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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507. Former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, refused to hand over his documents in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election
508. Set out to deport 300,000 refugees
509. Locked up US Citizens without charges
510. Moved to eliminate student loan interest rate tax deductions
511. It was revealed that, during the meeting raised in #333, Trump Jr. had pushed a quid pro quo deal with Kremlin linked lawyers
512. Following up from #328, pushed AT&T/Time Warner to drop CNN in exchange for approving their merger
513. Following a trend started from at least #32, has horribly mismanaged the State department and caused severe shortages in senior diplomatic staff. By recently released estimates, there’s been a 60% drop in the number of career ambassadors, and a 42% drop in career ministers.
514. Placed new restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba
515. Former Trump adviser, Carl Icahn, came under investigation for abusing his position to benefit his own company, as noted in #116
516. After it was revealed that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had numerous shady dealings in Russia in the Paradise Papers, it was later revealed that he not only continues to hold a considerable stake in shipping Russian oil, he has been actively expanded that stake since taking office
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The big news from this week was, of course, the string of Democratic victories in the 2013 round of elections, which struck a blow to Trumpism and gave the left the clearest sign yet that their efforts were starting to bear fruit. However, there was plenty of new this week to remind us that the while we may have won some notable battles, the war remains far from over.
About half of the items this week this week related to shady dealings, whether it was Carl Icahn being investigated for using his position to get bio-fuel subsidies for his failing company or it being largely confirmed that Trump was trying to wheel and deal with Kremlin backed lawyers during the campaign last year. This isn’t to say the administration is filled with too-clever-by-half cronies, quite the contrary, they are horribly mismanaging the State Department.
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.