Quotes from Julian E. Zelizer

Tohono O'odham Nation chairman Ned Norris Jr. explained. "We feel very strongly that this particular wall will desecrate this area forever. I would compare it to building a wall over your parents' graveyards. It would have the same effect.

More American troops were stationed within European allies, for example, at the end of Trump's term than at its start. Numbers do not tell the whole story, however. Donald Trump left the country's relations with its closest allies, especially those in Europe, more frayed than at any point since the onset of the short-lived "American Century" proclaimed in 1941.

If the uprising in Baltimore was evidence of disillusionment with mainstream politics on the left, then Dylann Roof's vicious murder of nine Black parishioners was proof of the same phenomenon on the right.

In reality, Obama won arguably the world's most prestigious award in 2009 less for what he did than for whom he was not. He was not George W. Bush, whose administration was widely perceived in Europe as disdainful of longtime democratic allies and corrosive of international alliances. Obama vowed a different course, a return to pre-9/ 11 normalcy, and this is what the Nobel Committee endorsed.

Despite suggestions to the contrary (including by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), there was no Trump doctrine; Trump's version of "America first" prompted one analyst to define the administration's strategy as "primacy without a purpose." 2 As with other aspects of his foreign policy, Trump used a bully pulpit to declare America's predominance in a region from which he otherwise wanted to withdraw.

Trump's ambitions and motivations notwithstanding, his legacy in the Middle East might best be characterized as tactical maneuvers and strategic incoherence. 3 Trump's actions and tweets left the Middle East in worse shape than what he had inherited, as his policy unorthodoxy created a great deal of uncertainty.

As of this writing, twenty-six women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, including rape, since the 1970s. The allegations didn't stifle his growing presence.

He registered as a Republican in 1987, with the Independence Party in 1999, as a Democrat in 2001, as a Republican in 2009, with no party in 2011, and then again with the GOP in 2012.

Notwithstanding the image of himself that he promoted, Trump's business career was always problematic.

After the 1980s, most banks refused to do business with him because he had defaulted on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans; only Deutsche Bank was willing to lend him funds. During the 1990s and early 2000s, his organization filed for bankruptcy six times. He used the bankruptcies and other techniques to avoid paying income taxes for almost eighteen years.

Trump likewise had a keen feel for how the Republican Party had moved far to the right over the previous decade, with a formidable media infrastructure to broadcast right-wing messaging. Politics was polarized; Republicans were radicalized. From attacking Mexican immigrants to railing against a corrupt, biased media, Trump played directly into this modern reality.

His version of conservative populism played into the nativism, racism, sexism, insular xenophobic nationalism, and white rage that all had deep histories in this country. Not only were these uglier values part of the American political tradition, but in varying degrees they had served as a foundation of the strategies used by politicians who championed white working-and middle-class Americans. Trump just took it to another level and did so without any sense of hesitation or shame.

For supporters, he was virtually a messiah, fighting against elements of the country that were gradually undermining what they saw as our traditions and our social fabric. By the time his four years were over, an ending that Trump never accepted and insisted to his supporters was a fraudulent outcome, the United States was torn apart.

Studies showed that the way members of each party consumed their news reflected this reality. For instance, Republican voters were generally more willing to believe what they heard from conservative media outlets than Democratic voters were from liberal platforms.

Gingrich didn't survive to enjoy the fruits of his success, however, since young Republicans persuaded him to step down after their poor showing in the 1998 midterms and because he was having an extramarital relationship at the same time the GOP was going after Clinton for doing the same.

Trump had also staffed key agencies with officials who were not interested in fulfilling the missions of the agencies, 51 a hallmark of conservative governance since the Reagan years, leaving huge organizational voids in places like the State Department.

And as someone whose path to the White House ran through Fox News, Trump saw television and politics as inseparable. Appearance, narrative, airtime, and headlines were more important to him than policy and governance. So it is no wonder that when he looked to staff his campaign and his administration, he was heavily influenced by Fox News. After Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News, was forced out in 2016 after years of sexual harassment, accusations he became an adviser to the Trump campaign.

Good and evil, which were once as distinguishable as day and night, have become a blurred mist. But that mist is man-made. God is not silent. He has been silenced.

How does one write about a president who uttered words appealing to white nationalists in 2020 and incited a violent insurrection against the U.S. Congress, but do so in the analytical language that one might use to describe tax policy?

Todd did a double take: "Wait a minute—Alternative facts? … Four of the five facts he uttered were just not true. Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods.

Although Cheney and a few other Republicans broke with the president and voted to impeach, most did not.

The Trump era conclusively proved that impeachment is not a legal process and should not be discussed as one.

Trump's willingness to attack the 2020 election process even after being impeached a few months earlier suggests that we live in an era when confidence in presidential power and party loyalty seems greater than concerns about congressional oversight or public shame.

By the time Trump left office, more than 5,500 children had been separated from their parents and 628 children still had not been reunited with their families.