No Previous President Has Done So Much, So Fast

“I will tell you this in a non-braggadocios way: there has never been a 10-month president that has accomplished what we have accomplished.” – President Trump, Nov. 29, 2017

Donald Trump is such a self-promoter and serial exaggerator that it’s easy to dismiss claims like the one above, made during a tax reform rally in Missouri this week.

But this time he may be onto something. I’m no historian, but from what I can tell, no previous 10-month president has:

• Put more trust in the word of Vladimir Putin than in the considered judgment of American intelligence agencies which concluded that Russia tried to disrupt our electoral process by cyberattacking U.S. voting systems and Democratic Party computers.
• Fired the director of the FBI because the director refused to put loyalty to the president ahead of his responsibility to enforce the law and investigate the Russian attack on our elections.
• Ridiculed and threatened to fire his attorney general for honoring long-established legal standards and refusing to engage in a conflict of interests.
• Secretly appealed to members of Congress and senior officials of his administration to obstruct justice on his behalf by ending the Russia investigation.
• Blatantly used his office to enrich himself. Trump is pursuing a “tax reform” plan that will provide a tax windfall to him and his family. The gain is certain to be in the millions, if not more, though its full scope is unclear because Trump refuses to release his tax forms.
• Defied the Constitution’s “emoluments clause” by retaining ownership of a string of resorts and other businesses that do business with foreign governments.
• Trampled on the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom by attempting to bar Muslims from traveling to the U.S.
• Threatened the Constitution’s guarantee of a free press and branded journalists “the enemy of the American people.”
• Led the nation to the brink of a new and in all likelihood nuclear war with North Korea.
• Drawn a public rebuke from the leader of America’s most reliable ally, Great Britain, for elevating hate-filled videos produced by an extremist anti-Muslim group
• Encouraged the proliferation and work of hate groups around the world by distributing hate-filled Tweets
• Ridiculed and otherwise attacked the parents of an American serviceman killed in the line of duty
• Offered rhetorical comfort to white supremacists and neo-Nazis inside our country.
• Regularly stoked racial resentments among the American public
• Repeatedly used a racial slur to attack a U.S. Senator.
• By using the same slur, insulted not only the senator but a group of Native American heroes who were his guests at a White House ceremony organized in their honor.
• Effectively endorsed the Senate candidacy of a man twice removed from the bench for violating court orders and accused – with convincing evidence – of molesting a 14-year-old girl.
• Condemned sexual misconduct by prominent men in the entertainment and news industries, while dismissing as “fake news” allegations – again often supported by convincing evidence – of his own history as a serial harasser.
• Deliberately left open hundreds of federal jobs that can only by filled by his appointees, ignoring his responsibility to see that the laws are faithfully executed.

I needed less than an hour to come up with this list, so I’m pretty certain it’s not definitive. But I’m satisfied that it’s enough to validate the president’s claim. It’s really true – no other president has done so much in such a short time.

And thank goodness for that.

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