GOP Downfall: Trump’s Strange Tragedy of Lies and (Alleged) Crimes

It’s impossible to legitimately claim that any particular president of the United States is absolutely perfect. But Trump’s MAGA cult does a good job pushing that claim. Their actions push the GOP further into a downfall.

As Americans, we tend to look back at someone’s presidency and rank them. There’s even a website or two (or three… or four…) dedicated to such rankings.

When it comes to Donald Trump however, we have a massive amount of statements, actions, claims, counter-claims, related to him that can easily show that he has to rank among the worst presidents in modern times.

Again, there are a lot of sites that list the various things that Trump did wrong during his time in office – and afterward. But some of these are very politically-biased depending on the political persuasion of the author or authors.

In addition, it’s clear that those who belong to the MAGA cult will be very quick to dismiss anything Trump would have done wrong, anything he said that was in error or in misrepresentation, or any policies he brought that denied or diminished the rights and privileges of anyone to whom Trump and the MAGA cult are opposed.

Even a cursory search on the Internet will bring up multiple issues with Donald Trump’s presidency, let alone his personality and mental state.

Glaring Errors

So, I’ve honed them down to a not-entirely-comprehensive list of the problems with Trump and his presidency and post-office actions, that aren’t entirely politically motivated. In reviewing this list, I’d hope that we all can say that no president – Republican or Democrat – should ever be guilty of committing these glaring errors, lies, and crimes (whether proven or alleged).

Fair warning: this is a LONG list.

Appointing unqualified family members for top administration posts

The appointees to his cabinet and personal administration included his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, neither of whom had any real political experience. These were clearly nepotistic appointments for the sake of nepotism. Even his other non-family staff also hired family members who weren’t exactly qualified, into positions of influence and authority.

Trump Joined the Infamous “Impeached Presidents” List

The impeachment in 2019 for charges that he pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter and threatened to withhold aid unless the Ukrainian president complied with his wishes, made Trump the third president to actually be impeached by the House (though the Senate vote failed on a party-line vote).

Showing support for white supremacists, racists, and antisemitics while claiming he doesn’t

After Charlottesville counter-protestor Heather Heyer was killed after a member of the far-right drove a car into her, Trump refused to condemn the far-right, claiming they were “very fine people” on both sides of that protest. His subsequent behavior of meeting with infamous white supremacist Nick Fuentes and antisemitic Kanye West, further cements the concept that Trump will readily court racists, antisemitics, and white nationalists in order to expand his support base.

Appointing a far-right white nationalist to the cabinet

Steve Bannon, well-known as a far-right nationalist, was eventually fired after Trump reportedly got sick of sharing the spotlight with him. In 2022, Bannon was charged with fraud in New York after embezzling funds donated by Trump supporters to a border wall crowd-funding effort, after federal charges were dismissed by Trump’s last-day-in-office pardon of Bannon. Suspicious.

Repeatedly refusing to follow protocol by releasing tax returns

The only reason for this is clear, as Michael Cohen stated in an interview: “He doesn’t report the income he claims… His wealth is not as significant, and I imagine they were probably lenient in how they took deductions… His biggest fear is, if that tax return was released, there’s a whole slew of accountants and forensic accountants that will rip through it and he will end up with a massive tax bill, penalties, fines, and possibly even tax fraud.”

The adage here is appropriate: you don’t mind making things public if you have nothing to hide.

Buying Greenland, Dumping Puerto Rico

He expressed interest in buying Greenland and selling Puerto Rico: while seemingly improbably ridiculous, it’s been well-documented that his trip to PR after Hurricane Maria in 2017 made him look like a crass idiot to people who’ve suffered a very traumatic natural disaster. His desire to “buy Greenland” from the Danes wasn’t actually a new idea – the US tried to buy it in 1946 as a “military necessity” – but Trump’s resurgence of that offer was overwhelmingly mocked by the world.

Encouraging police brutality

In 2017, Trump gave a speech in Long Island to members of the Suffolk County Police Department, when he stated, “When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put their hand over, like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody. Don’t hit their head. I said, you can take the hand away, okay? Don’t be too nice.” His ridiculous remarks drew such criticism that the SCPD posted on Twitter statements that basically called Trump’s encouragement to mishandle prisoners a crock of horse manure.

Inventing “illegal voters” without proof

Even though Trump won the presidency in 2016, his well-known narcissism couldn’t get over the fact that Hillary Clinton actually won the popular vote by some 3 million votes. He claimed in 2017 that he was going to launch an investigation into “massive voter fraud”, saying millions of votes had been illegally cast for Clinton, but has never at any time offered any evidence or proof for this claim.

Promoting False Vaccine Beliefs

After Trump tweeted in 2014 a false claim about vaccines causing autism, he met with Andrew Wakefield, the since-disgraced promoter of soundly-disproven MMR vaccine-autism link study, lending tacit recognition by his administration into the shadowy psychosis of the anti-vaccine crowd.

What this crowd seems to conveniently forget in its castigation of the Biden administration as supposedly being solely responsible for all of the COVID-19 restrictions and the vaccine rollout, is that the pandemic started in 2020 while Trump was still president. Oh, and he actually took the mRNA COVID vaccines, which the anti-vax crowd claim are poisons intent on killing the world’s population.

Falsely accusing the Obama administration of spying on him.

Again, without coming forth with a shred of evidence whatsoever, he claimed that Obama had wire-tapped the phones at the New York Trump Tower.

Eliminating the Pandemic Early Warning Program

As an perfect example of extreme myopia, Trump eliminated funding to the pandemic early-warning program in September 2019. It was administered by the US Agency for International Development and worked with many health agencies around the world and our own CDC. As we all know, the first case of coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) were reported about 2 months later.

A friend of mine who works at CDC and was involved in the program, reported to me that had the program still been in place, it’s very likely that the US response to the impending pandemic wouldn’t have been as weak and spineless as it turned out. With the program’s elimination, no clear scientific response was already in place, allowing the brain-dead Trump appointee Dr Robert Redfield to totally screw up the eventual response and guidance.

Revealing highly sensitive information to the Russian Foreign Minister.

According to the Washington Post, a US official confirmed that Trump revealed classified information to Russia’s foreign minister in May 2017. It’s alleged that the information also jeopardized a mole that was placed in DAESH (Islamic State).

Forcing Haitian refugees to return to disaster-ridden Haiti.

In November 2017, Trump ended a humanitarian program that had allowed up to 60,000 Haitians to reside and work in the US, while the country continued to recover from a devastating earthquake in 2010, and the resultant social and political turmoil in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Worse, he demanded that the forced deportations of Haitians continue during the pandemic, despite warnings that Trump was essentially “exporting” coronavirus to a nation that wouldn’t be able to cope with the outbreak.

Promoting anti-Islam videos.

In November 2017, Trump shared a series of Islamophobic tweets from the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First in November 2017. Although he later apologized for sharing the tweets, the whole episode provides further proof that, at best, Trump has no internal filter, and no true capacity for thinking or checking on things beforehand; and at worst, is truly bigoted against other religions. Many other comments and actions from Trump appear to prove this “worst” case.

Sh*thole countries.

According to multiple sources including the Washington Post, during an Oval Office meeting with congressional leaders in early 2018, Trump referred to called countries like Haiti, El Salvador and African nations as “sh*thole countries.” Trump said: “Why are we having all these people from sh*thole countries come here? Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out.”

Accusing Democrats of treason for not applauding him.

After his 2018 State of the Union address, he accused Democrats who didn’t applaud him or stand for him as being treasonous. He said: “Somebody said ‘treasonous.’ I mean, yeah, I guess. Why not? Can we call that treason? Why not.”

Inhumane Treatment of Illegal Alien Children

Now, regardless of how you term them – “illegal aliens” or “migrants” – not many people would seriously consider treating such people in an openly inhumane manner. Except Trump and his MAGA adherents, that is.

In the top-ten list of horribly-inhumane actions, probably right below Pol Pot’s Cambodian massacres, is the separation of illegal alien children from their parents and leaving them in squalid conditions.

Now, detention centers along the US-Mexico border were certainly in place prior to 2016. The famous photo from 2014 that depicted illegal alien children in a chain-link fence enclosure that were inaccurately term “cages” by Republican opposition at the time makes this clear.

But there’s enough documentation that, after (then) Trump-appointee attorney general Jeff Sessions penned a “zero tolerance” memo on immigration, the Trump administration mandated a family separation policy in 2018 despite the fact that a US court ruled it illegal, and Trump himself falsely blamed his predecessor for separating the children.

Later in June 2019, while arguing the Trump administration’s position in court, Trump’s Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian stupidly but seriously argued that the detained children didn’t need beds, toothbrushes, or soap to be “safe and sanitary”. The court later ruled against the Trump administration and its inhumane policy.

Hitler would have been proud of him, though.

Shifting blame for gun violence

Let’s step carefully on this one.

Speaking in early August 2019 after a weekend where 31 people died in mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, Trump blamed “gruesome video games” that “celebrate violence”, and then added, “mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.”

He has appeared to lump all irresponsible gun use into the same mold, instead of defining the difference between mass shootings, which are largely committed by mentally unstable people, and non-mass shootings, typically one-on-one, gang-related, or accidental shootings which have different causes and circumstances.

Appearing to be bought-and-paid-for by the NRA and its (thankfully) now-disgraced president Wayne LaPierre, he has consistently resisted any discussion of even common-sense gun regulation, relegating any such proposals as being the same as severe gun restrictions advocated by the far-left.

Ironically, for someone who wants to claim that mental illness is responsible for all gun violence of any type anywhere, one of his first actions as president was to scrap a regulation introduced by President Obama that would have made it more difficult for people with mental illness to purchase a firearm.

Clarifying my personal position

As a long-time Republican and registered gun owner, I thoroughly believe and support the right of Americans to keep arms as defined by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. I’m also a long-time NRA member.

As a medical provider, I firmly believe that many (but not all) gun violence in the form of mass shootings are perpetrated by people with either un-diagnosed or poorly-treated mental illness (see Guns or Roses: Identifying the Problem in Mass Shooting Incidents). However, there is a major difference between holding these positions out of a sense of responsible logic and research, and Trump’s position that all gun violence is caused by mental illness and video games.

To be clear, even though I support the Second Amendment, I firmly support common-sense measures such as universal background checks, waiting periods, restrictions on gun purchases for people with mental illness, and state-level registration of all weapons purchased or owned (if vehicles need to be registered, so should guns). If the NRA wants to kick me out for this, then you can kindly refund my membership fee.

Walked out of a medal ceremony in the Oval Office

On 7th December, Trump hosted a special ceremony for Dan Gable, a wrestler who was being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Nothing wrong there. Surely Trump couldn’t do anything scandalous here, right? Wrong. After making a few comments, Trump abruptly walked out of the event leaving Gable looking completely baffled and confused, alone in front of the press.

He wanted to give himself the Congressional Medal of Honor

During Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit, Trump revealed to a crowd that he wanted to award himself the Congressional Medal of Honor:

“As President, I wanted to give myself the Congressional Medal of Honor but they wouldn’t let me do it,” Trump said.

The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military honor awarded for heroism above and beyond the call of duty. Clearly he wouldn’t qualify for it anyway, since he had never served in the military.

Tear-Gassing Protesters

As the “Black Lives Matter” riots (let’s be honest) and more peaceful protests escalated across the United States following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers, Trump decided to show no compassion or words of solace or peace.

Due to the presence of riots in Lafayette Park – very close to the White House, Trump was reportedly incensed that the media correctly reported that the Secret Service rushed him into a bunker for his safety while the riot ensued. According to reports, he then ordered police and the military to hit protesters outside of the White House with tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets – just so he could walk a few feet across the street to St John’s Church for a photo op.

He arrived unannounced and unwelcome according to the Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington (which runs the church). He stood for a few minutes, holding up a Bible outside the church (which was partially damaged due to earlier riot activity), but did not pray or offer any words of comfort or compassion. According to Budde, this “charade” was solely to send “a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.”

Tried to launch a ‘voter fraud hotline’ that was flooded by prank calls

After he lost the 2020 general election to Biden, Trump did everything in his power to overturn the results. One of his efforts included launching a ‘voter fraud hotline‘ where Trump supporters could call in and report anything suspicious they had seen at polling stations. This didn’t result in any substantial evidence being brought forward but did see it inundated with some very funny prank calls. It was soon closed down.

Gave ‘most important speech’ on Facebook that contained lies and tirades

A month after the election, Trump shared a 46-minute video on Facebook that he called the ‘the most important speech I’ve ever made.’ What followed was nothing but baseless claims about the results of the vote, vague claims and evidence of voter fraud and calls for judges to help him win. To this day, neither he nor his MAGA cult followers have ever presented any shred of evidence of voter fraud.

Attacked a Republican for having a brother that doesn’t exist the way Trump claimed

As his options for overturning the election started to run dry, Trump began lashing out at Republicans, specifically targeting Brad Raffensperger the secretary of state for Georgia. In a strange moment, Trump tweeted a conspiracy theory that Raffensperger’s brother “works for China” and that they “definitely don’t want ‘Trump.'” The only problem is that Raffensperger’s brother isn’t named Ron, and is a private citizen with no connection to China at all.

Asked Georgia officials to fix the election for him

Trump’s famous narcissistic mentality couldn’t let him admit he lost an election, so he decided fraud was better than admitting defeat. In early 2021, he was caught on a phone call to officials in Georgia, including the aforementioned Brad Raffensperger, literally asking them to fix the election for him by finding him nearly 12,000 votes that he believed would have swung the Georgia election in his favor. Fortunately, if you read the transcript of the call, Raffensperger and the others on the call effectively told him to go pound salt.

Incited a violent attack on the Capitol building to stop the election certification

In perhaps the darkest day in not just Trump’s presidency but in the history of the United States, a large crowd of armed MAGA cult members actually stormed and invaded the Capitol building in a violent attempt at a coup to stop Biden from being certified as the next president by the Senate.

The mob smashed through windows and doors and managed to make their way well into the building, including into various elected officials’ offices, all while Senators and others were locked away for their own personal safety. There is also sufficient documentation proving that the crowd was shouting to execute Vice President Pence by hanging him – they even erected a makeshift gallows (seen here).

The riot led to the deaths of five people including one police officer and came after Trump held a ‘Save America March’ outside of the White House where he had encouraged the crowd to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and make their presence known.

Trump failed to immediately act to stop the riot and in fact, in a move of pure cowardice, tried to distance himself from any responsibility or blame for the actions of his cult.

Treason

The end result is absolutely clear, and there is no question. The actions of the mob constituted insurgency. Those who were actively seeking Vice-President Pence to physically stop him are guilty of treason.

Trump himself is clearly guilty of treason for his actions of inciting the mob to storm the building and “stop the steal” by disrupting the proceedings, even if it meant kidnapping Pence (which there are clear indications that would have taken place). Trump’s intention to stop the formal certification of the Electoral College vote by the actions of his followers, certainly constitutes treason.

And he should be convicted and jailed for it, before things get worse.

That’s Not All

That list isn’t the whole extent of the blunders, errors, stupid things, and alleged crimes that Donald Trump had committed before, during, and after his time in office.

As a religious conservative, I am even more concerned about how he has completely destroyed the collective mind of the religious right.

Coming next time.