| Week #11: January 29, 2017 |
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An Observation: This week was chaos. Journalist Dan Rather described it as "the Twilight Zone," and author Stephen King, "The ugliest first week of a presidency in the history of the American republic." This week, there were numerous articles about Trump transforming America into an authoritarian state (examples here, here, here, here, here).
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| 1. |
The revised tally for the Women's March came in between 3 and 4 million, making it the largest protest march in US history. Read More About This |
| 2. |
Hundreds of protestors coming to the Women's March from Canada, were turned away at the US border. Read More About This |
| 3. |
Trump defensively responded with outright lies about his inaugaration crowd. Spicer said, "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inaugaration -- period." When pressed on this lie on NBC, Conway said Spicer's false claims were, "alternative facts." Read More About This |
| 4. |
Numerous reporters were arrested while covering the inauguration protests. NBC reporters were released, while others were charged. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 5. |
In true authoritarian form, Trump declared his inauguration day to be the National Day Patriotic Devotion. Read More About This |
| 6. |
On the Monday after he was sworn in, a group of Constitutional scholars, Supreme Court litigators and White House ethics lawyers filed a suit claiming Trump violated the Constitution by receiving foreign payments. Read More About This |
| 7. |
The Boston Globe ran an op-ed titled, "The President's House Is Empty." The Week 2 list mentioned Melania and Baron living in NYC, now apparently Trump is too, and we have normalized this item. Read More About This |
| 8. |
The WSJ reported that Flynn -- in addition to Page, Manafort and Stone -- is under investigation for links to Russia. Read More About This |
| 9. |
Days after his inauguration, Trump called the National Park Security, reportedly upset about a retweet of a side-by-side photo of his inauguration next to Obama. Read More About This |
| 10. |
As of the Sunday evening after being sworn in, Trump still hadn't severed his ties to his businesses as promised. After the media caught this, documents were filed later that day. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 11. |
The White House comment line switchboard no longer has a person answering the phone. Read More About This |
| 12. |
Breaking decades of precedent, Conway said Trump would never release his tax returns, saying the American public is not focused on this, (ABCpoll last week showed 74% of Americans want his returns released). Read More About This |
| 13. |
Despite Trump's proclamation of having a "great meeting" and "long standing ovations" at a meeting with the CIA, it turned out that Trump's paid employees were the ones cheering, and his relations with the intelligence may be getting worse. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 14. |
Without explanation, the CDC cancelled a Climate and Health Summit, scheduled to take place in Atlanta. Read More About This |
| 15. |
Trump's staff continued to tell multiple outright lies, daily, including statements about the size of the federal workforce, crowd size, and voting fraud. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 16. |
Massive leaks coming from the White House staff portrayed Trump as impulsive and childish, in stories published by the NYT and WAPO. Read More About This |
| 17. |
The State Department's statement of apology for past LGBT discrimination was scrubbed from the official website. Read More About This |
| 18. |
Trump signed an executive order, reinstating AND expanding to an unprecedented degree, the Global Gag rule. He signed the order in the company of all white man (see photo below). Read More About This |
| 19. |
Days after being sworn in, Trump told lawmakers that 3–5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote. Next day, Spicer repeated the same lie. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 20. |
Trump froze EPA grants. Read More About This |
| 21. |
Trump banned EPA employees from providing infomation to reporters or on social media, about new contracts or grants. Read More About This |
| 22. |
Later, Trump banned multiple federal agencies from communicationswith members of Congress and the media. Read More About This |
| 23. |
Trump threatened to send Federal Troops to Chicago, citing false claims about crime rates. Read More About This |
| 24. |
Republican legislators around the country proposed a series of bills, which would make criminalize peaceful protests. Read More About This |
| 25. |
There were public stories of multiple arrests, disapearances and deaths of Russian intelligence agency officers for leaks related to Trump's dossier and interference with US election. There was also news of a possible public trial. Read More About This |
| 26. |
Trump's AG nominee, Sessions, said he would not commit to recusing himself from Trump related investigations. This is counter to requirements of DOJ rules. Read More About This |
| 27. |
Advisors for Germany's Merkel said they were still struggling to open communications channels with the Trump administration days after the inauguration, and that they have "given up" on him acting "presidential." Read More About This |
| 28. |
On Wednesday, the White House released an email to the press, titled, "Praise for Trump's Bold Action." Read More About This |
| 29. |
Trump ordered billions of funding cuts to UN agencies, and took action towards pulling us out of treaties, including Climate Change. Read More About This |
| 30. |
Mother Jones reported that some of Trump's foreign business partners attended his inauguration, and were given VIP treatment. Read More About This |
| 31. |
Trump mandated that EPA scientific studies undergo a review by his political staff, before being released publicly. Read More About This |
| 32. |
Trump called for an investigation into voter fraud, then delayed signing the executive order. Media uncovered that several Trump insiders are registered to vote in two states. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 33. |
Trump said torture "absolutely works," putting him at odds with his staff on a draft torture order. For now, Trump said Mattis could override him. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 34. |
At his CIA speech, Trump said of Iraq, "We should've kept the oil. But, okay, maybe we'll have another chance." He kept that mantra alive during the week, endangering our troops serving in Iraq. Read More About This |
| 35. |
Protests continued around the country, including major marches in Philadelphia and NYC. Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 36. |
In a bizarre interview with ABC, Trump continued his false claim about voter fraud, and also fixated on the crowd size of inauguration, showing David Muir a photo, and also saying, "We had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches." Read More About This; Click here, also |
| 37. |
The Economist downgraded the US on its democracy scale, to a "flawed democracy." Read More About This |
| 38. |
The entire senior staff of the State Department left. It was unclear if they resigned or were fired, ahead of Trump's incoming nominee, Tillerson, who has no diplomatic or government experience, taking office. Read More About This |
| 39. |
Trump signed an executive order to build The Wall. The Mexican President said Mexico would not be paying for The Wall, and canceled a previously scheduled trip to meet with Trump in DC. Read More About This |
| 40. |
The WSJ Editorial Board slammed Trump for his treatment of Mexico, and for floating a 20% tariff, calling him a "foreign-affairs neophyte." Read More About This |
| 41. |
Bannon said the media should "keep its mouth shut," and referred to them as "the opposition party." Read More About This |
| 42. |
NPR reported that Trump signed a record number of executive actions in his first week; but unlike his predecessors, none about ethics. Read More About This |
| 43. |
Trump replaced the leader of a federal agency which overseas the use of Federal land, including the controversial Trump hotel in DC. Read More About This |
| 44. |
Business Insider reported on a memo between Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russia's state oil company, and Trump ally, Carter Page, offering a stake in the Russia's state oil company, in exchange for lifting of US sanctions. Read More About This |
| 45. |
Trump issued a statement on Holocaust Memorial Day that did not mention Jews, breaking a precedent of past Democrat and Republican presidents. Read More About This |
| 46. |
Same day, Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from 7 Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for the next 90 days. Trump also announced plans to increase the number of countries. Read More About This |
| 47. |
Trump said Christian refugees would be given preference, a clear violation of our constitution. Read More About This |
| 48. |
Trump immigration ban did not include countries in which Trump has business interests. Read More About This |
| 49. |
Trump hinted at dropping US sanction against Russia in the lead up to his first official call with Putin. In response, McCain said if Trump lifts sanction, Congress will restore them. Read More About This |
| 50. | Much of Trump's foreign policy is being decided and carried out by two men, Bannon and Kushner. |
Replicated from: "https://medium.com/@Amy_Siskind/week-11-experts-in-authoritarianism-advise-to-keep-a-list-of-things-subtly-changing-around-you-so-cc791d22d7b5
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