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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1611. Denied visas to uninsured immigrants
1612. Ended the 5 year oil and gas moratorium in California
1613. It was revealed Trump allies pressed Ukraine for lucrative gas deals
1614. A second whistle blower came forward over Trump's attempts to push Ukraine to investigate Biden
1615. Nuclear talks with North Korea broke down
1616. Threw Middle East policy into turmoil and ensured a Turkish assault on Syrian Kurds with a confused Syria policy
1617. Forced servers to share their tips
1618. Threatened to sue Minneapolis over security costs
1619. Refused to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry
1620. Tried to argue that the Kurds didn't deserve US support because they didn't land at Normandy
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This week saw two main developments. First, the scandal over Ukraine continued to take on new dimensions as a second whistle blower came forward and it was revealed Trump’s associates tried to use his connections to get lucrative gas deals. On the other side of the world, Trump also abandoned the Kurdish people of Rojava, one of the few genuinely democratic factions in the Syrian Civil War, to an invasion by Turkey.
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.