I have compiled below 18 media stories of the Trump presidency that caught my eye along the way. The collection is random and not systematic, and there are several major topics left uncovered. I do not include the impeachment of Donald Trump, for we all had ample opportunity to learn and to understand that our president did in fact seek the assistance of a foreign government official to disparage a political opponent, and he used significant U.S. financial aid to leverage the project. Here I do not try to chronicle the scope of the daily false information that issues from the alternate reality that Trump promulgates, out of touch with the facts. Here I do not mention Trump’s family and their many ongoing domestic and foreign business entanglements and conflicts of interest.
There is so much more to be said, also not covered below, such as the embarrassing withdrawal of the U.S. from international leadership on environment, pollution, and climate issues, and the gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the realm of character and leadership, history will have to assess the damage of Trump’s undermining of the credibility of the media by attacking labeling as fake news every media resource that disagrees with him, irrespective of factual content, while spinning his own self-aggrandized reality. Further, how can his supporters abide the abysmal leadership strategy of shameless retaliation against those who oppose or disagree by any means possible (be they administration officials, politicians, journalists, or others) by firing, if they are within reach, withholding money, if he has the power, and if no other means are available, by ad hominem attacks – name calling and slander.
Here I do not include the Covid crisis – we are in the middle of it and it is a worldwide tragedy. While we can legitimately question Trump’s leadership, I leave that to others. No one could have predicted the path of this pandemic and no one can really say how we should proceed, but as with any major problem, we need leadership that can unify people and rally resources around the expertise of public health professionals to develop a shared mission and strategy.
Conservative defenders say they can tolerate the rude, New York tough guy persona as long as he supports their causes and shakes up "business as usual." Trump's character and conduct go far, far beyond being a rude tough guy. He leadership, way of communicating and dealing with conflict, and self-aggrandizement are infused with a sociopathology that has altered the demeanor of an entire nation in a negative way. Two generations of children and young adults are witnessing truly bad leadership in action, and are witnessing the failure of a community of his supporters to call him out. I am mystified by this silence, and grieved by the harm done to our nation. And, by the way, he is not shaking up business as usual. The unethical upward flow of wealth in our economy is business as usual, and he has infused that financial reality with new energy and supportive policies.
Conservatives will say that my sources are biased. We cannot really tell a story without bias. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot get the information, check the information, learn from the information, seek alternative interpretations. I am liberal in my political persuasion, and these media resources reflect that fact. But journalists are professionals dedicated to the cause of information, and we need their help, filtering their work through our best critical thinking. What we do not need is perpetuation of memes, unsourced stories and inflammatory quotes, spreading misinformation and half-truths for the purpose of stirring up conflict, a well established and still used Russian strategy of election interference which, by the way, is far more damaging to our electoral process than anything to do with the vote-by-mail process, which Trump calls into question every day, while totally ignoring the issue of foreign interference.
All of these stories are linked individually in my Facebook news feed, Thomas York.
https://www.facebook.com/thomashyork/
18. In keeping with his past failures on the issue of race, Trump gives shout out to Proud Boys and then claims not to know anything about them.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/proud-boys-trump-stand-back-stand-by-emboldened/
17. September 2020 – Trump Tax Return Story – Donald Trump could refute any disputable information about his tax returns by releasing the information himself. He refuses because he knows the American people will not like what they see.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/27/us/donald-trump-taxes.html
16. September 2020 – With 4th recent appointment to the Census Bureau, Trump continues his strategy of unqualified political appointments in federal agencies.
15. September 2020 – Trump promises to send $200 to 33 million Medicare recipients.
14. September 2020 – Trump’s strategy to invalidate the presidential election. This behavior alone, unprecedented among modern U.S. presidents, should raise a double red flag even to his supporters.
13. September 2020 – White House Inc: Using the presidency as a business - spending on Trump properties.
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915674694/how-donald-trump-turned-the-presidency-into-a-business?
12. September 2020 – Where is Trump’s Health Care Plan? "It certainly does exist. Give us two weeks."
11. August 2020 – Trump lends credibility to baseless Kamala Harris citizenship question.
10. August 2020 – USPS suffering and slowing down under Trump appointee Louis DeJoy
9. August 2020 – Campaign spending in Trump World
8. June 2020 – Why have so many military leaders left Trump administration?
7. May 2020 – Humanitarian impact of the Trump Mexico Border policy. Pulitzer Winning radio story – This American Life.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/704/our-pulitzer-winning-episode
6. May 2020 – Trump gets rid of internal government watchdogs.
5. February 2020 – Trump’s election strategy of disinformation.
4. May 2019 – Trump corporate tax cuts fail to deliver.
3. April 2019 – Trump’s 2017 corporate tax cut package eliminated federal taxes for many of the largest corporations. Many of the largest U.S. companies paid no federal taxes whatsoever in 2018.
2. November 2018 – Trump refuses to condemn or sanction Saudi leadership over murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
1. October 2018 – How the Donald Trump empire was built. Contrary to the Trump myth of the self-made billionaire ...