A Complete Breakdown Of Donald Trump’s 49th Unpresidented Week As POTUS

2017 was a year of American depravity…and greatness.
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by: Ahmed Baba on December 31, 2017

The Women’s March — January 21, 2017 (Vlad Tchompalov)

2017 was a year of American depravity…and greatness. As we watched the worst among us desperately try and push our country backward, we saw the best among us rise to resist them. The American people are awake.

The day after Trump, an admitted sexual predator, was sworn into office, a wave of millions of women (and men) took to the streets to proclaim that women’s rights are human rights. As the year progressed, that wave turned into a tsunami of brave women who became the backbone of the resistance and also spearheaded the paradigm shifting#MeToo movement, proving they will not be silenced.

Throughout the year, President Donald Trump and the GOP’s oppressive policies were met with protests and legal setbacks. Trump’s lies were met with fact-checks and fearless journalism. And his hateful rhetoric was met with demonstrations of unity. It wasn’t until the GOP forced their tax cuts through that they got any real legislation passed, but that fight isn’t over just yet.

Yes, the Trump administration’s mark on the Supreme Court, effect on America’s judiciary, reduction of America’s global influence, and weakening of government agencies will be felt for decades, but the American people have bounced back from worse, and we will again.

We head into 2018 on the back of historic Democratic wins in special elections across the country. The face of Congress looks set to turn blue…and Black, Latino, Asian, young, and female.

This year, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his Trump-Russia investigation became a symbol of imminent justice to many. Despite President Trump’s unrealistic expectations of imminent exoneration, new developments continue to indicate that Mueller’s probe will be moving forward well into 2018 and towards the truth.

Before I dive into my final breakdown of the year, I just want to say thank you for reading Unpresidented. It’s been a wild ride chronicling the events of Donald Trump’s presidency week after week but you, yeah you reading this right now, make it all worth it. Patriots like you, who dedicate time out of your lives to be activists, are what makes America great.

We really appreciate you supporting our work here at Rantt News. Next year, we will keep combatting disinformation, inequality, and injustice.

Happy New Year! I’m hopeful for what 2018 will bring. ✊

Here’s a complete breakdown of Donald Trump’s 49th week as POTUS:

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49th Weekend (December 23–24)

Bigotry And Taxes

President Donald Trump, with Republican leaders behind him, speaks during the tax bill passage event on the South Lawn of the White House — Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Coming fresh off of signing the GOP Self Enrichment Act Of 2017 (what it should really be called), President Trump bragged to his friends at a Mar-a-Lago dinner:

“You all just got a lot richer.”

Despite this bill’s unpopularity on every poll leading up to the vote, the GOP overruled the will of the people and passed it anyway. Ahead of signing the tax cuts into law, President Trump said, “I was going to wait for a formal signing some time in early January, but then I watched the news this morning and they were all saying, ‘Will he keep his promise, will he sign it by Christmas? And I called downstairs and said, ‘Get it ready, we have to sign it now.’”

The reason he was going to wait to sign the bill was due to the fact signing it this year would trigger automatic cuts to Medicaid and other programs. So, once again, the President of the United States sought to fulfill his ego at the expense of the American people.

Meanwhile…

  • The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to impose crippling new sanctions on North Korea
  • The New York Times reported how Trump’s racism has influenced his immigration policy.

  • As news of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s resignation broke, President Trump continued his attacks on him and the FBI.

  • On Christmas Eve, the President sent out heartwarming tweets that embodied the holiday spirit. Ha, Ha, Ha, No. Trump retweeted a meme with a blood-splattered CNN on his foot and continued his attacks on the outgoing Deputy FBI Director yet again.

Oh, and he declared victory in the nonexistent “war on Christmas.”

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49th Week (December 25–29)

Monday, December 25

A Quiet Christmas

Christmas day had finally arrived, and it was very quiet in the news world. No big breaking stories. No wild Twitter tantrums from the President. A day of peace.

But of course, President Trump couldn’t go one day without at least churning out a little lie.

If by “back to work” Trump meant “back to several more days golfing” than that tweet is accurate.

Meanwhile…

  • The President has spent over 100 days at Trump-branded properties since being sworn into office, and he didn’t stop that day. My one beef with today was the media’s continued use of the phrase “Winter White House” when referring to Mar-a-Lago.

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Tuesday, December 26

The Breitbartization Of The GOP

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP)

The intellectual and moral decline of the GOP continued the day after Christmas. Republican Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL-19) followed in the footsteps of his GOP House colleagues Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-85) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-1) and made unsubstantiated attacks on the credibility of the FBI. Rooney went as far as to accuse the FBI of being part of the “deep state,” which is a term far-right extremists use to refer to a fictional conspiracy to take down President Trump.

This is part of the coordinated effort to undermine Americans’ faith in U.S. institutions and obstruct the Trump-Russia investigation — An effort that appears to be in coordination with the White House.

Last week, Politico reported that House Republicans, led by Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes, have launched a probe into alleged bias and corruption within the Department of Justice and the FBI. They did this without alerting their democratic colleagues. This is further evidence that House Republicans are on a mission to help the President obstruct justice.They claim to be working on a report they will release in early 2018. Trump will likely try and use this as an excuse to fire Mueller.

These are not substantiated attacks with any basis in reality. These are politically motivated witch hunters crying wolf about a non-existent politically motivated witch hunt targeting Donald Trump.

Fox News, a network pretending to be a legitimate news source, has been spearheading this chorus of disinformation and making ridiculous claims like this:

And this…

Pushing completely false rhetoric of a “coup” or “assassination plot” against the President, is not only irresponsible, it’s incredibly dangerous.

The U.S. Intelligence Community concluded that Russia’s longstanding objective has been to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order and our faith in democratic institutions. For decades, Russian propaganda has aimed to stir racial divisions, attack the credibility of the U.S. government, and try to weaken western influence. Today, we have a President, backed by the full support of his party and propaganda arms like Fox News, executing on our foreign adversary’s primary objectives. And they’re doing this all under the guise of “America First” (which actually has 20th century anti-Semitic roots).

Meanwhile…

  • Trump was seen golfing the day after tweeting he’d be “back to work” after Christmas.

  • The Daily Beast reported that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates might be hit with additional tax-related indictments from Robert Mueller.

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Wednesday, December 27

Collusion ? ?

President Donald Trump speaks with White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner as he departs after a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

As we know, the Mueller probe has been heating up. Mueller has levied indictments against former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and Deputy Campaign Manager Rick Gates and locked down plea agreements from Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Campaign Adviser George Papadopoulos. Since then, he’s subpoenaed bank records for Trump associates including Jared Kushner and potentially the President himself. Now, Mueller is moving into a component of the probe that could very well uncover the smoking gun of collusion.

Yahoo News reported that, “In just the last few weeks, [Mueller’s] prosecutors have begun questioning Republican National Committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the Trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. They are seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of Russian trolls and bots aimed at influencing the American electorate.”

This is huge news because Jared Kushner, who oversaw the Trump campaign’s data operations, and Brad Parscale come into play. Brad Parscale was the Trump campaign digital strategist, and he is already a subject of Congressional investigators who are looking into whether or not there was any coordination between Trump’s team and Russian operatives in the spread of their propaganda— given the sophistication of Russia’s voter targeting. Also, data firm Cambridge Analytica, that worked with Donald Trump’s campaign, has turned over their employees’ emails to Robert Mueller’s team. And when it comes to Kushner, the FBI has been examining his role as far back as May:

Federal investigators have been taking a closer look at the Trump campaign’s data analytics operation, which was supervised by Kushner, officials say, and are examining whether Russian operatives used people associated with the campaign — wittingly or unwittingly — to try to help Russia’s own data targeting.

Now, Robert Mueller has honed in on it as well. Mueller has already obtained a warrant for the Facebook accounts linked to Russian entities. A warrant of this nature is no joke. It means that Mueller may believe he can indict these entities on election law violations. Facebook told Congressional investigators, and Robert Mueller, that the Russian “troll farm” in question bought $100,000 worth of Facebook advertising starting in the Summer of 2015 and throughout the 2016 election, spreading divisive political posts, including posts that sought to sow racial divides.

If Kushner, Parscale, and/or Cambridge Analytica shared voter data with those Russian operatives in order to make their Facebook propaganda targeting more precise, that could be the smoking gun for collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Meanwhile…

  • Jailed Russian hacker, Konstantin Kozlovsk, who claimed that he hacked the DNC on Kremlin orders, now says he left behind a data signature and can prove he was behind the hack.
  • The Washington Post reported that Trump’s legal team plans to paint Michael Flynn as a liar if he begins to reveal damning information about Trump’s team to Robert Mueller (he most likely already has). The Trump administration pushed back on this report, but their credibility is…shaky, to say the least.
  • Trump was seen golfing two days after tweeting he’d be “back to work” after Christmas.

  • Trump said “We have signed more legislation than anybody. We broke the record of Harry Truman.” History says that was a lie. Trump has signed the fewest number of bills in the first year of his presidency out of any President since Dwight Eisenhower.

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Thursday, December 28

Delusional Donald

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. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Donald Trump had an interview with The New York Times that reminded Americans just how unfit for the office of the presidency he truly is. Vox’s Ezra Klein headlined it, “Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump’s New York Times interview is a scary read.” I couldn’t agree more.

Throughout the interview, along with the 16 times he claimed there was “no collusion,” the President stated lie after lie. Trump appeared to create a false reality in his mind where all the Democrats claim there was no collusion, where he knows more about the bills in Congress than “than any president that’s ever been in office,” and where he has an authoritarian like power over the Justice Department. (Also, The New York Times reporter who asked this question was way off base acting as if it wouldn’t be an abuse of power for Trump to order an investigation of this nature):

SCHMIDT: You control the Justice Department. Should they reopen that email investigation?

TRUMP: What I’ve done is, I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department. But for purposes of hopefully thinking I’m going to be treated fairly, I’ve stayed uninvolved with this particular matter.

…

SCHMIDT: Do you think Holder was more loyal to. …

TRUMP: I don’t want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him. When you look at the I.R.S. scandal, when you look at the guns for whatever, when you look at all of the tremendous, ah, real problems they had, not made-up problems like Russian collusion, these were real problems. When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I’ll be honest, I have great respect for that.

Trump also spoke kindly of Mueller, stating that he thinks Mueller will be fair to him. This may be because his lawyer Ty Cobb has built up the false expectation that exoneration is imminent. And it could also be due to the fact Trump has convinced himself that if any collusion is found, it is not a crime…

“There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime.” — President Trump to the New York Times

Meanwhile…

  • President Trump made a foolish comment about Global Warming. Capital Weather and Vinny from Jersey Shore enlightened him.

  • President Trump, of course, commented on the controversy that Vanity Fair was facing for posting a satire video on Hillary Clinton that many saw as sexist.

  • Newsweek reported, “President Donald Trump fired the remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) Wednesday, reportedly informing them without explanation with a letter delivered by FedEx.”

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End Of 2017 (December 29–31)

Jeff Sessions (far left), George Papadopoulos (two seats over from Sessions), Donald Trump (you see where he is)

By far the biggest story in the final days of 2017 was The New York Times’ report. It completely dismantled the GOP’s narrative that the Christopher Steele dossier is what sparked the Trump-Russia investigation. It was in fact, non-other than George Papadopoulos:

During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign.

Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.

The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the F.B.I. to open an investigation in July 2016 into Russia’s attempts to disrupt the election and whether any of President Trump’s associates conspired.

After George Papadopoulos pled guilty to lying to the FBI in January of 2017 about his attempts to set up meetings between President Trump, his campaign, and the Russian Government in an attempt to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, the Trump administration dismissed him as a mere “coffee boy.” The New York Times report also revealed that this was not the case:

While some of Mr. Trump’s advisers have derided him as an insignificant campaign volunteer or a “coffee boy,” interviews and new documents show that he stayed influential throughout the campaign. Two months before the election, for instance, he helped arrange a New York meeting between Mr. Trump and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt.

With Papadopoulos’ guilty plea, we discovered who he emailed about the potential Russian meetings. The indictment claims that Papadopoulos told a “Senior Policy Advisor,” “Campaign Supervisor,” and “High-Ranking Campaign Official” about the efforts. White House adviser to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sam Clovis (former*, he resigned after this news and was questioned by Robert Mueller the previous week) was one of the campaign members who encouraged Papadopoulos to pursue a trip and foster ties with the Russian government. Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort were also involved in the email exchanges. We also learned more about what Attorney General Jeff Sessions President Trump knew.

CNN reported that in the March 2016 meeting (Instagram photo above), Papadopoulos told everyone in the room, including Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions, about how he could utilize his contact in London to arrange a meeting between Donald Trump, his campaign, and the Russian government…and Donald Trump didn’t oppose the idea. It was Jeff Sessions who said it would be a bad idea. Sessions, of course, denied knowledge of any arrangements to meet with Russians during many sworn testimonies.

The New York Times report indicated that this wasn’t the last time Papadopoulos attempted to set up meetings..,

If the campaign wanted Mr. Papadopoulos to stand down, previously undisclosed emails obtained by The Times show that he either did not get the message or failed to heed it. He continued for months to try to arrange some kind of meeting with Russian representatives, keeping senior campaign advisers abreast of his efforts.

Some speculate that this latest leak from the FBI indicates that they are fed up with Trump’s attacks, and that in 2018, we may see a new approach…

Unpresidented // Donald Trump / Government / Journalism / Politics
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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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