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52 train wrecks John Kelly couldn’t stop — or started himself

The retired general has proven unable to stop President Donald Trump from being himself.

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Retired Marine Gen. John Kelly was promoted from secretary of homeland security to White House chief of staff to do one job: impose discipline on President Donald Trump’s chaotic West Wing. Named at the tail end of a week that included the surprise departure of press secretary Sean Spicer and a shockingly profane rant by communications director Anthony Scaramucci to The New Yorker, Kelly offered the promise of order — but in the year since he took the job, things have gotten only crazier in Trump’s world.

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July 2017
July 31, 2017
1. First day: Goodbye, Scaramucci

1. First day: Goodbye, Scaramucci

Trump tweets “No WH chaos!” A few hours later, Kelly fires short-lived communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

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August 2017
Aug. 8, 2017

2. "Fire and Fury"

President Donald Trump’s warning that if North Korea continued its saber-rattling it “will be met with fire and fury” sparked new fears that the standoff over the regime’s advancing nuclear and ballistic missile programs could degenerate into a shooting war.

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Aug. 10, 2017
3. A thank-you to Putin

3. A thank-you to Putin

“I want to thank him,” Trump said of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to new U.S. sanctions — a cut of 755 U.S. Embassy officials. “We’re trying to cut down on payroll and as far as I’m concerned, I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll,” Trump added, in what was perhaps the most shocking, if not out of character, news he made all day.

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Aug. 15, 2017

4. “Very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville

Trump defends attendees of the fatal white supremacist rally in Virginia, saying, “Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

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Aug. 18, 2017
5. Steve Bannon ousted

5. Steve Bannon ousted

“White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. “We are grateful for his service and wish him the best.”

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Aug. 25, 2017

6. Trump pardons Joe Arpaio

Former Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio – who became a symbol of law enforcement hostility to immigrants and Latinos – wrote on Twitter:

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Aug. 29, 2017
7. Melania wears stilettos en route to Texas hurricane zone tour

7. Melania wears stilettos en route to Texas hurricane zone tour

The first lady boarded Air Force One to visit Texas after Hurricane Harvey wearing her signature stiletto heels in black snakeskin – a move many saw as striking the wrong note given the deaths and flooding in Texas, though she changed into sneakers on the plane.

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September 2017
Sept. 15, 2017

8. Trump targets ESPN host Jemele Hill

The president directly attacked the “SportsCenter” co-host after she called him a white supremacist. Tweeting:

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Sept. 22, 2017
9. Trump disinvites Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry from the White House

9. Trump disinvites Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry from the White House

Three days later, Trump tweeted:

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Sept. 30, 2017

Tom Price resigns

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigns after POLITICO reveals he spent more than $1 million on private jets for official travel.

October 2017
Oct. 3, 2017

10. Trump throws paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico

“Have a good time,” Trump told people at one shelter he visited. A majority of the population on the already-financially struggling island were left without power for months after the storm, an unprecedented crisis that led to an estimated 4,600 deaths in Hurricane Maria’s aftermath.

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10. Trump throws paper towels at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico
Oct. 4, 2017
11. NBC News reports Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron”

11. NBC News reports Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron”

“I’m very honored by his comments,” Trump said after his secretary of state denied the report during a rare news conference at the State Department. “Total confidence in Rex. I have total confidence.”

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Oct. 12, 2017
12. Kelly makes a surprise briefing room appearance to deny that he’s quitting

12. Kelly makes a surprise briefing room appearance to deny that he’s quitting

“I’m not quitting today,” he said, smiling, as he batted back reports of discord between him and the president. “I don’t believe, and I just talked to the president, I don’t think I’m being fired today.”

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Oct. 19, 2017

13. Kelly slimes black Florida Democrat as an “empty barrel”

Kelly refuses to apologize after misrepresenting Rep. Frederica Wilson’s comments at the 2015 opening of a Miami FBI facility – an episode he brought up in an attack on Wilson, who publicly criticized Trump’s handling of a condolence call to the widow of a Special Forces soldier killed in Niger.

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Oct. 30, 2017

Manafort and Gates indicted

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering; simultaneously, a plea deal by former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was unsealed, marking the first conviction secured by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

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November  2017
Nov. 16, 2017
14. Amid #MeToo, Trump tweets about harassment allegations involving Al Franken

14. Amid #MeToo, Trump tweets about harassment allegations involving Al Franken

“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?” Trump tweeted. “And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?” The president was referencing a joke Franken once suggested, in his previous life as a “Saturday Night Live” writer, about raping the “60 Minutes” correspondent.

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Nov. 21, 2017
15. Trump defends Roy Moore after doubting accusers

15. Trump defends Roy Moore after doubting accusers

“Let me just tell you, Roy Moore denies it. That’s all I can say. He denies it. And, by the way, he totally denies it,” Trump told reporters in his first direct comments after the firebrand Alabama Republican Senate candidate was accused of sexually pursuing — and in some cases assaulting — teenagers or young women when he was in his 30s.

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Nov. 24, 2017

16. Trump picks a fight with Time magazine over Person of the Year

“Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named ‘Man (Person) of the Year,’ like last year but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!” Trump tweeted. The magazine said that Trump was wrong.

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Nov. 28, 2017

17. Trump slams Democratic congressional leaders in a tweet

Trump tweeted ahead of a planned White House meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart, Chuck Schumer, who immediately canceled.

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Nov. 29, 2017
18. Trump lashes out at British Prime Minister Theresa May

18. Trump lashes out at British Prime Minister Theresa May

Trump tweeted after May’s spokesperson called the president “wrong” for retweeting anti-Muslim videos posted by the leader of a far-right British group:.

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December 2017
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Dec. 1, 2017

Flynn pleads guilty

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleads guilty to a single count of lying to FBI investigators about his contacts with Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

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Dec. 23, 2017

19. Trump targets top FBI officials

On the second day of his winter break at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump took aim at senior FBI leadership. Trump posted:

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Dec. 28, 2017
20. Trump says Mueller investigation “makes the country look very bad”

20. Trump says Mueller investigation “makes the country look very bad”

In an off-the-cuff interview with New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt at one of his Florida golf clubs, Trump said, “I absolutely have a right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department” – a comment that did nothing to ease concerns that the president might interfere with the ongoing Russia probe.

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January 2017
Jan. 3, 2018
21. Trump disavows Bannon

21. Trump disavows Bannon

“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump says in a statement after The Guardian published excerpts from Michael Wolff’s tell-all “Fire and Fury,” in which the former strategist describes the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian agents as “treasonous.”

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Jan. 6, 2018

22. Trump tweets that he is “a very stable genius”

After days of questions about his mental and physical health sparked by the Wolff book, Trump tweeted:

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Jan. 11, 2018

23. Trump describes African nations as “shithole” countries

In a meeting with lawmakers, the president asked why the U.S. admits people from “shithole countries”—and then said he wanted more immigrants from Norway, drawing a wave of criticism over the administration’s bigotry.

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January 19, 2018

Federal government shutdown

The president was quick to blame Democrats for a weekend-long shutdown triggered by deep political fissures within the Republican caucus.

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Jan. 31, 2018
24. Kelly says California teacher should ‘go to hell’

24. Kelly says California teacher should ‘go to hell’

A high school teacher was put on administrative leave after bashing the military as “the lowest of our low” while urging students not to enlist for service, prompting Kelly – a retired Marine Corps general – to say in a Fox News Radio interview: “I think the guy ought to go to hell.”

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February 2017
Feb. 7, 2018
25. Trump aide Rob Porter resigns amid domestic abuse revelations

25. Trump aide Rob Porter resigns amid domestic abuse revelations

The White House lurched into crisis mode amid reports that staff secretary Rob Porter had verbally and physically abused his two ex-wives, with Kelly forced again to deny reports that he was about to quit or be fired after it was reported that he was aware of the abuse claims against Porter but did nothing until the publication of photographs showing one of Porter’s ex-wives with a bruised eye.

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Feb. 14, 2018

Seventeen people killed in Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.

The president’s initially low-key response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gave way to a public effort to engage with gun violence, including a public listening session at the White House and a controversial proposal to arm teachers – but that faded as survivors of the shooting launched the anti-NRA March for Our Lives movement.

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Feb. 16, 2018

Russians indicted in “information warfare” scheme to disrupt 2016 election

Mueller charged 13 Russian nationals and three Russian-linked agencies in the plot, which included hiring Americans to impersonate Hillary Clinton at rallies in Florida.

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Feb. 17, 2018
26. Trump openly criticizes H.R. McMaster

26. Trump openly criticizes H.R. McMaster

Tensions between the president and his national security adviser flared after McMaster said during a speech in Europe that evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election was “incontrovertible,” with the president responding: “General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!””

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Feb. 23, 2018

Gates pleads guilty

Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty to additional charges as his former business partner and protégé, Rick Gates, agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors in the Russia investigation.

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Feb. 27, 2018
27. Jared Kushner loses top-secret security clearance

27. Jared Kushner loses top-secret security clearance

Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, who in the early days of the administration was ubiquitous at diplomatic events and other sensitive meetings, was among those stripped of access to top-secret intelligence after revelations that dozens of top White House officials were working on temporary security clearances more than a year into the Trump administration.

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March 2017
March 6, 2018
28. Gary Cohn resigns

28. Gary Cohn resigns

The former Goldman Sachs president, whose aspirations of being named to chair the Federal Reserve were dashed after he criticized Trump over the August 2017 Charlottesville march, announced he’d leave the White House amid an unsuccessful push to persuade Trump not to risk a trade war by imposing new tariffs.

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March 16, 2018
29. Kelly tells reporters Tillerson was on the toilet when he was fired

29. Kelly tells reporters Tillerson was on the toilet when he was fired

In an off-the-record briefing with reporters, the chief of staff said that the secretary of state, who was on a diplomatic mission in East Africa when Trump decided to dismiss him, had been suffering from a stomach bug and was in the bathroom when Kelly called to break the news. The embarrassing story was quickly reported by outlets whose reporters weren’t in the off-the-record background meeting.

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March 22, 2018
30. McMaster out, John Bolton in

30. McMaster out, John Bolton in

The president blindsided his chief of staff and other top officials with his decision to replace McMaster with Fox News regular Bolton – who was initially passed over in part because Trump was turned off by his bristly mustache but who won the president’s favor with his TV appearances defending the administration.

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April 5, 2018

31. Trump denies knowing about hush money payment to Stormy Daniels

Aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters he knew nothing about a reported $130,000 payment made by longtime lawyer Michael Cohen during the 2016 campaign to the porn actress, who said she had an affair with Trump starting in 2006. In July, audio tape released by Cohen suggested he and Trump discussed a different payment involving another woman, Karen McDougal, to squash the story of the affair she says she had with Trump around the same time as Daniels.

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April 9, 2018
32. Federal investigators raid Cohen’s office and apartment

32. Federal investigators raid Cohen’s office and apartment

“I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man,” the president said after federal agents seized documents and other materials from Cohen, who is under investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan over his business dealings. “I’ve been saying it for a long time. I have this witch hunt constantly going on,” Trump added. The raid triggered a court battle in New York as Cohen tried to shield seized materials from being used in any investigation, claiming attorney-client privilege.

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April 17, 2018
33. Nikki Haley hits back at the White House over Russia sanctions

33. Nikki Haley hits back at the White House over Russia sanctions

Trump’s U.N. ambassador was quickly corrected by the White House after announcing on a Sunday news show that the administration intended to impose new sanctions on Russia – but instead of folding, the former South Carolina governor publicly defended herself, saying in a statement: “With all due respect, I don’t get confused.”

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April 21, 2018

34. Melania pals around with predecessors at Barbara Bush funeral

The president, whose relationship with the Bush family is tense at best, made the decision to skip former first lady Barbara Bush’s funeral, citing his desire to avoid undue security disruptions – but Melania Trump, who represented the administration in Houston, created an Internet sensation after she was photographed smiling with Barack Obama during the service.

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34. Melania pals around with predecessors at Barbara Bush funeral
April 26, 2018

35. Trump’s doctor, Ronny Jackson, withdraws as Veterans Affairs nominee

The collapse of the president’s nomination of his personal physician Ronny Jackson after revelations about Jackson’s loose handling of prescription medication overshadowed Trump’s successful first state visit, welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as the confirmation of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state.

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April 30, 2018

Daniels sues Trump for libel

Stormy Daniels’ suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, alleged defamation by Trump in an April 19 tweet that suggested she fabricated a story about being approached in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011 by a man who told her to “Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.”

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April 30, 2018
36. NBC News reports that Kelly called Trump an ‘idiot’

36. NBC News reports that Kelly called Trump an ‘idiot’

The chief of staff was forced to deny the report as “total BS” after the network cited eight current and former administration officials saying that Kelly had repeatedly called Trump names – echoing the earlier NBC report that former Secretary of State Tillerson called the president a “moron.”

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May 7, 2018

Sessions announces ‘zero-tolerance’ border policy

“If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at a news conference in San Diego near the U.S.-Mexico border. “It’s that simple.” The decision to refer all adult undocumented migrants, including asylum-seekers, into the court system led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents.

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May 10, 2018
37. The Hill reports aide made dismissive comment about ‘dying’ John McCain

37. The Hill reports aide made dismissive comment about ‘dying’ John McCain

Communications aide Kelly Sadler drew condemnation from Republicans after she was quoted as saying the Arizona Republican’s opposition to Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Gina Haspel, because of her involvement in George W. Bush-era torture programs “doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.” Rather than apologize, the White House launched a hunt for leakers amid the furor that followed the report.

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May 14, 2018

38. Melania’s mysterious kidney condition

The president attacked the media over rumors about Melania Trump’s lengthy absence from the public eye following what the White House said was a kidney embolization procedure at Walter Reed medical center for an unspecified “benign kidney condition.” Weeks after the procedure, Trump tweeted:

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May 16, 2018

39. Trump refers to undocumented immigrants as ‘animals’

“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in — and we’re stopping a lot of them — but we’re taking people out of the country,” Trump said during a roundtable on immigration. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals. And we’re taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that’s never happened before.” The White House later said the president was referring to members of the MS-13 gang – but the White House continued to use the word “animals” to describe immigrants in subsequent news releases.

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May 24, 2018
40. Trump threatens to withdraw from his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

40. Trump threatens to withdraw from his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

“Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote – but then the very next day reversed course, saying the summit planners were back at work. The event eventually took place as planned on June 12.

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May 26, 2018

41. Trump calls his own family separation policy ‘horrible’

Trump tweeted amid a growing backlash over border separations:

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May 28, 2018

42. On Memorial Day, Trump focuses on himself—and Russia

Trump tweeted about himself hours before heading to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a memorial wreath. Later, he pivoted to the Russia investigation:

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May 30, 2018
43. Trump targets Sessions

43. Trump targets Sessions

The president revived his long-dormant campaign against his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, after The New York Times reported that Robert Mueller was examining a March 2017 meeting at which Trump asked the former Alabama senator to un-recuse himself from the Russia probe. “‘There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else,’” Trump tweeted, quoting Rep. Trey Gowdy’s comments on CBS. “And I wish I did!”

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June 8, 2018
44. Trump floats the idea of a self-pardon

44. Trump floats the idea of a self-pardon

A little more than a week after pardoning conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza – and floating a pardon for Martha Stewart and a potential commutation of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s prison sentence – Trump asserted to reporters in an impromptu press availability outside the White House he had the right to pardon himself: “I do have an absolute right to pardon myself, but I’ll never have to do it because I didn’t do anything wrong and everybody knows it.”

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June 9, 2018
45. Trump withdraws from G-7 communique

45. Trump withdraws from G-7 communique

The president waited to board Air Force One on his way to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore before he sent a tweet directing his negotiators to stay out of the joint statement agreed by member countries in Canada – and took a sideswipe at his host for the event, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

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June 15, 2018

46. Trump expresses envy of how North Koreans treat Kim Jong Un

Coming off his summit in Singapore, at which he was seen saluting a North Korean general, the president told Fox News that he wished Americans would treat him with more respect. “He’s the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,” Trump said to Fox. “Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” Trump later told another reporting he’d been kidding.

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46. Trump expresses envy of how North Koreans treat Kim Jong Un
June 20, 2018

47. Trump reverses family separation policy

After weeks of claiming – falsely – that only Congress could stop family separations at the border, Trump signed an executive order halting the policy, an unusual climb-down amid an escalating public outcry over images and recordings of tearful children.

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47. Trump reverses family separation policy
June 21, 2018

48. “I really don’t care, do u?”

The day after Trump signed the executive order ending family separations, first lady Melania Trump wore a Zara jacket bearing the puzzlingly cynical slogan as she boarded her jet bound for an migrant children’s shelter in Texas – and took the unusual step of inviting press photographers to capture her departure. In an echo of her stiletto episode after Hurricane Harvey, she left the jacket on the plane while she was in Texas and then put it back on once she landed in Washington.

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48. “I really don’t care, do u?”
June 25, 2018
49. “Be careful what you wish for”

49. “Be careful what you wish for”

The president appeared to make a veiled threat against California Rep. Maxine Waters, who at a rally in Los Angeles days after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was booted from a Virginia restaurant, called on opponents of Trump’s immigration policies to protest directly to Cabinet members “in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station.” Trump responded: “Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!”

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July 12, 2018
50. Trump undercuts British leader Theresa May during his welcome dinner

50. Trump undercuts British leader Theresa May during his welcome dinner

British Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed Trump on his first official visit to the United Kingdom by throwing him a fancy party at Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill, without knowing that Trump had given an interview to the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid in which the president suggested that May had made a hash of Brexit negotiations and that her rival Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister. In the interview, published the night of the dinner, Trump also made incendiary comments about Britain “losing its culture” by allowing in immigrants.

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July 13, 2018

12 Russians indicted in connection with DNC hack

Three days before Trump’s scheduled summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 12 Russians. According to the charges, the Russians stole and released Democratic documents after planting malicious computer codes in the network of the Democratic National Committee as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and also illegally downloaded information related to some 500,000 voters from a state database.

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July 17, 2018

51. “I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’”

Facing widespread condemnation of his equivocal remarks on Russian election meddling alongside Putin after their summit in Helsinki, Trump made a televised statement in which he claimed he’d misspoken when he said he didn’t see any reason Russia would have interfered. The next day, he appeared to walk back his walkback, telling a reporter “no” when asked whether he thought Russia is still targeting the U.S.

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July 23, 2018

52. Trump threatens Iran in ALL CAPS

In response to comments from Iran’s leader cautioning Trump not to interfere with Tehran’s government, the president issued a threat to the Iranian regime via Twitter:

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Photos: Getty images