Opinion | What Does Trump’s Record Say About a Second Term? Nothing Good. - The New York Times

“01.21.2017: “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period.” On Mr. Trump’s first day in office, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, accuses the media of deliberately understating the size of the crowd on the National Mall, claiming — falsely — that Mr. Trump’s was the most-attended inauguration in history.

01.25.2017: Tries to defund sanctuary cities in an effort to ramp up deportations.On his fifth day in office, Mr. Trump signs a sweeping executive order focused on immigration that includes measures to withhold funds from cities whose law enforcement agencies don’t comply with federal immigration authorities. The order is later blocked in court.

01.27.2017: The Muslim ban. In an executive order, Mr. Trump closes the U.S. border to refugees fleeing war in Syria, as well as from several mostly Muslim countries. The ban is put in place with no warning, sending airports across the country into chaos and confusion.

01.28.2017: Appoints Steve Bannon, a committed dismantler of the administrative state, to the National Security Council. Mr. Bannon, a far-right agitator, is named to a council usually reserved for generals and intelligence officials, whose decisions are meant to be separate from political considerations.

02.15.2017: Abandons a decades-long commitment to a two-state solution in a news conference. Standing next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Mr. Trump reverses a long-held position by the United States that any peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians must include a Palestinian state alongside Israel — startling the diplomatic community. “There is no Plan B to a two-state solution,” the U.N. secretary general says afterward. “Everything must be done to preserve that possibility.”

03.04.2017: Claims to have been wiretapped by the U.S. government. In a series of early morning tweets, Mr. Trump makes unsubstantiated claims about being surveilled by the Obama administration during the campaign.

05.09.2017: Fires the F.B.I. director, James Comey, who was leading an investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. In a letter, Mr. Trump claims he is acting at the behest of members of his administration who thought Mr. Comey treated Hillary Clinton unfairly. Mr. Comey finds out about his dismissal through news reports.

05.10.2017: Reveals highly classified intelligence to Russian officials. In an Oval Office meeting, Mr. Trump reportedly reveals sufficient information to endanger cooperation with the source of the intelligence, which was about a planned Islamic State operation. “I get great intel,” he boasts to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. “I have people brief me on great intel every day.”

June 2017: Rages against immigrants, saying those from Haiti all have AIDS. In a meeting with cabinet officials, Mr. Trump ignites over the number of foreigners entering the country under his tenure. 

June 2017: Tries to fire the special counsel Robert Mueller over the Russia investigation. Mr. Trump claims, among other reasons, that Mr. Mueller has a conflict of interest, because of a 2011 dispute over fees at the Trump National Golf Club. Mr. Trump backs down after the White House counsel, Donald McGahn, threatens to resign.

06.21.2017: Sends his son-in-law to negotiate Middle East peace. Jared Kushner, who has already been granted a sizable policy portfolio in the White House, goes to Israel to take on one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. He has no prior experience in diplomacy or foreign policy.

07.26.2017: Announces a ban on transgender people in the military. Active-duty service members get the news on Twitter, leaving many unsure of their status. The ban is challenged in court.

08.15.2017: “You had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.” Mr. Trump makes his infamous comments after white nationalist groups hold a march in Charlottesville, Va., that involves waving Confederate flags and swastikas and chants of “Jews will not replace us.” One person died, and dozens were injured at the rally.

08.21.2017: Everyone knows that you should never stare directly at the sun during an eclipse, right? Nope.

10.03.2017: Throws paper towels to Puerto Ricans after a deadly hurricane. Mr. Trump visits Puerto Rico two weeks after Hurricane Maria, when more than 90 percent of the island is still without electricity and some remote areas lack food, water and medical aid. The death toll in Puerto Rico from Maria eventually reaches around 3,000.

12.06.2017: Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, upending decades of U.S. policy. The status of Jerusalem was viewed an issue to be decided during peace talks. Mr. Trump says he is fulfilling a campaign promise made to, among others, evangelical voters and pro-Israel American Jews, like Sheldon Adelson, a major donor.

12.22.2017: Cuts taxes for corporations and the wealthy, sending the budget deficit skyrocketing. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act costs $1.5 trillion. From 2017 to 2018, the budget deficit grows 17 percent, largely driven by falling revenues. 

01.06.2018: “A very stable genius.” Mr. Trump sends a set of Saturday morning tweets in response to the erratic and dimwitted portrait of him painted by Michael Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury.” “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart,” Mr. Trump writes.

01.11.2018: Wants more immigrants from Norway instead of “shithole” countries.Mr. Trump balks at a deal that would protect migrants from Haiti and Africa.

Winter 2018: Reaps financial benefits from a diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf.The governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar spend lavishly at Trump’s D.C. hotel while lobbying for the United States’ help resolving a standoff in the region. The Qataris and connected companies spend more than $300,000.

03.14.2018: Brags about making up facts in meetings with foreign leaders. At a private meeting with donors, he recounts telling Canada’s prime minister that the U.S. runs a trade deficit with its northern neighbor, even though Mr. Trump had “no idea” if this was true. (It wasn’t.)

04.15.2018: Flip-flops on sanctions for Russia over its role in Syria’s chemical weapons program. A proposal announced by Nikki Haley is immediately undercut through a phone call to the Russian Embassy. The whiplash is another marker of administration chaos.

Spring 2018: Tries to get the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and Mr. Comey. Mr. McGahn, the White House counsel, refused. Mr. Trump has said that if re-elected, he will appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” his enemies, including Joe Biden and Mrs. Clinton.

Spring 2018: Initiates family separations by executive order. Thousands of migrant children, some of them as young as just a few months old, are taken from their parents, who are detained for crossing the border illegally. The process is disorganized; efforts to reunite families are ongoing. 

May 2018: Orders top-secret clearance for Mr. Kushner, over the objections of intelligence officials. Mr. Trump overrules concerns, then claims he had no role in the decision. 

May 2018: Closes pandemic preparedness unit. The Trump White House abolishes the position of director for global health security and biodefense in the National Security Council less than two years before the Covid pandemic. Mr. Biden has created a pandemic preparedness unit, but Mr. Trump says he would abolish it again if re-elected.

05.08.2018: Unilaterally pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal. In 2019, after efforts to salvage the deal, Iran resumes high-level uranium enrichment; officials warn it now has enough material to make several nuclear bombs with further enrichment.

06.04.2018: “I have the absolute right to PARDON myself ....” Mr. Trump publicly floats the idea of pardoning himself, something he has reportedly been pondering since 2017. (Constitutional scholars do not agree on whether presidents may pardon themselves.)

Summer 2018: Escalates the trade war with China, which requires billions of dollars to fix the domestic damage. Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods immediately hurt American farmers, so he has to spend $12 billion to help them. “You have a terrible policy that sends farmers to the poorhouse, and then you put them on welfare, and we borrow the money from other countries,” says Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee.

07.11.2018: Insults NATO allies. At a meeting of an alliance Mr. Trump has long disparaged, he accuses Germany of being “captive” to Russia and calls U.S. allies “delinquent.” Days later, he calls the European Union a “foe.”

07.16.2018: Sides with Vladimir Putin over American intelligence agencies on Russian election interference. Standing next to Russia’s president at a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, Mr. Trump says he got an “extremely strong and powerful” denial from Mr. Putin that his country had tried to influence the U.S. election. A reporter asks, “Who do you believe?” “I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia,” Mr. Trump responds, adding, “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

09.13.2018: Lies about hurricane deaths. Angry about criticism of his response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017, Mr. Trump denies that nearly 3,000 people died. “This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible,” he tweets. “I love Puerto Rico!”

10.24.2018: Continues to use his personal iPhones after warnings that they are not secure. Aides repeatedly tell Mr. Trump that Russian and Chinese spies are often listening to his phone calls. He keeps using the phones anyway.

11.10.2018: Calls American soldiers “losers” and “suckers.” Mr. Trump balks at visiting a cemetery dedicated to U.S. war dead near Paris, reportedly out of concern that the rain would leave his hair disheveled and asking, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”

12.22.2018: Instigates the longest government shutdown ever. Mr. Trump demands $5.7 billion to pay for his border wall but can’t reach a deal with Congress for the money. More than 420,000 essential government workers, including Border Patrol officers, work without pay for 35 days, including the December holidays. The shutdown ends with him receving no border wall money.

12.28.2018: The E.P.A. proposes weakening regulations on power plants that restrict the release of mercury, which can cause brain damage. The chief executive of Murray Energy Corporation requested the rollback of the mercury rule soon after Mr. Trump took office.

02.14.2019: Moves to appoint a climate change denier to lead a climate security panel. William Happer, the appointee, has said, “More CO2 will benefit the world,” and once compared the “demonization” of CO2 to the treatment of Jews under Hitler. 

02.15.2019: Declares national emergency to get money for border wall. After his shutdown fails to secure border wall funding from Congress, Mr. Trump pursues an emergency declaration that allows him to move money from other accounts, raising questions about the constitutional separation of powers.

March 2019: Suggests shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down. Aides tell him this is illegal. 

03.20.2019: Continues to attack John McCain after his death. “I’ve never liked him much,” Mr. Trump tells an Ohio crowd, seven months after the senator’s death.

03.22.2019: Reverses North Korea sanctions by tweet … maybe. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” Mr. Trump tweets. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” In addition to the policy muddle he generates by overruling his own Treasury Department, there is confusion over what sanctions he is referring to: No new North Korea sanctions were announced the day of his tweets.

05.24.2019: Proposes ending federal health rights protections for transgender people. A new federal rule attempts to eliminate protections for trans patients against discrimination in the health care system. It is blocked by a federal judge a day before it is set to take effect.

06.12.2019: Says he would accept opposition research from Russia. Asked what he would do if a foreign government offered incriminating information about an opponent, Mr. Trump says, “I think I’d take it.” Would he tell the F.B.I.? He says he might not. 

06.29.2019: Takes his daughter to a G20 summit. A video clip of Ivanka Trump awkwardly trying to jump into a conversation with four world leaders goes viral, spawning a hashtag: #UnwantedIvanka.

06.30.2019: Steps into North Korea. Mr. Trump’s almost complete embrace of Kim Jong-un after initially promising fire and fury results in no progress in reducing North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. In the months after the visit, North Korea continues to test-launch missiles. 

07.25.2019: Pressures Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for “a favor”: to investigate Mr. Biden’s activities in the country. Days before he talks with Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump orders his acting chief of staff to put a hold on almost $400 million of military aid intended for the country to combat Russian aggression. “The United States has been very, very good to Ukraine,” Mr. Trump reminds Mr. Zelensky during the conversation.

08.20.2019: Cancels a state visit to Denmark after the country says it won’t sell him Greenland. He takes offense at the Danish prime minister’s comments that the suggestion is “absurd.” “You don’t talk to the United States that way,” Mr. Trump says.

08.21.2019: Proposes regulation that would allow indefinite detention of migrant families. A federal judge rejects the defense of the regulations as “Kafkaesque.”

09.04.2019: Insists, over meteorologists’ objections, that Alabama will be hit by Hurricane Dorian. Possibly alters a map from NOAA to prove he’s right. After Mr. Trump’s statements, the National Weather Service clarifies that its forecasts do not put Alabama in Dorian’s path; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rebukes the Weather Service, then comes under fire from the scientific community for seemingly massaging its meteorology for political purposes. The map incident comes to be known as Sharpiegate; Dorian does not reach Alabama.

11.18.2019: Reverses four decades of U.S. policy by declaring that Israeli settlements in the West Bank do not violate international law. Over 9,000 new Israeli homes are built in the West Bank during the Trump administration, according to The Associated Press. In February 2024 the Biden administration reverses the U.S. stance again, declaring the settlements “inconsistent with international law.”

12.18.2019: Becomes the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached, on charges related to Mr. Trump’s interactions with Mr. Zelensky. Testimony during the impeachment process makes clear that the Trump administration made the release of military aid contingent on Mr. Zelensky making a public statement about an investigation into Mr. Biden, possibly on CNN. Mr. Trump is acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate.

01.17.2020: Rolls back school nutrition rules promoted by Michelle Obama — fewer vegetables, more pizza. Some experts argue the changes, which seem likely to increase the number of french fries consumed by students, were driven by the potato lobby.

01.28.2020: Announces a Middle East peace plan that heavily favors Israel. The plan would give Israel most of what it has sought, including West Bank settlements and Jerusalem as its capital, in exchange for a Palestinian state with no standing army and no right of return. The plan is celebrated by Israeli hard-liners and immediately denounced by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority.

02.28.2020: Downplays Covid-19. Mr. Trump blames the media for “doing everything they can to instill fear in people” and says Democrats are pushing the danger of the virus as “their new hoax.” Later a book by the journalist Bob Woodward makes clear that in a private interview in February, Mr. Trump called the virus “deadly.”

March 2020: Botches the early Covid-19 response — sometimes deliberately.The White House Covid response coordinator, Deborah Birx, later tells a House subcommittee investigating Mr. Trump’s response that the White House purposely tried to discourage testing to obscure the virus’s rapid spread and that the White House did not contact companies to supply Covid tests more than a month into the pandemic, among other failings.

04.04.2020: Pushes hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, as a Covid treatment.“What do you have to lose?” he asks. Prescriptions surge.

04.23.2020: Pushes bleach, which is toxic to humans, as a Covid treatment.Reports to poison control of accidental disinfectant poisoning spike in the following days.

05.07.2020: Pressures the Justice Department into dropping a Russia-related case against his former national security adviser. The adviser, Michael Flynn, already pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his contact with a Russian diplomat during the transition. Mr. Trump later pardons him.

06.01.2020: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” In the midst of protests over George Floyd’s murder, Mr. Trump tweets a slogan seemingly advocating violence against Black Lives Matter protesters.

July 2020: Defends Confederate flag. “When people proudly have their Confederate flags, they’re not talking about racism. They love their flag. It represents the South,” he says in an interview. 

08.19.2020: Praises QAnon at a news conference. “I heard that these are people that love our country,” he says. Asked about the QAnon theory that he is saving the nation from a satanic cult of child sex traffickers, he asks, “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”

09.23.2020: Refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” Mr. Trump says at a news conference. The next day he says he can’t be sure the election will be “honest.”

09.26.2020: Hosts a Covid-19 superspreader event at the White House. Mr. Trump hosts a nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden, followed by a reception in the White House. At least 11 people who attend the event, including the president and first lady, later get Covid.

09.29.2020: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” Asked during a presidential debate to disavow the white supremacist group, Mr. Trump instead addresses its members directly. Proud Boys celebrate.

10.07.2020: Receives an experimental Covid treatment not yet widely available, calls it a “cure.” Mr. Trump is granted access to a cocktail of monoclonal antibodies before it is available to the general public and calls it a “cure” that will be distributed free by the hundreds of thousands of doses. The biotech company Regeneron does not yet have F.D.A. approval for the treatment and says it anticipates initially having only 50,000 doses available.

10.07.2020: Pressures Attorney General Bill Barr to start a pre-election investigation into his political enemies. In a torrent of tweets, Mr. Trump demands that Mr. Barr indict Joe Biden, Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama. “Where are all of the arrests?” Mr. Trump asks.

11.04.2020: Lies about winning the election. “Frankly, we did win this election,” Mr. Trump says at the White House around 2 a.m., a few hours after polls close. With millions of ballots left to count in several closely contested states, he adds, “We want all voting to stop.”

11.09.2020: Fires the defense secretary in the wake of his election loss.Secretary Mark Esper, among other disagreements, opposed Mr. Trump’s demand that troops be deployed to American cities in the summer of 2020. Mr. Esper’s firing raises alarms about what plans Mr. Trump has in mind for the military in the final weeks of his administration.

11.09.2020: Withholds briefings from Mr. Biden’s team. Mr. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the outcome of the election means the incoming administration cannot get access to intelligence briefings to prepare for transition.

November 2020: Tries to overturn Michigan’s results. Mr. Trump’s pressure tactics to stop a crucial swing state from going to Mr. Biden include inviting Republican state lawmakers to the White House and calling two Republican county election officials to urge them not to vote for certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.

12.19.2020: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” In multiple tweets over weeks, Mr. Trump urges his supporters to meet at the Capitol on the day the vote is certified.

12.22.2020: Threatens to veto coronavirus aid. Mr. Trump suddenly denounces a bill to provide $900 billion in coronavirus relief — the result of months of bipartisan negotiations — as a “disgrace,” claiming to want bigger stimulus payments. He signs it less than a week later, having won almost no changes to the legislation.

12.23.2020: Vetoes annual military spending bill. Mr. Trump’s objects to parts of the bill, which provides the annual funding for the military, including a measure to rename military bases honoring Confederate generals. The Senate overrides his veto.

01.02.2021: Tries to overturn Georgia’s election result. “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Mr. Trump says. Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state and a Republican, refuses.

01.06.2021: Jan. 6. Mr. Trump’s lies about a stolen election culminate in a mob storming the Capitol, targeting his vice president, in order to stop the certification of the 2020 election. Mr. Trump takes no action for hours. At least seven people die in connection with the attack, and dozens of others are injured.

01.13.2021: Becomes the first president in the history of the United States to be impeached twice. The Senate falls 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him of incitement of insurrection for his role in Jan. 6.“