Search

Trump's presidency: The most memorable moments - SBS

jembutikal.blogspot.com

After four feverish years of Donald Trump’s presidency, president-elect Joe Biden has promised to “lower the temperature”.

Despite refusing to concede defeat, Mr Trump will leave the White House in January following the Democrats’ decisive victory in the US election.

While Mr Trump joins the rare club of former presidents who’ve failed to win a second term, his presidency remains far from forgettable. 

From fake movie trailers to a seemingly accidental press conference outside a car park,  it’s been four chaotic, dizzying years of a presidency unlike any other. 

Let’s recap some of the more unusual moments of Donald Trump’s presidency: 

Trump’s inauguration 

From the moment President Trump was inaugurated, controversy has ensued. 

The first presidential scandal kicked off early into Mr Trump’s presidency when images of his inauguration were found to have been edited after an intervention from the president, to show bigger crowds than had actually attended the event.

inauguration

Mr Obama's inauguration in 2009 (left) and Mr Trump's inauguration in 2017 (right).

National Park Service

Images of the event later revealed his predecessor Barack Obama had strikingly larger crowds than President Trump did at his inauguration.

As Trump was inaugurated, along with his supporters coming out in force, millions of Americans took to the streets to protest his presidency and a limo was set on fire in Washington DC.

The day after his inauguration, hundreds of thousands of women wearing ‘pussy hats’ participated in the Women’s March on Washington. 

The pussy hat became a symbol of resistance after audio was leaked during the 2016 presidential race of Mr Trump bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy” in 2005.

When Trump played a fake action movie trailer to Kim Jong-un

Who could forget the moment President Trump, using an iPad, played a fake action-movie style trailer to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un during their nuclear talks in 2018.

“We had it made up. I showed it to him today, actually during the meeting, toward the end of the meeting, and I think he loved it,” Trump said at the time.

The bizarre trailer showed images of weapons and flashed to videos of Mr Jong-un and Mr Trump as the narrator said they were “two men, two leaders” with “one destiny”.

trump

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018.

Getty

Trump said he had shown the video because “I really want him to do something” about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.

Trump said the video was played for about eight members of the North Korean delegation who he thought “were fascinated by it.” 

Trump’s questions to Yazidi human rights advocate 

One of the most cringe-worthy moments of Mr Trump’s presidency was when he asked a Yazidi woman whose family was killed by IS: “where are they now?”

Nadia Murad was one of more than two dozen survivors of religious conflict that met with President Trump in the Oval Office.

Ms Murad won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and is a survivor of sex slavery and torture at the hands of IS. She is now an advocate to end sexual violence in war and armed conflicts.

trump

Nadia Murad speaks with President Trump in 2019.

AAP

As Ms Murad pleaded the president to step in and take action, he interrupted by telling her: “I know the area very well, you’re talking about.”

The president mostly looked towards the camera and turned only to make the occasional glance at Ms Murad while she explained: “They [ISIS] Killed my mum, my six brothers.” 

Trump responded by asking Ms Murad “But ISIS is gone?” before questioning her about her family’s whereabouts. 

"They killed them," Murad quickly replied. "They are in the mass grave in Sinjar, and I'm still fighting just to live in safety. Please do something."

He later asked her why she got her Nobel Peace Prize before promising to “look into” the crisis.

Last October, Mr Trump unexpectedly withdrew US troops from northern Syria, tearing up America’s five-year partnership with Kurdish troops, who’ve played a key role in the fight against IS.

The decision to evacuate left the Kurds vulnerable to an invasion by Turkey.

 “We thought that America would keep its promises,” said Mr Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. 

“But in the end there was weakness — and disappointment.”

With the US out of the picture, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a deal with the Kurdish fighters and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Russia and France agreed to carve out and police a buffer zone stretching across the Kurdish heartland in northeast Syria, according to France 24.

Trump’s wall and separation policies 

In his 2016 election campaign, President Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” between Mexico and the US -- that he said would be funded by Mexico.

The Trump administration ended up building 24 kilometres of the wall and 563 kilometres of a barrier, while 608 kilometres is still under construction or will be replaced, according to BBC

cages

People who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the US rest in one of the cages at a facility in Texas.

AAP

Of Mexican immigrants, Trump said in a campaign speech: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people.”

At the time, Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox responded by slamming Mr Trump for his “racist and ignorant ideas”.

“Trump is surely a false prophet who will guide the great nation of the United States to the bottom of the ocean, all the way through the shores of ignorance, racism, hunger and despair,” Mr Fox wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian.

President Trump was also widely condemned for zero-tolerance immigration policies that removed children from their parents at the US border.

While the adults were prosecuted and held in federal jails or deported, their children were placed under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Images of children wrapped in thermal blankets and sleeping on mats on the floor in what looked like prison cells caused international upset.

While it was the Obama administration that created the “cages” which children were locked up in -- something that has been criticised widely -- they did not systematically separate parents from their children at the border.

Trump’s announcement of IS leader’s death

One of the crowning jewels of Mr Trump’s presidency was the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a raid by US special forces in Syria last year. 

Mr Trump said al-Baghdadi died "whimpering and crying" after detonating a suicide vest in a dead-end tunnel.

trump

Trump has been the subject of much controversy over the past four years.

AAP

"The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, panic and dread, terrified of the American forces coming down on him," Mr Trump said.

"He reached the end of the tunnel as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and his three children. His body was mutilated by the blasts. The tunnel had caved on him," Mr Trump added.

"He died ... whimpering and crying and screaming."

Mr Trump’s fiery speech was a stark contrast from the speech Barack Obama gave in 2011 when he announced the killing of Osama Bin-Laden

In his late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel mashed up both speeches, comparing Mr Obama’s announcement that ”the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound” with Mr Trump’s account: “they did a lot of shooting, and they did a lot of blasting, even not going through the front door. You know, you would think you go through the door. If you’re a normal person, you say, ‘Knock, knock. May I come in?’”

Trump’s comments on white supremacy 

President Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” after clashes between counter-protesters and Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017.

The violent protests left Heather Heyer, a paralegal who was counter-protesting the rally, dead. 

trump

People fly into the air as a vehicle is driven into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

AAP

Far-right groups and white supremacists had been protesting a decision to remove a statue of a Confederate general from the city.

Last year, Mr Trump again sparked controversy following the Christchurch attack, in which 51 people were murdered, for claiming he didn’t believe that white nationalism is a rising threat.

"I think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems I guess," Trump said.

"We're just learning about the person and the people involved but it is certainly a terrible thing,” he added.

During this year’s heated presidential debates, Mr Trump was also accused of refusing to denounce white supremacists. 

Instead of directly condemning the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, Mr Trump told them to "stand back and stand by".

Mr Trump then went on to accuse left-wing groups of being responsible for violent protests that have erupted across the country.

"But I'll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem, it's a left-wing problem,” he said.

When Trump got COVID 

After it was revealed that President Trump had tested positive to COVID-19, America’s top COVID expert said he was “absolutely not” surprised.

Dr Fauci said he was “worried” Trump would get sick after what he called a “superspreader” event at the White House Rose Garden.

trump

Trump suggested he may be immune to COVID-19 after contracting the virus.

AAP

“I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask,”  Dr Fauci said.

“When I saw that on TV I thought ‘oh my goodness’,” he added.

The president later claimed “he learned a lot about COVID” during his time in hospital. "Now I'm better, and maybe I'm immune," he said.

It came months after Mr Trump was blasted for falsely suggesting that injecting bleach could kill the deadly virus.

In the press conference in April, he also appeared to propose irradiating patients' bodies with UV light.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?,” Mr Trump asked Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator. 

Pointing to his head, Mr Trump later said: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."

As the United States record the most COVID-19 cases in the world, Trump was criticised for telling an Asian-American journalist to ask China about his competition for COVID-19 testing.

“Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China,” he told the reporter in May. 

“Sir, why are you saying that specifically to me, about China,” the reporter replied. Before Trump labelled her query a “nasty question.”

Four Seasons Landscaping

After filing a series of legal challenges and making baseless claims about electoral fraud, Donald Trump sparked further confusion after his lawyers held a press conference outside the car park of a local landscaping business called ‘Four Seasons’.

It raised questions as to whether the campaign had actually meant to book the Four Seasons hotel instead.

Oddly, the landscaping firm was positioned next to a sex shop and across the street from the cremation centre. 

Mr Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani gave the press conference behind a backdrop of campaign posters between a fire extinguisher and yellow hose.

US President Donald Trump (left) was golfing when Joe Biden's victory was declared.

US President Donald Trump (left) was golfing when Joe Biden's victory was declared.

AP

While earlier on Sunday, Mr Trump was out playing golf when major networks called Joe Biden’s victory in the election. 

When he returned to the White House, protesters booed, shouted “Loser! Loser!” and gave the finger to his motorcade.

It’s certainly been an eventful four years...and Donald Trump still has two-and-a-half months left as president. 

Let's block ads! (Why?)



Bagikan Berita Ini

0 Response to "Trump's presidency: The most memorable moments - SBS"

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.