Since February, more than a quarter of a million Americans have died from COVID-19 – a fifth of the world’s deaths from the disease, the highest number of any country. In the three years before the pandemic, 2.3 million Americans lost their health insurance, accounting for up to 10,000 “excess deaths”; millions more lost coverage during the pandemic. The United States’ score on the human-rights organization Freedom House’s annual index dropped from 90 out of 100 under President Barack Obama to 86 under Trump, below that of Greece and Mauritius. Trump withdrew the U.S. from 13 international organizations, agreements, and treaties. The number of refugees admitted into the country annually fell from 85,000 to 12,000. About 400 miles of barrier were built along the southern border. The whereabouts of the parents of 666 children seized at the border by U.S. officials remain unknown.
Trump reversed 80 environmental rules and regulations. He appointed more than 220 judges to the federal bench, including three to the Supreme Court – 24 percent female, 4 percent Black, and 100 percent conservative, with more rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association than under any other president in the past half century. The national debt increased by $7 trillion, or 37 percent. In Trump’s last year, the trade deficit was on track to exceed $600 billion, the largest gap since 2008. Trump signed just one major piece of legislation, the 2017 tax law, which, according to one study, for the first time brought the total tax rate of the wealthiest 400 Americans below that of every other income group. In Trump’s first year as president, he paid $750 in taxes. While he was in office, taxpayers and campaign donors handed over at least $8 million to his family business.
America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional. No number from Trump’s years in power will be more lastingly destructive than his 25,000 false or misleading statements. Super-spread by social media and cable news, they contaminated the minds of tens of millions of people. Trump’s lies will linger for years, poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive dust.
– George Packer
Excerpted from “A Political Obituary for Donald Trump”
The Atlantic
December 9, 2020
Excerpted from “A Political Obituary for Donald Trump”
The Atlantic
December 9, 2020
Related Off-site Links:
Supreme Court Rejects Texas Suit Seeking to Subvert Election – Nina Totenberg and Barbara Sprunt (NPR News, December 11, 2020).
Relax, A Trump Comeback in 2024 Is Not Going to Happen – John F. Harris (Politico, December 11, 2020).
The Republican Party Is Now a Seditious Organization – Charles P. Pierce (Salon, December 9, 2020).
The Coup Stage of Donald Trump’s Presidency – Masha Gessen (The New Yorker, November 20, 2020).
UPDATES: Biden Officially Reaches 270 Electoral College Votes, Further Affirming Election Win – Ursula Perano (Axios News, December 14, 2020).
People Are Taking the Wrong Lesson From Trump’s Failed Coup – Elie Mystal (The Nation, December 15, 2020).
Trump Has Reportedly Been Convinced He Actually Won, Tells Advisers He May Not Vacate the White House – The Week (December 17, 2020).
The Final Days of Donald Trump, Absentee President – Michael Winship (Common Dreams, December 20, 2020).
Trump Reportedly Floated Michael Flynn’s “Martial Law” Suggestion During White House Meeting – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, December 20, 2020).
MAGA Leaders Call for the Troops to Keep Trump in Office – Tina Nguyen (Politico, December 20, 2020).
Trump Campaign Will Again Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Upend Election Results – Jan Wolfe (Reuters via Yahoo! News, December 20, 2020).
Americans’ Acceptance of Trump’s Behavior Will Be His Vilest Legacy – Robert Reich (The Guardian, December 27, 2020).
Judge Rejects Last-Minute Claim That Pence Can Ignore States’ Presidential Electors – Matthew S. Schwartz and Barbara Campbell (NPR News, January 1, 2021).
“It Is Un-American”: Extraordinary Trump Plot Expands as Showdown Looms – Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick (AP News, January 3, 2021).
For The Wild Reed’s coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency and progressive responses to it, see the following chronologically-ordered posts:
2016
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Trump’s Playbook
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – November 9, 2016
• In the Wake of Trump’s “Catastrophic” Election, Phillip Clark on the Spiritual Truths That Will Carry Us Forward
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• Brandon Victor Dixon: Quote of the Day – November 19, 2016
• Ralph Nader: Quote of the Day – December 5, 2016
• Progressive Perspectives on “Fake News” and the Alleged Interference by Russia in the U.S. Presidential Election
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Sami Rasouli’s Holiday Invitation from Iraq to Donald Trump
• Henry Giroux: Quote of the Day – December 25, 2016
2017
• Meryl Streep: Quote of the Day – January 8, 2017
• Jonathan Chait: Quote of the Day – January 11, 2017
• Something to Think About – January 13, 2017
• Inauguration Day in the Twin Cities
• Something to Think About – January 20, 2017
• “It Is All Connected”
• Photo of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Something to Think About – January 22, 2017
• Linda Black Elk: Quote of the Day – January 24, 2017
• On Holocaust Remembrance Day, James Martin Labels as “Appalling” President Trump’s Plan to Demonize Immigrants
• “The Movement of Love and Inclusion Has Just Been Unleashed”
• Something to Think About – January 29, 2017
• Historian: Trump’s Immigration Ban is a “Shock Event” Orchestrated by Steve Bannon to Destabilize and Distract
• Let’s Hope So
• 2000+ Take to the Streets of Minneapolis to Express Solidarity with Immigrants and Refugees
• A Profoundly Troubling and Tragic Indictment
• Gael García Bernal: Quote of the Day – February 27, 2017
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – March 16, 2017
• Chris Hedges: Quote of the Day – March 26, 2017
• Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Times: Quote of the Day – April 2, 2017
• Signs of the Times
• The People’s Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – May 4, 2017
• Matthew Miller: Quote of the Day – May 13, 2017
• Rep. Al Green: Quote of the Day – May 17, 2017
• Something to Think (and Chuckle) About – May 24, 2017
• Trump’s America: Normalized White Supremacy and a Rising Tide of Racist Violence
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – June 1, 2017
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 28, 2017
• Donald Trump: A View From Australia
• In Charlottesville, the Face of Terrorism In the U.S.
• Susan Stabile: Quote of the Day – August 16, 2017
• Jake Noval: Quote of the Day – September 7, 2017
• Phillip Clark on the “Karmic Wake Up Call” of a Year Ago
• With Republicans at the Helm, It's the United States of Hypocrisy
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – December 14, 2017
• Matthew Yglesias: Quote of the Day – December 14, 2017
2018
• Hope In the Midst of Collapse
• Global Condemnation for Trump's Latest Ignorant and Racist Comments
• For MLK Day
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – February 6, 2018
• Michael Gerson: Quote of the Day – March 12 2018
• Adam Serwer: Quote of the Day – May 21, 2018
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of the Trump Administration's “Pathologically Sick” Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• Something to Think About – June 14, 2018
• Opposing the Trump Administration’s Inhumane Treatment of Immigrant Families
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – June 20, 2018
• “What We’re Seeing Here Is a Tipping Point”
• John Brennan: Quote of the Day – July 16, 2018
• Paul Jay: Quote of the Day – July 19, 2018
• Insightful Perspectives on the Kavanaugh/Ford Hearing
• Jennifer Rubin: Quote of the Day – October 17, 2018
• Ken Darling: Quote of the Day – October 25, 2018
• Something to Think About – October 28, 2018
• Something to Think About – November 4, 2018
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – November 5, 2018
• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Quote of the Day – November 7, 2018
• Christmas in America, 2018
2019
• Bernie Sanders: Quote of the Day – January 8, 2019
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Quote of the Day – February 6, 2019
• Saying “No” to Trump’s “Patently Illegal Power Grab”
• Michelle Goldberg: Quote of the Day – February 22, 2019
• Ken Darling: Quote of the Day – February 28, 2019
• President Trump, “We Hold You Responsible”
• Progressive Perspectives on the Mueller Report, “Russiagate,” and the Real Trump Scandals
• Demanding Justice and Embodying Compassion for Separated Families
• Holden Shearer: Quote of the Day – July 12, 2019
• Marianne Williamson: “Today Is a Day of Shame”
• Progressive Perspectives on Corruption in U.S. Politics
• “A Man Who Has Never Known a Love That He Hasn’t Had to Pay For”: Edward Snowden on Donald Trump
• Ken Darling: Quote of the Day – October 3, 2019
2020
• Saying “No” to War On Iran
• Quotes of Note Regarding the Senate’s Impeachment Trial of President Trump
• Something to Think About – February 5, 2020
• Mitt Romney: Quote of the Day – February 5, 2019
• Phillip Clark: Quote of the Day – April 15, 2019
• The Lancet Weighs-in on the Trump Administration's “Incoherent” Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic
• Marianne Williamson: Quote of the Day – June 2, 2020
• “Fascism Is Upon Us”
• Something to Think About – July 26, 2020
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy
• Ed Yong: Quote of the Day – August 3, 2020
• The “Freefall” Continues
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• A Means to the End (of the Trump Presidency)
• Marianne Williamson on America’s “Cults of Madness”
• Rep. Ilhan Omar Responds to President Trump’s Authoritarian Threats
• David Sirota: Quote of the Day – October 2, 2020
• Something to Think About – October 4, 2020
• Heather Cox Richardson on the Unravelling of President Trump
• About Those Militias
• Something to Think About – October 12, 2020
• Progressive Perspectives on Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Amy Coney Barrett
• The Sad Fate for Amy Comey Barrett
• Election Eve Thoughts
• Election Day USA, 2020
• “Now Is the Time to Reaffirm Our Belief in Democracy”
• Who Half of Us Are
• Bye Bye
• “As Much the Sounding of An Alarm As a Time for Self-Congratulations”
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2020 U.S. Election Results
Image: U.S. President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter after a medal ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 3, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
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