Rolling Stone has put together a list of 100 WTF moments during the first 100 days of the Trump presidency. I guess they had to, because it is difficult to find 100 achievements of Donald Trump, a president that they point out has accomplished less than William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days into his administration.
Trump’s presidency started with an inauguration speech that even George W. Bush described as “That was some weird shit.”
Five hours later, Trump filed the paperwork for his 2020 re-election bid.
The list just keeps getting better and better (not to mention more and more bizarre). Go read it. And I really like the fact that every item on the list has a link to supporting documentation.
If you haven’t had enough The NY Times also has a great article listing one particular vivid moment from each of their White House reporters. While the Rolling Stone article is a great list of events, the Times gives you an inside look at the “feel” of the new administration, including the chaos.
Finally, the Toronto Star, which has been keeping track, declares that Trump has said an average of 2.13 unique false things per day during the first 100 days. That’s far more than any other president. And if you don’t believe them, they list every one of them.
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The Fact Checker at the Washington Post “counted 452 false or misleading claims uttered by the president since Inauguration Day….” They did a check by day, as well, and found that on only four days did Drumpf not lie or make misleading comments (two of those days he was playing golf).
If you wish to subscribe to the WaPo’s weekly email summary of the Fact Checker, one can do so at: https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/
Scroll about half way down the page and you can find it. I find it an interesting adjunct to the news of the week.
I’ve been thinking lately — all these headlines that all basically say the same thing (“President issues another lie” or “President courts disaster with wildly inappropriate communication” or “Can you believe a head of State could be this ignorant?”) really don’t warrant a story apiece. Takes up too much media space/time and too much of our attention.
The media should just have a regular daily feature — as a sidebar in print media, as a daily segment, like the weather, on broadcast — compiling Trump’s idiocies of the day. What would warrant a headline would be the rare days when there aren’t any.
That would also free up our attention for the stories that warrant it, like Trump selling our election to the Russians, or the horrifying Cabinet appointments, or goading North Korea to war.
Right now, the Emperor can drown out any news that might really trouble him simply by performing another boneheaded stunt, large or small.
I find this one particularly bizarre:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/24/2017-01798/national-day-of-patriotic-devotion
“National Day of Patriotic Devotion”?!?!?! For Inauguration Day? This would have rated more of a WTF if word had gotten out. It must have been one of his few first actions, on the very day of his inauguration.
It really sounds much more like Nirth Korea than USA. Mind, it doesn’t actually DO anything, unlike his budget, his travel bans, or his freaking wall all WANT to.