Seventeen or more out of fifty Republican Senators will not convict #45, Donald J. Trump, of inciting of a violent, deadly and unlawful insurrection. Many Republicans are incorrectly arguing that it’s not constitutional to convict an impeached President who has already left office. They remain unconcerned by the 13 minute and 25 second video of Trump’s speech and the mob’s immediate reactions to his words in Washington D.C. on January 6th, 2021. Unsurprisingly, they are concerned that voting to convict their orange cult leader could paint their district or state blue in the next election. They are also choosing to ignore that Trump’s last secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, ordered the DC National guard not to interfere with the pro-Trump mob... before January 6th.
There is more than sufficient evidence of intent, conspiracy, and coordination to enable the riots—from inside Trump’s federal government. There is evidence that the MAGA mob had the intent to kill or physically harm Vice President Mike Pence, Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senator Mitt Romney and others who were were threatened and bullied by Trump. The vast majority of Senate Republicans reviewed the timeline of events but just don’t see a causal link between Trump’s words and the mob’s actions. They don’t see the big picture. Do Republicans need a picture painted for them with numbers?
Perhaps, numerical facts (e.g., 30,573 lies, over 31 criminal or civil investigations, 100 Obama-era environmental laws rolled back, 400,000+ COVID-19 deaths, 2,654 immigrant children put in cages and cruelly separated from their parents, over 20 presidential norms broken over four years) can help to better illustrate why Trump should never be allowed to hold any governmental office again. Really, his long list of numbers indicate that he should be in prison for the rest of his life. They are categorized by: 1) Trump’s psychopathy and moral character, 2) criminal and civil investigations, 3) the climate crisis and environmental pollution 4) authoritarianism and the erosion of democracy, 5) the COVID-19 crisis, 6) the economy, 7) health care and wellness, 8) gun violence epidemic, 9) early childhood and education, 10) civil and human rights, 11) women’s reproductive rights, 12) world affairs and national defense, and 13) overall Trumpasters.
TRUMP’S PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND MORAL CHARACTER
70,562 mental health professionals and 27 esteemed psychiatrists and psychologists sounded the alarm about the Dangerous Case of Donald Trump at the beginning of his Presidency because of their concerns that he was “unfit” to serve as President because of observable executive function problems and being a ‘malignant narcissist’ – a classification that has four components: 1) Narcissistic Personality Disorder, 2) Antisocial Personality Disorder, 3) paranoia and 4) sadism, according to psychologists John Gartner, Lance Dodes and Justin Frank.
30,573 false or misleading claims (i.e., lies) made by Trump during his presidency. He averaged 6 lies daily in his first year in office, 16 lies daily in his second year, 22 lies daily in his third year and 39 lies daily in his fourth year.
85% of Trump’s statements were found to be untrustworthy or deliberately misleading while President: 12% half-truths, 20% mostly false, 36% false, 17% “pants on fire” lies, according to PolitiFact on January 25th, 2021.
42 or more well-documented instances in which Trump incited violence.
26 women who have allegedly been sexually harassed, abused or raped by Trump since the 1970s (and this only includes the women who filed complaints).
7 public statements where Trump referred to himself as a “stable genius”.
19,921 or more Tweets until Trump was finally blocked from Twitter on Janary, 8th, when he instigated a violent insurrection and repeatedly lied about the validity of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election results.
22,794 Tweets total if you include his retweets during his presidency.
1000 or more people insulted on Twitter by Trump between when he first declared his candidacy until January 8th, 2021.
323 deleted Tweets during his presidency.
16 particularly crazy ‘Tweetstorms’ during his presidency.
845 Tweets about “fake news” during his presidency.
50 Tweets where Trump called the press the enemy of the American people.
10 Tweets where Trump called a woman “nasty”. He used the word “nasty” to describe House speaker Nancy Pelosi 4 times, Senator Kamala Harris 3 times, Senator Mazie Hirono 3 times, Hillary Clinton more than once, two respected White House reporters (Ashley Parker and April Ryan), Omarosa Manigault Newman, Meghan Markle, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
1 Tweet where Trump bullied a teenager with Asperger syndrome. Trump made derogatory statements on Twitter about the Swedish teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg, after she was congratulated for being named Time Magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year. Responding to her emotional plea about the climate crisis, Trump spitefully Tweeted, “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, chill!”
1 retweet where he called a woman a “skank”.
500 or more visits to Trump-owned properties at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers.
$142 million paid for by the U.S. taxpayers just for Trump to play golf.
96 or more campaign rallies during his presidency (many of which were held while the COVID-19 crisis was getting worse) and 12 tele-rallies while he was supposed to be working as President.
4 different chiefs of staff.
4 different press secretaries, the most of any first-term President.
6 different communications directors, the most of any first-term President.
281 lobbyists working inside the Trump administration.
20 out of 23 Trump cabinet members were millionaires, including 2 centimillionaires and 1 billionaire.
0 funerals or memorial celebrations attended for fellow Republican, Senator John McCain. After Senator McCain’s death, multiple anonymous sources informed the Atlantic that Trump said, “We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral. What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser”.
1 viciously callous remark from Trump about the Senator McCain, who spent over five years as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war. “He’s not a war hero, I like people who weren’t captured.”
0 funerals or memorial celebrations attended for Democratic Congressman and civil rights icon, John Lewis.
1 canceled visit to the graves of 1,800 American soldiers at the Aisne-Marine American Cemetery (near Paris, France) because Trump allegedly did not want to get his hair disheveled in the wind and rain. Trump did not understand the point of visiting a cemetery “filled with losers” and “suckers”.
56 or more well-documented instances of egregiously racist statements, decisions or policies the Presidential campaign and during his presidency, according to Wikipedia.
1 ruthless claim that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s family made up a story that, in the last days before her death, Supreme Court told her family her “most fervent wish” is that the person elected on November 3rd be the person to fill her Supreme Court vacancy.
1 Hurricane Dorian forecast track and intensity map that was altered with a black Sharpie pen.
0 times that Trump released his tax returns to the public, despite repeating saying he would release his taxes after the Internal Revenue Service was done with an audit. He broke the 40-year custom of presidential candidates making their tax returns public. The New York Times reported Trump paid no income taxes for most of the past two decades (due to reporting massive losses to his businesses and very shady tax deductions).
300+ Tweets over 13 days (from November 3rd to November 16th) where Trump proclaimed he “won”, “stop the steal” or emphatically attacked the integrity of the election results. But Trump was whining about “fraud” months before the November 3rd, 2020 election, and even while votes were being cast. The fraud allegations were rejected as totally meritless by numerous state and federal judges, state and local election officials, multiple governors, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security and the Electoral College.
86 lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and allies after Election Day and lost all but one minor case that was later overturned by a state Supreme Court.
237 individuals total who were granted executive clemency (pardoning or commuting the sentences) but were previously charged or convicted of federal crimes. Trump has egregiously abused this Presidential power with self-serving and politically motivated favors like as in the cases of Roger Stone or Michael Flynn.
143 pardons and commutations granted for convicted criminals like Steve Bannon in the last two days of Trump’s presidency.
370 Congressional staffers from over 100 House offices and 15 Senate offices signed a letter, which blamed Trump for how “our workplace was attacked by a violent mob trying to stop the electoral college vote count.”
20 times that Trump specifically said the word “fight” in his speech to a large Pro-Trump crowd on January 6th.
CRIMINAL AND CIVIL INVESTIGATIONS
31 or more Congressional, federal or state criminal investigations. The state of New York is conducting criminal investigations into Trump and his businesses. They include probes into potential bank fraud, tax fraud and insurance fraud, as well as the falsification of business records, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. For the Trump administration as a whole, the number of investigations became so large that the Associated Press set up a “Trump Investigations” website to track them all in real time.
1 separate civil investigation of tax fraud by Trump and his company in the State of New York.
$21,000,000 in “highly unusual” payments from Trump’s Las Vegas hotel to other Trump companies, and then paid himself in cash, according to Trump’s 2016 tax records. If these payments to himself were not used for actual business expenses, and were used to get a tax deduction, then that would be illegal.
2 civil investigations because two women are suing Trump for defamation for calling them liars after they accused him of sexually assaulting them before he was elected.
$170,000,000 in money laundering to conceal payments made to the Trump family or campaign. In 2020, a nonpartisan watchdog filed a complaint with the Federal Election Committee (FEC) alleging Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign broke the law.
2 requests from the Trump administration for foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. elections. Many months after the Mueller trial, the bipartisan (and Republican-chaired) Senate Intelligence Committee’s report provided damning details about the extent of cooperation with direct links between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence operatives.
11 episodes where Trump obstructed Congress (a federal crime), according to the Mueller Report. Under Trump’s orders, the report’s redactions and its supporting material was placed under temporary "protective assertion" due to “executive privilege”. Suspiciously, there were many missing documents, testimonies and other evidence that was never reviewed by the Republican-controlled Senate to conclusively determine if Trump had "coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities".
1 additional instance of ‘obstruction of justice’ when Trump offered General John Kelly the job of F.B.I. director but demanded loyalty only to him. Special counsel Robert Mueller never learned of this information because Trump's lawyers intentionally limited the scope of the Mueller team's two-hour interview with General Kelly.
1 phone call on July 25th, 2020, where Trump made “inappropriate" political demands of the Ukrainian president or blatantly tried to coerce a foreign country to investigate a political opponent, according to credible and trustworthy sources such as Lt Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified in the House impeachment hearings.
1 former Trump campaign chair (Paul Manafort) who worked with a Russian agent, was convicted of crimes and then pardoned by Trump.
8 campaign or administration associates convicted by a court, pleaded guilty, or indicted of serious crimes.
54 violations of the Hatch Act by 14 Trump administration officials from 2017 to late October, 2020, as well as nearly 100 additional pending investigations for alleged violations by 22 officials. It is illegal for federal employees (including the President) to participate in partisan political activities on governmental property but this law was flouted.
11,780 votes that Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to "find" because he assumed a fellow Republican would be willing to illegally overturn the state election results in an early January 2021 phone call — for which, an investigation has been launched.
Could become criminal investigations
$1,100,000 or more in U.S. taxpayer funds was paid to Trump-owned venues, which is an egregious conflict of interest.
671 (10% of its total) mail-sorting machines from facilities across the U.S. — including 76 in the predominantly Democratic state of California — were removed or completely dismantled three months before the 2020 Presidential election. The Trump-appointed Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy fired 23 US Postal Service managers, eliminated workers’ overtime pay and removed thousands of curbside mailboxes, especially in predominantly Democratic communities.
11 Trump administration officials who inappropriately used a personal email account for executive branch communication.
CLIMATE CRISIS AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
#1 ranking (by far) for the USA in carbon dioxide emissions per capita from fossil fuel combustion from 2017 to 2021 but this #1 ranking was a problem well before Trump’s presidency.
100 or more climate-friendly or environmental laws and regulations from the Obama administration were rolled back. For any Obama era law or regulation, 130 were rolled back by the Trump administration.
7 ways that Trump escalated the climate crisis included: 1) Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, 2) Disregarding scientific data and making wildly unqualified and inappropriate appointments to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 3) Dismantling the Clean Power Plan, 4) Rolling back limiting methane emissions (a potent greenhouse gas) from oil and gas infrastructures, 5) Loosening emission standards for cars and trucks (including trying to ‘Trump’ California’s authority to set its own tailpipe emission standards), 6) Blocking the rule to phase out inefficient lightbulbs, 7) Refusing to support bipartisan legislation to curb super pollutants from air conditioners and refrigerators. The Trump administration’s repeal or weakening of over 100 environmental regulations will likely have a large, detrimental effect on future U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Rhodium Group, a research and consulting firm.
34,7000,000 or more acres of public lands removed from governmental protection.
7,800,000,000 (billion) people inhabited the planet in 2020. By 2100, there could be over 12.3 billion humans in the world. The Trump administration’s policies have been counter-productive to the long term strategies to address global overpopulation and the climate crisis (e.g., free and accessible access to birth control).
AUTHORITARIANISM AND ERODING DEMOCRACY
#25 ranking for the USA’s ‘democracy index’ in 2019. The USA had to be recategorized as a ‘flawed’ democracy when, years ago, it used to be categorized as a ‘full’ democracy.
#48 ranking for world press freedom in 2020, partly because of Trump constantly attacking the constitutional rights of the free press, right to free speech, right to peacefully assemble, right to vote, pandering to special interest lobbying groups, and constantly fanning the flames of hyper-partisan politics.
15 or more well-documented signs that Trump is an authoritarian leader.
4 or more authoritarian leaders that Trump openly admires like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others.
1 Republican-led Senate report on election interference in 2016, which laid out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian officials.
1 inappropriate action where the Department of Justice replaced Trump’s private lawyers to defend him against a defamation suit brought in state court by the author E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s.
222 pro-Trump, alt-right and oftentimes unqualified judges appointed to federal courts.
$5,400,000 spent on an authoritarian-style military parade in Washington D.C.
1 warped definition of freedom of speech. Trump told the Department of Justice to remove liability protections for social media services in order to punish FaceBook, Google, Twitter and other online platforms for perceived acts of political bias. He viewed social-media companies as part of his authoritarian infrastructure that could amplify his power and silence his opposition. Trump also tried to open up libel laws to potentially sue anti-Trump media organizations and women who reported incidents of sexual harassment or assault.
2000 or more times that Trump has called journalists and news outlets “fake news, which is really a subversive attack on a free press. Trump tried to blacklist reporters and entire news outlets from his events. He called journalists “scum” and “slime”. He bullied reporters of all ethnicities but, most especially, minority female reporters. He once opened mocked a reporter for having a disability.
37 or more major and organized protests (per Wikipedia) in the U.S. in opposion to Trump’s policies. Although Trump repeatedly condoned lethal “retribution” by police against protestors — without allowing them to have a fair trial first. Trump sadistically reveled in killing anyone who opposed his political viewpoints. He reveled in seeing Black Lives Matter protesters being unconstitutionally detained Black without due process. He even ordered paramilitary-style federal forces against peaceful protesters.
5 major ways that Trump and the GOP undermined the right to vote engaging in and wide-spread voter suppression: 1) opposing changes to make it easier to vote during the COVID-19 crisis, 2) seeking to invalidate laws that made it easier to vote by mail, 3) advancing new practices to make it harder to vote, 4) frequent anti-democratic rhetoric and 5) making fundamental changes to election process. After all votes were cast and Joe Biden had won, Trump repeatedly tried to overturn the results of a valid and fair election.
1 speech where Trump urged people in North Carolina to vote twice both via the mail and in person and therefore commit voter fraud as a way to test mail-in voting systems.
COVID-19 CRISIS
400,000+ Americans who died from COVID-19 in the last year of Trump’s presidency. His administration grossly mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to other developed countries. A detailed timeline of Trump’s ignorant failures illustrates his blame for this national disaster. Not only has the COVID-19 crisis devastated the U.S. economy, it had also increased the burden on the U.S. health care, educational and social welfare systems.
4,131 coronavirus-related deaths that occurred on a single day the week before President Trump left office on January 20th, 2021.
#1 ranking for the USA in the total number or COVID-19-related deaths compared to other nations.
#8 ranking for the highest death rates from COVID-19 per 100,000 people compared to other nations.
28% of Americans surveyed trusted information provided by Trump, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic (23% of Americans have “high” and 21% have “moderate levels of trust” – but 82% of Republicans approved of how Trump was doing) on April 23rd, 2020.
50% higher death rate from COVID-19 (from May 10th to October, 2020) compared to eighteen other developed countries, after adjusting for population size. The New England Journal of Medicine stated that U.S. national leaders took a “crisis and turned it into a tragedy”.
1 particularly deceitful statement was that Trump accused doctors—in the midst of a public health crisis— of overcounting COVID-19 cases and deaths, or lying to line their pockets. The American Medical Association had to call out this statement as being “a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge”.
1 COVID-19 world pandemic response team disbanded by the Trump administration.
1 illogical decision for the U.S. to leave the World Health Organization in the first 5 months of the COVID-19 crisis, despite pleas from European Union leaders to support global efforts to fight against the pandemic.
6 boasts from Trump about the “ratings” for his COVID-19 response briefings.
50 times that Trump promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, which medical experts and researchers said was not proven to be beneficial and could potentially cause harm to people because of its side effects.
1 odd suggestion from Trump to inject a disinfectant into the body for “almost a cleaning”.
THE ECONOMY
#1 ranking for the U.S. external debt in comparison to all other countries but in fairness to Trump, this #1 ranking was a problem before his presidency.
$26,700,000,000,000 (trillion) total for the national debt as of August 31, 2020. Federal debt held by the public was $20.83 trillion and intra-governmental holdings were $5.88 trillion.
$2,400,000,000,000 (trillion) increase in the U.S. national deficit under Trump and the GOP, $1 trillion of which occurred before the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because was an increase in spending and a decrease in tax revenue, especially corporate tax revenue from 2017 to 2020. Two years after the Trump-GOP tax cuts, it was clear that the wealthy - the top 1% -- were the MAGA beneficiaries (especially the top 0.1%).
36% increase in the national debt during the time Trump was President.
107% for the U.S. national debt-to-GDP ratio and this number increased by the end of Trump’s presidency. The higher the debt-to-GDP ratio, the less likely the USA will pay back its debt and the higher it’s risk of default. One study by the World Bank determined that if the debt-to-GDP ratio of a country exceeds 77% for an extended period of time, it slows economic growth. One of the Euro convergence criteria states that the government debt-to-GDP should be below 60%.
#6 ranking for the ease of doing business index in 2020.
#4 ranking for the labor force compared to other countries in 2014-2018.
#2 ranking for exports (China was ranked #1) in 2020 but in fairness to Trump, this #2 ranking was the same during Obama’s presidency.
#1 ranking for income inequality among all G7 nations, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (but in fairness to Trump, the wealth gap between Americans has gradually more than doubled since the 1980s).
#1 ranking for the highest number of billionaires in the world in 2020.
17 homeless people per 10,000 in 2019. World homelessness is generally not ranked by country but U.S. homeless rates and its economic disparities significantly increased during the Trump’s presidency, especially in 2020.
11.8% overall U.S. poverty rate in November, 2020.
16.2% U.S. poverty rate for children and adolescents under 18 years old in 2019 but this was measured before the COVID-19 crisis.
7,800,000 Americans who fell into poverty between July to December, 2020
12,400,000 (million) individual adult renters reported they are behind on rent payments, based on US census survey from December, 2020.
83,000,000 (million) U.S. adults have reported struggling to afford expenses for basic necessities such as rent, mortgage, food, car payments, medical expenses or student loans in the past seven days of December of 2020.
12,000,000 (million) U.S. renters will owe an average of $5,850 in rent and utilities by January, 2021, according to Moody’s Analytics.
1.5 million fewer jobs created in Trump’s first 3 years than in Obama’s last 3 years.
$1,277 on average that the U.S. household directly or indirectly paid for Trump’s trade wars.
1 Tweet (or more) from Trump that incorrectly touted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.”
1 manufacturing recession officially declared, despite Trump repeatedly making false claims that he brought back manufacturing jobs.
$236,700,000,000 (billion) in banking profits in 2018, the highest bank profits in U.S. history. The second highest bank profits occurred in 2019.
HEALTH CARE AND WELLNESS
#31 ranking (last place) among the 31 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries self-reported obesity rates in 2018. More than two of three U.S. adults are “overweight”, 43% of U.S. adults are clinically obese and about 20% of U.S. children and adolescents are obese in 2020. Despite these facts, Trump promoted and proudly shared fast food and soda at White House events. His administration made cuts to obesity prevention programs, deep cuts to SNAP/food stamp programs for the poor, rolled back school nutrition standards and would not even consider taxing sugary drinks.
1000 or more “hamberders” (as quoted in one of Trump’s Tweets) that were served at one White House dinner.
#38 ranking in the world for life expectancy at 78.9 years overall, 76.3 years for men and 81.4 years for women in 2018.
#33 ranking out of 36 OECD countries for lowest infant mortality rate in 2018.
#27 ranking in the world for investing in its health care system in 2018, according to a scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital.
#11 out of 11 ranking (last place) for money spent on health care as a share of its economy. The U.S. spends nearly twice as much as the average Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) country — yet has the lowest life expectancy (#11) and highest suicide rates (#11) among high-income nations. From 2016 to 2020, rates of anxiety, depression and suicide increased in the U.S.
#1 ranking for deaths related to a lack of insurance compared to all other developed nations.
#1 ranking for medical debt compared to all other developed nations.
#1 ranking for prescription drug prices in comparison to other developed nations.
1 precariously close but unsuccessful attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, Trump and Republicans were successful in sabotaging the ACA. Trump attempted to dismantle the ACA even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Repeatedly, Trump and Republicans jeopardized the legality of the ACA through the judicial system, including the ACA law ensuring that insurance companies would provide coverage to Americans with pre-existing health conditions. In 2020, Trump proclaimed that he would “save” pre-existing conditions via his executive order when it was already a law clearly protected by the ACA.
72,000 Americans who died from an opiate-related overdose in 2020.
52% increase in opiate-related deaths in the last year of the Trump administration, according to reports from more than 40 states. The statistics contradict Trump’s promises in 2016, "We are going to stop the inflow of drugs… into our country 100%.”
GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC
#1 ranking (by far) in firearm or gun ownership with 120.5 civilian firearms per 100 persons.
17,000,000 (million) guns purchased by Americans in 2020, more than in any other single year, according to estimates from a firearms analytics company.
$30,000,000 (million) given to the Trump 2016 election campaign by the National Rifle Association, according to Federal Election Commission data.
$16,300,000 (million) spent by the National Rifle Association in the 2020 presidential race – $4.2 million supporting Trump and $12.2 million opposing Joe Biden.
7 large medical organizations (the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Physicians (ACP), American College of Surgeons (ACS), American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA) and American Public Health Association (APHA)) which co-authored a 2019 article in Annals of Internal Medicine about how to tackle the gun violence epidemic during Trump’s presidency.
8 evidence-based solutions to address gun violence epidemic that the Trump administration totally ignored: 1) Enacting and enforcing universal background checks for firearm purchases. 2) Providing more research on firearm injury and death. 3) Preventing offenders of intimate partner violence from owning firearms. 4) Promoting the safe storage of firearms, particularly in homes with children, adolescents, people with dementia, people with substance use disorders, and the small subset of people with serious mental illnesses that are associated with greater risk of harming themselves and/or others. 5) Improving access to mental health care and caution against broadly including all individuals with a mental health or substance use disorder in a category of individuals prohibited from purchasing firearms. 6) Enacting and enforcing “extreme risk protection order” (ERPO) laws, which allow families and law enforcement to petition a judge to temporarily remove firearms from individuals at imminent risk for using them to harm themselves or others. ERPO laws should be enacted in a manner consistent with due process. 7) Allowing physicians to counsel patients about mitigating the risks associated with firearms in the home and firearm safety. 8) Banning high-capacity magazines and firearms with features designed to increase their rapid and extended killing capacity, which should help to reduce casualties in mass shootings.
0 federal gun laws were enacted and 0 of the above 8 solutions were implemented to decrease the U.S. gun violence epidemic during Trump’s presidency.
39,707 died from gun violence in 2017 and somewhat similar numbers died annually from gun violence during the four years of Trump’s presidency.
1,547 ‘mass shootings’ in the U.S. during Trump’s presidency.
2,750 children under 11 years of age who were killed or injured by gun violence during the Trump presidency.
54 or more instances where Trump incited violence up until May 30th, 2020. His comments to communities stricken by gun violence predictably results in more violence.
1 particularly irresponsible comment from Trump where he condoned right-wing extremist militias and white supremacists to “stand by” if he lost the election (which he most definitely did, and then these same domestic terrorist groups stopped standing by and attacked the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th, 2021).
13 domestic terrorists (from two Michigan militia groups) who were charged in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Experts said Trump’s comments played an influential role in the plot of these domestic terrorists but Trump still refused to condemn white supremacists and hate groups.
EARLY CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION
26% decrease in spending on early care and education (under the Trump’s 2019 budget), according to a new Urban Institute analysis.
25% decrease in spending for the Head Start program for economically disadvantaged preschool children under Trump’s 2019 budget
19% decrease in spending for children’s primary education under Trump’s 2019 budget.
5 “systemwide solutions” to address developmental-behavioral concerns in children ages 0-5 years that the Trump administration basically ignored.
13% annual economic rate of return to society , according to The Heckman Equation, but the Trump administration never took advantage of this economic research.
#37 ranking in math out of 77 participating countries, according to Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rating system in 2018.
#18 ranking in science out of 77 participating countries, according to Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rating system in 2018.
#13 ranking in reading out of 77 participating countries, according to Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rating system in 2018.
#27 ranking for investing in its education system in 2018, according to a scientific study ranking countries for their levels of human capital.
#2 ranking in the world for the relative cost of college per student in 2018 (#1 was the United Kingdom).
#1 ranking in the world for student debt compared to other nations.
$32,721 is the average U.S. student loan debt per borrowers.
$1,520,000,000,000 (trillion) is the total U.S. student loan debt.
1 Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, who undermined the public education system by cutting education spending, championing school privatization, and weakening oversight into everything from civil rights protections for students with disabilities or at-risk conditions to fraudulent student loans. Instead, she emphasized giving taxpayer money or tax credits to for-profit-motivated private (mostly religious) schools. Significantly less money was given to public schools that desperately need more support.
CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS
#1 ranking (by far) in the world for incarcerations per capita (655 per 100,000 people in 2020).
#23 ranking out of 159 countries for the overall freedom index in 2020.
#53 in gender equality out of 153 nations in 2020.
75 of Trump’s confirmed nominees were formally opposed by The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. “Serious concerns” were raised about 9 additional Trump administration appointments. A lengthy list of egregious civil & human rights violations have been tracked during his presidency.
2,654 or more migrant children who were put in cages & forcibly separated children from their parents at the Mexico-USA border. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) had to sound an alarm, stating that Trump’s policies were amounting to child abuse because “toxic stress" can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a child's brain architecture and affecting his or her short- and long-term health.
545 immigrant children who were detained and/or separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border were never reunited with their parents as of October, 2020.
1 evil comment from Trump about shooting migrants if they try to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
$18,400,000,000 (billion) in total federal funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $0 was funded by Mexico, as was repeatedly promised by Trump over a 4-5 year period.
40 years of Trump’s career and too many overt examples of racism to count.
53 well-documented instances of when Trump made racial and/or xenophobic comments during his 2016 campaign and the four years of his presidency (including the 2020 campaign), as categorized by Wikipedia.
1000 or more instances of sexist, misogynistic or harassing behavior towards women. Trump has made so many inappropriate statements to women that a ‘sexism tracker’ was created.
200 (approximately) instances in which the Trump administration expressed harmful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, discriminatory actions, and/or exclusionary world views over the four years of Trump’s presidency, according to The Trump Accountability Project (TAP).
11 political actions that directly discriminated against transgender Americans.
86 times that Trump displayed or promoted Islamophobic or religiously intolerant behavior (but this number has surely increased since April 19, 2018)
WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
#11 ranking (last place) for women’s access to health care compared to 11 other high-income nations in 2018.
#11 ranking (last place) for women’s overall health status compared to 11 other high-income countries in 2018.
1 regulation from the Trump administration (aided by a conservative majority Supreme Court) allowed employers to opt out of providing birth control coverage for its employees on their private health insurances. Trump went to war on women’s reproductive rights and decreased access to free or affordable birth control. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says that “all women should have unhindered and affordable access to all U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives”.
1-5% of U.S. women give birth to 40,000 to 200,000 infants annually, who have some degree of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is estimated to cost the U.S. $4 billion annually. Easy, affordable access to birth control could potentially lower the percentage of alcohol-afflicted babies born in the U.S. annually and reduce long-term health care costs.
10-11% of U.S. women give birth to 400,000 to 440,000 infants annually who are adversely affected by prenatal alcohol and/or illicit prenatal drugs and their babies have significantly higher rates of developmental delays, social-emotional problems and physical (or intellectual) disabilities. Once again, easy, affordable access to birth control could potentially lower the percentage of drug-afflicted babies born in the U.S. annually and reduce long-term health care costs.
424,000 children and adolescents were living in the U.S. foster care system in 2020. In addition to increasing strain on the foster care system, restricting women’s reproductive rights is associated with an avalanche of other economic problems to individuals, families and society as a whole.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
31% of mean global approval rating of U.S. leadership in 2019 (before the COVID-19 crisis) – the lowest level for any of the past three U.S. administrations.
64% of people (from 32 countries) surveyed by Pew Research Center, said they “did not have confidence for Trump to do the right thing” in 2019.
29% of people (from 32 countries) surveyed by Pew Research Center expressed confidence in Trump in 2019.
#1 ranking (by far) for military spending, and the U.S spends more money than the next top 26 countries combined (25 of which are supposed to be allies).
8 global organizations whose policies or costs Trump frequently disparaged (the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), World Trade Organization (WTO), European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Group of 7 Summit (G-7) and Group of 20 Summit). Trump declared the U.S. would formally leave the World Health Organization (during the COVID-19 crisis) and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.
3 U.S. Marines were killed but Trump ignored the written briefings and credible U.S. intelligence that Putin and the Russian government was offering bounties to Taliban terrorists to kill American troops in Afghanistan. Trump never confronted Putin about Russian bounties.
15 alarming times when Trump praised male authoritarian leaders like North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin as of July, 2nd, 2019. In addition, Trump pleaded with Xi Jinping [China’s President] to ensure he’d win” reelection in 2020 and to just “go ahead” with concentration camps inside China, according to the former National Security Advisor, John R. Bolton.
182 of Trump’s compliments were specifically given to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
OVERALL TRUMPASTERS
#28 ranking out of 163 countries for the Social Progress Index in 2020. It was created by research of Nobel-winning economists, and collects 50 metrics of well-being — nutrition, safety, freedom, the environment, health, education and more — to measure quality of life. The U.S. slid further downward in the rankings compared to any other country in 2020.
#19 ranking out of 156 countries for “happiness” in 2020. The World Happiness Report is based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various quality of life factors.
20 or more Presidential norms have been broken by Trump, which include: 1) personally profiting from official business, 2) not releasing tax returns, 3) refusing oversight, 4) interfering in the Department of Justice investigations, 5) abusing appointment power, 6) insulting allies while cozying up to authoritarians, 7) coarsening Presidential discourse, 8) politicizing the military, 9) attacking judges, 10) politicizing diplomacy and foreign policy, 11) undermining intelligence agencies, 12) publicizing lists of potential Supreme Court picks, 13) making more false or misleading claims than any previous President, 14) abusing pardon power, 15) using government resources for partisan ends, 16) making radicalized appeals and attacks, 17) dividing the nation in times of crisis, 18) contradicting leading scientists, 19) derailing the tradition of Presidential debates, and 20) undermining faith in the validity of the 2020 election results.
Author: Kevin P. Marks MD FAAP