On January 25th, 2017, DT announced in a pair of tweets from his personal Twitter account that he will order an investigation into “massive voter fraud” for an election he won, setting the stage for further legal undermining of voting rights. Of note is that he specifically mentions those who are registered to vote in two states. Steve Bannon, Chief White House Strategist and noted white supremacist, is registered to vote in 2 states. (Source, tweet 1: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824227824903090176 Source, tweet 2: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824228768227217408 Source 3, RE: Steve Bannon: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/pages/ciyd1t8md005sojy69w6c5jmu.html)
On January 25th, 2017, DT announced on Twitter, again from his personal Twitter account, that he will be announcing his Supreme Court nomination on Thursday of next week. (Source, tweet: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/824229586091307008)
On January 25th, 2017, National Public Radio publicly announced that they would not call lies on the part of DT and White House representatives “lies.” (Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/25/511503605/npr-and-the-l-word-intent-is-key)
On January 25th, 2017, Politico published a story highlighting 3 prominent DT acolytes, bolstered by DT’s success, now mounting campaigns of their own to run for office in much the same way that DT did and on the same platforms. Among them are Alan Cobb, who will be running for the 4th district of Kansas congressional seat, who was quoted as saying, “I would wholeheartedly support the Trump agenda. It’s all consistent with what’s best for the 4th District,” and Bruce Levell, who plans to run for a suburban district of Atlanta, who was quoted as saying, “I’d like to see someone in that seat who’s a champion of Trump’s policies. I’d like to be that champion.” (Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-boosters-seek-office-234134)
On January 25th, 2017, in full view of the White House, Greenpeace protestors unfurl a banner on a crane that reads, simply, “RESIST.” (Source: https://twitter.com/marikatogo/status/824278392149344256)
On January 25th, 2017, the Washington Post and New York Times both reported that a draft of an executive order by DT would lift the ban on CIA “black site” prisons to detain and torture suspects of terrorism. (Source 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/cia-detainee-prisons.html?_r=0 Source 2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-draft-order-calls-for-review-on-use-of-cia-black-sites-overseas/2017/01/25/e4318970-e310-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.b5438f79f9d1)
On January 25th, 2017, clearly upset by negative press related to all of the above, the White House issues a press release with pull quotes from various ring wing media praising DT, as well as neutral commentary by other outlets. (Source 1: http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/01/trump-team-sends-press-a-note-about-how-much-the-press-loves-trump-234160 Source 2: https://twitter.com/mmurraypolitics/status/824264894606442496 Source 3, full text of the press release: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/praise-president-trumps-bold-action)
On January 25th, 2017, Spicer confirmed that there will be investigations of voter fraud prompted by baseless accusations of DT that massive voter fraud occurred. These investigations would focus on large urban population centers that DT lost, and are most likely to have voters vulnerable to being mislabeled fraudulent because they have moved to a new state or city and were unaware that their names were still on previous rolls. (Source 1: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/trump-calls-for-major-investigation-into-voter-fraud/ Source 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/trump-voting-fraud-false-claim-investigation.html)
On January 25th, 2017, DT signed an executive order to build a wall along the entire border between the United States and Mexico, still claiming that he will somehow make Mexico reimburse the United States for said wall. (Source 1: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/trump-signs-order-border-wall-mexico-170125185244055.html Source 2: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38740717)
On January 25th, 2017, DT signed an executive order blocking all federal aid to US Sanctuary Cities, including but not limited to San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Austin and Boston. The Attorney General will be responsible for determining whether or not a city is complying with the executive order and thus eligible for federal aid. The current candidate for Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has previously called for a “Muslim ban,” though he did backtrack in his confirmation hearing in early January. The text also says that the DT administration will publish a weekly list of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in Sanctuary Cities. (Source 1: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38740717 Source 2: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/trump-signs-order-border-wall-mexico-170125185244055.html Source 3: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/10/sessions-backs-off-muslim-ban-confirmation-hearing/ Source 4 and 5, tweets with screenshots of text of Sanctuary City ban, to be updated when the executive order is officially filed: https://twitter.com/christinawilkie/status/824347165208248320 https://twitter.com/willsommer/status/824348441505648648)
On January 25th, 2017, journalists pointed out that an executive order expected to be signed later today or this week by DT which would ban not only refugee asylum but issuing visas at all to citizens of predominantly Muslim nations would apply only to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, but not to those from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, three nations where DT has businesses. While a ban on anyone from any nation based on religion is ludicrous, racist, ethnicist, and in the case of countries in the midst of horrifying civil wars, cruel, it should be noted that:
Islam is the state religion of Egypt, with a population density of anywhere from 80-97%. (Source, CIA: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html)
While Turkey is, for the time being, still in name a secular country, 99.8% of the country identifies as Muslim. (Source: http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf)
Islam is the state religion of Saudi Arabia, with a population density of nearly 100% of its citizens identifying as Muslims. (Source, CIA: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html)
(Source for news item: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-exclusive-idUSKBN1582XQ Source 2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/12/08/where-donald-trump-does-business-in-muslim-countries/?utm_term=.f5613d7291b8 Source 3: http://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/news/donald-trump-muslim-countries-business/ Source 4: https://mic.com/articles/130070/here-are-some-of-donald-trump-s-middle-east-business-ventures#.tln4BPvaQ)
On January 25th, 2017, after announcing that the White House would investigate “voter fraud” in large metropolitan areas, Spicer declared, officially, without any investigation whatsoever, that no voter fraud existed in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, or Detroit. All three cities are in states DT won by small margins, had previously gone to democrat candidates, and were subject to recount efforts by Jill Stein and the Green Party shortly after the upset election. (Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/25/sean-spicer-makes-it-official-no-voter-fraud-in-philadelphia-milwaukee-or-detroit/?utm_term=.399f71897b91)
On January 25th, 2017, Newsweek reported that several high level DT administration staffers, among them Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, and Sean Spicer, have private RNC email addresses, despite repeated insistence by DT, his campaign, his supporters, several press outlets, and even DT detractors claiming that use of a private email server by candidate Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State was grounds for disqualifying her from office. (Source: http://www.newsweek.com/trump-emails-rnc-reince-priebus-white-house-server-548191)
On January 25th, 2017, as an aside in an article about DT’s love of the White House phone system, the New York Times reported that DT is still using his unsecured Android phone, despite repeated insistence by DT, his campaign, his supporters, several press outlets, and even DT detractors claiming that use of a Blackberry by candidate Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State was grounds for disqualifying her from office. (Source 1: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/president-trump-white-house.html?_r=2 Source 2: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanwhitwam/2017/01/25/trump-reportedly-still-uses-an-unsecured-android-phone-heres-why-thats-a-problem/#5a9849592304)
On January 25th, 2017, the New York Times reported that DT gathered congressional leaders in the State Dining Room to discuss, among other things, his belief that he lost the popular vote because of voter fraud. Provided as “proof” was an anecdote he says was from a friend of his, ‘“the very famous golfer, Bernhard Langer,” whom he described as a friend, according to three staff members who were in the room for the meeting.’ DT went on to say that Langer was in line to vote in Florida, when he was informed that he could not vote. “Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members — but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. The president threw out the names of Latin American countries that the voters might have come from.” Langer is a German citizen who is a permanent resident of the United States and would not be eligible to vote. His daughter has denied that he is friends with DT. (Source: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/trump-bernhard-langer-voting-fraud.html)
On January 25th, 2017, DT gave an absolutely unhinged and generally nonsensical interview with ABC television, in which he continuously avoided answering questions, denied saying things he is on record as saying, stated that the CIA loved his speech and gave him “the biggest standing ovation since Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl,” talked over the interviewer, repeatedly told the interviewer that he and his network were demeaning DT, called Chicago a war zone worse than Afghanistan and said, “I will send in what we have to send in. Maybe they're not gonna have to be so politically correct. Maybe they're being overly political correct. Maybe there's something going on,” and, once again, emphasized that he had a very large crowd at his inauguration, which, again, he did not. He continued to insist on this even when the interviewer stated, unequivocally, that he was not interested in the crowd size and tried to change the subject. While every bit of this interview is absolutely horrifying, the major takeaway for me, at the moment, is this:
DAVID MUIR: Mr. President, it does strike me though that we're relitigating the presidential campaign, the election ...
(OVERTALK)
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, no. We're looking at it for the next time.
DT essentially came out and explained that they are “looking at it” (voter fraud) for next time… obviously, to increase voter suppression laws to ensure his victory in the next election. This is EXTREMELY worrying. The entire interview is extremely worrying. (Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-abc-news-anchor-david-muir-interviews-president/story?id=45047602)
On January 25th, 2017, responding to the executive order stripping federal funding for Sanctuary Cities, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio stated that he will not begin deporting law abiding, undocumented immigrants. One recalls the famous headline of the 70’s in which President Ford refused to send funds to New York City during the recession, only this time, it’s NYC to President: Drop Dead. :) (Source 1, de Blasio press conference overview: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/01/25/de-blasio-trump-order-stripping-funds-for-sanctuary-cities-does-not-change-who-we-are/ Source 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/nyregion/28veto.html)