The 100 Worst Things Trump Has Done Since Descending That Escalator

Donald Trump has done a lot of bad, evil, crazy, and weird things since he came down that golden escalator in July 2015. Some of them were truly ghastly—family separation, January 6. Others were partly ghastly and partly embarrassing or gobsmacking (the love/hate affair with “Rocket Man” Kim Jong Un). Still others were just embarrassing—Sharpiegate, trying to buy Greenland. All of them, serious or not, contribute to the picture of a man who shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office again.

Just two weeks out from this pivotal Election Day, we’ve taken upon ourselves the public service of ranking the 100 worst things Trump’s done since that fateful July day. This is partly for your entertainment and amusement. But there’s a serious point here too. We want to remind people of just how horrible, on such an insistently recurring basis, the man was. And is. And will be.

The order was determined, and the items written, by editors Ryan Kearney, Jason Linkins, and Alex Shephard. We’ll be unfurling them every day this week in batches of 20. So: Read, agree, disagree, argue, and pass them along to Uncle Stan in Aliquippa. Unless you calculate that it’ll just make Uncle Stan like Trump more.

—TNR editor Michael Tomasky

100. Shark or Electrocution: The Eternal Debate

Where does one even begin with the presidency of Donald Trump? We’re going with a long-running debate he used to share with the public as to whether it’s preferable to die in the jaws of a shark or get electrocuted. It’s a nostalgic way to ease our way into one man’s addlepated corruption, while leaving us a lot of room to build up to other, much worse things. —J.L.

99. Fat-Shames Chris Christie

Oh, these two! Trump and the former New Jersey governor have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, with Christie going from opponent to sycophant to opponent again in what we loosely called “the 2024 Republican presidential primary.” For Christie, the highlight of his latest failed attempt at higher office came when Trump made fun of his weight at a New Hampshire rally. “Christie, he’s eating right now,” Trump said. “He can’t be bothered.” Hey, at least Trump remembered you, Chris! —J.L.

98. That Weird “Dance” Party in Philly

One of the more pressing questions of the 2024 presidential campaign is also perhaps its most absurd: How much of Trump’s odd behavior is the result of cognitive decline, and how much is it just … who he is? There is no clearer representation of this conundrum than Trump’s October 14 rally in suburban Philadelphia. As he was speaking in a hot, crowded room, his rambling performance—ostensibly a town hall with his supporters—was derailed by two medical emergencies. Rather than leave the stage, Trump decided to stick around—and demanded his handlers play a series of his favorite tunes, including Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the celestial “Ave Maria,” and the song that has become his bizarre signature: the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” The entire display lasted roughly as long as his town hall. The crowd slowly dwindled; Trump, dancing with himself, didn’t seem to mind.—A.S.

97. Greenland With Envy

We can’t believe we have to explain this, but Greenland is neither a private island nor up for sale. At 836,330 square miles, it is the biggest island in the world, one that exists within the Kingdom of Denmark but which is also largely autonomous. Nonetheless, President Trump was obsessed with the idea of buying Greenland. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously,” Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, said in 2019. By that point in Trump’s delirious presidency, we Americans knew better.—R.K.

96. Tells Boy Scouts About a Sex Party on a Yacht

In July 2017, Trump gave what still might be his weirdest speech. Appearing before 24,000 Boy Scouts in West Virginia, he ranted about Obamacare, the “fake news” media, and the “cesspool” of Washington, D.C., for over 30 minutes. But the weirdest moment came when he alluded to a fellow real estate developer having wild, seemingly sex-fueled parties on his yacht in the 1970s.—A.S.

95. Duncing About Architecture

A few weeks after Trump was inaugurated, Architectural Record obtained a draft of a proposed executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” which would mandate a “classical style” for buildings under its purview. Why? As TNR contributor Kate Wagner explained at length, the move was more or less rooted in the obsessions of crypto-fascist weirdos. This was an early example of how the Trump era required us to go down so many different rabbit holes of far-right lore. Anyone up for testicle tanning?—J.L.

94. Please Clap—or Be Accused of Treason

Trump’s extremely boring 2018 State of the Union address was coldly received by Democrats. That’s hardly unusual for the party out of power in the White House, but to Trump it was “like death and un-American,” he whined during a speech the following week. “Somebody said treasonous. Yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not?” Three years later, he himself would come closer to committing treason than any president in U.S. history.—R.K.

93. The Biggest, Most Beautiful Tariffs

Trump recently said tariff is the “most beautiful word in the dictionary.” But what are economists saying about his proposal to levy tariffs on $3 trillion worth of imports, including a trade war–inducing 60 percent tariff on goods from China? David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, described them as a “perfect stagflation machine,” something that reflects “a two-year-old’s mentality,” and “one of those magical economic proposals that can actually cause inflation and put you into a recession—at the same time.” Sounds pretty ugly to us.—J.L.

92. Woos Black Voters With a … Mug Shot

For most people, it is not good to have your mug shot taken. But Trump is not most people. Shortly after being booked on racketeering charges that had been brought against him in Georgia, Trump saw a silver lining. “A lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said, seemingly making the racist suggestion that Black people related to him for being a criminal.—A.S.

91. Showers, Dishwashers, and Toilets Have “No Water”

For years, Trump has ranted in speeches about the water pressure of home appliances, complaining that it takes him forever to wash his “gorgeous head of hair,” he has to flush the toilet 15 times, and dishwashers don’t actually wash dishes. He even went so far as to implement a rule lifting the limit on the flow rate of shower heads. But Biden reversed it in 2021, and Trump’s pumpkin head hasn’t looked the same since.—R.K.

90. Morning Joe Derangement Syndrome

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski know how to get under Trump’s skin. The proof is in the berserk things he says about the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. In 2017, he called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy” and claimed she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a visit to Mar-a-Lago. Three years later, he suggested that Scarborough had murdered a congressional staffer in 2001 while serving as a Republican congressman from Florida.—R.K.

89. The Lecter Lecture

Why has Trump taken to shouting out Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer from Thomas Harris’s famous series of novels, on the campaign trail? Some people believe it’s something that goes hand in hand with Trump’s conflation of asylum-seekers with insane asylums. Or it could just be an inside joke he’s having with himself. Either way, the lambs are screaming somewhere.—J.L.

88. Disasterclass

Trump earned himself a fresh round of media mockery in September 2018 when he referred to Hurricane Florence as “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water,” which is what you have to offer, one supposes, when you’re a climate change denier staring hard evidence of climate change right in the face. Anyway, big disasters were truly not Trump’s bag, as we’d all come to learn during the pandemic.—J.L.

87. Hell Is Other People

Trump went out of his way to hurt the late Representative John Dingell’s wife, Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, in a December 2019 Battle Creek rally, implying that the widow’s recently deceased husband was “looking up” at her from Hell. (Apropos of nothing in particular, you all realize that when Trump dies, he’s going to lie in state, right? There’s going to be a big ceremony in Washington, and all the living presidents will have to make a speech. That’s going to be wild.)—J.L.

86. Carries His Feud with John McCain to the Grave

It’s easy to understand why Trump wasn’t invited to John McCain’s funeral. Trump has questioned McCain’s status as a war hero by saying he likes “people who weren’t captured,” and he has spent his entire political career denigrating McCain’s political career. And yet, months later Trump was still fuming that he wasn’t invited to McCain’s funeral. “I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” he said in a speech at an Ohio tank factory. “I don’t care about this, I didn’t get a thank-you. That’s OK.” For sure.—A.S.

85. Infrastructure Week 4EVA

During his 2016 campaign, Trump promised to invest a trillion dollars in infrastructure repairs. These never materialized, but it did help build a single running joke that the media was able to keep dryly referring to over the entirety of the Trump era as “a metaphor for any well-intentioned proposal doomed to go nowhere,” like the Mueller investigation or the New York Mets.—J.L.

84. Bugging Out Over Obama

It was early 2017, about a month and a half after Trump assumed the presidency, and yet he was still obsessed with … Barack Obama?! “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Trump tweeted on March 4. “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” It’s a useful reminder that Trump will promote election conspiracy theories no matter the outcome.—R.K.

83. A Hurricane of Lies

Helene left not only unimaginable destruction in its wake but also a flood of misinformation. And that’s catnip to Trump. “I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” he posted on Truth Social, referring to North Carolina. He also claimed, “They’re being treated very badly in the Republican areas.” And: “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.” All lies.—R.K.

82. That Helsinking Feeling

At a July 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, while standing alongside Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, Trump offered a “stunning rebuke of the U.S. intelligence community” by suggesting their assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election had missed the mark. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” he said. It was almost enough to suggest that he wasn’t quite on the level!—J.L.

81. Remember When We All Sided With Megyn Kelly?

In the first GOP presidential debate in 2015, co-moderator Megyn Kelly reasonably asked Trump about his persistent denigration of women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” The question really stuck in his craw, such that a day later he complained to Don Lemon, “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”—R.K.

80. “Deep State” Delusions

As his presidency faltered and failed, and investigations into his 2016 campaign and activities as president grew more damaging, Trump advanced a conspiracy theory to deflect the blame: There existed, in Washington, D.C., a massive, coordinated group of government and national security employees bent on undercutting him. The problem wasn’t that Trump was incompetent or that he was committing crimes; it was that people were trying to stop his incompetence and crimes. Now, with the backing of Project 2025, Trump is running to crush the federal bureaucracy and replace it with toadies. “We will demolish the deep state,” he promises. He means it.—A.S.

79. Nonstandard Deduction

Remember when Trump refused to submit his tax returns to media scrutiny back in 2016, and people were shocked at how he so wantonly broke with established norms? Mitt Romney called it disqualifying! Anyway, it comes in at 79 on this list.—J.L.

78. Winks at Gun Owners to Kill Hillary Clinton

It seems almost quaint, in retrospect. These days, Trump blatantly encourages violence against his opponents, or promises to commit it himself, if elected. But in 2016, he was slightly more subtle—by his gutter-low standards, anyway. At a rally that August, he mused about Hillary Clinton, “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” then added: “Although the Second Amendment people—maybe there is, I don’t know.”—R.K.

77. Not So Sharpie

Does any story better capture the stupidity of the Trump presidency? As Hurricane Dorian hurtled toward Florida in late August 2019, Trump canceled a planned trip to Poland to monitor the situation. On September 1, in a bid to show he was in control, he appeared with a map showing the hurricane’s path—but one doctored, apparently via marker, to show that it would hit Alabama as well as Florida. The National Weather Service in Birmingham attempted to correct him and calm rattled residents, tweeting, “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.” But Trump dug in and continued to insist that he was right—even after the storm made landfall, without affecting Alabama at all. It was all very dumb. But it nevertheless spoke to the attendant risk that is always present when Trump speaks: He will undermine trust in experts, he will lie, and people could get hurt as a result.—A.S.

76. Quits the U.N. Human Rights Council

In 2018, the United States became the first member of the council to voluntarily leave. The Trump administration’s diplomatic tantrum was triggered by the council’s resolutions condemning Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. In leaving the council, the U.S. joined the very best company: Eritrea, Iran, and North Korea.—R.K.

75. Trump vs. the NFL

For years, Trump relentlessly criticized former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial injustice—kneeling during the national anthem—as unpatriotic and un-American. “You have to stand, proudly, for the national anthem or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there,” Trump said to Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade. “Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.” The end result was the end of Kaepernick’s career. But there was another, stranger wrinkle as well. As a result of this fake controversy, many Republicans turned on the “woke” NFL.—A.S.

74. “I Am Your Retribution”

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2016, Trump insisted that he “alone can fix it.” It was a message that captured his authoritarianism then. Seven years later, Trump had a different, darker message. “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice,” he said in March. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” It’s just a slogan, but it’s one that captures how much more dangerous—and fascistic—he’s become. It wouldn’t be out of place in a Leni Riefenstahl film.—A.S.

73. Mocks Reporter With Disability

Serge Kovaleski, a reporter for The New York Times, has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joints. In 2015, upset that Kovaleski contradicted his false claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered on 9/11, Trump visually mocked Kovaleski’s condition during a rally and called him a “poor guy.” Trump later claimed, to the belief of no one, that he didn’t know anything about Kovaleski. The incident stuck in voter’s minds, though: In a poll more than eight months later, respondents said it was his worst offense.—R.K.

72. The Enemy of the Press

Since at least 2017, whenever Trump has felt the heat from the media’s reporting, he’s resorted to disparaging the press as “the enemy of the people”—a phrase The New York Times called “a pet locution of autocrats.” As clear a slander as it is, however, we’re probably fortunate that Trump is so eternally combative. Think about it: Had Trump figured out what presidents like George W. Bush understood—that flattering reporters was a better strategic option—he’d have already enacted everything in Project 2025 by now.—J.L.

71. Weaponizes Social Media

Social media posts pale in comparison to the Muslim ban and calling antisemitic white supremacists “fine people.” But Trump’s persistent platforming of racists and bigots is a huge part of his legacy. No one in recent memory has done more to elevate or legitimize hate in mainstream American political discourse and Trump has done it repeatedly, advancing propaganda videos from far-right Islamophobic organizations in Europe and tweets making vile lies about Jewish billionaire George Soros or suggesting that Jews who vote for Democrats are somehow “disloyal” to Israel.—A.S.

70. A Dictator on “Day One”

At a Fox News town hall last December, amid growing alarm over Trump’s authoritarian plans for a potential second term, Sean Hannity handed Trump an easy out. “The media has been focused on this and attacking you—you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody,” Hannity asked him. Instead, Trump only raised more alarm, saying, “Except for day one.… After that, I’m not a dictator.” How comforting.—R.K.

69. Pen Pals With Kim Jong Un

Trump has little respect for democratically elected leaders, but he adores autocrats. Vladimir Putin is, of course, his favorite. But he has a special place in his heart for Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s murderous dictator. Yes, Trump has threatened and demeaned him—calling him, among other things, “little rocket man.” But he has also praised him, saying he has “a beautiful vision for his country.” That vision, per the State Department’s human rights report, is one of “unlawful or arbitrary killings … forced disappearances … torture … political prison camps … coerced abortion.” In February 2022, when Trump was indicted for stealing classified documents from the White House, one item he took with him stood out: “love letters” from Kim.—A.S.

68. 261 Rounds

That’s how many times Trump played golf as president, by The Washington Post’s estimate. If accurate, that’s one round every 5.6 days. Given that Trump is notorious for cheating at golf, TNR decided to conduct its own rigorous, scientific study of his favorite hobby and concluded that he nudged, booted, threw, relocated, or otherwise unfairly moved his ball 4,698 times as president. (Do the math, and you’ll get it.)—R.K.

67. Overtime Pickpocket

As part of Trump’s insatiable need to undo as much of the Obama legacy as possible, his administration went to work months after taking office to take apart his predecessor’s rule that extended overtime benefits to millions of workers, eventually arriving at something that left an estimated 8.2 million behind. This was in keeping with much of his economic policy, which tended to run counter to the populist promises he campaigned on.—J.L.

66. The Inaugural -gate

Had Trump any political instincts—or any advisers worth a damn—he might have responded to reports that his inauguration crowd wasn’t as large as Obama’s by saying something like, “The people who voted for me work hard for a living, and they can’t just up and come to Washington for a party.” Instead, we got the patent lies and photo manipulations known as Crowdgate. The mere fact that Obama was a bigger draw opened up a gushing vein of insecurity that Trump has never gotten over.—J.L.

65. Suggests Gen. Mark Milley Deserves to Die

In September 2023, The Atlantic published a feature on Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that repeated a previously reported anecdote about Milley calling his Chinese counterpart to assure him that Trump was not going to order an attack on the country. The following day, Trump raged on Truth Social, “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death!”—R.K.

64. Pet obsessions

The conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, had been thoroughly debunked by the time Trump took the stage in his only debate with Kamala Harris on September 10. But his running mate, JD Vance, had magnified the lie just a day prior, so it felt inevitable that Trump would do the same. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in,” he said. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there.”—R.K.

63. Pushes for Election Delay

In late July 2020, when it was becoming increasingly clear that he would lose, Trump suggested that the election should be delayed. No, not because of the pandemic, but because of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and corruption. “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted on July 30. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” These allegations, particularly surrounding mail-in voting, would become a crucial part of his effort to overturn the 2020 election after he lost it.—A.S.

62. The Flight 93 Presidency

Michael Anton was one of the first right-wing “intellectuals” to attempt to backfill Trumpism, writing “The Flight 93 Election,” a flamboyant and reactionary argument that supporting Trump was necessary to advance the goals of the conservative movement. Then, in Trump’s first year, Anton was appointed as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council, becoming the most prominent example of radical appointees who pushed the administration in an authoritarian direction. The picks Trump would make in his second term, should he be reelected, will be far worse. Anton will likely be among them—in a more powerful position than ever.—A.S.

61. “Shithole Countries”

In January 2018, in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers about a bipartisan immigration deal, Trump reportedly fumed about provisions protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he asked, according to The Washington Post.—R.K.

60. Tells AOC and Tlaib to “Go Back”

In July 2019, Trump set his sights on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, members of the “Squad,” a small, informal group of progressive Democratic members of Congress. “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe … now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Trump tweeted. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Both Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez were born in America.—A.S.

59. A Deadly Grudge Against Dr. Fauci

The intent of Trump’s attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci was always clear. Voters rightly blamed Trump’s erratic management and temperament and his administration’s general incompetence for the Covid-19 pandemic—and, with an election coming in the fall of 2020, those failures could cost him the White House. Fauci, the well-respected doctor who had headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, was a convenient scapegoat. Trump wanted to declare the pandemic “over,” even though thousands were still dying and getting sick; Fauci wanted to save lives. And so, Trump demonized Fauci relentlessly, decreasing trust in public health officials and likely leading to the deaths of many of his supporters.—A.S.

58. Prix Fixe With Antisemites

On November 22, 2022, Trump played a round of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” when Kanye West—then riding a hot news cycle thanks to the rapper’s recent foray into antisemitism and the “lost lucrative partnerships” that followed—showed up at Mar-a-Lago with a bonus bigot in tow: Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Claiming innocence, the Trump campaign reportedly adopted “new vetting procedures and gatekeeping efforts” that naturally led to him palling around with racist weirdo Laura Loomer two years later.—J.L.

57. Birtherism 2.0

Did Trump actually know that “NABJ” stood for “National Association of Black Journalists”? Because his ill-fated participation in a candidate forum in front of that body left a lot of people wondering why he’d chosen to leave his comfortable media bubble to end up in a contentious interview with NABJ interlocutors, who managed to pry from the former president his belief that Kamala Harris had suddenly transformed herself into a Black woman, after claiming to be Southeast Asian. “I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?” he asked. To be clear, Harris is biracial.—J.L.

56. A Grave Offense

In August 2024, Trump’s attempt to transform a graveside visit at Arlington National Cemetery into some sort of campaign event went awry when members of his retinue attempted to shoot video for TikTok in an area where filming is strictly prohibited; an official from the cemetery ended up in a physical altercation with members of Trump’s team when she tried to intervene. It’s an excellent example of how Trump plans to treat other members of the civil service, should they not fall in line.—J.L.

55. A Paper Tiger in Hurricane-Stricken Puerto Rico

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Trump did the right thing: He went to the island to show his support, appearing at a church in a San Juan suburb where supplies were being distributed. And that’s when Trump did the wrong thing, grabbing rolls of paper towels and tossing them into the crowd as if he were shooting free throws. A year later, residents were still stung by his insensitivity.—R.K.

54. Leaves Allies for Dead—Literally

Trump was not the first American president to betray the Kurds. But his abandonment of them after they served as crucial allies in the fight against the Islamic State was heartless even by historical standards. After ISIS’s defeat, Trump gave the green light to Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to invade Syria and attack the Kurds. The result was war crimes, hundreds of deaths, and the displacement of more than 100,000 people who had, until recently, been aiding American troops.—A.S.

53. Off the Wall

Building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border was arguably Trump’s signature issue during his first presidential run. It represented a supposedly “commonsense” approach to stopping undocumented immigration—even though it cost $15 billion and didn’t actually do anything to deter it, since most undocumented immigrants come via legitimate crossings and airports. But it was also a potent symbol. The United States once welcomed the tired and hungry and poor. No more.—A.S.

52. Witness Intimidation

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and Gordon Sondland, Trump’s ambassador to the EU, had stellar records of public service. But they were summarily fired in February 2020 for carrying out their constitutional duty. Both figures witnessed Trump commit impeachable acts as he pressured the Ukrainian government to cooperate with a ridiculous investigation into Biden. When Vindman blew the whistle, and he and Trump’s ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, testified at the subsequent impeachment hearings, Trump fired both of them—a clear and blatant act of retaliation.—A.S.

51. Trump Remains BFF With Putin

Bob Woodward strikes again. In his latest book, published in October, the legendary journalist revealed that Trump has stayed in contact with Putin since leaving the White House, speaking with the Russian president as many as seven times. Woodward also reported that at the height of the pandemic, amid a shortage of Covid tests in the U.S., Trump sent some to Putin for his personal use. (The Kremlin confirmed the latter and denied the former.)—R.K.

50. Goes Nuts for the Gun Nuts

In just the second month of his presidency, Trump signed a bill passed by the GOP-controlled Congress revoking an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns—and then he refused to release photos of him signing the bill. In office, he also killed a proposal by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to force gun dealers to sell child safety devices; narrowed the definition of “fugitive from justice” as it pertains to gun purchase; and illegally wiped 500,000 records from the federal background check system. He’s got plenty more rollbacks in store for a second term.—R.K.

49. “The World Is a Very Dangerous Place!”

On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a permanent resident and contributor to The Washington Post, was brutally murdered and dismembered in Turkey by agents of the Saudi government. Later, the U.S. intelligence community would conclude that they did so at the behest of the country’s brutal leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump, who counted the murderous dictator as a friend and ally, did nothing to punish Saudi Arabia or even condemn it. Instead, Trump disregarded the U.S. intelligence community and sided with the dictator. “The world is a very dangerous place!” Trump said in a statement about Khashoggi’s death—as if the journalist had it coming.—A.S.

48. Calls U.S. War Dead “Losers”

In September 2020, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a story that dove deep into Trump’s seemingly boundless contempt for the men and women in the U.S. military. Pegged to Trump’s 2018 decision to cancel a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, which holds the remains of many U.S. war dead, the piece quoted Trump commenting, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” Goldberg went on to report that Trump referred to the Americans who died fighting at Belleau Wood in World War I as “suckers” for getting themselves killed. Trump broadly disputed the contentions made by Goldberg; in October 2023, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly confirmed his former boss’s “suckers and losers” remarks.—J.L.

47. Attacks “Mexican” Judge

Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who would preside over legal challenges to Trump’s border wall, was born in Indiana. But Curiel’s parents had emigrated to the United States from Mexico—and for Trump, that meant he wasn’t American. Curiel, Trump said in several racist attacks, was “Mexican” and therefore couldn’t fairly adjudicate the case. It was a moment that captured both his disdain for the judiciary and his racism.—A.S.

46. Time Is a Flat Circle (of Repealing Obamacare)

Trump once promised that he would transform the GOP into the “party of health care” on the strength of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act with … well, he wasn’t clear on that part. In Trump’s head, it involved “plans you don’t even know about are going to be devised.” In reality, it meant that he was joining a decade-long cycle of empty promises and failure. As it happens, Obamacare is still the law of the land. Trump is still bent on getting rid of it.—J.L.

45. Wages War on the 2020 Census

Every 10 years, the Census Bureau counts the American populace, which is no small feat in normal times. But when that task came due in 2020, the Trump administration decided to end the count a month early—which, the Times warned, “will ensure a significant undercount of minorities.” Of course, that was partly Trump’s goal, along with trying to discount undocumented immigrants, which would tilt the House of Representatives and Electoral College in Republicans’ favor. We have a few brave civil servants to thank for standing up to Trump’s meddling.—R.K.

44. Project 2025 Trump

Pandora’s box in book form, Project 2025 is basically every evil idea that Trump and his Heritage Foundation cronies could stuff into a policy manifesto—so bad that Democrats actually managed to lead a successful messaging campaign promoting its awfulness, subsequently turning public opinion against it. Trump has, hilariously and unconvincingly, attempted to disavow his involvement with the document and disown its contents—all of which he will definitely try to enact if elected.—J.L.

43. Saudi Arabia > U.S. Constitution

For years, the U.S. military had aided Saudi Arabia in its war on Iran-aligned rebels in Yemen. In the summer of 2019, it was clear that strategy had failed—and that it was resulting in a famine that was killing thousands. But when members of both parties passed a resolution calling for an end to U.S. involvement, Trump vetoed it—thus defying the Constitution. “The president had the opportunity to sign a historic War Powers Resolution and stand with a bipartisan coalition, including his allies Rand Paul, Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz, to stop endless wars,” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said at the time. “He failed to uphold the principles of the Constitution that give Congress power over matters of war and peace.”—A.S.

42. Worst Running Mate, Ever

Trump’s choice for vice president speaks to his terrible judgment. If not the worst running mate in modern history, JD Vance is unquestionably the least liked. Awkward, extreme, and weird, he has been a drag on the Trump ticket since he was picked in mid-July. But Vance’s numerous shortcomings shouldn’t distract from the fact that he is also the most radical running mate in American history. Trump is the oldest major-party nominee for president ever; he’s also overweight and seemingly unwell. The fact that Vance could end up running the country is a very real, very terrifying thought.—A.S.

41. How Not to Prepare for a Pandemic

It didn’t make a great stir at the time, but in May 2018, The Washington Post reported that the “top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic,” Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, had departed the administration. Additionally, a “global health security team he oversaw” was “disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.” Some months later, I sealed our fate when I tweeted, “Apropos of nothing one thing that a Trump White House is *definitely* going to fuck up, should one occur, is a pandemic.”—J.L.

40. A Nightmare for DREAMers

Trump in 2017 announced he was winding down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which had provided legal protection to around 800,000 so-called DREAMers who had come to the U.S. as undocumented children. “I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents,” said the man who, a year later, would begin separating migrant children from their parents at the border. The Supreme Court, in a twist, blocked Trump’s move in 2020.—R.K.

39. The Longest, Dumbest Shutdown

Given all of the late-night tweetstorms and general, teeth-grinding anxiety of the Trump era, it’s easy to overlook more routine and boring instances of failure and incompetence. There were two shutdowns under Trump’s watch, but the second, the longest in American history, is the most notable: Starting in late 2018, Trump spent 35 days stubbornly refusing to do his job in the hope that he could somehow bend Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to his will. Trump wasn’t holding out to improve lives or provide services. No, it was all for funding for the border wall. When a deal was finally reached to reopen the government on January 25, 2019, he didn’t get the funding he wanted anyway.—A.S.

38. Russian Invasion of Ukraine Was “Genius,” “Savvy”

We all know that Trump is Putin’s biggest fanboy, but even so this shocked some of us: Just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Trump had nothing but praise. “I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine—of Ukraine—Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful,” Trump said in a radio interview. “He used the word ‘independent,’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”—R.K.

37. Fraud Catches Up to Historic Fraudster

Trump has always been a crook, and more often than not gotten away with it. That came to an end on February 16, 2024, when a Manhattan judge found him liable for inflating the value of his assets and his net worth in order to get more favorable loans from banks. Although Trump is still appealing, he is currently on the hook for $454 million. It was a belated judgment, but one he had coming for a very long time.—A.S.

36. A House of Nepo Babies

Trump hired his daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as senior White House advisers, and tasked them with fixing pretty much every problem on earth. They didn’t take a salary, but boy, did they profit from their roles. A 2021 study by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found they made up to $640 million in the White House. Trump also gifted Kushner with something priceless: a pardon of his tax-evading, witness-tampering father.—R.K.

35. Customer Disservice

An Obama-era rule that required financial services professionals to put their customers’ fiscal well-being ahead of their own commissions was in Trump’s crosshairs the moment he took office. But the slow death of this vital bit of consumer protection wouldn’t be completed until June 2018, after a federal appeals court dealt the final blow to a regulation that the Trump administration made no attempt to defend. One year later, Bloomberg reported, “Sales of potentially questionable investment products have soared, and retirees stand to end up billions of dollars poorer”—precisely the outcome the Trump administration sought.—J.L.

34. A Second Term for Sale

In April of this year, Trump gathered oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago estate and made them a pitch. For the low price of $1 billion in campaign donations, he would do pretty much whatever they wanted, such as reverse regulations put in place by the Biden administration. Trump’s corruption has always been out in the open, but this was, nevertheless, astonishingly brazen—so brazen, in fact, it left several oil executives shocked. That’s hard to do.—A.S.

33. Tries to Sic Zelenskiy on Biden

It was July 2019, and Trump was on the phone with Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Ukrainian president had just asked for more U.S. assistance, and Trump, who always wants to know what’s in it for him, then said, “I would like you to do us a favor.” He wanted Zelenskiy to work with Attorney General Bill Barr and Rudy Giuliani to investigate Joe Biden for alleged (that is, nonexistent) corruption. If you’re trying to remember what Ukraine had to do with any of this, well: Trump’s request was based on a conspiracy theory, because of course.—R.K.

32. Comey: Not Trump’s Homie

In a move that should have clued most observers in to the fact that he wasn’t going to adhere to polite Washington norms (like an independent DOJ) and which foretold his longer war against the spectral “deep state” of his imaginings, Trump sacked James Comey after the FBI director pointedly refused to both pledge his loyalty to the president and publicly exonerate his campaign of colluding with Russia. Pretty inconsiderate thing to do to the guy who helped kneecap Hillary Clinton’s campaign in its waning days by reviving the investigation into her private email server, but at least Comey got a book deal out of it.—J.L.

31. Embassy Row

Systematically ignoring Palestinians and disregarding any hope of a two-state solution was a key part of the Trump administration’s strategy in the Middle East. The Abraham accords—arguably the focus of the administration’s policy in the region—were dependent on simply brushing aside Palestinian concerns. But the decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem summed up Trump’s reckless approach to foreign policy—and is a reminder that, if reelected, he’ll be an even more steadfast supporter of Netanyahu’s brutal war of reprisal than Joe Biden has been.—A.S.

30. Au Revoir, Paris

On the campaign trail in 2016, Trump had repeatedly threatened to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. So it was little surprise when he announced several months into his presidency that he would do so, but a rule requiring members to remain in the agreement for the first three years prevented him from formally notifying the U.N. of his intention until November 2019. The withdrawal did not become official until the day after the 2020 election, and Biden promptly rejoined the deal on his first day in office.—R.K.

29. Promises to End Birthright Citizenship

In May of last year, Trump said that if he’s elected again, he’ll issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the country to undocumented immigrants. As Reuters noted at the time, his “plan … contradicts how a 19th century amendment to the U.S. Constitution long has been interpreted.” But that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t succeed. After all, this right-wing Supreme Court has shown no compunction about ditching precedent to rule in ways that benefit Trump.—R.K.

28. Bomb Mexico?

In April 2023, Politico reported that Trump had himself a brainstorm on what to do about the fentanyl crisis: Maybe let’s start a war with Mexico! Per reports, Trump’s notion involved sending “special forces” and doing “cyber warfare,” as well as asking for “battle plans” for missile strikes against the cartels to be drawn up. Unlike previous idea sessions, which ended in going-nowhere plans such as “Let’s buy Greenland,” the idea of attacking Mexico is no mere passing fancy. Rather, it’s been more or less embraced by the GOP and remains something Trump might attempt in a second term.—J.L.

27. A History of Violence

This entry alone could be a list 100 entries long. Here are just a few of the lowlights. On Fox News in 2015, speaking about a protester at his rally: “Maybe he should have been roughed up.” At a 2016 rally in Iowa, on hecklers: “If you see somebody with a tomato, knock the crap out of them.” In a speech to law enforcement in suburban New York in 2017, about how to handle suspects: “Please don’t be too nice.” Amid the George Floyd protests in 2020: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” And during a 2020 debate with Biden: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”—R.K.

26. Can’t Quit Defaming E. Jean Carroll

In her 2019 book, What Do We Need Men For? the journalist E. Jean Carroll said Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1996, an accusation that has sent him into a rage multiple times—and at his great expense. A jury in 2023 found that Trump had indeed sexually abused Carroll and then defamed her by calling her account a “hoax”; he was ordered to pay her $5 million in damages. And four months later, in a second defamation suit against Trump, a federal judge ruled in Carroll’s favor; a jury later set the damages at a whopping $83 million. Still, Trump continues to say vile things about Carroll that are begging for a third lawsuit.—R.K.

25. When the Wheels Fell Off

In the lead-up to the 2018 midterms, as he faced the possibility of a “blue wave” election that would cost him control of one or both houses of Congress, Trump did what he always does when he’s in trouble: argue that immigrants are violent, drug-dealing killers and rapists intent on invading the country. In the fall of 2018, this narrative coalesced around “caravans” of hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of migrants moving their way through Central America. That narrative didn’t work: Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from centering his latest campaign around the racist demonization of immigrants.—A.S.

24. Goes Nuclear, Literally

As president, Trump destroyed, sabotaged, or withdrew from a number of treaties that were aimed at limiting the spread and use of nuclear weapons. But his fascination with apocalyptic bombs wasn’t limited to treaties. Trump reportedly was also interested in using them, and regularly threatened North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un accordingly. “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his,” he tweeted. He also warned Kim that any attempt to endanger the U.S. would “be met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.” For Trump, nuclear weapons aren’t an existential threat. They’re a possible tool.—A.S.

23. Pardon Me?

Trump hardly invented the abuse of the presidential pardon, but he damn well perfected it, handing out get out of jail free cards to cronies caught up in the Mueller investigation and other administration scandals, celebrated war criminals, and scofflaws various and sundry—including several who went on to be charged with new crimes afterward. If he’s reelected, these handouts could continue to be extended to convicted January 6 insurrectionists and, in what would be a real test of the judiciary’s mettle, Trump himself.—J.L.

22. Escalates the Drone War

Trump didn’t start the drone war, but he did make it far worse. As president, he removed nearly all restrictions on drone strikes. Under his leadership, layers of accountability were removed, leaving only one formal check before lethal force was used. The result was a staggering rise in the deaths of civilians. Trump likes to boast about avoiding war as president, but under his leadership the U.S. recklessly dropped thousands of bombs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Iran.—A.S.

21. Get Rich Quick

The emoluments clause of the Constitution exists to prevent a president from turning their presidency into an engine of self-enrichment. Unfortunately, presidents have to agree to abide by it for it to work; Trump had other, more lucrative plans: turning his properties into favor-trading venues, stitching his White House and his business empire together, and letting his family members cash in. This was, perhaps, the most abiding purpose of his presidency, a corruption he got up to early and often. Armed with Supreme Court immunity and a plan to purge the civil service of anyone not willing to serve him, it’s likely to be a defining feature of a second term.—J.L.

20. A Multitude of Sins

A fraught day in Washington, D.C., that saw throngs of protesters demonstrating outside the White House against police brutality ended in the worst possible way after the Secret Service and other law enforcement entities set about clearing the crowd from Lafayette Square without giving those assembled proper warning to disperse. After all the dust—notably, tear gas—had settled, we learned why this fight with demonstrators was picked: so Trump could stand outside nearby St. John’s Church with a Bible in hand. While the protesters were being cleared, Trump proclaimed in the Rose Garden, “I am your president of law and order.” A slew of criminal indictments would suggest otherwise.—J.L.

19. MAGA-fies the Federal Judiciary

This is why Mitch McConnell ultimately supported Trump in 2016: stacking the courts with right-wing ideologues. Here, more than anywhere else, Trump delivered, by appointing 234 federal judges. He appointed three Supreme Court justices, more than any president since Ronald Reagan. He also appointed 54 federal appellate judges, just shy of the number that Obama appointed in two terms. Can Biden top him? It looks to be a photo finish.—R.K.

18. Who Could Nazi This Coming?

Trump’s various hatreds have never been what one would call subtle. But the former president pretty much checked off the bigger boxes on Dorothy Thompson’s “Who Goes Nazi?” watchlist when last November he referred to his political enemies as “vermin” whom he will “root out.” TNR editor Michael Tomasky didn’t mince words: “Straight-up Nazi talk.” A month later, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” His preference for fashy rhetoric has hardly abated: This month, he promised to sic the military on the “enemy within.” —J.L.

17. Someone Please Call Hoarders

Well, like Jenny Holzer warned us, abuse of power comes as no surprise. So of course Trump snuck off to Mar-a-Lago with a sizable cache of classified documents after leaving the White House. But we only found out about Trump’s secret stash—haphazardly stored throughout the property for the purpose of showing off to guests—after the feds raided Trump’s resort in an effort to reclaim materials that, according to the AP, “risked jeopardizing not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources.” Trump was indicted by a grand jury on 40 felony counts related to the case; it’s currently in legal limbo, thanks to the former president’s pet judge, Aileen Cannon.—J.L.

16. “They’re Bringing Crime. They’re Rapists.”

Yes, Trump’s rhetoric on immigration has gotten more extreme as he has evolved from building a massive border wall to promising to deport tens of millions. But his racist disgust for immigrants and migrants has always been a constant. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us,” Trump said while launching his presidential campaign in June 2015. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” This relentless demonization of nonwhite immigrants is the cruel heart of his political project, factoring into nearly every part of his message—not just on immigration but health care and even disaster preparedness.—A.S.

15. Mueller Time

Trump claimed victory: “No collusion, total exoneration.” It’s true that special counsel Robert Mueller did not find a clear criminal conspiracy between Trump and Russia during the 2016 election to warrant charges, but that was always an extremely high legal bar to reach. The evidence of soft collusion was rampant; after all, Trump openly invited Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s private email server. And there were ample examples of potential obstruction of justice, such as when Trump urged FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating national security adviser Michael Flynn—or, for that matter, when he later fired Comey. As Mueller himself noted, the report “does not exonerate him.”—R.K.

14. A Plutocratic Payout

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is perhaps the most normal thing that Trump did as president. Republican presidents cut taxes for corporations and the rich in office, hoping to starve the federal government of revenue it can use to help everyone else. But the normalcy of Trump’s only substantial legislative accomplishment, the 2017 tax cuts, is precisely what makes it so insidious. As his political project has evolved, Trump has managed to combine the worst of the old Republican Party with newer vile strains. He is not and never has been a populist. He is a plutocrat. Given the chances, he’ll give himself another massive tax cut.—A.S.

13. Nary Fine People

History remembers the white supremacist goons who participated in the ill-fated “Unite the Right” rally as violent extremists who terrorized the University of Virginia campus and murdered counterdemonstrator Heather Heyer on Charlottesville’s downtown mall. After a protracted legal process and concomitant P.R. nightmare, they became defeated losers. But for a while, according to Trump, they were “very fine people.” This is history that Trump’s right-wing allies have endeavored so desperately to revise, but Trump’s inability to properly repudiate bigots and do much more than send encouragement to the most dangerous among them goes a long way to explaining why ambient political violence is one of few things Trump has been able to manufacture.—J.L.

12. “Find” Me Votes!

It had been almost two months since Trump definitively lost the 2020 election, and still he was desperately grasping for some way to prove he had won. So on January 2, 2021, he called up Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and made a request: “Look Brad, I got to get … I have to find 12,000 votes, and I have them times a lot. And therefore, I won the state.” Raffensperger’s reply: “​​We believe our numbers are right.” Four days later, Trump incited the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.—R.K.

11. Promises Mass Deportations

There may be no purer distillation of Trumpism than his big campaign promise for his second term: to forcibly deport more than 10 million people from the country. What makes it so quintessentially Trump? First, it’s astonishingly fashy: Trump’s deportation plans are guided by racism and will extend to legal citizens from ethnic groups he disfavors. Beyond that, it’s a massive expression of his incompetent policymaking: The plan would cost billions of dollars to implement and blow a mile-wide hole in the economy.—J.L.

10. The Century Club of Environmental Rollbacks

That was the final tally at the close of Trump’s term: 98 environmental rules that Trump “officially reversed, revoked or otherwise rolled back,” according to The New York Times. (The Washington Post put the number at more than 125.) Nearly a third of these pertained to air pollution, such as Trump’s rolling back Obama-era standards for vehicle emissions and fuel efficiency. Other lowlights include removing protections for over half the country’s wetlands, as well as weakening wildlife protections to allow for more oil and gas leasing. Perhaps the most reckless move, however, was to kill Obama’s Clean Power Plan even though the administration’s own analysis found that it would cause 1,400 more deaths per year.—R.K.

9. Bans Trans People in the Military

In another spiteful reversal of an Obama-era policy, Trump in 2019 ordered a ban on transgender people serving in the military. Aptly characterized as a return to the bad old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” days of the past, the ban forced an untold number of members of the armed services to “choose between continued service and their dignity and basic health care needs.” The move was also in keeping with the Republican Party’s recent slide into the widespread demonization of the transgender population. Selling transphobia on the stump has proven to be a political loser, but that doesn’t make it any less fearful for those targeted by these slings and arrows. The GOP and aligned groups have spent more than $70 million on anti-trans advertising in the closing weeks of the election.—J.L.

8. Ditches the Iran Deal

In May 2018, Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal struck during the Obama administration and reinstated sanctions. “This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Trump said. The Biden administration has since tried to rescue the agreement, but apparent progress in 2022 ended in finger pointing. Though the spreading conflagration in the Middle East, with the U.S. and Iran as opposing proxies, would seem to be a hindrance to restarting talks, new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at the U.N. General Assembly in September that he was “ready to engage.”—R.K.

7. Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump

The New York Times’ headline summed it up nicely: “Trump Convicted on All Counts to Become America’s First Felon President.” Sure, the Stormy Daniels hush-money case may have been the weakest, or the least consequential anyway, of the four criminal cases against Trump. After all, he was only convicted of falsifying business records. But with the other cases delayed or on ice, it’s nice to remember that at least this once, Trump was unable to outrun the law—and will go down in history as a convicted criminal.—R.K.

6. The “Legal” Assault on Democracy

In November and December 2020, as Trump continued to deny the reality that he had lost his reelection bid, Republicans defended his dozens of ridiculous efforts to change the results by saying he had every right to file frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit. They were, in a very narrow sense, correct. Trump does technically have the right to pursue every legal avenue available to him in service of a lie. (The end result of those challenges, by the way, was as follows: His campaign dropped 14 lawsuits, 33 were dismissed, he lost five outright, and won exactly one, which was completely inconsequential.) But Trump’s lawsuits were part of his larger strategy of undermining the credibility of the legal and political system of the country—and of seeding the idea in his supporters’ minds that the election was “stolen” from him by a sinister cabal of Democrats and other elites.—A.S.

5. The Muslim Ban

During his 2016 campaign, Trump faltered only once. In the fall, his numbers began to dip as Ben Carson surged. In early December, attempting to arrest the momentum in the wake of terror attacks in Europe, Trump came up with a ploy: Announce that, as president, he would block all Muslims from entering the country. Carson called it unconstitutional. Republican voters loved it. And, on the seventh day of his presidency, Trump put a version of it in place, suspending entry from citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days while suspending all refugees from entering the country for 120. As with Trump’s general approach to immigration—where all immigrants are violent and dangerous—there is no conception that someone from these countries couldn’t be a terrorist. Instead, Trump was sending a message: Non-Christian, nonwhite immigrants had no place in the country.—A.S.

4. A Grim Border Legacy

The intolerable cruelty of the Trump administration’s family separation policy would merit mention as one of his worst contributions to American civic life on its own. But what makes it truly insidious is the fact that none of the shouting about children being separated from their parents at the border actually mattered in the political sense. Four years on from Trump’s first term, Democrats have embraced draconian border policies—and are now mostly mad at Trump for interfering with their enactment. Trump’s anti-immigrant animus was probably the first thing newsmakers took note of when he jumped into politics. It was once depicted as inherently disqualifying. But Trump won on this issue, and the world is worse for it.—J.L.

3. Supreme Injustices

The only thing that lessens the infamy of Trump’s Supreme Court legacy—at least in the sense that he can and should be blamed for it—is that the reconstruction of the court wasn’t, strictly speaking, his idea. Rather, he followed the lead of de facto shadow president and Federalist Society kingmaker Leonard Leo, who furnished Trump with the shortlist he needed to radically reshape the court. The proceeds to the conservative movement are abundant: Roe was gutted, the end of Chevron deference dealt a hammer blow to liberal governance, and Chief Justice John Roberts’s long-running war against government accountability culminated with a twisted vision of presidential immunity. We’ll either be living in this grotesque world for decades or living through the chaotic upheaval that repairing it is destined to bring about.—J.L.

2. A Pandemic of MAGA Stupidity

Where to start? On February 26, 2020, there were 15 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the United States that were related to travel or close contact to travelers in the U.S.—“and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero,” Trump promised. From February to the end of October, he would make similar promises at least 37 more times. He also suggested injecting bleach to kill the virus, or hitting “the body with a tremendous … ultraviolet or just very powerful light.” He expressed skepticism of masks. He admitted to journalist Bob Woodward that he knew Covid was “deadly stuff” but wanted to “play it down.” He held superspreader rallies that led to 30,000 more cases. By the time Trump left office in early 2021, the virus had killed more than 400,000 people in the U.S.—and 40 percent of those deaths, a major study later found, could have been prevented.—R.K.

1. A Day That Lives in Infamy—or So We Hope

President Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, began, as his speeches often do, with a lie: “We have hundreds of thousands of people here.” He would also lie about the 2020 election, claiming there was massive fraud and that he didn’t lose. But on this day, such bluster would be the least of Trump’s offenses, as he ended his speech vowing to “fight like hell” and imploring the crowd to walk with him down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol—“to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” The crowd obeyed, of course, and so began the first attempted coup in U.S. history, which would leave thousands traumatized, hundreds injured, and several dead. Never forget, truly.—R.K.