At a 2017 Phoenix rally, Trump championed “clean coal,” though he seemed unclear as to what it was.
We’ve ended the war on beautiful, clean coal, and it’s just been announced that a second brand new coal mine where they’re going to take out clean coal – meaning they’re taking out coal, they’re going to clean it – is opening in the state of Pennsylvania.
“Clean coal” has nothing to do with the mining and extraction process. It refers to various complex technologies used to mitigate the carbon emissions that arise from burning coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Championing coal was a core component of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump at a rally in West Virginia. Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images
Because of the cost associated with developing and implementing such technologies, the term “clean coal” has been derided by critics as a fabrication. The Sierra Club has long maintained that “clean coal” is an oxymoron, and that there is no way to “clean” coal to any substantive degree that would be superior to alternative forms of energy.
Despite being a climate change denier, in 2017, the CEO of the United States’ largest coal company agreed.
Murray Energy Corp. CEO Robert Murray explained, “Carbon capture and sequestration does not work. It’s a pseudonym for ‘no coal.’ It is neither practical nor economic, carbon capture and sequestration. It is just cover for the politicians, both Republicans and Democrats that say, ‘Look what I did for coal,’ knowing all the time that it doesn’t help coal at all.”
On June 28, 2020, Trump retweeted a video of protests and counter-protests in The Villages, a Florida retirement community. Within 10 seconds of the two minute video, a man is shown yelling “white power.”
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) June 27, 2020
Along with the video, Trump added,
Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!
Trump’s retweet was deleted later that same day.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said Trump hadn’t heard the remarks:
President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video. What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.
On October 27, 2018, the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was attacked by a mass shooter. 11 people were killed and 6 others wounded. It was the most deadly attack on American Jews in the nation’s history.
The shooter posted repeatedly online about his racist and anti-immigration views. Before the shooting, he posted that he would target those who “bring invaders in that kill our people.” He continued, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”
The memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue. Brendan Smialowski, AFP / Getty
When asked about the shooting, Trump described it as a “terrible, terrible thing” before going on to say that gun laws “had little to do with it” because “if they had protection inside, the results would’ve been far better.”
With the implementation of the Affordable Healthcare Act, the Obama administration determined that its anti-discrimination measures included matters of gender identity, which it defined as “male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female.”
In 2019, the Trump administration eliminated the provision, allowing for gender discrimination by federal law. The same week, the Trump administration also eliminated anti-discriminatory measures based on gender for federal housing.
The new healthcare rules were finalized in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On June 1, 2020, amid national protests and riots following George Floyd’s death at the hands of police, Trump gave a speech wherein he threatened to unilaterally deploy the military to quell unrest.
First, we are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread throughout our country. We will end it now. Today, I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets. Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.
If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.
After the speech at the White House, Trump headed to St. John’s Church for a photo op. Lafayette Square, which sits between the White House and the Church, was filled with people protesting the death of George Floyd. The park is famed for being a place to voice grievances, seeing hundreds of protests annually.
Map of the White House, Lafayette Square, and St. John’s. Google Earth
Attorney General William Barr gave the order for US Park Police, the federal organization responsible for overseeing and securing the park, to clear the area so Trump could proceed to St. John’s. Without warning, the federal officers equipped in riot gear deployed tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowd.
An Australian news crew on the scene filmed the moment the police began to advance. The cameraman was briefly attacked by one of the officers.
The administration originally claimed that no tear gas had been used, despite CS canisters being found at the scene. A spokesman for the US Park Service later said “It was a mistake on our part for using ‘tear gas’ [in our statement].”
Once Trump reached St. John’s, he posed with a Bible in front of the church briefly before leaving. When asked if it was his Bible, Trump simply responded, “it’s a Bible.”
Patrick Semansky / AP Photo
The pastor of St. John’s said he wasn’t made aware of the photo op. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC noted that no one was “given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”
Budde commented further on Twitter:
The Bible teaches us to love God and our neighbor; that all people are beloved children of God; that we are to do justice and love kindness. The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division.
In April 2020, Trump announced a 60-day memorandum on immigration.
In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!
The order was limited to would-be immigrants living outside the country seeking a green card. It had some significant exceptions, like for the spouse or child of a citizen, military service members, and medical professionals. It did not affect anyone already within the United States.
Supporters of further immigration controls regarded the provisions as too limited, while immigration advocates worried that the 60-day period and those affected could be easily expanded.
A month after the order, the administration announced an expansion in an attempt to retain more jobs for citizens in the wake of COVID-19. The new regulations banned entry on certain visas through rest of the year, including including high-skilled H-1B visas. The order also had exceptions for agricultural, healthcare, and food industry workers.
At a June 20, 2020 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Trump said he asked officials to slow their testing for COVID-19.
When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please. They test and they test. We had tests and people don’t know what’s going on. We got tests, we got another one over here. The young man’s 10-years-old. He’s got the sniffles. He’ll recover in about 15 minutes. That’s a case, add him to it. That’s okay. That’s a case.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany responded to questions saying, “any suggestion that testing has been curtailed is not rooted in fact.” and that Trump’s remark “was a comment that he made in jest.”
In a subsequent interview, when asked if the remark was true, Trump failed to answer the question.
TRUMP: If we did slow it down, we wouldn’t show nearly as many cases. You’re showing people that are asymptomatic, you’re showing people that have very little problem, you’re showing young people that don’t have a problem. But we’re doing so much testing, 25 million tests.
ST. GEORGE: But did you ask to slow it down?
TRUMP: Uhh, if it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job, because every time we go up – with 25 million tests, you’re going to find more people. So then they say, ‘oh we have more cases in the United States.’ The reason we have more cases is because we do more testing than any other country by far.
VIDEO: Just asked President Trump if he actually ordered testing to be slowed down. He said in his Saturday speech he did. He didn't answer the direct question. pic.twitter.com/aDKGu6F2Ok
Though administration officials said Trump was likely joking, when asked if this was the case four days after his original remark, Trump replied, “I don’t kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear.”
On the day of the Tulsa rally when Trump made the original remark, the United States had suffered 192,180 deaths, over twice all the Americans lost in wars from Vietnam to the modern day combined.
In 2016, audio resurfaced of a phone call to the media by John Miller, who claimed to be Trump’s publicists. It was noted, however, that his voice and speech patterns closely resembled those of Trump himself.
In the call, Miller said Trump was doing “tremendously well financially,” and despite there being several famous women who wanted to date him, including Carla Bruni and Madonna, “he treated his wife well and…he will treat Marla well.” Marla Maples was Trump’s second wife before their divorce and his marriage with Melania.
Trump has also accused of using another pseudonym, John Barron, to speak about himself to the media. Calling himself “vice-president of the Trump organization,” the name John Barron is first noted in the defense of Trump’s decision to destroy sculptures on the facade of a Manhattan building that was demolished for the construction of Trump Tower. Michael D’Antonio, the biographer to whom Trump said his temperament remained unchained since the first grade, noted that “John Barron was a way for Trump to talk himself up.” Trump later named his fifth child with third wife Melania “Barron.”
Trump vehemently denied the claims, saying in a Today interview. “It doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that. And it was not me on the phone.” However, in a 1990 court case Trump testified, “I believe on occasion I used that name.”
In a 1992 issue of New York Magazine, a letter was published in defense of Donald Trump and his relationship with women.
Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary—and therefore know him well—I think he treats women with great respect, contrary to what Julie Baumgold implied in her article … I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women—all women love Donald Trump.
Carolin Gallego December 7, 1992
No record of a Carolin Gallego in the employ of Trump has been found, and longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said he’d never heard of her. The similarity between the letter and Trump’s own speech pattern has been noted by journalists and commentators.
I have retained highly respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates, to analyze todays CNN Poll (and others), which I felt were FAKE based on the incredible enthusiasm we are receiving. Read analysis for yourself. This is the same thing they and others did when we defeated…
The legal filing from Trump’s campaign alleged that the poll was “designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling,” and demanded an apology.
“We stand by our poll,” said Matt Dornic, a CNN spokesman. CNN also noted that several other polls found Trump trailing Biden by double digits, and that there was nothing unorthodox about the methodology used by their own.
The poll showed Trump trailing Democratic candidate Joe Biden by 14 points ahead of the 2020 election, and found Trump’s approval rating at 38%, among his lowest.
![President Donald Trump holds up a Trump Digs Coal sign as he arrives to speak during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia in August.](https://i0.wp.com/api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/donald-trump-coal-robert-murray.jpeg?resize=599%2C391&ssl=1 "President Donald Trump holds up a "Trump Digs Coal" sign as he arrives to speak during a Make America Great Again Rally at Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, West Virginia in August.")
