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Unpresidential Behavior

Timeline

2018.01.21In response to the government shutdown over a funding impasse, someone recorded an automated voice mail greeting on a public White House phone line that is overtly partisan and blames Democrats for “holding government funding, including funding for our troops and other national security priorities, hostage to an unrelated immigration debate.” splinternews.com (See also Immigration)
2018.01.24Shortly after Donald Trump fired his FBI director in May, he summoned Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s acting director, and asked him who he voted for in the 2016 election. washingtonpost.com (See also Corruption, Legal Issues)
2018.01.25Donald Trump ordered the firing last June of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, but ultimately backed down after the White House counsel threatened to resign rather than carry out the directive. nytimes.com (See also Legal Issues, Trump Relationship with Russia, Reversals)
2018.01.26Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. foreignpolicy.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Legal Issues)
2018.01.29Andrew G. McCabe abruptly stepped down on Monday as the F.B.I.’s deputy director after months of withering criticism from Donald Trump, telling friends he felt pressure from the head of the bureau to leave, adding to what has already been a chaotic upheaval at the F.B.I. under Mr. Trump, who has responded to an investigation into his campaign with broadside attacks against both the bureau and the Justice Department. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Corruption, Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions)
2018.01.29Donald Trump is seeking to parlay his first State of the Union address on Tuesday into cash for his reelection campaign by offering supporters a chance to see their name flashed on the screen during a broadcast of the speech. washingtonpost.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Corruption)
2018.02.13Michael D. Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, said on Tuesday that he used his own funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump. nytimes.com (See also Legal Issues, Women)
2018.02.18Amid global anxiety about Donald Trump’s approach to world affairs, U.S. officials had a message for a gathering of Europe’s foreign policy elite this weekend: Pay no attention to the man tweeting behind the curtain. washingtonpost.com (See also H.R. McMaster, Russia, North Korea)
2018.02.26Donald Trump's re-election campaign used a photo of a survivor of the Parkland, Florida, shooting in an email that asks its recipients to donate money to the campaign. cnn.com
2018.03.01Donald Trump suggested using the death penalty on drug dealers to address the opioid epidemic, equating providing lethal drugs with murder. politico.com (See also Domestic Policy, Department of Justice, Jeff Sessions)
2018.03.02Donald Trump dug into his protectionist trade position, arguing that trade wars are good and vowing to slap reciprocal tariffs on any goods even as his actions rattle markets and anger US allies, despite warnings from his own cabinet and Republicans in Congress. cnn.com (See also Economy)
2018.03.06Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao admitted that Donald Trump personally asked House Speaker Paul Ryan to block funding for New York City's badly needed Gateway project. nymag.com (See also Conflicts of Interest, Department of Transportation, Elaine Chao)
2018.03.09A judge recommended Thursday that Donald Trump mute rather than block some of his critics from following him on Twitter to resolve a First Amendment lawsuit. apnews.com (See also Legal Activity)
2018.03.11There's a reason Donald Trump said hardly anything about Republican candidate Rick Saccone during a rally that was supposed to promote his candidacy - Trump thinks Saccone is a terrible, "weak" candidate. axios.com
2018.03.12Donald Trump called Chuck Todd of NBC's Meet the Press a "sleepy son of a bitch" at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. politico.com (See also Assaults on Civil Liberties)
2018.03.15Donald Trump boasted in a fundraising speech that he made up information in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was true. washingtonpost.com (See also Trade, False Statements, NAFTA)
2018.03.16White House chief of staff John Kelly decided to share the story of a conversation with Rex Tillerson that Donald Trump would very soon fire him, while Tillerson was using the toilet, due to a food poisoning stomach bug. thedailybeast.com (See also John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Department of State, unp)
2018.03.20Donald Trump called on Tuesday to congratulate President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on his re-election, but did not raise with him the lopsided nature of his victory, Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election or Moscow’s role in a nerve agent attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter living in Britain. nytimes.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, 2016 Election)
2018.03.20Donald Trump did not follow specific warnings from his national security advisers Tuesday when he congratulated Vladi­mir Putin on his reelection — including a section in his briefing materials in all-capital letters stating “DO NOT CONGRATULATE." washingtonpost.com (See also Trump Relationship with Russia, Russia)
Trump also chose not to heed talking points from aides instructing him to condemn the recent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain with a powerful nerve agent, a case that both the British and U.S. governments have blamed on Moscow.
2018.03.21A few months into his presidency, Donald Trump ordered Reince Priebus to make everyone on his staff sign a nondisclosure agreement - one which they knew couldn't be enforced and had no penalties, financial or otherwise. nytimes.com (See also Unprecedented Actions, Reince Priebus, Belief in Conspiracy Theories)
2018.03.27Newly obtained FEMA records and interviews with more than 50 people involved with disaster response indicates that the Trump administration — and the president himself — responded far more aggressively to Texas than to Puerto Rico, in the wakes of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria. politico.com (See also Administration Errors)
2018.03.29A federal judge in Brooklyn said Donald Trump’s language had created a “plausible inference” that the decision to end DACA violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution, and that a lawsuit protecting these young undocumented immigrants from deportation could continue. nytimes.com (See also Immigration, Mexican Americans, Legal Activity)
2018.03.29Donald Trump repeated a false claim that the border wall has started construction by posting pictures from a 2009 project which was designed to replace a 2.25 mile section in the existing California-Mexico wall. buzzfeed.com (See also False Statements, Mexico Wall, Immigration)
2018.04.05Donald Trump ditched his “boring” prepared remarks at a tax roundtable in West Virginia, and instead repeated his claim that “millions” of people are voting illegally and boasted that he was right about the threat of Mexican rapists. politico.com (See also False Statements, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Mexico)
2018.04.11Donald Trump's tweet threatening a potential U.S. strike against Syria broke with national security procedures — as well as his own admonishments about tipping off enemies about attack plans. cnbc.com (See also Syria, Hypocrisy, Department of Defense)