigan March 4, 2016 (Todd Church/Creative Commons)

Friday’s top stories:

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Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Russia / William Barr
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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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