By Leah Russell

Sports Editor

Image Source: Vox

Over 159 million Americans voted in the U.S. General Election. On November 7th, almost all main news sources called the election for Biden. On December 14th, Joe Biden’s victory in the November Presidential Election was solidified by a 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. And on January 20th, he was sworn into office to begin his first term as the 46th president of the United States. With a new president now in office, it’s time to reflect on the actions of our 45th president during his four years in office.

Trump misses Biden’s Inauguration (January 20th, 2021): On the morning of Biden’s Inauguration, Trump flew to Florida instead of staying for the commencement. He instead gave a speech to his supporters from the plane before Biden’s Oath of Office. For the first time since 1869, the former president was not there for his successor’s inauguration. 

2nd Impeachment of Donald Trump in the House of Representatives (January 13th, 2021): One week before Trump was due to leave office, the House of Representatives decided to go forward with the trial citing Trump’s attempts to overthrow a U.S. Election, his phone call to Georgie’s Secretary of State, and incitement of insurrection. There were 232 votes in favor and 197 votes against the impeachment of Trump on the accusation of “Incitement of Insurrection.”

Twitter bans Trump (January 9th, 2021): In the weeks following the election, Trump took to Twitter to express his problems with the election, tweeting many unsupported claims. For many tweets, Twitter put a warning label for false information on all of his election tweets. After the insurrection, Twitter decided that the warning label was not enough, and instead suspended his account indefinitely. Following Twitter, other social media applications like, Spotify and Pinterest decided to ban him as well.

Insurrection Speech (January 6th, 2021): On January 6th, citizens wearing Trump merchandise and waving Trump flags violently breached the U.S. Capitol while Trump stated, “We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy.” However, many world leaders expressed their view of what happened in the U.S. Capitol as “a literal attack on democracy.” This speech eventually led to the U.S. House of Representatives impeaching Trump due to “Incitement of Insurrection” on January 13th, 2021.

Trump threatens to fire Fauci (April to November of 2020): Trump threatened to fire the leading infectious disease expert in America in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. In April of 2020, he retweeted a call for Fauci to be fired from one of his Conservative supporters. During a majority maskless Florida rally held during the election season, his supporters chanted “Fire Fauci,” and he claimed that he may try to do that after the election.

1st Impeachment (December 18th, 2019): The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump on the counts of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. This was spurred by the whistleblower Vindman’s complaint of his abuse of power in August of 2019. These two articles of impeachment were acquitted by the Senate on February 20th, 2020. 

Trump Serves Fast-Food Dinner (January 30th, 2019): When Clemson won the National College Football Championship they were invited to the White House for a dinner, like in past years. The White House kitchen was not operating at that time due to the government shutdown and were unable to produce the food needed for all of the football players. Trump bought food from multiple fast-food kitchens in the U.S. instead. Many called the move “classist and racist” to serve this type of food to national champions.

Longest Government Shutdown (December 22nd, 2018 to January 25th, 2019): Thousands of federal workers were left without a paycheck and crucial services were halted for 35 days in a historic government shutdown. The shutdown lasted 35 days due to Trump;s demands for funds for his wall. He also threatened to declare a national emergency during this time if the negotiations were not reached. 

While these events do not even begin to cover the impact of Donald Trump’s full time in office, they do provide some reflection of what our 45th President valued and how his decisions reflected on Americans. It is impossible to tell what long lasting effects these events will have even after he is long out of office, and only time will tell.