A Complete Analysis Of Trump’s 95th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

When it comes to Donald Trump's presidency, unhinged is an understatement.
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by: Ahmed Baba on November 18, 2018

President Donald Trump listens to a question during a signing ceremony of the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act,” in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump listens to a question during a signing ceremony of the “Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act,” in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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 95.

When it comes to Donald Trump’s presidency, unhinged is an understatement.

We’ve seen unrelenting efforts to undermine the Constitution and democratic norms.

We’ve seen unbelievable assaults on our collective fact-based reality.

We’ve seen the undeniable white nationalism within the Republican Party go from a whispered Southern Strategy to a deafening part of their political platform.

Donald Trump is unraveling as multiple reports depict a President who is furious about the midterm election results, paranoid about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and embracing his worst authoritarian-like impulses.

The reason for President Trump’s urgent appointment of Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker continues to crystallize for the public, as hints of Mueller’s next moves begin to take shape.

When it comes to his other presidential duties, President Trump appears to be struggling. From his scapegoating of California officials for the climate change strengthened fires ravaging their state to his refusal to honor veterans on Veterans Day weekend, President Trump continues to fail the most basic tests of his leadership.

And with his unwillingness to hold Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince accountable for his murder of Jamal Khashoggi, President Trump’s transactional foreign policy continues to take hold, as he trades in American values for personal profit.

Meanwhile, the results of the GOP’s efforts to engineer minority rule through gerrymandering and voter suppression continue to bear fruit for them.

This week, we saw a culmination of all the reasons Donald Trump is not fit to be the President of The United States and a reaffirmation of why Americans overwhelmingly voted to put a check on him in the House of Representatives.

Let’s dive in.

Veteran’s Day Weekend

As California grappled with the tragic fire, President Trump felt it would be prudent to threaten the state.

Oh, and the President was in France.

And on Monday, the President continued to miss important events honoring veterans.

Day 663: Tuesday, November 13

Mueller Moves
Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs the Capitol after a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Russian meddling in the election and possible connection to the Trump campaign, in Washington, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs the Capitol after a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about Russian meddling in the election and possible connection to the Trump campaign, in Washington, Wednesday, June 21, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A few stories from Tuesday:

1. In recent days, anticipation for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s next move has reached a fever pitch. There has been speculation surrounding whether former Trump adviser Roger Stone will be indicted for perjury and/or his contacts with Wikileaks (he claimed he was next was next and he was an unnamed Wikileaks contact in Mueller’s last round of Russian indictments). Then this week, Stone’s associate and O.G. birther Jerome Corsi publicly stated that he thinks Mueller is about to indict him for perjury. Corsi was forced to cancel an interview with NBC News due to the fact his lawyers were on the phone with the Special Counsel’s office. Some believe Corsi may be negotiating with Mueller, like Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Michael Flynn before him. This all comes as Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen was in DC this week meeting with the Special Counsel.

These aren’t the only indictments reportedly in the pipeline. There has reportedly been fear in the Trump administration that Donald Trump Jr. may be indicted for perjury. All of this comes on top of the Wall Street Journal report that indicated President Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator with Michael Cohen in campaign finance crimes. Needless to say, this is weighing down on the president.

2. After his failure to honor veterans and his embarrassing display in France, there have been multiple reports indicating President Trump is furiously lashing out at his aides in the White House. Angry about the midterms, nervous about Robert Mueller, and unhappy with the trip to France, Trump is directing his ire at his staff. Chief of Staff John Kelly is reportedly seeking to resign soon amid his beef with First Lady Melania Trump and her East Wing staff. Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly looking to fire Kelly’s protege, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Finally, Melania Trump called for the firing of National Security Adviser John Bolton’s deputy Mira Ricardel (reportedly over a dispute over airplane seating arrangements).

3. As Republican Senate candidate in Arizona Martha McSally gracefully conceded to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, Republicans in other parts of the country are not conducting themselves with the same level of dignity. Florida Governor and Senate candidate Rick Scott is still filing lawsuits as the national GOP, including the President and Marco Rubio, spread conspiracy theories. As the Florida recounts continue, remember to ask yourself why one party is so hell-bent on making sure as few people as possible are able to have their voices heard.

The above content from this day was taken from a segment of the Jossif Ezekilov’s Rantt Rundown newsletter I wrote.

 In other news…

Day 664: Wednesday, November 14

Two Constitutionally Problematic Arguments
President Donald Trump speaks to the media before speaking with members of the armed forces via video conference at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, on Thanksgiving in Palm Beach, Fla. Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017 file photo, (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

President Donald Trump speaks to the media before speaking with members of the armed forces via video conference at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, on Thanksgiving in Palm Beach, Fla. Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017 file photo, (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker remains under fire after he replaced Jeff Sessions last week. Not only has he received calls for his recusal due to the anti-Mueller views he’s espoused and his ties to Sam Clovis who is a witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, his appointment has also been called unconstitutional by conservative legal scholars. Members of the Federalist Society have defected and organized a group called “Checks And Balances” with the purpose of spotlighting Trump’s threats to the rule of law, including his appointment of Whitaker. This effort is being led by Kellyanne Conway’s husband George Conway.

This all comes as Maryland’s Attorney General sues the Trump administration over Whitaker’s appointment. Today, the DOJ argued that Whitaker’s appointment was constitutional Or, as Slate put it: “Here’s that argument, in a nutshell: The Constitution’s text doesn’t really matter; the Framers didn’t mean what they said; and an acting attorney general who served without Senate confirmation for six days in 1866 provides the historical precedent to justify Whitaker’s claim to the office.”

In similarly unconstitutional affairs, CNN sued President Trump for the restoration of White House press access to Jim Acosta. Acosta’s press access was denied after he pressed President Trump on his lies regarding the migrant caravan during a press conference. The White House then used a fake video from Infowars to claim Acosta assaulted a White House intern. And now, in response to CNN’s lawsuit, the Trump administration is claiming that they have the ability to deny any reporter White House press credentials. Legal precedent and the first amendment beg to differ.

The above content from this day was taken from a segment of the Jossif Ezekilov’s Rantt Rundown newsletter I wrote, with bits from Ezekilove himself.

In other news…

Day 665: Thursday, November 15

Meltdown
President Donald Trump listens during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump listens during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

As reports throughout the week indicated, President Trump has been furious. On Thursday, he went beyond lashing out at his aides and turned to a familiar target. After not attacking the Mueller probe for months, President Trump embraced his worst impulses.

This came as more even reports revealed Trump’s anxiety.

In other news…

Day 666: Friday, November 16

Assange’s Time In The Barrel

After a new court filing mistakenly revealed Julian Assange of Wikileaks had been charged, The New York Times confirmed that is indeed the case:

Mr. Pompeo and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions unleashed an aggressive campaign against Mr. Assange, reversing an Obama-era view of WikiLeaks as a journalistic entity. For more than a year, the nation’s spies and investigators sought to learn about Mr. Assange and his ties to Russia as senior administration officials came to believe he was in league with Moscow.

Their work culminated in prosecutors secretly filing charges this summer against Mr. Assange, which were inadvertently revealed in an unrelated court filing and confirmed on Friday by a person familiar with the inquiry. Taken together, the C.I.A. spying and the Justice Department’s targeting of Mr. Assange represented a remarkable shift by both the American government and President Trump, who repeatedly lauded WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign for its releases of Democratic emails, stolen by Russian agents, that damaged his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

A prosecution of Mr. Assange could pit the interests of the administration against Mr. Trump’s. Mr. Assange could help answer the central question of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III: whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia to interfere in the presidential race. If the case against Mr. Assange includes charges that he acted as an agent of a foreign power, anyone who knowingly cooperated with him could be investigated as a co-conspirator, former senior law-enforcement officials said.

As The Times rightfully points out, the prosecution of Julian Assange as it relates to Wikileaks may rope in some American co-conspirators that are too close to home. Roger Stone communicated with Wikileaks and so did Donald Trump Jr. There was also the fact President Trump himself was a very vocal advocate of Wikileaks, to say the least. Although unlikely to be named in conjunction with this conspiracy.

We can safely assume a Roger Stone perjury charge may come with an Assange indictment. We shall see. If the U.S. was truly able to find concrete ties between him and the Russian government and is able to secure his extradition from Ecuador, Assange becomes the most valuable potential plea agreement in the entire investigation. Not only would it strengthen his investigation into the Trump campaign but also many other past probes the U.S. is interested in.

In other news…

  • President Trump continued to sidestep the effects of climate change.

  • And to wrap this week up, President Trump has come up with a new nickname.

Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Government / Robert Mueller / Russia / Veterans
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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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