A Look Back at the Trump Presidency

Yes, it was really that bad.

Over the two months since Joe Biden’s inauguration, the American public has been all too eager to forget the Trump presidency. But doing so would be a disservice to the irreparable damage he enacted in his single term in office and to the people he harmed with his rhetoric and actions.

It started with “Make America Great Again,” a campaign slogan that implied times of more rampant racial oppression and economic suffering were better years for the American public, and ended with a baseless fight against the outcome of the election, resulting in a full-scale coup on the nation’s capital. Over four years later, it appears to be over, but it is more important than ever to remember the lingering hurt that remains from the Trump administration and how his term will continue to affect the US for years to come.

The purpose of this blog post is to highlight a variety of ongoing issues that the Trump Administration exacerbated during his last 4 years in office.

Travel Ban

Amidst the media frenzy regarding the attendance of Donald Trump’s inauguration during his first few days in office, he began acting on the promises found in his tirades against the Muslim community from the campaign trail. Executive Order #13769, or colloquially known as the Travel Ban, placed stringent regulations on travel from seven countries, which, unsurprisingly, are primarily Muslim. Islamophobia has been rampant in the US and amongst the Republican Party since 9/11. That day was an obvious tragedy that still affects many Americans, but it also allowed for many politicians to get away with racially, religiously-biased vitriol unchecked. The travel ban was a materialization of decade-long oppression and proved that Donald Trump was very willing to turn his hateful opinions into law. While circuit courts quickly negated the legality of this order, it still resulted in thousands of Muslim-Americans being stranded in airports and cities throughout the Middle East. Even more so, it gave average citizens who held these xenophobic beliefs reason to think they were warranted, especially when they were shared by the President himself. The Trump administration fought to keep such an effect in order, restructuring and tweaking it until the ban ultimately was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2018. (Source). This ban has cost people jobs, time with their families, scholarships, access to education, among other things, all because of Trump’s blatant prejudice and a form of structural violence against the Muslim community. (Source). Even though Biden has revoked all discriminatory travel bans, these losses are not as easily reversed, serving as one of the many examples of Trump’s long-term damage.

Paris Agreement

Donald Trump’s first one hundred days in office proved how serious he was surrounding his promises to strip American citizens of their rights and work to undo the strides President Obama made in his presidency—none perhaps as clear as his immediate removal of the US from the Paris Agreement. The US has long been considered to be the most powerful figurehead in climate politics, serving as the leader for many other countries to follow suit. Climate advocates have noted how successful treaties and agreements are when the US is an active participant in the drafting and ratifying of such documents. The Paris Agreement began as an ambitious step in the right direction, seeking to reduce carbon footprints on a mass scale and limit climate change to a factor of 3 degrees Celsius by 2030. In order for it to work, the US needed to be the first in line to implement top-to-bottom changes that tackled regulation of corporations and citizens alike. As one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, the Paris Agreement was ineffective without the US, and by Trump removing the US within his first 100 days, he made his opinion on climate change explicitly clear—that he did think it real or important. His opinion is shared by many, that the scientists' warnings of the future were misguided, and that it was nowhere near serious enough to risk the income of corporations that profited off the exploitation of the environment. Luckily, the Paris Agreement’s participation stipulations were structured around the US’s electoral process in preparation for such an event; signatories had to wait at least four years before official removal from the agreement. Had President Biden not been elected, the US would have solidified their departure from the treaty, bringing with it years of irreparable damage to the environment that would have rendered the planet inhabitable at a much earlier date than expected.

ICE and Detention Centers

The executive branch often appears to be a leg of the government monopolized by the President themselves. In reality, it is a much larger being, encompassing hundreds of departments that handle economic, social, and political issues. However, few were as important to the Trump presidency as ICE. Promises to build a wall on the southern border, to make Mexico finance it, and to crack down on immigration were rampant during the 2016 election. As predicted, any plans to build the wall were deemed illogical and too expensive. In the face of this, Trump and ICE pivoted their efforts towards strict border regulation, resulting in the systematic separation of families at the border and placement into detention centers. Leaked footage of children held in cages and the packed conditions of these centers seemed to be the only deterring factor for the Trump administration to stop their practices. (Source). In 2019 alone, 69,550 migrant children were detained and separated from their families, a number that outranks any other country in the world. (Source). This separation is damaging for a number of reasons, for children and adults alike; the longstanding effects of this practice can be seen through the generational trauma experienced by families affected by the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. These detainments only got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing the aspect of a virus that is spread most easily in tight quarters into the equation. Trump and ICE had no plans to mitigate this issue until a court order mandated that they release the children and families. (Source). Similar to the lasting effect the Travel Ban had on Muslim Americans, these detainments are structural violence against POC and will follow those affected long after they are released from detention and reunited with their families.

Supreme Court Nominees

Perhaps the most long-standing damage the Donald Trump presidency did was the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Justice Kavanaugh’s nomination was two-fold in its destructive nature. To begin, it solidified that in this country, men are able to evade taking responsibility for their actions and the harm they cause women. Professor Christine Blasey Ford took the harrowing and life-threatening steps to come forward and share her story with the American public, in hopes that her abuser would be held responsible for the assault and that someone capable of such a crime would not be appointed to the most honorable position in the country. However, after grueling, publicized interrogations and underhanded questioning, the Senate still elected to place Justice Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court. His lack of decorum, inability to defend himself eloquently, nor the validity of the claims against him were deemed reason enough to continue the search for a worthy addition to the Supreme Court. Instead, Republicans followed the word of their party leader and allowed a man with a history of damaging judicial practices and of morally-repugnant actions into a life-long seat on the Court. Justice Coney Barrett’s nomination process on the other hand was a rushed confirmation, an example of the Republican party grasping onto their last bits of power before Congress and the Presidency would pass to the Democratic party. In a particularly hard-to-watch Senate confirmation hearing, Justice Coney Barrett was unable to recite the five basic freedoms awarded to American citizens in the First Amendment, which most would consider being the base requirement for someone entering a role that placed them as the sole authority on the Constitution. Beyond this, Justice Coney Barrett has an extremely problematic judicial record and has spoken out against a number of basic rights afforded to women and marginalized communities. The Republican party fought to confirm both of these Justices, despite very real and valid claims against their right to hold a position on the Supreme Court. Now that they are confirmed, they are in these positions for life. Forty years would be a conservative estimate of both of their terms in office, resulting in forty years of court cases critical to the protection of basic rights being trusted in their hands. With cases debating the validity of abortion rights, access to health care, and the handling of the pandemic working their way into the Supreme Court’s docket, these two nominations are set to continue damaging American society beyond the scope of Donald Trump’s single term in office.

Mismanagement of the Pandemic

For those who are not a part of the communities that Donald Trump has targeted, perhaps the greatest example of his administration’s failures can be seen in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The threat of COVID-19 first popped up in December of 2019, originating in the Wuhan province in China. By January, the US had its first confirmed case. By February, the threat of overseas travelers bringing the virus into the country was a pressing threat. By March, most of the country was in a full-scale lockdown. Throughout the early months, Donald Trump refused to acknowledge the validity of the virus, passing it off as a hoax, or perpetuated racist stereotypes by calling it the “Chinese virus.”

The latter fueled anti-Asian sentiment has manifested in violent attacks on the Asian community since the beginning of the pandemic. In public, this resulted in limited to no regulation of travelers coming into the country (besides from China), refusal to admit to the severity of the virus, and criticism of governors taking the lockdown seriously. (Source). Eventually, it became clear that the pandemic was not the three-week shutdown politicians hoped it would be, and Trump began to push for reopening, looking to twist the pandemic into an electoral strategy.

Democrats at all levels of government, from Joe Biden to the governor of Michigan, were subject to his attacks, faulted for listening to scientists, and blamed for the struggling economy. In the case of Michigan, the former President’s comments proved, once again, to be a catalyst for his supporters to take action on his words, with a group of anti-mask protestors storming the Michigan state capital, armed with guns and demanding the governor's removal from office.

Throughout the summer, Trump continued to take responsibility for the virus, flipping back and forth between comments for and against reopening and taking the opportunity to continue to target marginalized communities. There are far too many incidents that highlight just how poorly Donald Trump managed the pandemic, most unfortunately seen through the fact that the US continues to lead the world in COVID-19 deaths and cases, despite being deemed one of the most supposedly prepared countries to handle a pandemic. Instead of stepping aside and letting experts guide his actions, Trump prioritized politicizing the pandemic to serve his own needs. He only supported the vaccine when he threatened to withhold supply if he was voted out of office; only listened to scientists when it served his mission, only cared about the aspects of the pandemic that increased his chances of re-election. In one of this country’s most dire times of need, Trump failed in his role to protect the lives of American citizens, ultimately contributing to his removal from office.

Refusal to Denounce White Supremacists

Throughout the 2016 campaign trail and continuing into his presidency, Donald Trump refused to officially denounce white supremacists, even going so far as to encourage them. Trump’s use of rhetoric negating the experience of marginalized groups of people and inflaming white supremacist groups is extremely damaging; as one of the most notable authority figures in American society, white supremacists gain power by seeing their leader fail to criticize them. This trend began back in 2016, when Donald Trump failed to denounce the former leader of the KKK, striking a notably sharp contrast compared to his free-flowing admonishments of leaders of other social groups.

In 2017, when white supremacists started riots protesting the removal of Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Trump’s immediate reaction to the news was to claim that he was sure there were “very fine people on both sides” (Source). That statement was more than just a refusal to comment, but also a dismissal of incredibly violent and dangerous behavior. Trump continued dodging criticizing white supremacists through the remainder of his presidency, ultimately coming to a head during the 2020 electoral debates.

Chris Wallace, the moderator for the event, took the opportunity to explicitly ask the President if we would take the opportunity to denounce white supremacists once and for all. Instead of doing so, Trump told a known white supremacist group, the Proud Boys, to “stand by'' and blamed all violence on the left-wing. (Source). The only explanation for this refusal is that Trump himself does not find it necessary to condemn their actions, and one could even argue that he might agree with them. These statements, or lack thereof, only validate white supremacists and harm the groups Trump has targeted.

Impeachments

For almost the entirety of Trump’s presidency, there was little accountability for his actions. The House was controlled by Republicans for two out of the four years, and the Senate for all four. Despite this, Trump’s actions were deemed serious enough to warrant a call for impeachment on two separate occasions. The first impeachment occurred in 2019, coming off the heels of years of speculation of obstruction of justice and a questionable relationship with Russia during the 2016 election. The second came after the coup following the election results of 2020, with Trump being held responsible for his role in inciting such an event. The events that led to these impeachments are incredibly concerning and show a severe lack of character and respect for the ethical responsibility of the presidency. Even more so, Trump’s punishment did not include removal from office, as in both instances the Senate was controlled by Republicans who did not vote against party lines despite ample evidence damning Trump. His ability to properly hold public office should be called into question, something House and Senate Democrats attempted to do in his second impeachment; if he had been convicted, he would be unable to run for public office again (Source). In addition to the morally comparable actions that led to these impeachments, they should serve as a reminder of Trump’s failures as president, that when compared to the 46 other presidents the US has had, he is the only to have been impeached twice.

Future For President Biden

Many would consider Biden’s presidency to be a breath of fresh air, a return to the standard of American presidents that most people are used to. However, it should not be mistaken as an opportunity to forget the fight against many of the social and fiscal issues still facing the public. In the coming months, Biden’s claims to provide economic relief and widespread vaccinations will be held to the test of time. Despite the relief many people and the media feel, it is as important as ever to remain vigilant in holding the President to his promises. Systemic violence across BIPOC communities in the US, the continued occupation of the Middle East, and the pandemic are only the baseline of the structural issues pressing down on our society and now lay in the hands of the Biden administration.

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