January 23rd, 2017: Let His Record Speak for Itself
Reliving the Worst Presidency in our History
On Trump’s first full “working day” in office, he met with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. Without any proof, he stated that between 3 and 5 million illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton, and that is why she won the popular vote.
The issue of voter fraud would haunt the nation for the next month or so until Trump was finally able to get a Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity created. A year later, the Commission would be disbanded after millions of dollars were wasted chasing voter fraud that never existed.
As would be the case four years later, and like the crowd size at his inauguration, Trump’s obsessive personality meant that once he let the make-believe squeeze out reality, he would stop at nothing until millions believed in his latest fantasy. Despite no voter fraud being found and even debunked, Trump never recognized the Commission’s failure and even referred to the “voter fraud” of 2016 many times afterward.
Sean Spicer was still battling the press about the size of the inaugural crowd.
A law suit was filed on January 23rd, 2017, the first of what would be many, accusing the new president of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
“These violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause pose a grave threat to the United States and its citizens. As the Framers were aware, private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders, and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic.”
The lawsuit cites numerous examples of how Trump stands to make money by doing business with companies and other entities linked to foreign governments.
For example, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which is owned by the Chinese government, is a tenant at Trump Tower in New York, and its lease is due to expire during Trump’s term, the suit says. This could mean that the Chinese government will be in negotiations with the Trump Organization to renew the lease (Ethics Experts File Lawsuit).
We now know how much the Trump organization made from foreign governments during Trump’s four years in office: $7.8 million, most of which was earned from China.
Trump was pretty quiet on Twitter on his first full day, and there was growing speculation that the weight of his office was beginning to change him. It was hoped that Trump was beginning to appreciate that bashing people on Twitter might not only be unbecoming of the leader of the free world but could also empower our enemies.
The tweeting silence on this day was just a harbinger of the storm that would become the next four years.
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) tweeted 1 times on January 23, 2017Created:Tweets:January 23, 2017
11:38:16Busy week planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security. Top executives coming in at 9:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in America.
Retweets: 26750
Favorites: 177839 (The American Presidency Project)/