Jessie Goodson, Campus Carrier News Editor
Saturday marked one year since Donald Trump assumed office as President of the United States. During his first 365 days, Trump has already made a lasting impression on American politics.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy has improved: the unemployment rate has fallen from 4.8 percent to 4.1 percent in a year.
According to an article by NPR’s Julie Rovner, since failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), Congress is working to add a new tax to change healthcare. It would repeal the requirement for people to have to pay a tax penalty if they don’t have health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the requirement would result in 13 million fewer people having insurance in the span of 10 years.
In February, Trump’s proposed travel ban was blocked and Betsy DeVos was named Education Secretary. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, silenced Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor, coining the phrase “Nevertheless, she persisted,” according to a timeline created by CNN Politics. Later, Trump made a comment to the Democrats regarding Warren: “Pocahontas is now the face of your party.”
From February to March, the White House was a busy place. The Trump Administration withdrew federal protections for transgender students and Trump announced that there would be $54 billion in budget cuts and a boost in defense spending. Without evidence, Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower (which was never proven). Trump also signed a new travel ban and 46 US attorneys were fired by the Justice Department.
In April and May, U.S. military dropped America’s most powerful non-nuclear bomb on ISIS targets in Afghanistan. By Trump’s one hundredth day in office, he had the lowest approval rating of any president in recent history. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, and Grand Jury subpoenas were issued regarding the FBI’s Russia investigation. Trump later referred to Comey as a “nut job.” Trump ended May with a tweet containing a typo, “covfefe,” that went viral.
A lot happened in June and July, including Comey’s Congressional hearing, First Lady Melania Trump moving into the White House and Trump accusing Hillary Clinton of collusion. Trump’s approval rating continued to drop.
In August, riots in Charlottesville, Va. left 3 dead and 34 injured. Trump responded to the attacks with vague statements calling the neo-Nazis and white supremacist rioters “repugnant.” Several Confederate monuments were removed throughout the country, Trump threatened a government shutdown and signed a directive banning transgender military recruits (which was changed in September allowing them to re-enlist).
October saw a rampage in Las Vegas that killed 58 people and injured 500. Trump claimed credit for ISIS “giving up” and promising that the JFK files would be released (which they later were).
More recently, Trump was accused of sexual assault by several women, threatened to withhold aid from Palestine and called a book written about his campaign “full of lies.”
So far in January, Trump allegedly referred to three African countries as “s—hole” countries. Trump has had several noteworthy tweets this month, including one that read, “DACA is probably dead” and another in which he claimed to be a “very stable genius.”
These are only a few highlights of what has happened in the White House this past year.
On Saturday, the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration, the government shut down. However, it reopened on Monday.
Sources: NPR, CNN, CNN Politics, Twitter, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics