A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 93rd Unpresidented Week As POTUS

As the midterms loom, Trump's Republican Party has fully embraced the indecency and white nationalist sentiment they've harbored for decades.
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by: Ahmed Baba on November 4, 2018

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, Nov. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Trump’s first major typo after winning the election was spelling Unprecedented incorrectly. He infamously tweeted “Unpresidented.” This typo is a personification 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 93.

“I’m not on the ticket, but I am on the ticket, because this is also a referendum about me. I want you to vote. Pretend I’m on the ballot.” – President Trump at a rally on October 18, 2018

Here we are in the final stretch. The 2018 midterms, and the two year anniversary of Donald Trump’s election, are finally upon us.

The closing argument President Trump has chosen is very revealing of not only how little Trump thinks of his base, but of how little he cares about making any unifying efforts to govern for all Americans.

Trump has opted for fear, and not just any kind of fear. He’s chosen to incite white panic. Trump believes the most effective way to mobilize his base to the polls is to lie to them about a caravan full of hungry, impoverished immigrants seeking asylum in America. Along with fear mongering over Latinos, there are the thinly veiled anti-Semitic attacks on “globalists” and false claims that George Soros is funding the caravan. Even after a neo-Nazi terrorist murdered 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the rhetoric was not toned down by Trump, Republicans, or conservative media.

But we must be clear here. This is not new. What we’re watching is the culmination of decades of racist gaslighting from right-wing media and GOP leaders. Since the civil rights era, the Republican Party pivoted their center of power to southern states by using racial undertones and scapegoating minorities for the white man’s economic plight. This appeal to southern white voters is called the Southern Strategy, and we are now seeing it’s inglorious result.

The only difference is the lack of shame and subtlety. Trump has ripped off the Republican Party’s hood and revealed its white nationalist face. This is not hyperbole. This is our current state of affairs.

What’s worse is the very voters President Trump is gaslighting with racist fear mongering are the very same voters he is harming with his policies that exacerbate income inequality. This is obvious to most of us, but not to the Trump voter.

Beyond the overtly racist rhetoric, we’ve seen President Trump and the GOP push discriminatory policies, roll back environmental regulations meant to combat climate change, target the healthcare of vulnerable Americans, target women’s rights, back a Supreme Court nominee who faced credible allegations of sexual assault, continue to remain beholden to the NRA after far too many shootings, perpetuate corruption, villainize the media and Democrats (which radicalized one of his supporters to send bombs to them), capitulate to our foreign adversaries and antagonize our allies, and not to mention his attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his campaign’s potential conspiracy with the Russian government.

This is why there are a record number of women running for office. This is why there is an enormous surge in early voting among young people. This is why Democrats running on inclusive, forward-thinking policies look set to usher in a historic blue wave in the face of seemingly insurmountable voter suppression efforts… But this happens IF, and only if, we each do our part.

For those who have not yet been deluded by Fox News, what lays before us is an easily discernible choice.

President Trump’s indecency is on the ballot.

President Trump’s misogyny is on the ballot.

President Trump’s white nationalism is on the ballot.

President Trump’s lies are on the ballot.

President Trump’s regressive policies are on the ballot.

President Trump’s authoritarian tendencies are on the ballot.

President Trump said it himself. He is on the ballot.

You choose whether this Tuesday will be like 2016 or if we will begin to take our country back.

Choose wisely.

Day 646-647: Saturday-Sunday, October 27-28

Synagogue

On Saturday, tragedy struck. The attack was committed by a neo-Nazi who screamed “all these Jews need to die” as he entered the synagogue. The shooting was at a Bris. The shooter was later identified, and his social media profile on Gab was revealed, showcasing that he was radicalized by the caravan fear mongering. Conservative media had been lying, stating that George Soros was funding the caravan of migrants from Honduras.

Before President Trump gave his speech condemning the attacks, he had a slightly different tone.

Even after it was known that this is what motivated the shooter, it did not stop President Trump from more anti-Semitic attacks.

And conservative media continued as well, with the specific charge that triggered the shooter.

By the end of the weekend, President Trump was once again targeting the bomb targets.

Day 648: Monday, October 29

Fear
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the James L. Knight Center, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the James L. Knight Center, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, in Miami. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

On Monday, we got the news of President Trump ordering 5,200 troops to the southern border for a caravan that is hundreds of miles away. The Washington Post reported:

Homeland Security and Pentagon officials said Monday that they will send 5,200 troops, military helicopters and giant spools of razor wire to the Mexican border in the coming days to brace for the arrival of Central American migrants President Trump is calling “an invasion.”

The troop deployment, one week before the U.S. midterm elections, appears to be the largest U.S. active-duty mobilization along the U.S.-Mexico boundary in decades and amounts to a significant militarization of American border security.

This was one of Trump’s most brazen campaign stunts yet, using the U.S. military as a prop to sure up the fear-mongering tactics he’s been utilizing ahead of the midterms. This caravan includes men, women, and children who are seeking asylum but this hasn’t stopped President Trump from falsely framing them as rogue MS-13 members who are somehow also middle easterners.

In other news…

  • As another package was intercepted at CNN, President Trump continued his attacks on the media.

  • President Trump sat down with Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham.

  • Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders held her first press conference in weeks. Her facts were set straight by CNN.

 

  • Trump attacked Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum.

Day 649: Tuesday, October 30

A BS Threat To Birthright Citizenship
President Donald Trump holds up an executive order he signed to end family separations, during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. Looking on is Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump holds up an executive order he signed to end family separations, during an event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 20, 2018. Looking on is Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, left. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

On Tuesday morning, Axios released the first clip from their upcoming HBO series. It showed Jonathan Swan incredibly eager to hear about President Trump’s planned attempt to unilaterally sign away birthright citizenship for non-citizens.

But obviously, Trump cannot do this. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) chimed in.

In other news…

Day 650: Wednesday, October 31

Self-Fire
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., points to his copy of the Constitution on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 6, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wis., points to his copy of the Constitution on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 6, 2016. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

On Wednesday, President Trump sent out a tweet targeting the Speaker of his own party in the House.

Although many try and place rhyme and reason on everything President Trump does, a tweet of this nature can be placed in the “ego” category. There is no strategic value in attacking the leader of your party’s House majority less than a week before the midterms. Perhaps it will give Trump someone to blame if they lose, but it does little else.

In other news…

  • A Halloween fact-check for you:

Day 651: Thursday, November 1

Roger Stone’s Time In The Barrel Is Coming
Donald Trump, left, is seen outside the Federal Courthouse in Newark, N.J., with Roger Stone, the director of Trump’s presidential exploratory committee Monday, Oct. 25, 1999, for the swearing-in of Trump’s sister as a federal appeals court judge. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer)

Donald Trump, left, is seen outside the Federal Courthouse in Newark, N.J., with Roger Stone, the director of Trump’s presidential exploratory committee Monday, Oct. 25, 1999, for the swearing-in of Trump’s sister as a federal appeals court judge. (AP Photo/Daniel Hulshizer)

On Thursday, The New York Times reported yet another development that showcased Roger Stone’s possible back-channel collusion with Wikileaks during the 2016 election.

When the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, appeared on a video link from Europe a month before the 2016 presidential election and vaguely promised to release a flood of purloined documents related to the race, the head of Donald J. Trump’s campaign, Stephen K. Bannon, was interested.

He emailed the political operative Roger J. Stone Jr., who had been trying to reach him for days about what Mr. Assange might have in store. “What was that this morning???” Mr. Bannon asked on Oct. 4.

“A load every week going forward,” Mr. Stone replied, echoing Mr. Assange’s public vow to publish documents on a weekly basis until the Nov. 8 election.

The email exchange, not previously reported, underscores how Mr. Stone presented himself to Trump campaign officials: as a conduit of inside information from WikiLeaks, Russia’s chosen repository for documents hacked from Democratic computers.

Mr. Bannon and two other former senior campaign officials have detailed to prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, how Mr. Stone created that impression, according to people familiar with their accounts. One of them told investigators that Mr. Stone not only seemed to predict WikiLeaks’ actions, but that he also took credit afterward for the timing of its disclosures that damaged Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

We’ve already seen multiple reports that Mueller is probing this and also evidence that Roger Stone directly communicated with Wikileaks over Twitter DM.

In other news…

Day 652: Friday, November 2

Surprise, Trump Is Racist
Michael Cohen and Donald Trump (AP)

Michael Cohen and Donald Trump (AP)

On Friday, a report in Vanity Fair revealed that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer who has since cooperated with federal investigators against him, was triggered by Trump’s response to the Pittsburgh synagogue attack and has come out with more damning anecdotes of Trump’s racist remarks.

This should surprise no one.

In other news…

  • On the one month anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s death, we published Rantt Editor Jossif Ezekilov’s interview with Rula Jebreal, one of the last people to interview Khashoggi.

Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Government / Journalism
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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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