(somber music) - [Narrator] The election of 2016 was unlike any presidential race the
world has ever seen or known. Never before was there such
theatrics involved in policy. Never before was there so many shocks, so many surprises, so many dumbfounding moments. Never before was there a
candidate like Donald J. Trump. Like him or not, Trump changed all the rules. Whether that's for the better or for the worst remains to be seen. Strap in for a wild ride as we examine Trump and his first term as p
resident of
the United States of America. The presidency of Donald Trump began at noon EST on January 20, 2017, when he was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, taking over the reigns from Barack Obama. A Republican, Trump was a businessman and reality television personality from New York City at the time of his 2016
presidential election victory over Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. On November ninth, 2016,
Republicans Donald Trump of New York and Governor Mike
Pence of Indiana, won the 2016 election, defeating Democrat's former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton of New York, and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Trump won 304 electoral
votes compared to Clinton's 227, though Clinton won a plurality of the popular vote, receiving nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump. As a result of gaining the
majority of the electoral votes, Trump became the fifth
person to win the presidency while losing the popular vote. In the concurrent congressional elections,
Republicans maintained majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The win was not without controversy. American intelligence
agencies concluded that the electoral process was targeted by a Russian interference campaign. Intelligence sources
stated with high confidence that the Russian government
attempted to intervene in the 2016 presidential election to favor the election of Trump. And that members of Trump's
campaign were in contact with Russian government
officials both
before and after the presidential election. On May the ninth, 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, stating that he had accepted
the recommendations of the Attorney General Jeff
Sessions, and Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, to dismiss Comey. Sessions' recommendation
was based on Rosenstein's, while Rosenstein wrote that
Comey should be dismissed for his handling of the conclusion of the FBI investigation into the Hillary
Clinton e-mail controversy. On May 10th, Trump met Russian f
oreign ministers Sergei Lavrov and Russian
Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. Based on the White House notes of the meeting, Trump told the Russians, "I
just fired the head of the FBI." "He was crazy, a real nutjob." "I faced great pressure because of Russia," "that's taken off." On May 11th, Trump said in a video interview, "Regardless of recommendation,
I was going to fire Comey." "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself," "I said, you know, this Russia
thing with Trump and Russia" "is
a made up story." On May 18th, Rosenstein
told members of the US Senate, that he recommended
Comey's dismissal while knowing Trump had already decided to fire Comey. On May 31st, Trump wrote on Twitter, "I never fired" "James Comey because of Russia." The controversy continues until this very day. In the aftermath of Comey's firing, the events were compared with those of
the Saturday Night Massacre during Richard Nixon's administration. And there was debate over
whether Trump had provoked a con
stitutional crisis, as
he had dismissed the man leading an investigation into Trump's associates. After Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey in May 2017, a former FBI Director, Robert Mueller, was appointed as Special
Counsel to take over a prior FBI investigation into
Russian interference into the 2016 elections and related matters, including coordination or links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Because of the Russian interference and subsequent investigation,
many me
mbers of Trump's administration had come under special scrutiny regarding past ties to Russia or actions during the campaign. Several of Trump's top advisors, including Paul Manafort and Michael T. Flynn, who had official positions
before Trump replaced them, have strong ties to Russia. Several others had meetings with Russians during the campaign which
they did not initially disclose. Trump himself hosted the
2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, in partnership
with Russian-Azerbaijani billiona
ire, Aras Agalarov. On many occasions since
1987, Trump and his children and other associates have traveled to Moscow to explore potential business opportunities, such as a failed attempt to
build a Trump Tower, Moscow. Between 1996 and 2008, Trump's company submitted at least eight trademark
applications for potential real estate development deals in Russia. However, as of 2017, he has no known investments or businesses in Russia. Trump said in 2017, "I can
tell you, speaking for myself", "I ow
n nothing in Russia." "I have no loans in Russia," "I don't have any deals in Russia." In 2008, his son, Donald Trump
Jr. Said, "Russians make up" "a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot" "of our assets." And, "We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia." In May 2017, Donald Trump
discussed highly classified intelligence in an oval office meeting, with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and ambassador Sergei Kislyak, providing details that could expose the source of the inf
ormation and the
manner in which it was collected. The intelligence was about an Isis plot. A Middle Eastern ally provided
the intelligence which had the highest level of
classification, and was not intended to be shared widely. The New York Times reported
that Mr. Trump's disclosure does not appear to have been illegal. The President has the power
to declassify almost anything. But sharing the information
without the express permission of the ally who provided it, was a major breach of espionag
e etiquette,
and could jeopardize a crucial intelligence sharing relationship. The White House through
National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, issued a
limited denial, saying the story as reported was not correct, and stated that no intelligence sources or methods were discussed. McMaster did not deny that
information had been disclosed. The following day, Trump stated on Twitter, that Russia is an important
ally against terrorism, and that he had an absolute
right to share classified informat
ion with Russia. In February 2018, when Special Counsel Mueller indicted more than a dozen
Russians and three entities, for interference in the 2016 election. Trump's response, predictably, was to assert that the indictment was proof his campaign did not collude with the Russians. The New Youk Times noted Trump voiced no concern that a foreign power had
been trying for nearly four years to upend American democracy,
much less resolve to stop it from continuing to do so, this year. A day after the
indictment, Trump used the FBI's alleged failure to stop the Stoneman Douglas high
school shooter to call for the end to investigations into Russian
interference in the 2016 presidential election. In July 2018, the Special Counsel's office indicted 12 Russian intelligence
operatives and accused them of conspiring to interfere
in the 2016 US elections, by hacking servers and
e-mails of the Democratic party an the Hillary Clinton campaign. The indictments were made before trump's meeting with Put
in in Helsinki in which Trump supported Putin's denial that Russia was involved, and criticized American law enforcement and intelligence community. Subsequently, Trump partially walked back some of his comments. A few days later, it was
reported that Trump had actually been briefed on the veracity and extent of Russian cyber attacks two weeks before his inauguration, back in December 2016,
including the fact that these were ordered by Putin himself. The evidence presented to him at the time inc
luded texts and e-mail conversations between Russian military officers, as well
as information from a source close to Putin. According to the report, at the time, in the classified meeting, Trump sounded grudgingly convinced. The Washington Post reported on January 12, 2019, that Trump had gone to extraordinary links to keep details of his private conversations with Russian president Putin secret, including in one case, by
retaining his interpreter's notes and instructing the linguist
not to sha
re the contents of the discussions with
anyone in the administration. As a result, there were no detailed records, even in classified files, of trump's conversations with Putin, on five occasions. According to the Financial
Times, there were no American aids present when Trump met privately with Putin at the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires
summit in November 2018. On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted the final report to Attorney General William Barr. On March 24th, 2019, Attorney Ge
neral Barr sent Congress a four page
letter describing what he said were the Special Counsel's principal conclusions in the Mueller Report. Barr added that since the
Special Counsel did not draw a conclusion on obstruction, this leaves it to the Attorney General to
determine whether the conduct described in the report constitutes a crime. Barr continued, "Deputy
Attorney Rod Rosenstein and I" "have concluded that the
evidence developed during" "the Special Counsel's
investigation is not sufficie
nt" "to establish that the President committed" "an obstruction of justice offense." On April 18, 2019, a two volume redacted version of the Special Counsel's report entitled, "Report on the Investigation
into Russian Interference "In the 2016 Presidential Election" was released to Congress and to the public. About one-eighth of the lines in the public version were redacted. Volume one of the report discusses about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, concluding that interfere
nce
occurred in sweeping and systematic fashion,
and violated US criminal law. The report detailed activities by the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm, to create
a social media campaign that favored presidential
candidate Donald J. Trump, and disparaged presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton, and to provoke and amplify
political and social discord in the United States. The report also described how the Russian Intelligence Service, the GRU, performed computer
hacking
and strategic releasing of damaging material from the Clinton campaign, and Democratic party organizations. To establish whether a crime
was committed by members of the Trump campaign with
regard to Russian interference, investigators used the legal standard for criminal conspiracy, rather than the popular concept of 'collusion', because a crime of collusion
is not found in criminal law or the United States code. According to the report,
the investigation identified numerous links between the Ru
ssian government and the Trump campaign,
and found that Russia perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency. And the 2016 Trump
presidential campaign expected it would benefit electorally
from Russian hacking efforts. Ultimately, the investigation
did not establish that members of the Trump
campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in it's election interference activities. However, investigators had an incomplete picture of what had really occurred
during the 2016 campa
ign, due to some associates of
Trump campaign providing either false or incomplete or declined testimony. Exercising the fifth amendment, as well as having deleted, unsaved, or encrypted communications. As such, the Mueller Report
cannot rule out the possibility that information then
unavailable to investigators would have presented different findings. Volume two of the report
covered obstruction of justice. The report described 10
episodes where Trump may have obstructed justice as president, p
lus one instance before he was elected. The report said that in
addition to Trump's public attacks on the investigation and it's subject, Trump also privately tried
to control the investigation in multiple ways, but mostly failed to influence it because his subordinates
or associates refused to carry out his instructions. For that reason, no charges against the Trump's aids and associates were
recommended beyond those already filed. The special counsel could not charge since the special counsel'
s office
decided not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment on whether to initiate or decline a prosecution,
they did not draw ultimate conclusions about the president's conduct. The report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, but
specifically did not exonerate Trump on obstruction of
justice, because investigators were not confident that Trump was innocent after examining his intent and actions. The report concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president's
corrupt use of this authority in order to protect the
integrity of the administration of justice. And the Congress may apply
the obstruction laws to the president's corrupt exercise
of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances, and
the principle that no person is above the law. On May first, 2019, following publication of the special counsel's report, Barr
testified before the Senate judiciary committee, during which Barr said he didn't exonerate Trump on
obstruction, because that was not the role of the Justice Department. He declined to testify before
the House judiciary committee the following day, because
he objected to the committee's plan to use staff lawyers during questioning. Barr also repeatedly failed
to give the un-redacted special counsel's report
to the judiciary committee, be it's deadline of May the sixth, 2019. On May the eighth, 2019, the committee voted to hold Barr in contempt of congress, which refers the matter to the entir
e House for resolution. Meanwhile, during this same time period, Trump exerted executive privilege via the Department of Justice, in an effort to prevent the redacted portions of the special counsel's report and the underlying evidence from being disclosed. Committee chairmen Jerry
Nadler stated that the US is in a constitutional
crisis, because the president is disobeying the law, is refusing all information to Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed
with Nadler's characterization and told fellow
Democrats
Trump was "self-impeaching" by stonewalling Congress, with some Democrats and
analysts noting that refusing to comply with subpoenas was the third article of impeachment for Richard Nixon. Following release of the Mueller Report, Trump and his allies turned
their attention towards investigating the investigators. On May 23rd, 2019, Trump ordered the intelligence community to cooperate with Barr's investigation of the origins of the investigation, granting Barr full authority to de-cla
ssify any intelligence information related to the matter. Some analysts expressed
concerns that the order could create a conflict between the Justice Department and the Intelligence
Community over closely guarded Intelligence sources and methods, as well as open the
possibility Barr could cherry-pick intelligence for public release to help Trump. Upon announcing the formal
closure of the investigation and his resignation from the
Justice Department on May 29th, Mueller stated, "If we had had
con
fidence that the president" "clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so." "We did not however, make
a determination as to whether" "the president did commit a crime." During his testimony to Congress on July 24, 2019, Mueller answered Republican
representative Ken Buck that a president could be
charged with obstruction of justice or other crimes
after the president left office. Beyond the Russia investigation,
Trump has repeatedly made many false or
misleading statements during his ca
mpaign and presidency. The statements have been
documented by fact checkers with political scientists and historians widely describing the phenomenon as unprecedented in modern American politics. Trump's approval rating has been stable, hovering at high 30 to mid 40 percent through his presidency. Trump's "America First" foreign policy has featured more unilateral American actions, disregarding the advice and support of many traditional allies while
drawing the United States closer to others, li
ke Saudi Arabia and Israel. Trump's administration
agreed to sell 110 billion dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia, recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, withdrew the United States from the Iran deal, and issued a controversial executive order denying entry into the US to citizens from several Muslim majority countries. The Trump administration
unilaterally decided to hold talks with North Korea, and imposed
tariffs on Chinese imports after pressuring China to change longstanding trade practi
ces. Trump's demand for federal funding of a US-Mexico border wall resulted in the 2018 to 2019 government shutdown, the
longest in American history, and followed with Trump's declaration of a national emergency regarding
the US southern border. He ended the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA program. The Trump administration
forced a zero tolerance policy of detaining families entering the US at the US-Mexico border, and controversially separating parents from their
chil
dren, resulting in national and international outcry. Being unsatisfied that he lost the popular vote, Trump made false claims that massive amounts of voter fraud, up to five million illegal votes in Clintons favor, occurred during the election, and he called for a major
investigation after taking office. Numerous studies have found
no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Prior to the election, Trump named Chris Christie as the leader of his transition team. After the election, Vice
President-ele
ct Mike Pence, replaced Christie as chairman
of the transition team, while Christie became a vice chairman, alongside Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, retired army Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, former presidential candidate Ben Carson, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Since their initial placement, several members of Trump's team have been replaced and re-replaced. The Trump administration has been characterized by record turnover, partic
ularly
among White House staff. By the end of his first year in office, 34% of Trump's original staff had resigned, been fired, or been reassigned. As of early March 2018, 43% of senior White House positions had turned over. On September fifth, 2018, the New York Times published an article entitled, "I am Part of the Resistance "Inside the Trump Administration", written by an anonymous
senior official inside the Trump administration. The author asserted that
many of the senior officials in his o
wn administration are working diligently from within, to frustrate part of his agenda, and his worst inclinations. Trump reportedly eschews reading detailed briefing documents, including
the president's daily brief in favor of receiving oral briefings. Intelligence briefers
reportedly repeat the president's name and title in order to keep his attention. He is also known to acquire
information by watching up to eight hours of television every day, most notably FOX News
programs, such as Fox & Fri
ends, and Hannity, whose broadcast talking points Trump sometimes repeats in public statements, particularly in early morning tweets. Trump reportedly expresses
anger if intelligence analysis contradict his beliefs or public statements, with two briefers stating
they have been instructed by superiors to not provide
Trump with information that contradicts his public statements. Trump has reportedly foisted chaos as a management technique, resulting in low morale, and policy confusion among his st
aff. Although he has maintained
his White House runs like a well-oiled machine. Jefferey Pfeffer, Professor
of Organizational Study at Stanford, noted Trump
possesses several management qualities that are prevalent among many leaders, including narcissism and dishonesty, but added, with a modicum of management skill, could have gotten his wall, and he would probably be on the path to reelection. But he has very few accomplishments to his credit. Trump proved unable to effectively compromise duri
ng the 115th United States Congress, which led to significant governmental gridlock and few notable legislative accomplishments, despite Republican control of both houses, the House and the Senate. Presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, found Trump lacks several
traits of an effective leader, including humility, acknowledging errors, shouldering blame, and learning from mistakes, empathy and resilience, collaboration, connecting with people and controlling unproductive emotions. The New Y
ork Times reported
that before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides
to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show, in which he vanquishes rivals. As president, Trump has
made so many false statements in public speeches, remarks and tweets, the media commentators and fact-checkers have described the rates of his
falsehoods as unprecedented for an American president, or even unprecedented in politics. This trait of his was similarly
observed when he was a presidential can
didate. His falsehoods have become
a distinctive part of his political identity, and they
have also described as part of a gaslighting tactic. His White House has dismissed
the idea of objective truth, and his campaign and
presidency have been described as being post-truth, and hyper-Orwellian. Trump's rhetorical signature
includes disregarding data from federal institutions
which are incompatible to his arguments. Quoting hearsay, anecdotal
evidence and questionable claims in the partisan media
, denying reality, including his own statements, and distracting when falsehoods are exposed. During the first year of Trump's presidency, The Washington Post's fact checker wrote, "President Trump is the most
fact-challenged politician" that the fact checker has ever encountered. The pace and volume of
the president's misstatements means that we cannot possibly keep up. By August 2018, the pace of the false statements increased substantially. In June and July alone, 968 new incidences had been
noted, and a total
of 4,229 false or misleading statements had by then been recorded in his tenure. Immigration issues led
the subject list at that point, with 538 recorded mendacities. Trump's presidency started
out with a series of falsehoods initiated by Trump himself. The day after his inauguration he falsely accused the media of lying about the
size of the inauguration crowd. Then he proceeded to exaggerate the size, and Sean Spicer backed up his claims. When Spicer was accused
of intention
ally misstating the figures, Kellyanne Conway in an interview with NBCs Chuck Todd, defended Spicer, by stating that he merely
presented "alternative facts." Other notable claims by
Trump with fact checkers rated false include the claim
that his electoral college victory was a landslide and that Hillary Clinton received three to five million illegal votes. In the seven weeks leading
up to the midterm elections, it had risen to an average of 30 per day from 4.9 during his first 100 days in office
. The Washington Post found that Trump averaged 15 false statements per day during 2018. As of May 2019, Trump had made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims. Trump continued the use of twitter from the presidential campaign. Trump has continue to personally tweet from @realDonaldTrump, his personal account, while his staff tweets on
his behalf using the official @POTUS account. His use of twitter has been unconventional for a president, initiating
controversy and becoming news in their ow
n right,
with some scholars referring to it as the first true "twitter presidency." The Trump administration
has described Trump's tweets as official statements by the President of the United States. A federal judge ruled in May 2018 that Trump's blocking of other twitter users due to opposing political views, violated the first amendment to the United States Constitution, and he must unblock them. However, according to a plaintiff, Trump has yet to comply with the unblocking order. The administ
ration has
appealed the court's ruling. His tweets have been reported as ill-considered, impulsive, vengeful, and bullying. Often being made late at night or in the early hours of the morning. His tweets about a Muslim
ban was successfully turned against his administration to hold two versions of travel restrictions from
some Muslim majority countries. He has used Twitter to threaten and intimidate his political opponents
and potential political allies needed to pass bills. Many tweets appear to
be based on stories Trump has seen in the media,
including far right news websites, such as Breitbart, and television shows such as Fox & Friends. Trump has used Twitter to attack federal judges who have ruled against him in court cases, and to criticize officials
within his own administration, including then Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, then National Security Advisor, H.R. McMaster, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and at various times,
Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Tillerson wa
s eventually
fired via a tweet by Trump. Trump has also tweeted
that his Justice Department is part of the American "deep state" that there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI,
Justice, and States departments, and that the special counsel investigation is a witch hunt. In August 2018, Trump used twitter to write that Attorney General Jeff
Sessions should stop the special counsel investigation immediately. He also referred to it as,
"rigged" and his inves
tigators as "biased." During his tenure as
president, Trump has repeatedly characterized illegal immigrants as criminals, although multiple studies have found they have lower crime and incarceration rates than native-born Americans. Prior to taking office, Trump promised to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and to build a wall along the Mexico-United States border. Upon taking office, Trump directed the DHS, Department of Homeland
Security, to being work on a
wall. An internal DHS report
estimated Trump's wall would cost 21.6 billion dollars and take 3.5 years to build. Far higher than the Trump 2016 campaigns estimate of 12 billion dollars, and the 15 billion dollars estimate from Republican congressional leaders. The Trump script of a January 2017 phone call between Trump and Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, was leaked. In the phone call, Trump conceded that he would fund the border wall, not by
charging Mexico as he promised during the campai
gn, and
implored the Mexican president to stop saying publicly the
Mexican government would not pay for the border wall. In January 2018, that
administration proposed spending 18 billion dollars over the
next 10 years on the wall, more than half of the 33 billion dollars spending blueprint for border security. Trump's plan would reduce
funding for border surveillance, radar technology, patrol boats, and customs agents. Experts and officials say
these are more effective at curbing illegal immigra
tion and preventing terrorism and smuggling, than a border wall. The administration embraced the 2017 RAISE act, which sought to reduce legal immigration levels to the US by 50%, by halving the number of Green Cards issued, capping refugee admissions at 50,000 a year, and ending
the visa diversity lottery. The administration terminated
a program that granted temporary legal residence to unaccompanied Central American minors, 2,714 individuals would need to renew their legal resident status throu
gh other, more difficult immigrant channels. The administration revoked
the temporary protected status or TPS for short, granted
to 60,000 Haitians following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and 200,000 Salvadorans following a series of
devastating earthquakes in 2001. The Salvadorans are parents to an estimated 190,000 US-born children. A federal judge blocked
the administration's attempt to deport the TPS recipients,
citing what the judge said was Trump's racial animus against non-white, non-Europea
n immigrants. An analysis released by Trump's department of Health and Human Services in 2017 was found to have removed earlier findings that refugees entering America had a 63 billion
dollar net positive effect on tax revenues between 2005 and 2014. With the final report counting only the costs refugees incur. In July 2018, Jeff Sessions
rescinded a DOJ guidance on refugees and asylum seeker's rights to work, thus prohibiting them from
working in the United States. In January 2018, Trump was wi
dely criticized after referring to Haiti, El
Salvador, and African nations in general, as "shithole" countries, at a bi-partisan meeting on immigration. Multiple international
leaders condemned his remarks as racist. By February 2018, arrests
of undocumented immigrants by ICE increased by 40% during Trump's tenure. Arrests of non-criminal undocumented immigrants were twice as high as during Obama's final year in office. Arrests of undocumented
immigrants with criminal convictions increased only
slightly. In March 2018 the Commerce Department announced it would add a citizenship
question to the 2020 census. Experts noted that the
inclusion of such a question would likely result in severe under-counting of the population and faulty data, as undocumented immigrants would be less
likely to respond to the census. Blue states, especially
California, are therefore likely to get less congressional apportionment and fund apportionment
than they would otherwise get, because they have larger
undo
cumented populations. In response, Xavier Becerra,
California's Attorney General announced his intention
to sue the administration over the decision. Similar suits were filed in New York, Washington DC, and several cities. The American Civil Liberties Union, also known as the ACLU, an
immigrants rights organization, sued in June 2018. Federal District Court Judge, Jesse Furman, blocked the administration
plan on January 15th, 2019. Documents released in May 2019, showed Thomas B. Hofeller,
an ar
chitect of Republican gerrymandering, had found
adding the census question would help to gerrymander maps that would be advantageous to Republicans
and non-Hispanic whites. Hofeller later wrote the
DOJ letter which justified the policy, by claiming it was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In July 2018, experts noted
that due to the administration's strict border security
policy, there was a increase in criminality and lawlessness
along the US-Mexico border. There was a strengthening
of
ties between human smugglers, organized crime, and
corrupt local law enforcement. And organized crime groups were preying on asylum seekers who were
prevented by US authorities from filing for asylum. During the 2018 midterm election campaign, Trump sent nearly 5,600
troops to the US-Mexico border for the stated purpose of
protecting the United States against a caravan of Central American migrants. The Pentagon had previously
concluded the caravan posed no threat to the US. The border deploym
ent was
estimated to cost as much as 220 million dollars by the end of the year. With daily warnings from Trump about the dangers of the caravan during the midterms, the frequency and intensity
of the caravan rhetoric nearly stopped after election day. In May 2018, the administration announced it would separate children from parents
caught unlawfully crossing the southern border into the United States. Parents were routinely
charged with a misdemeanor and jailed. Their children were placed
in se
parate detention centers, with no established procedure to track them or reunite them with their parents after they had served time for their offense. Generally, only a few hours or days. Later that month, Trump falsely accused Democrats of creating that policy, despite it originating from his own administration, and urged Congress to get together and pass an immigration bill. Members of Congress from both
parties condemned the practice and pointed out the White
House could end the separation on
it's own. Republican senator Lindsey
Graham said, "President Trump" "could stop this policy with a phone call." The Washington Post quoted a White House official as saying Trump's decision
to separate migrant families was to gain political leverage to force Democrats and moderate Republicans to accept hard line immigration legislation. Six weeks into the implementation of the zero tolerance policy, at least 2,300 migrant children had been separated from their families. The American academy of P
ediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Psychiatric Association, condemned the policy, with the American Academy of Pediatrics saying the policy was causing
irreparable harm to the children. The policy was extremely unpopular, more so than any major piece of legislation in recent memory. Images of children held in
cage-like detention centers, interviews of sobbing mothers who had no idea where their children were,
and had not heard from them for weeks and months, and
an a
udio of sobbing children resulted in an outrage,
calling the practice inhumane, cruel, and evil. On June 30th, a national protest
drew hundreds of thousands of protestors from all 50
states to demonstrate in more than 600 towns and cites, all four living former first ladies of the United States, Rosalyn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama, condemned the policy of separating children from their parents. Amidst the growing outrage, DHS secretary, Kirstjen Nielson, falsely claim
ed on June 17th, "We do not have a policy of separating families" "at the border, period." On June 20th 2018, amid world-wide outrage, and enormous political
pressure to roll back his policy, signed an executive order
to end family separations at the US border, unilaterally
reversing his policy. He had earlier said, "You can't do it through an" "executive order." As a result of a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on June 26th, US District Judge Dana Sabraw, issued
a nationwide preliminary injunction against
the family separation policy, and require the government
to reunite separated families within 30 days. On June 26th, the
administration said 1,442 children had been reunited with their parents while 711 remain in government shelters because their cases are still under review, their parents have criminal
records, or they are no longer in the US. Administration officials
state that 431 parents of those children have already been
deported without their ch
ildren. Officials said they would work with the court to return the remaining
children, including the children whose parents have been deported. In January 2017, Trump signed an executive order which indefinitely suspended
admission of asylum seekers fleeing the Syrian civil war, suspended admission of all other refugees for 120 days, and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days. The order also established
a religious test for refugees from Musl
im nations by
giving priority to refugees of other religions over Muslim refugees. Later, the administration
seemed to reverse a portion of part of the order,
effectively exempting visitors with a Green Card. After the order was
challenged in the federal courts, several federal judges
issued rulings enjoining the government from enforcing the order. Trump fired acting Attorney
General Sally Yates after she stated she would not defend the order in court. Yates was replaced by Dana
Buente, who sta
ted the DOJ would defend the order. A new executive order was signed in March, which limited travel to the
US from six different countries for 90 days, and by all refugees who did not possess either a visa or valid travel
documents for 120 days. The new executive order revoked and replaced the executive order issued in January. In June, the Supreme
Court partially stayed certain injunctions that were put on the order by two federal appeals courts earlier,
allowing the executive order to mostly g
o into effect. In October, the court dismissed
the case, saying the orders had been replaced by a new
proclamation, so challenges to the previous executive orders are moot. In September, Trump signed
a proclamation placing limits on the six countries in the second executive order, and added Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela. In October 2017, Judge Derek Watson of the US District Court for the District of Hawaii, issued another temporary restraining order. In December 2017, the Supreme Court allow
ed the September 2017 travel
restrictions to go into effect, while legal challenges in
Hawaii and Maryland are heard. The decision effectively barred most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen,
Somalia, Chad, and North Korea from entering into the
United States, along with some government officials from
Venezuela and their families. At the time of the 2016 election, polls by Gallup found Trump had a favorable
rating around 35% and an unfavorable rating around 60%, while Democratic nominee
Hillar
y Clinton held a favorable rating of 40% and an unfavorable rating of 57%. 2016 was the first election cycle in modern presidential polling
in which both major party candidates were viewed so unfavorably. By January 20th, 2017, inauguration day, Trump's approval rating average was 42%, the lowest rating average
for an incoming president in the history of modern polling. Trump's approval rating during this first term had been incredibly stable
and also historically low, with a band from about 36%
to 44%. Among President Trump's major accomplishments is the booming industry in books about him, his administration, the
state of democracy in America, the rise of autocracy in America abroad, the reasons for his rise, the basis of his support, the state of the Republican party, the state of his mental health or lack thereof, the chaos in his White House, and so on. Not all are strictly about Trump. The fact is, the conditions
and dynamics that brought us Trump long preceded him,
and the chang
es in the fabric of our Republic are paralleled by changes in other longstanding democracies around the globe. A 2018 poll administered by the APSA, American Political Science Association, among political scientists specializing in the American presidency, ranked
Donald Trump in last place. Republican survey respondents
rated him 40th out of 44th. Independents and other respondents rated him 43rd out of 44th, while Democratic historians
rated him 44th out of 44. Sienna College Research
Institute
's sixth presidential expert poll, released in February 2019, placed Donald Trump 42nd out of 44. Ahead of Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan. Since being elected as President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump has taken
the world on a rollercoaster ride that will be etched into the history books now and forever. As we approach his possible second term as the most powerful man in the world, all we can do is expect the unexpected. Historically speaking, that has now become the new no
rmal. - Starting right here and right now, because this moment is your
moment, it belongs to you. (audience cheers) (somber music)
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