The 59 worst things Trump did during his presidency
Moya Lothian McLeanGreg EvansAug 17, 2023
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The 59 worst things Trump did during his presidency

Since Donald Trump begrudgingly left office in January 2021, he's had some
bad moments. He has moaned that the election was stolen from him and said
he should have won and has spread baseless conspiracies while mocking Joe
Biden.

These claims about the election have been widely disputed but even if they
were true it is worth remembering what he was like as a president, and why
he absolutely should not be one again.

It's still staggering to believe that he was ever the President of the
United States and given the amount of controversy surrounding him.

Yet, he might still get a second chance if his 2024 campaign is successful
which is hard to comprehend given that he now has four indictment charges
looming over his head and potential jail time as a result, should he be
found guilty.

Some of the charges pale against some of the things he did and said while
he was in the White House which ranged from the absurd to the downright
scandalous.

If you just need a reminder of those discrepancies, here are 59 of his
worst acts when he held office.

Read to the end, if you dare.
1. When he dismissed Russian interference in the election

The spectre of Russia has haunted Trump since the 2016 election that
brought him to power. Post-election analysis of data by the likes of
academics seems to suggest that yes, Russian interference played a part in
it.

But Trump, funnily enough, has never been keen to examine the role Russia
might have had in seeing him elected. This means he�s not only blocked
every attempt to investigate it but also sacked multiple officials who�ve
threatened to do so, like former FBI director James Comey. Trump even
admitted that Russia was part of his reasoning for firing Comey, making him
only the second American president to sack his FBI director. Historic.
2. When he appointed his unqualified family to top administration roles

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Ah, the sweet smell of nepotism. As soon as Trump went to the White House,
so did his family. But breaking with protocol, members of the extended
Trump clan quickly received important high-ranking roles. Like daughter
Ivanka and her husband Jared who are now special advisors, a role that is
very vague but ensures they�re essentially part of running the country.
Ivanka�s attempt to mingle with world leaders at the 2019 G20 summit was
widely ridiculed.

It�s not stopped her, or the other Trumps, from ascending the power ladder
though.
3. When he was literally impeached

You have to do something pretty bad to be impeached. Like have sexual
relations with a much more junior member of staff and then lie about it.
The accusation facing Donald Trump was that he pressured Ukraine to dig up
dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter, threatening to withhold aid unless
the Ukrainian president complied with his wishes.

Trump was acquitted by the Republican Senate majority but people can
examine the evidence for themselves�
4. When he tried to ban TikTok

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Donald Trump wasn�t aware of TikTok at the start of 2020 � but now the
viral app ranked high on his list of enemies that summer. Why? Teens.

It wasn�t until teens claimed credit for half-filled seats at Trump�s
�comeback� rally in Tulsa.

After that, Trump decided the Chinese-owned app was a national security
threat and has now forced the sale of TikTok in order for it to continue
operating in the US.

Funnily enough, senior leaders who work at winning bidder Oracle, have a
very close relationship with Trump�s administration.

Oracle�s win was a surprise, with most expecting Microsoft to succeed with
their bid to �partner� with TikTok�s owners in the US.

Keep your friends close and your enemy apps closer!
5. When he approved a devastating oil pipeline through Native land

One of the very first things Trump did on ascending to office, was revive
plans for a huge oil pipeline that had been rejected by Barack Obama.

Despite Obama deciding that the pipeline was not only environmentally
unsound, it would also not deliver on promises such as lowering petrol
prices, Trump merrily fired out an executive order in January 2017, signing
off on the Keystone XL pipeline which would � pump some of Canada�s most
dangerous oil products over nearly 1,200 miles of US land and Indigenous
territories largely for export to other countries�.

Priorities.
6. When he called far-right protestors �very fine people�

Remember Charlottesville? The white supremacist rally where counter-
protestor Heather Heyer was killed after a member of the far-right drove a
car into her. Well according to Trump, there were �very fine people� on
both sides of that protest. One side was made up of Neo-Nazis and white
supremacists. The other wasn�t.
7. When he appointed a far-right nationalist his chief strategist

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When Trump entered the White House, so did Steve Bannon, a man regularly
described as a �far-right nationalist�. Eventually, he was fired after
Trump reportedly got sick of sharing the spotlight. Now he�s been charged
with fraud after embezzling funds donated by Trump supporters to a crowd
funder to build the infamous border wall. Classy.
8. When he imposed a �Muslim travel ban�

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In 2017 Trump signed an executive order that temporarily suspended
immigration to the US for all citizens of seven Muslim majority countries
for 90 days. Citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen
suddenly found themselves unable to enter America. Massive protests
immediately took place as a response with courts eventually finding the ban
unlawful and overturning it.

That didn�t stop Trump though; he issued a new ban in 2018 that instead
restricted how many visas could be issued to applicants from Iran, Libya,
Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea.

This ban was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court. And in February it was
expanded to cover citizens from Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania, Sudan,
Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar.
9. When he (repeatedly) refused to release his tax returns

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From the very beginning, Trump refused to drop his taxes. Why? We can only
guess. But former lawyer Michael Cohen suggested it might be for a very
Trumpian reason.

�He doesn�t report the income he claims,� Cohen claimed during an interview
to promote his book, Disloyal.

�His wealth is not as significant, and I imagine they were probably lenient
in how they took deductions�.

He also said releasing the tax returns might throw up more problems for
Trump.

�His biggest fear is, if that tax return was released, there�s a whole slew
of accountants and forensic accountants that will rip through it and he
will end up with a massive tax bill, penalties, fines, and possibly even
tax fraud,� Cohen added.
10. When he tried to stop transgender students from using school bathrooms
in line with their gender

In February 2017, Trump decided to go after one of the most marginalised
groups possible by removing protections for trans students which allowed
them to use bathrooms corroborating with their gender identity.

The harm the policy could cause was so evident that even education
secretary Betsy DeVos opposed the move because of the effect it would have
on trans students.

Trump went ahead with it anyway.
11. When he lied about his inauguration crowd sizes

Size matters to Trump which is why he and his team practised their very
first professional gaslighting by insisting that the crowds gathered for
his inauguration were the �largest ever�, despite extensive photographic
evidence to the contrary.

Later it emerged a government photographer had even edited photos to make
�crowds appear bigger�, according to a Guardian investigation.
12. When repeatedly called Elizabeth Warren �Pocahontas�

After Elizabeth Warren revealed she had Native American ancestry (which
wasn�t too well received by actual Native Americans), Trump gave her a new
nickname: Pocahontas.

But rather than mock just Warren, the nickname serves to ridicule Native
Americans and indigenous cultures as a whole.
13. When he doubled fees at his resort hotel after becoming president

What�s the first thing you do when you become the leader of the �free�
world? Jack up the membership fees at your beach resort.

After Trump�s election, Mar-a-Lago, the shining jewel in his gilt-coated
crown, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000.

At the time, Norm Eisen, Barack Obama�s top ethics lawyer, called it �not
very subtle exploitation of the fact that the club�s figurehead is now
president of the U.S.�

�This type of naked profiteering off of a government office is what I would
expect from King Louis XVI or his modern kleptocratic equivalents, not an
American president,� Eisen said.

Preach.
14. Tried to penalise �sanctuary cities� for migrants

Sanctuary cities are a loose name for states or localities that have
regulations which can act as an obstacle for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) to hunt down migrants they think they can deport.