The “Everything Terrible Trump Has Done So Far” Omnibus (Week 103)
As part of the ongoing project to catalog every awful thing the Trump Administration has done as a reference for future political arguments and whatever few posterity survives to see 2020, here’s everything awful the Trump Administration has done this week.
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1187. Threatened to extend the shutdown “months” or even “years”
1188. Gave its own staff pay raises even as other government workers went without pay due to the shutdown
1189. Threatened to declare a national emergency to use military funding for his border wall if talks with Congress continue to stall
1190. Made false claims about Democrat’s campaign finance violations
1191. Denied reports of TSA workers calling in sick in response to the shutdown while falsely claiming that government employees support his shutdown
- Falsely claimed that more than 3,000 terrorists had been detained at the border when, in reality, none had
- It was revealed that Paul Manafort had shared campaign finance information to people with extensive ties to Russian intelligence agencies
1194. Repeated numerous lies and falsehoods in a Presidential address to justify extending the shutdown
1195. Moved to withhold FEMA aid to wildfire victims
1196. Walked out on negotiations to resolve the shutdown
- As a result of the shutdown, failed to disburse hurricane aid
1198. Forced the FDA to postpone some food inspection as a consequence of his shutdown
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Naturally almost all the developments this week were related to the government shutdown in some way or another. The week started with Trump threatening to extending the shutdown for months, or even years, and while that is probably an exaggeration it looks like the shutdown may still stretch on for a long time as Trump continues to sabotage any attempt to get the government back up and running. Meanwhile, the consequences of the shutdown are starting to really hurt as government employees begin to miss their pay checks, states start to miss out on aid to deal with natural disasters and even the FDA has had to suspect some food inspection.
One notable development that wasn’t related to the shutdown was the revelation that Paul Manafort had shared campaign finance information with people connected to Russian intelligence agencies. This is one one of the clearest indications collusion to date.
As always, I don’t expect to catch everything, so let me know if there’s anything you think I’ve missed. The full omnibus is being maintained here (a spreadsheet version can be found here). For an overall summary, click here.
