VOICES Trump. There has never been a president with a first term as odd as this one

Trump constantly stirs things up… and he’s not “normal.” (Wikipedia)

An overall assessment of Donald Trump’s first term as president

By Lita Sims, JRN 2 student

Abnormal. If I had to sum up Donald Trump’s first year in office in one word that would be it. There has never been a president as controversial or strange as Trump. During his first year in office he has had very little legislative achievements, yet somehow has caused such a ruckus on so many issues that often he is on the front page or in the latest trending news article. From his Twitter tangents to his constant ramblings about “fake news,” he has come to be the most off the cuff president who just says whatever comes to mind.

Despite being constantly concerned on his ratings, the only top one he has maintained is the lowest appraisal for a president in their first term in office. According to Gallup, his approval rating is “languishing at 39 percent, which is the lowest recorded of any elected president in his term.”

What tends to stand out the most about Trump is his lack of presidential behavior on the home front and abroad. He has started to normalize this behavior of “speaking his mind,” and setting a precedent for speaking disrespectfully to a large portion of the American public.

Trump constantly stirs the pot whenever a new indictment comes his way or a spotlight is shining over a new corruption scandal linked to his name.

Several of examples of this were seen in his comments on not wanting immigrants from “shithole countries” and saying that Democrats were “treasonous” for not applauding during the State of the Union address.

This has caused a lot of divisiveness within political conversations in the public, and often is why it becomes such a heated discussion when people talk about the latest issues that Americans care about. Not only because a lot of his statements are just outright false, but are often so outlandish that it almost seems ridiculous to have to prove how ridiculous they are. He is normalizing this behavior to the point where people are repeating his statements as if they were fact or that somehow his behavior is normal and not outrageous.

But what is rarely brought up and is the most important thing to notice, is how Trump constantly stirs the pot whenever a new indictment comes his way or a spotlight is shining over a new corruption scandal linked to his name. Stormy Daniels is a recent example of the media focusing on this tidbit of news instead of continuing to talk about his tax evasion, business dealings or other involvement in corruption. Trump immediately goes to Twitter to voice his opinions on allegations brought against him and calls them “false” or “fake news”.

America has had a history since President Nixon with presidents being faced with an independent investigation (aside from Barack Obama). But what makes Donald Trump different is that he is being investigated for obstruction of justice for the firing the former director of the FBI James Comey. As well as the Russia probe over the ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, either during the campaign or during the presidential transition (Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos being a few examples).

Recently two of Trump’s lawyers have either resigned or backed out of the Russia probe case just last month. Robert Mueller keeps bringing forth new information or people to testify, which continues to dig a deeper hole for Trump and his clear ties to obstruction and corruption. We must not normalize his behavior. Donald Trump and his first year in office need to be acknowledged as the most abnormal first presidential term we have seen in the last 60 years.

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