Onward through Clichés and Sexism, Post Election Post Mortems
As my card about Daniel Radcliff’s tuckus came up in Cards Against Humanity, I looked at the results on TV. It had been all giggles. Then, I saw Georgia turn red, followed by North Carolina. The world turned to 2016 again. And we elected a lunatic.
We watched with horror. And took to text loops and facebook, posting messages, searching for meaning, in memes and each other.
I stumbled with my own clichés, looking for words beyond the usual overused ideas, those sentiments I hoped we could have left behind in 2016 or 2004, that 2000 feeling enveloping me, thoughts about vengeance and blame, elites and workers, scapegoats and messaging, on and on. We still have laws, I keep telling myself, he’s not a king and we are not his minions, writing:
One step up, two steps back. The arch of justice is anything but forward leaning. Still we have each other. We have laws and first amendment guarantees. We don't have kings. We can be smart. And work with each other. And support friends. And be kind to each other. And hopefully mitigate the disaster. But no doubt, damage will be done. I'm disgusted that an election based on anti trans, anti immigrant bigotry and scapegoating worked so effectively. But its the oldest playbook in the world. I fear for Gaza and Ukraine and NATO and social security and marriage equality and civil liberties at home. But remember they couldn't gut the Affordable Care Act last time. Peoples movements stopped them. We've been here before. If there is one thing I believe it, its their incompetence.
Still the feelings swirled.
The country said Bush made them feel safe after he allowed 911 and re elected him, Judy recalled. They said Trump made us feel economically secure after he tanked his test of leadership with COVID, Judy went on, stunned.
People wanted the guy who said he admired Elon Musk for firing striking workers.
We've been here before.
Recall Marx's line from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, that become so popular in 2004 after Bush’s re election.
"History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce”.
Weve been here before.
We can be smart and strategic and caring with each other. We can look out for each other.
Its fascinating and nauseating to read the hot, medium and luke warm takes and cliches, bits of wisdom and platitudes people, this blogger, commentators, lurkers, post on social media in such moments.
Several posted the Turkish proverb:
"When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus."
Their point seems to be that this will be chaos. There will be fools about. But we’d rather not have the lunatics taking over the asylum with access to the nuke codes. Its also scary.
Others took to the Hannah Arendt quotations about lying and truth, although its not sure that she actually said a few of those flouting about. As Roger Berkowitz, puts it in his essay, ”On Fake Hannah Arendt Quotations.”
Asked if this actually came from Arendt, Berkowitz replied: “To answer this question, it is important to first look at the quotations that likely serve as the source for the fake aphorism. The closest in spirit and content, and also the most easily available, is from an interview with Roger Errera in 1974, what turned out to be Hannah Arendt’s last public interview. Arendt spoke about the importance of a free press in an era of mass manipulation of truth and public lying: She said:
"The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."
The key point in Arendt’s statement is that as lies multiply. So did the memes and messages as the election results came in, sitting with the same people I was with when Gore won Florida then lost it, Obama won, Hillary lost, on and on.
By Wednesday, I was out teaching, meeting friends sharing the misery. My students, with immigrant parents, are terrified of the deportations. Queer activists are organizing about ways to take on the new autocratic regime.
And the democratic socialists were reading Bernie Sanders’ message, reminding everyone the democrats abandoned the working class, so its no wonder they abandoned them. This one has been everywhere. And sure, I was as frustrated as anyone that Obama failed to embrace the struggle against inequality we championed with Occupy Wall Street. Still, Biden walked on the picket line with striking workers. Who is this working class wondered one friend, reminding me that Trump praised Elon Musk for firing striking workers. And now this working class voted for Trump. Who is this monolith of a working class he's referring to. My mind trailed back to my two trips to Pennsylvania to canvas. There, I saw lots of dudes not supporting their partners who were voting for Kamala. One undecided voter in tiger paw slippers and bathrobe told us he was more interested in cryptocurrency than Kamala’s policies. It was super sad. The reality is many people who voted for Obama voted for Trump Biden and Trump. Oy ve. Could Obama have done more to support working people, sure. Support occupy and movements against inequality. But in a globalized economy its not that easy. It wasn't easy for Socialist François Mitterrand, who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995. It wasn't that easy for obama. What should the Dems do? What policies can they offer that help pull back these "working class" workers. Many unions supported Harris. Mine did. Still it wasn’t enough.
But the racism and misogyny was real. As the results poured in, I posted a definition:
“misogyny
Definitions from Oxford Languages
noun
dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
"she felt she was struggling against thinly disguised misogyny"
Wednesday, I ran into my friend artist Holly Hughes, who posted:
“All these grifters coming out of the woodwork now to proclaim that they knew what was wrong with Harris' campaign, the same campaign they were praising minutes ago. I'll lose my mind from hearing from centrists who think we lost because too much AOC, one of the most talented politicians of her generation, or that we weren't willing to endlessly belittle trans people
And then I'll lose it again when I hear from progressives that we shouldn't have accepted Liz Cheney's endorsement - literally a thing I just read - and the very tired and utterly false idea that the Dems didn't do enough for working class people when Biden pushed through the best economic policies with real impact since the 60s and would have done more but hey, SCOTUS and the Senate. Trump won this thing because whiteness and toxic masculinity are super popular in this country, not because it was a genius campaign. Also, if you're not going to appeal to a wide swath of this country, you're not going to win nationally.”
My favorite initial takes were by Lesbian Avengers.
Ann-christine d’Adesky, who organized the StoptheCoup2025 posted, “Today, I feel like I imagine Hungarians felt (and feel) under Orban 14 years ago: dismay, deep concern, fatigue from election battle and right-wing chaos, and more. Or Russians under Putin, the big winner also in the US elections. I feel afraid with the Ukrainians and Palestinians and progressives abroad, all our allies in global health, and scientists everywhere, reeling at the prospect of RFK Jr. the vaccine denialist and health serious wing nut as future Trump health czar, the implications for pandemic protection, all of it. It’s bigly madness to come, yes. I grieve for our planet and future, the damage of future climate shocks that is planned under Project 2025. Grief is the appropriate political response to a decisive Trump victory.
What America elected him? All our estranged unhappy neighbors who wanted a change, who were more unhappy than happy in America, who cannot bear the fast culture changes. Millions of good people led by a vocal political minority of true shits who voted for the tyrant, the grand narcissist. The vote-red side wanted a line in the sand. This is the fed-up vote.
I also take heart knowing that rogues never last — the truth of history — and truth always prevails — without making light of the battles and losses to come here. I grieve for my daughters and their future daughters: we have lost more of the right to control our bodies in America We are stepping toward a Handmaiden’s Tale theocracy. The white patriarchs won. Racism and whiteness in American win. This is Jim Crow 2.0 ahead. I grieve for the millions seeking refuge here from their tyrants and failed regimes back home.
We have especially lost the false belief of American exceptionalism from autocracy, the it-could-not-happen-here. It can, it was steadily built by the right wing and millions of dark money dollars since Reagan, by mass disinformation, and it has led us to this moment. Here we are: red dawn.
But in Hungary the opposition has grown stronger and may topple Orban in the next election. They have been busy rebuilding their embattled democracy from within — and from exile, for many activists. It took losing their democracy to dig into rule if law, step-by-step build stronger, intersectional progressive civil society institutions. They haven’t toppled the dictator yet. but they will. how soon depends on their people.
So it is for us, now.
Autocracy sharpens the view of what and who is most urgent to protect now - this month, this spring, next year. Four years of Trump 2.0 to endure now, starting soon. It invites a survivalist mindset. Resistance. We have an incredibly steep road ahead here with Trump 2.0, a criminal regime to come and end-time Christian nationalists in a White House.
We all just hugely stiffened our progressive spines overnight. That is the movement of a body in defense and resistance. The next years are guaranteed to be so tough.
Nothing of the longer view of battle protects us from the immediate losses that will come with Trump 2.0, but it’s important to recognize that we face unforseen opportunities now, too. We are in a moment. Unprecedented in America, but with many prior chapters of repression. We’ve seen many elements if this before. Look at our history: you will find many rogues. They are gone now. They did not prevail or last.
What we do in response is the task at hand. For tomorrow, I say. For sobering today, we grieve and recognize our need for self-care as we plan for the paced battle against a dark regime.
I, for one, have no plan to live the next four years in grief. I’ll take a moment, now, to feel the bitter profound disappointment if what lies ahead with Trump 2.0. But not much longer. The world is ours to shape. We need to rediscover our faith. That is hard after a major loss.
My words of advice today: engage in self-care first. Take the days today and just ahead to mourn and reflect. Find your people who reflect the very best of what you hold dear and spend time with them, begin building your personal support group of political succor and solidarity. You will need this as a priority under Trump 2.0. A political home.
Read a book, see art, walk in nature, spend time with the beautiful children who will inherit the fruit of what we do as progressives in America in the days and years ahead, to resist autocracy, to defend our embattled America. Listen to music, read history. Learn from all the other countries who unseated rogues after hard battle. Heal your soul a little before rushing back into battle without much of a plan. Self-care and spiritual balm for a crushed political soul are quills of battle. The rest will come.
Keep the long-view and keep your faith. - ac.”
Sarah Schulman, our generation’s Hanna Arendt, followed:
“I think we know all the elements that went into this defeat:
--The pervasive racism of Trump voters,
--Biden hanging on too long so there was no primary,
--Gaza
--The projection of problems caused by the 1% onto immigrants,
--The fact the when the Democrats said "the economy" they meant the stock market, and when people said "the economy" they meant prices.
--The information silos, along with an incompetent media.
--Fracturing on the Left
--That the strategy of exposing Trump's flaws failed because his voters didn't really care about what kind of person he is.
--And- as a person who has spent my life watching incompetent, mediocre men triumph, be praised, and elevated over highly qualified women in every social arena, this is a familiar road map. Americans who voted twice for a Black male president, do not want a woman president, even if she is a dynastic white woman or a gun-toting member of law enforcement.
So, now here we are.
Trump is The Trojan Horse, the people really in control are the tech mafia, and they will be able to control him and Vance completely.
We can anticipate quick dismantling of all regulatory elements, of the public sector, the DOJ, slashing of taxes, and total climate collapse, the end of Obama Care, fluoride, vaccines, social security, public education- anything that is publicly administered.
How do I feel? Calm. It is happening, and we have to be realistic about what is before us and face it the best we can.
I remember as we endured 15 years of the AIDS crisis, the older guys in the movement repeatedly said that the Holocaust lasted 15 years and then ended. The epicenter of AIDS also shifted. Huge numbers of people who are suffering will suffer, and only some of us will come out the other side. We have to be realistic, hold on to our own thoughts and values.
My motto is: Don't stop yourself from doing what you think is right. Make them stop you. And I hope to keep to that along with many of you.
There were the optimistic takes,
Ageless Mattachine Veteran organizer, Randolfe Wicker writes:
“I'm amazed at how much my younger friends have taken the Trump victory. Some have been crying for hours. A couple have talked about suicide. Others have started detesting the entire country.
Believe me, I've suffered far worse moments -- watching police bash in the anti-Vietnam War protesters at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention.
Shifty Richard Nixon winning two elections while claiming he had "a secret plan to end the Vietnam War".
The birth of The Christian Coalition and it's success in electing Ronald Reagan in 1980 -- something so upsetting, I got immigration papers to Australia because I believed he would start World War3.
Reagan didn't destroy the entire world. He did kill nine out of ten of those closest to me and destroyed an entire generation of gays younger than me by refusing to even mention the word "AIDS" for nearly eight years.
Ralph Reed, founder of The Christian Coalition, now called "The Faith & Freedom Coalition", was talking on C-Span this morning about how his group had registered thousands of new Latino voters in an area with a 92% Latino population which ended up voting 75% for Trump.
President Bush's invasion of Iraq set off the spiraling National Debt that now burdens us all -- after Bill Clinton balanced the budget for the first time in decades.
We've survived all these things and we'll survive Donald Trump.
I loved Kamala Harris concession speech, in which she urged us all to not give up hope.
Paraphrasing here --- she told us to look for the good things in life, seeing the bright promise of hope in the stars on the darkest night.
Our institutions will survive. We loss the battle of 2024, but we're going to come roaring back to save our Country in the battle of 2026 !!!
As Martin Luther King observed: "The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Toward Justice."
I'll second that!”
These days, I’m not really agreeing with King’s sentiment. But I appreciate Wicker’s.
James Davis of the PSC, sent a message to our members:
“Thank you to everyone who worked on behalf of the PSC’s endorsed candidates. There were a number of important successes in the legislature. When it comes to the race for President, however, the outcome is devastating and dangerous. Trump’s election is a threat to democracy. Republicans won a majority in the Senate and are threatening to win a majority in the House. Please check on your loved ones and take a deep breath. Show solidarity to the people in your life who are more at risk today than yesterday, and try to be present for your students and colleagues. Then prepare for the struggles ahead. We should be clear: Trump’s election is a victory for fascism in the United States. His anti-worker, misogynist, racist, xenophobic agenda will make many lives more miserable and painful here and around the world if left unchecked. That is where we come in. The Trump movement has us in their crosshairs as educators and unionists. Educators need to redouble our efforts to build our power and reassert the role of knowledge and critical thinking to a functioning democracy. Unionists understand the power of solidarity and will need to exercise collective action. An autocrat like Trump can only have gained the support of so many Americans by playing to our fears and anxieties, because his policies and the Project 2025 blueprint cannot help us and will in fact harm us - some more than others. It is hard to say what is most broken when a convicted felon, someone who announced in advance his intention to rule like a dictator, is elected U.S. President. But what’s troubled me the most is the right-wing assault on truth and the very idea of verifiability. That assault has been swift and effective. Those of us who work in higher education engage our students in the production of knowledge and the search for truth. Whatever our discipline or field, our work is about cultivating an informed citizenry. The movement that Trump leads is fundamentally about undermining that project. As we’ve seen in Florida, Texas and elsewhere, he and his acolytes aim not only to discredit and defund educational institutions but also to undermine the values and principles on which the public education system is built. It is a wake-up call for organized labor that Trump’s movement has effectively harnessed such broad support of working people and the poor. The conservative elite in this country believed they could use Trump to move their agenda, cloaked in populist rhetoric. But Trump’s movement has also used them. We in the labor movement and in higher education must rise collectively to this moment to contain and defeat autocracy. We can mourn what this election reveals about our country, and today we should take a moment to breathe, but then we must organize. The PSC is part of a quickly forming coalition of grassroots organizations and labor unions mounting a “Protect our Futures” rally and march in Manhattan this Saturday November 9th at 12 noon. The event will begin with a rally at Columbus Circle. Fill out the PSC webform linked below to let us know you will come.”
My friend, ACT UP veteran Kendall Thomas, posted:
“...It is 4:25 a.m. on Friday morning (I have reconciled myself to not being able to sleep through the night, at least for the next few days) and I have just read these words of Jimmy Kimmel:
“It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hard-working immigrants who make this country go, for healthcare, for our climate, for scientists, for journalists, for justice, for free speech. It was a terrible night for poor people, for the middle class, for seniors who rely on social security, for our allies in Ukraine, for Nato and democracy and decency. It was a terrible night for everyone who voted against him and guess what? It was a bad night for everyone who voted for him, too. You just don’t realize it yet.”
And, of course, Reginald Thomas Brown, posted my favorite tragicomic letter:
I owe it to my Trump-supporting neighbors. I’ve been critical of the Trump presidency and am still exhausted from the experience. But to be fair President Trump wasn’t that bad, except for:
• when he incited an insurrection against the government,
• mismanaged a pandemic that killed over a million Americans
• separated children from their families
• lost those children in the bureaucracy
• tear-gassed peaceful protesters on Lafayette Square so he could hold a photo op holding a Bible in front of a church
• tried to block all Muslims from entering the country
• got impeached
• got impeached again
• had the worst jobs record of any president in modern history
• pressured Ukraine to dig dirt on Joe Biden
• fired the FBI director for investigating his ties to Russia
• bragged about firing the FBI director on TV
• took Vladimir Putin’s word over the US intelligence community
• diverted military funding to build his wall
• caused the longest government shutdown in US history
• called Black Lives Matter a “symbol of hate”
• lied nearly 40,000 times
• banned transgender people from serving in the military
• ejected reporters from the White House briefing room who asked tough questions
• vetoed the defense funding bill because it renamed military bases named for Confederate soldiers
• refused to release his tax returns
• increased the national debt by nearly $8 trillion
• had three of the highest annual trade deficits in U.S. history
• called veterans and soldiers who died in combat losers and suckers
• coddled the leader of Saudi Arabia after he ordered the execution and dismembering of a US-based journalist
• refused to concede the 2020 election
• hired his unqualified daughter and son-in-law to work in the White House
• walked out of an interview with Lesley Stahl
• called neo-Nazis “very fine people”
• suggested that people should inject bleach into their bodies to fight COVID
• abandoned our allies the Kurds to Turkey
• pushed through massive tax cuts for the wealthiest but balked at helping working Americans
• incited anti-lockdown protestors in several states at the height of the pandemic
• withdrew the US from the Paris climate accords
• withdrew the US from the Iranian nuclear deal
• withdrew the US from the Trans Pacific Partnership which was designed to block China’s advances
• insulted his own Cabinet members on Twitter
• pushed the leader of Montenegro out of the way during a photo op
• failed to reiterate US commitment to defending NATO allies
• called Haiti and African nations “shithole” countries
• called the city of Baltimore the “worst in the nation”
• claimed that he single-handedly brought back the phrase “Merry Christmas” even though it hadn’t gone anywhere
• forced his Cabinet members to praise him publicly like some cult leader
• believed he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• berated and belittled his hand-picked Attorney General when he recused himself from the Russia probe
• suggested the US should buy Greenland
• colluded with Mitch McConnell to push through federal judges and two Supreme Court justices after supporting efforts to prevent his predecessor from appointing judges
• repeatedly called the media “enemies of the people”
• claimed that if we tested fewer people for COVID we’d have fewer cases
• violated the emoluments clause
• thought that Nambia was a country
• told Bob Woodward in private that the coronavirus was a big deal but then downplayed it in public
• called his exceedingly faithful vice president a “p---y” for following the Constitution
• nearly got us into a war with Iran after threatening them by tweet
• nominated a corrupt head of the EPA
• nominated a corrupt head of HHS
• nominated a corrupt head of the Interior Department
• nominated a corrupt head of the USDA
• praised dictators and authoritarians around the world while criticizing allies
• refused to allow the presidential transition to begin
• insulted war hero John McCain – even after his death
• spent an obscene amount of time playing golf after criticizing Barack Obama for playing (far less) golf while president
• falsely claimed that he won the 2016 popular vote
• called the Muslim mayor of London a “stone cold loser”
• falsely claimed that he turned down being Time’s Man of the Year
• considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller on several occasions
• mocked wearing face masks to guard against transmitting COVID
• locked Congress out of its constitutional duty to confirm Cabinet officials by hiring acting ones
• used a racist dog whistle by calling COVID the “China virus”
• hired and associated with numerous shady figures that were eventually convicted of federal offenses including his campaign manager and national security adviser
• pardoned several of his shady associates
• gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two congressman who amplified his batshit crazy conspiracy theories
• got into telephone fight with the leader of Australia(!)
• had a Secretary of State who called him a moron
• forced his press secretary to claim without merit that his was the largest inauguration crowd in history
• botched the COVID vaccine rollout
• tweeted so much dangerous propaganda that Twitter eventually banned him
• charged the Secret Service jacked-up rates at his properties
• constantly interrupted Joe Biden in their first presidential debate
• claimed that COVID would “magically” disappear
• called a U.S. Senator “Pocahontas”
• used his Twitter account to blast Nordstrom when it stopped selling Ivanka’s merchandise
• opened up millions of pristine federal lands to development and drilling
• got into a losing tariff war with China that forced US taxpayers to bail out farmers
• claimed that his losing tariff war was a win for the US
• ignored or didn’t even take part in daily intelligence briefings
• blew off honoring American war dead in France because it was raining
• redesigned Air Force One to look like the Trump Shuttle
• got played by Kim Jung Un and his “love letters”
• threatened to go after social media companies in clear violation of the Constitution
• botched the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
• threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans when he finally visited them
• pressured the governor and secretary of state of Georgia to “find” him votes
• thought that the Virgin islands had a President
• drew on a map with a Sharpie to justify his inaccurate tweet that Alabama was threatened by a hurricane
• allowed White House staff to use personal email accounts for official businesses after blasting Hillary Clinton for doing the same thing
• rolled back regulations that protected the public from mercury and asbestos
• pushed regulators to waste time studying snake-oil remedies for COVID
• rolled back regulations that stopped coal companies from dumping waste into rivers
• held blatant campaign rallies at the White House
• tried to take away millions of Americans’ health insurance because the law was named for a Black man
• refused to attend his successors’ inauguration
• nominated the worst Education Secretary in history
• threatened judges who didn’t do what he wanted
• attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci
• promised that Mexico would pay for the wall (it didn’t)
• allowed political hacks to overrule government scientists on major reports on climate change and other issues
• struggled navigating a ramp after claiming his opponent was feeble
• called an African-American Congresswoman “low IQ”
• threatened to withhold federal aid from states and cities with Democratic leaders
• went ahead with rallies filled with maskless supporters in the middle of a pandemic
• claimed that legitimate investigations of his wrongdoing were “witch hunts,”
• seemed to demonstrate a belief that there were airports during the American Revolution
• demanded “total loyalty” from the FBI director
• praised a conspiracy theory that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles
• completely gutted the Voice of America
• placed a political hack in charge of the Postal Service
• claimed without evidence that the Obama administration bugged Trump Tower
• suggested that the US should allow more people from places like Norway into the country
• suggested that COVID wasn’t that bad because he recovered with the help of top government doctors and treatments not available to the public
• overturned energy conservation standards that even industry supported
• reduced the number of refugees the US accepts
• insulted various members of Congress and the media with infantile nicknames
• gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address
• named as head of federal personnel a 29-year old who’d previously been fired from the White House for allegations of financial improprieties
• eliminated the White House office of pandemic response
• used soldiers as campaign props
• fired any advisor who made the mistake of disagreeing with him
• demanded the Pentagon throw him a Soviet-style military parade
• hired a shit ton of white nationalists
• politicized the civil service
• did absolutely nothing after Russia hacked the U.S. government
• falsely said the Boy Scouts called him to say his bizarre Jamboree speech was the best speech ever given to the Scouts
• claimed that Black people would overrun the suburbs if Biden won
• insulted reporters of color
• insulted women reporters
• insulted women reporters of color
• suggested he was fine with China’s oppression of the Uighurs
• attacked the Supreme Court when it ruled against him
• summoned Pennsylvania state legislative leaders to the White House to pressure them to overturn the election
• spent countless hours every day watching Fox News
• refused to allow his administration to comply with Congressional subpoenas
• hired Rudy Giuliani as his lawyer
• tried to punish Amazon because the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post wrote negative stories about him
• acted as if the Attorney General of the United States was his personal attorney
• attempted to get the federal government to defend him in a libel lawsuit from a women who accused him of sexual assault
• held private meetings with Vladimir Putin without staff present
• didn’t disclose his private meetings with Vladimir Putin so that the US had to find out via Russian media
• stopped holding press briefings for months at a time
• “ordered” US companies to leave China even though he has no such power
• led a political party that couldn’t even be bothered to draft a policy platform
• claimed preposterously that Article II of the Constitution gave him absolute powers
• tried to pressure the U.K. to hold the British Open at his golf course
• suggested that the government nuke hurricanes
• suggested that wind turbines cause cancer
• said that he had a special aptitude for science
• fired the head of election cyber security after he said that the 2020 election was secure
• blurted out classified information to Russian officials
• tried to force the G7 to hold their meeting at his failing golf resort in Florida
• fired the acting attorney general when she refused to go along with his unconstitutional Muslim travel ban
• hired Stephen Miller
• openly discussed national security issues in the dining room at Mar-a-Lago where everyone could hear them
• interfered with plans to relocate the FBI because a new development there might compete with his hotel
• abandoned Iraqi refugees who’d helped the U.S. during the war
• tried to get Russia back into the G7
• held a COVID super spreader event in the Rose Garden
• seemed to believe that Frederick Douglass is still alive
• lost 60 election fraud cases in court including before judges he had nominated
• falsely claimed that factories were reopening when they weren’t
• shamelessly exploited terror attacks in Europe to justify his anti-immigrant policies
• still hasn’t come up with a healthcare plan
• still hasn’t come up with an infrastructure plan despite repeated “Infrastructure Weeks"
• forced Secret Service agents to drive him around Walter Reed while contagious with COVID
• told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”
• fucked up the Census
• withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic
• did so few of his duties that his press staff were forced to state on his daily schedule “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings,” allowed his staff to repeatedly violate the Hatch Act
• seemed not to know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican
• stood before sacred CIA wall of heroes and bragged about his election win
• constantly claimed he was treated worse than any president which presumably includes four that were assassinated and his predecessor whose legitimacy and birthplace were challenged by a racist reality TV show star named Donald Trump
• claimed Andrew Jackson could’ve stopped the Civil War even though he died 16 years before it happened
• said that any opinion poll showing him behind was fake
• claimed that other countries laughed at us before he became president when several world leaders were literally laughing at him
• claimed that the military was out of ammunition before he became President
• created a commission to whitewash American history
• retweeted anti-Islam videos from one of the most racist people in Britain
• claimed ludicrously that the Pulse nightclub shooting wouldn’t have happened if someone there had a gun even though there was an armed security guard there
• hired a senior staffer who cited the non-existent Bowling Green Massacre as a reason to ban Muslims
• had a press secretary who claimed that Nazi Germany never used chemical weapons even though every sane human being knows they used gas to kill millions of Jews and others
• bilked the Secret Service for higher than market rates when they had to stay at Trump properties
• apparently sold pardons on his way out of the White House
• stripped protective status from 59,000 Haitians
• falsely claimed Biden wanted to defund the police
• said that the head of the CDC didn’t know what he was talking about
• tried to rescind protection from DREAMers
• gave himself an A+ for his handling of the pandemic
• tried to start a boycott of Goodyear tires due to an Internet hoax
• said U.S. rates of COVID would be lower if you didn’t count blue states
• deported U.S. veterans who served their country but were undocumented
• claimed he did more for African Americans than any president since Lincoln
• touted a “super-duper” secret “hydrosonic” missile which may or may not be a new “hypersonic” missile or may not exist at all
• retweeted a gif calling Biden a pedophile
• forced through security clearances for his family
• suggested that police officers should rough up suspects
• suggested that Biden was on performance-enhancing drugs
• tried to stop transgender students from being able to use school bathrooms in line with their gender
• suggested the US not accept COVID patients from a cruise ship because it would make US numbers look higher
• nominated a climate change skeptic to chair the committee advising the White House on environmental policy
• retweeted a video doctored to look like Biden had played a song called “Fuck tha Police” at a campaign event
• hugged a disturbingly large number of U.S. flags
• accused Democrats of “treason” for not applauding his State of the Union address
• claimed that the FBI failed to capture the Parkland school shooter because they were “spending too much time” on Russia
• mocked the testimony of Dr Christine Blasey Ford when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault
• obsessed over low-flow toilets
• ordered the re-release of more COVID vaccines when there weren’t any to release
• called for the construction of a bizarre garden of heroes with statutes of famous dead Americans as well as at least one Canadian (Alex Trebek)
• hijacked Washington’s July 4th celebrations to give a partisan speech
• took advice from the MyPillow guy
• claimed that migrants seeking a better life in the US were dangerous caravans of drug dealers and rapists
• said nothing when Vladimir Putin poisoned a leading opposition figure
• never seemed to heed the advice of his wife’s “Be Best” campaign
• falsely claimed that mail-in voting is fraudulent
• announced a precipitous withdrawal of troops from Syria which not only handed Russia and ISIS a win but also prompted his defense secretary to resign in protest
• insulted the leader of Canada
• insulted the leader of France
• insulted the leader of Britain
• insulted the leader of Germany
• insulted the leader of Sweden (Sweden!!)
• falsely claimed credit for getting NATO members to increase their share of dues
• blew off two Asia summits even though they were held virtually
• continued lying about spending lots of time at Ground Zero with 9/11 responders,
• said that the Japanese would sit back and watch their “Sony televisions” if the US were ever attacked
• left a NATO summit early in a huff
• stared directly into an eclipse even though everyone over the age of five knows not to do that
• called himself a very stable genius despite significant evidence to the contrary
• refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and kept his promise
And a whole bunch of other things I can’t remember at the moment.
Copy and paste until your heart’s content.”
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