The Chaos of Trump's Last Days in Office
By: Jailyn Mitchell
In November 2016, Donald Trump, a real estate developer and reality TV star, won the Presidential Election against Hillary Clinton. During his term as the 45th President of the United States, he has managed to get impeached twice, insult minorities, and picked fights with a handful of countries. After serving four years in office, Donald Trump’s presidential term has finally come to an end, but not without a tornado causing chaos behind him.
1. Accused of inciting the Capitol Hill insurrection against the United States
Jan. 6, 2021 will go down in history as one of the ugliest days in America as rioters brandishing “Trump 2020”, American and confederate banners assaulted the Capitol in Washington, D.C. The rioters were extremist Trump supporters on Trump’s behalf after he told his thousands of fans gathered on the Ellipse, “We’re going to have to fight much harder.” The deadly invasion of the government building known for being “the center and sacred symbol of democracy,” tweeted by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart lasted four hours and resulted in 5 known deaths and 140 injured Capitol Police officers. As the insurrection ensued, Trump continued to post seemingly unhelpful tweets while political leaders begged him to intervene in the violent riots. Trump’s refusal to listen to his political advisories began a whirlwind of accusations that he caused this violent act of terrorism. These accusations claim that this was due to Trump's alleged fraudulent 2020 election between himself and Biden being rigged against him.
Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. It's been a stunning day as a number of lawmakers and then the mob of protesters tried to overturn America's presidential election, undercut the nation's democracy and keep Democrat Joe Biden from replacing Trump in the White House.
Photo by: AP Photo/John Minchillo
“It [the 2020 election] was not stolen, but this madness was fomented by the President and his top advisors over the past several months.”
-Scott Jennings, an on-air contributor for CNN
2. Social media platforms ban Donald Trump from using them
In the days following the insurrection of the Capitol, social media platforms began acting against Trump’s conspiracy posts. Facebook unexpectedly banned him from their platform indefinitely, removing a video of Trump responding to the rioters and violence, telling them to “go home” hours after the initial invasion. The same evening, Twitter enabled a 12-hour lock on Trump’s account, declaring the block as a response to tweets that violated the platform’s Civic Integrity policy. Days later, however, the @realDonaldTrump account was announced to be permanently suspended “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Twitch, a live-streaming website owned by Amazon and was used by Trump’s campaign to stream speeches, disabled Trump’s account until he left office. Their reasoning for doing this was because they didn’t want to be used “to incite further violence.”
3. Trump gets impeached for the second time
Donald Trump became the first president in American history to be impeached twice on Jan. 13. However, being impeached does not mean he will be convicted and kicked out of office or barred from running for president again. On Jan. 13, the House passed the article of impeachment and was then sent to the Senate on Jan. 25, triggering the second part of the process: a Senate trial. Furthermore, the trial will begin on Feb. 9.
The final days of Donald Trump’s presidential term were a chaotic whirlwind and something that will never be forgotten. For those who experienced it, this has been a time for the history books.