America is "lucky" it was the incompetent Donald Trump that was the first president to truly test America's checks/balances and democratic process.

If it was someone with actual intelligence, competence and charisma it could have been America's first and last.

THREAD

1/ https://twitter.com/Real_QL/status/1268513174665302016

All but one of the checks/balances failed to keep Trump in check
- Legislative branch failed
- Judiciary branch slow/limited & then supreme court stacked
- Executive branch - complicit/co-opted
- Impeachment failed
- DOJ co-opted (limiting Mueller too)
- FBI/CIA absent/limited
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The only one which stopped Trump was the vote.

I can not understate how lucky America is with a Biden victory

If Trump was not so stupid he could have taken Covid seriously from the start & it would have gained him enough voters for an Electoral College win

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We think the first term was bad.

The second term would be exponentially worse.

FB and Fox News would be spreading effective misinformation/propaganda campaigns

Trump would have unimpeded power setting him up as a de facto dictator.

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Here's a list of the many things Trump got away with in his first term with no actual consequences:

1) Extorting Allies with quid pro quos
2) Unprecedented profiting/fleecing from official business
3) Never "furnished" his tax returns

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4) Allowing foreign adversaries to interfere in the election and American affairs
5) Allowing foreign adversaries to put bounties on American soldiers heads

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6) Firing and replacing inspector generals/watch dogs with sycophants: internal watchdogs for the intelligence community, Defence department, Health and Human services, Transportation Department and State Department
7) Using the DOJ for his own needs

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8) Put unconfirmed loyalists unlawfully in positions of power e.g. see Chad Wolf & William Pendley
9) Insulting most of America's LONG STANDING allies including Australia, Canada, Britain
10) Cozying up to Dictator including Putin, Xi Jingping, Kim Jong Un and Bolsonaro

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11) Coarsening presidential discourse with personal insults, name-calling and invoking/inciting violence "when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
12) Gassing and shooting American citizens for a photo op (among all the other attacks on 1st amendment)

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13) Removing career long service men/women/experts e.g. Marie Yovanovitch, Rick Bright & Alexander Vindman
14) Using Giuliani to collude w/ adversaries to manufacture dirt on a political opponents
15) Continual normalisation/excusing of his unpresidential actions/behaviour.

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16) Undermining the USA's own intelligence agencies e.g. siding with Putin.
17) Installing sycophants in highest positions: John Ratcliffe as director of intelligence, Dejoy: Postmaster General.
18) Continually politicizing/partisan/stacking supreme court after RBG's death.

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19) Making over 22 000 lies or misleading claims to the American people
20) EVERYTHING involving Mike Flynn and Roger stone
21) Abusing pardoning power: e.g Dinesh D’Souza, Bernard Kerik, Rod Blagojevich

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22) Using Gov resources for partisan means e.g. Sharpiegate, pressuring officials to justify it
23) Covid - Deaths = >240k, Long lasting effects = potentially >11 million Americans + economic damage
24) #PPEGATE - see How Trump profited off coronavirus in 10 steps video

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25) Dividing the nation and praising white supremacists. "Fine people on both sides"
26) Racism & Attacking four congresswomen of colour "Go back and help fix the totally crime infested from which they came"

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27) Manufacturing/overstating "others" as scape goats e.g. "Radical leftists" and "Anti-fa".
28) Telling boogaloos/proud boys to "Stand back and stand by"
29) Appointing 3 supreme court justices and >30% of the judges on the federal courts.

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30) Contradicting scientists/experts - undermining the effectiveness of the Covid task force & touting unsafe drugs/agents "Hydroxychloroquine" & " inject bleach"
31) Bigotry: calling African countries "shitholes" and Mexicans "rapists

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32) Kids in cages and over 545 kids forcibly separated from their families
33) Terribly executed Trade War with China which resulted in US taxpayers footing the massive bills to bail out farmers.
34) Continuously violating the emoluments clause e.g. see Trump's hotels

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35) 1/4 time spent in office at his own golf courses costing taxpayers >$142 mil
36) Fraud which was settled during his presidency e.g. Trump University & his charity Trump Foundation
37) Incitement of violence to his supporters/armed forces to attack his political opponents
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38) Individual 1: Illegal hush money to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal - Which ATM only Cohen is in jail for.
39) Continually attacking the free press/media.
40) Revoking press passes for dozens of journalists.

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41) Demanding son-in-law Jared Kushner be granted security clearance despite objections by intelligence officials warned that Kushner could be compromised by foreign governments.
42) Imposing a "Muslim travel ban"

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43) Using White House for political purposes
44) Allowing/using the White house for financial purposes/endorsements + repeatedly violating the Hatch ACT

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45) ALL THINGS involving Steve Bannon - far right nationalist as chief strategist
46) Profiting off the presidency e.g Doubling his Mar-a-Lago initiation fee to $200 000 when he became president.

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47) Attacking ANY private company who he dislikes e.g. Goodyear Tires, Tik Tok etc
48) Attacking war heroes e.g John McCain and "Losers and suckers"
49) Promoting conspiracy theories: OBAMAGATE, Qanon etc

23/ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1296092859226042368?s=20

51) Using Federal resources to hide/destroy evidence e.g Ukraine transcript to highly classified server.
52) Destroyed/hid records from previous meetings with Putin.

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52) Encouraging police officers/law enforcement to rough up suspects
53) Watching up to 7 hours of TV rather than undertaking presidential duties.

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54) ATTACKING & UNDERMINING every facet of democracy & enabling/complicit in cheating in the electoral process-see below thread of >45 examples
55) Nepotism of unqualified personnel: Kushner, Ivanka, Eric, Don Jr, Barr's son-in-law/daughter, Rudy's son
26/ https://twitter.com/Real_QL/status/1326854234885640193?s=20

56) Utilizing stolen personal data of over 60 million Americans from Facebook through Cambridge Analytica and using psychographics to influence the 2016 election. (Steve Bannon was involved in this too)

57) Refusing to concede - barring President-elect Biden from receiving crucial intelligence information
58) Slowing down testing, refusing supplies to Democratic states, Kushner punishing "blue states", co-opting Covid data bypassing CDC going directly to White House

59) Continually attacking/undermining Obamacare public ally & in the courts for 4 years, without even having a healthcare plan to replace it with. DURING A PANDEMIC.
60) Embezzling/laundering money through many operations e.g. Inauguration campaign, Trump's defence fund etc

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