scuttled a deal to lower drug prices because he wanted pharmaceutical companies to mail cash cards ahead of the election?

In August, 2020, Trump’s administration was nearing a deal with the pharmaceutical industry in which companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket costs and cover part of co-payments for seniors. However, the Trump administration demanded that the companies also send $100 cash cards to every senior in America ahead of the election. While the administration claimed that they wouldn’t place Trump’s signature on the cards, COVID-19 relief checks included letters with such signatures.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

The vice president of public affairs at PhRMA, the industry’s largest trade group, explained, “We could not agree to the administration’s plan to issue one-time savings cards right before a presidential election,” going on to dismiss the real effectiveness of one-time cash cards.

Trump instead issued an Executive Order requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to “immediately take appropriate steps to implement his rulemaking plan to test a payment model” that would benefit American drug prices. Opposed by the pharmaceutical industry, it was unclear how long, or whether at all, the Executive Order would have any effect.

Trump also included his name on COVID-19 stimulus checks and sent signed letters to recipients.

The New York Times – A Deal on Drug Prices Undone by White House Insistence on ‘Trump Cards’
Business Insider – The White House botched a deal to lower prescription prices because drug companies wouldn’t budge on its request to pay for $100 gift cards that would’ve been mailed to seniors before the election
NPR – Trump Signs New Executive Order On Prescription Drug Prices 

revoked a rule for reporting on drone strikes?

In March of 2019, Trump signed an Executive Order that ended reporting for the number of strikes and casualties, both civilian and military, by drones outside of the direct purview of the military. This includes all those conducted by non-military agencies like the CIA, effectively allowing the President to deploy drones against any target, civilian or military, in secret.

Since 2017, the Trump administration has given the CIA broader scope and less restrictions on drone strikes abroad. The move has actively counteracting former President Obama’s efforts to increase transparency and transition the authority for drone strikes to the military, where the National Defense Authorization Act still requires reporting. While Obama’s 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance sought to tighten restrictions on drone strikes in areas not designated as an active battlefield with American troop presence, the Trump administration expanded the definition of battlefields, rendering the distinction useless.

Trump has also advocated targeting the families of suspected terrorists and threatened to bomb cultural sites.

BBC News – Trump revokes Obama rule on reporting drone strike deaths
Time – President Trump Cancels Rule Requiring U.S. to Report Civilians Killed in Drone Strikes
Business Insider – Trump quietly rewrote the rules of drone warfare, which means the US can now kill civilians in secret
NBC News – Trump Administration Wants to Increase CIA Drone Strikes
Foreign Policy – Trump Inherited the Drone War but Ditched Accountability

restricted immigration amid the COVID-19 pandemic?

In April 2020, Trump announced a 60-day memorandum on immigration.

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.

Time – President Trump Has Blocked New Legal Immigrants. Here’s Where Else He’s Clamped Down on Immigration During the Coronavirus Outbreak
NBC News – Trump halts immigration for 60 days. Here’s what the president’s order means.
Texas Tribune – Trump signs order pausing immigration for 60 days, with exceptions
Los Angeles Times – Trump announces new visa restrictions on immigrant workers but exempts agriculture, food service, health

announced that he would shut down DACA?

DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was a program created by President Obama that allowed undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation. It also allowed those people to become eligible for a work permit if they had no felonies or only minor misdemeanors on their record. It included some 700,000 people.

In September of 2017, Trump’s administration announced that it would shut down the program.

Trump put the onus on Congress to decide whether or not to create a permanent version through legislation.

Congress failed to pass any legislation on the issue, but the phase-out of DACA was held up in courts, and is to be taken up by the US Supreme Court in 2020. Trump also later blamed Democrats for DACA’s demise.

The New York Times – Trump Moves to End DACA and Calls on Congress to Act
NPR – Trump Ends DACA, Calls On Congress To Act
Wikipedia – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

created a commission to expose mass voter fraud, which then found none?

Immediately after the 2016 election, Trump claimed that he lost the popular vote because of undocumented immigrants and widespread voter fraud.

After taking office, Trump formed the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity by executive order to investigate the alleged mass fraud. Vice President Mike Pence led the commission.

Trump Signs Executive Order establishing a voter fraud commission on May 11, 2017. Wikipedia

Multiple lawsuits were filed by organizations including the ACLU and Electronic Privacy Information Center, as well as one of the commission’s own members. The suits alleged lack of transparency and blatant partisanship.

The commission ran from May 11, 2017 to January 3, 2018, when it was disbanded after having found no evidence of the claimed voter fraud.

The commission member who filed suit, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, later explained, “even though the idea was to investigate voter fraud, it is pretty clear that the purpose of the commission was to actually affirm and validate the president’s claims whether or not we had any evidence of any such voter misconduct.”

Nevertheless, Trump continued to repeat his claims of mass voter fraud. The same year that the commission was disbanded, Trump justified voter ID laws by claiming that Americans need photo ID even to buy groceries. He also later accused mail-in-voting as being a vehicle for fraud, alleging that implementing such measures amid the COVID-19 crisis would mean no Republican would ever be elected again.

The New York Times – Trump Disbands Commission on Voter Fraud
Associated Press – Report: Trump commission did not find widespread voter fraud
Politico – Trump voter fraud panel sued by its own member
The New York Times – Trump Disbands Commission on Voter Fraud
NPR – Member Of Disbanded Trump Voter Fraud Commission Speaks Out
Wikipedia – Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity

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