Here's everything Donald Trump has tweeted since he became president - Los Angeles Times
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Here’s everything Donald Trump has tweeted since he became president

President Trump attends the ceremonial swearing-in of James N. Mattis as secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.
(Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images)
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His tweets have the power to shape international relations, send stock prices rising — or falling — and galvanize the American public.

How will Donald Trump use this platform of unfettered communication now that he’s commander in chief?

Here is everything Trump has tweeted since he was sworn in as 45th president of the United States, plus links to more coverage on each topic. We’ll be keeping it updated.

— Alex Wigglesworth

Tracking Trump's first 100 days as president: Here's what happened this week » 

Grade the president: Tell us how you think Trump did this week »

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Feb. 22

Feb. 21

Feb. 20

President Trump names Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his new national security advisor, replacing Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign the week before.

President Trump’s mysterious reference to a frightening security episode in Sweden prompted a deluge of online ridicule —  and an official request for an explanation Sunday from a Nordic country that prides itself on tranquility.

Swedish authorities reported no terror-related incident or other episode involving large-scale violence. 

The Twitter hashtags #lastnightinsweden and #swedenincident blew up online, yielding posts including an image of a cozy farmhouse set in an idyllic-looking snowscape, an array of riffs on complicated IKEA furniture-assembly instructions and an assortment of tweets pretending to darkly implicate Sweden’s perhaps best-known export, the ’70s pop sensation ABBA.

Feb. 19

At a Saturday campaign-style rally in Florida just four weeks into his presidency, President Trump made an odd statement in reference to countries that accepted Syrian refugees.

"We've got to keep our country safe," Trump told the crowd. "You look at what's happening in Germany. You look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this?"

There wasn't much happening in Sweden, though. The statement recalled advisor Kellyanne Conway's reference to a nonexistent "Bowling Green massacre." And on Twitter, Ikea jokes ensued.

The next day, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump was referring to a report he had seen the night before. "He was talking about rising crime and recent incidents in general," she said, "and not referring to a specific incident."

Speculation had already begun that Trump was referring to a segment that ran on Fox News the night before. Then the president confirmed that.

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Feb. 18

At the rally in Florida, Trump continues his attack on the media, declaring before thousands of cheering supporters that “fake news” is undermining his nascent administration’s accomplishments.

Though the administration has faced setbacks, including the resignation of Trump’s national security advisor amid a deepening controversy over Russian interference in U.S. government, approval ratings that are historically low for a new president and the courts’ stalling of the temporary ban on travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim nations, Trump paints a far different picture.

He says the White House is running “so smoothly” and that “a great spirit of optimism” is sweeping the country, citing recent stock market highs as his chief evidence.

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Feb. 17

Trump describes the rally, which will be paid for by his campaign committee, much the same way he approached his campaign events, as sold-out affairs that prove his popularity.

The return to theatrics seems destined not only to thrill his fans, but also to offer political benefit.

For both Trump and the audience, it will be visible evidence of the 46% of voters who backed the Republican for president — a number that may have dropped a bit since November but remains large and fervent.

For his opponents, it will be a reminder of his ability to harness passion in his supporters.

The downside to jumping back into campaign mode? It can substitute one kind of bubble with another — one that reinforces Trump’s instinct to play to his supporters and exclude the majority of Americans.

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This comes a day after Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward turned down an offer to be Trump's national security advisor, reportedly citing financial and family commitments.

He would have replaced retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who resigned at Trump's request after it came to light that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about discussions he held with a Russian diplomat.

Retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served as an advisor for Trump’s campaign, is currently acting national security advisor.

White House officials have said that both he and retired Gen. David H. Petraeus are being considered to replace Flynn.

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At the news conference, Trump countered that all of his early setbacks were the fault of others, the product of “fake news” reporting or both. He called the news media, in general, “fake” about 20 times during the course of the 90-minute presser.

He also repeatedly denounced the leakers in the government who have fueled news stories about the departure of Flynn and possible contacts between members of Trump’s campaign team and Russia. But he maintained that the stories themselves were “fake news.”

“The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake,” Trump said at one point.

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During the visit, Trump praises the contributions of American workers and pledges to lead a resurgence of manufacturing across the country.

Adopting an optimistic tone, he ticks off his recipe for expanding manufacturing: penalties for those taking jobs out of the country, fewer regulations, lower taxes on businesses and a fight against what he calls “extreme cheating” by other countries.

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The week before, Price was confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary, overcoming bitter opposition from Democrats who had criticized the Georgia congressman’s calls to repeal the Affordable Care Act and scale back Medicare, Medicaid and other government safety net programs.

He’s expected to assume a leading role in helping guide the Republican effort to roll back the healthcare law, often called Obamacare, and to develop an alternative.

Its repeal has been repeatedly delayed because GOP lawmakers, despite years of pledging to replace the law, have been scrambling to settle on a strategy and overcome divisions within the party.

At the time of Trump’s tweet, neither he nor senior GOP lawmakers had produced legislation to either repeal the current law or replace it.

House Republicans did release a policy brief the day before that broadly outlined plans for repealing and replacing the law.

But it left many key questions unanswered, including how much the proposals would cost and whether they would preserve the health protections that millions of Americans have gained under the current law.

This comes as a new report reveals that the nation’s uninsured rate was the lowest on record the year before. In the first nine months of 2016, just 8.8% of Americans lacked health coverage, down from 16% in 2010, when President Obama signed the healthcare law, survey data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

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Feb. 16

The measure to which Trump refers rolls back coal mining regulations that would have updated 30-year-old rules on downstream pollution. Democrats and advocacy groups warn that it will wipe out important environmental safeguards. 

It’s part of a steady stream of bills churned out by the House and Senate that aim to dismantle the regulatory agenda put into place by President Obama.

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Trump’s comments come a day after he decried a New York Times report revealing that his aides had contacts with Russian intelligence officials before the election, then blamed leaks and the media’s handling of them for the resignation of national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Hours after tweeting, Trump continues in the same vein at his first solo news conference since becoming president. He repeatedly denounces the leakers in the government who have fueled the stories about Flynn and Russia, but he maintains that the stories themselves are “fake news.”

He also talks frequently about Hillary Clinton, insisting she would have dealt more poorly with Russia and bringing up old claims that she had cheated in one of the debates with her primary opponent. He mentions her name 12 times in total.

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Hours later, the Standard & Poor's 500 index slips — breaking a seven-day winning streak, its longest in 3½ years — but it remains a nudge away from its record high. The Nasdaq composite edges down but the Dow Jones industrial average rises to set another record at 20,619.77.

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Feb. 15

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Trump targets a New York Times report suggesting that his aides had contacts with Russian intelligence officials in the year leading up to the election.

He echoes the sentiments in a news conference later in the day, alternately claiming that the media traffics in “fake news” and that intelligence and law enforcement officials are leaking factual information to them.

Those remarks come as Trump’s first public comments since he accepted the resignation of national security advisor Michael Flynn late Monday. Flynn was dismissed in the face of mounting scrutiny over his conflicting accounts of contacts with a Russian diplomat and his admission that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the matter.

During the news conference, Trump complains that Flynn was “treated very, very unfairly by the media” but says nothing about Flynn’s potentially illegal conduct or his own role in Flynn’s ouster.

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Feb. 14

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Feb. 13

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Feb. 12

The supporters were outnumbered by protesters demonstrating against Trump’s revival of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects, according to a report from the Palm Beach Post.

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During the appearances, White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller deepened doubts about the future of the Trump administration’s national security advisor and again suggested that massive vote fraud occurred in November’s election without citing evidence.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Miller declined to say if the president still has confidence in national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Flynn's future with the administration is at issue because of indications that he may have misled his colleagues, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the weeks before Trump's inauguration.

Miller's silence on Flynn was significant because the White House had booked him on several of the major Sunday television interview programs as the administration's spokesperson this weekend. They appear to have done so in part to avoid having to give a definitive answer about Flynn.

A day later, Flynn resigns.

In an interview that aired on ABC’s “This Week,” Miller said that “the noncitizen voting issue is pervasive and widespread.”

Trump has said that he lost the popular vote to Democrat Hillary Clinton only because 3 million to 5 million illegal immigrants had cast votes for her.

That claim of massive illegal voting has been denied by Republican officials in key states, such as Ohio, and by independent observers. Administration officials have never offered any evidence for it.

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Sanders also ridiculed the notion that widespread illegal voting had occurred in the November election, which White House senior policy advisor Stephen Miller raised in an interview that aired on ABC’s “This Week.”

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The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had three days earlier ruled that Trump’s executive order halting refugee admissions and blocking travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries should remain suspended while a judge further examines its legality.

In the ruling, the court said that the federal government “has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.”

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Trump’s comment comes in the wake of sweeping raids by U.S. immigration officials that nabbed hundreds of individuals believed to be in the country illegally.

Federal officials described the sweeps as “targeted enforcement operations” focused on detaining people with criminal backgrounds in cities across the country.

Nearly 200 people throughout Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were arrested, according to an initial tally provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Atlanta field office. In the Los Angeles area, more than 150 arrests were made in a weeklong operation, officials said.

The situation highlighted fear among many immigrants about Trump’s vow to deport those in the United States illegally. But immigration officials in Los Angeles strongly resisted characterizing the actions as a “crackdown” and said they were planned before Trump took office.

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Feb. 11

Hours after North Korea deployed what may have been a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe called the launch "absolutely intolerable."

Trump, in a one-sentence statement, didn’t address the launch directly but says the U.S. stands behind Japan. He and Abe vowed to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance and leave the stage without taking questions.

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A Reuters report published two days before had estimated that a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would cost as much as $21.6 billion and take more than three years to build. Trump has in the past suggested that such a wall would cost up to $12 billion to build.

In the report, Reuters cites a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal document that the outlet describes as “a final step before moving forward with requesting U.S. taxpayer funds from Congress and getting started on construction.”

Trump has criticized the costs of the F-35 fighter jet and Air Force One programs and credits himself with achieving reductions in both.

In December, he took aim at Boeing’s development of new Air Force One jets, tweeting that “costs are out of control, more than $4 billion” and suggesting the contract should be canceled. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg then pledged to build the aircraft for less than $4 billion, though the company had previously noted that the project did not yet have a firm price tag.

Also in December, Trump tweeted that the “F-35 program and cost is out of control.” The stock price of Lockheed Martin, the project’s prime contractor, quickly dropped. Trump later touted a $600-million cost reduction in the program, but the amount appears to be similar to a price cut that the Department of Defense had already anticipated.

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Trump is referring to a Feb. 9 article in the Washington Times headlined “77% of refugees allowed into U.S. since travel reprieve hail from seven suspect countries.”

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had two days earlier ruled that Trump’s executive order halting refugee admissions and blocking travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries should remain suspended while a judge further examines its legality.

In the ruling, the court said that the federal government “has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the Order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States.”

President Trump said Friday that he is weighing a new, more narrowly tailored executive order to curb entry into the U.S., a step that would mean setting aside his current legal battle in favor of moving more quickly on his broader goal of restricting the flow of who comes into the country.

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Feb. 10

Trump meets with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. On the agenda were issues including trade, the future of the U.S.-Japan security alliance and disputed islands in the East China Sea. The two world leaders also share a 19-second handshake that prompts a flurry of reactions on social media.

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Trump is referencing an earlier version of a New York Times story that was later updated with information about the phone call after it took place. The updated story still references the gap between Nov. 14 and yesterday’s phone call.

He has now name-checked the New York Times in a negative way seven times since becoming president.

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Trump quotes here from the legal blog Lawfare’s assessment of the 9th Circuit Court’s decision to uphold the stay on his travel ban. Interestingly, one of the blog’s founders, Jack Goldsmith, had predicted Trump’s tweets “will certainly backfire” against him.

“The tweets will make it very, very hard for courts in the short term to read immigration and constitutional law, as they normally would, with significant deference to the president’s broad delegated powers from Congress and to the president’s broad discretion in foreign relations,” Goldsmith, a national security lawyer in the Bush administration and professor at Harvard Law School, wrote Monday.

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Feb. 9

Trump’s tweet comes as a federal appeals court decides to continue blocking enforcement of his executive order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the U.S.

The Trump administration can appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Trump responds to comments from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) questioning the success of a Jan. 28 U.S. Navy SEAL raid in Yemen that claimed the life of Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens. It was the first special operations raid authorized by Trump.

McCain reportedly called the raid a “failure” while speaking to the media two days before. He then issued a statement that said, in part, that he “would not describe any operation that results in the loss of American life as a success.”

McCain has long been a target of Trump. At one point in the campaign, Trump said McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner in North Vietnam, was “not a war hero.”

“I like people that weren't captured, OK?” Trump said.

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President Trump accuses Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) of misrepresenting comments made by Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had told reporters the day before that Gorsuch was “disheartened by the demoralizing and abhorrent comments made by President Trump about the judiciary.” He was referring to Trump’s tweets attacking a federal judge who had issued a restraining order suspending Trump’s travel ban.

In response, Trump takes aim at Blumenthal's credibility, bringing up a 7-year-old controversy over his military service.

During Blumenthal's campaign for Senate in 2010, he was criticized for claiming in speeches that he had served in Vietnam. Blumenthal had been in the Marine Corps Reserve and was not posted overseas. He later said he had misspoken about his record a few times out of the hundreds of speeches he has given in his political career.

Trump himself was disqualified from service during the Vietnam War in 1968 after a physical exam. Trump told the New York Times he received a medical deferment because of bone spurs in his heels.

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Feb. 8

Trump has his most active day on Twitter since the inauguration when the president’s personal account featured excerpts of his address. Here they are organized by general topic:

Accolades

Ivanka

It wasn’t the first time Trump tweeted about a company (see: Boeing, Carrier and U.S. automakers) but ethics experts said the public comments about his daughter’s business raise conflict-of-interest concerns and even carry an implicit threat. 

The tweet from his personal account was also retweeted by the official @POTUS account.

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The media

His schedule

Travel ban

President Trump accuses federal judges of playing politics and forcefully goes after the appeals judges who are deciding whether to uphold the decision to suspend his travel ban.

The president puts on a highly public show of trying to sway the judges during remarks at a gathering of police chiefs in Washington, D.C. Trump says the law gives him expansive power to block foreigners from entering the country. 

“A bad high school student would understand this,” Trump says.

He cites a Morning Consult/Politico poll in a tweet later in the day. Other polls have shown less support. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 51% of those surveyed oppose the block on travelers from the seven Muslim-majority countries and 60% don't like the ban on refugees.

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Feb. 7

Kellyanne Conway had claimed on Feb. 2 that the nation had never gone so long without a Treasury secretary, an assessment rated “false” by PolitiFact.

And a Wall Street Journal analysis of Cabinet nomination approvals found that every president in the last 35 years saw delays with at least one of his nominees. The Journal also determined that, overall, the hearings for Trump’s choices were starting later than in previous administrations due to a combination of missing paperwork and protests from Democratic lawmakers.

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During a round table with sheriffs from around the country, Trump vows to continue fighting to preserve his seven-nation travel ban, even if it means appealing to the Supreme Court.

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Trump responds to controversy stemming from comments he made about Russian President Vladimir Putin during a pre-taped interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that aired on Super Bowl Sunday.

When O’Reilly observed during the interview that Putin is “a killer,” Trump retorted: “You think our country is so innocent?”

Some congressional Republicans sought to distance themselves from Trump’s apparent comparison — or attack it outright — while Democrats were harsher in their response.

Trump has in the past made similar remarks about Putin’s reputation for violent retribution against perceived political enemies. This was the first time since taking office, though, that he used such language in defending Putin.

In the tweet, Trump compares his comments to a deal negotiated under the Obama administration that curbed Iran's ability to build or acquire nuclear weapons for at least a decade in exchange for an easing of sanctions on its trade, finances and oil industry.

Trump has signaled that his administration will take a tougher stance on Iran than its predecessor. He has variously promised to dismantle or revise the nuclear deal, despite warnings from intelligence officials.

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Feb. 6

The tweet comes as the Trump administration prepares to head to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to preserve the president’s seven-nation travel ban.

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Feb. 5

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Trump’s attack on U.S. District Court Judge James Robart enters its second day, as an appeals court denies a request from the Trump administration to immediately reinstate the president’s executive order barring visa applicants from seven countries.

Robart had two days before issued a temporary restraining order suspending the travel ban in response to a lawsuit arguing it is unconstitutional because it amounts to religious discrimination. 

Democrats express dismay at Trump’s comments, saying they suggest the president doesn’t respect the independence of the judiciary.

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Feb. 4

In the interview, Trump calls California “out of control” and threatens to withhold federal funding to the state if it votes to declare itself a sanctuary state.

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Trump continues his attack on U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who had issued a temporary restraining order suspending the enforcement of Trump’s executive order barring visa applicants from seven countries.

The president again uses the word “ban,” four days after the White House insists the term “misrepresents” Trump’s executive order and demands that reporters stop using it.

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Trump targets U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, who hours before had issued a temporary restraining order suspending the enforcement of Trump’s executive order barring visa applicants from seven countries.

Robart’s ruling, effective nationwide, comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the states of Washington and Minnesota. The suit argues that the executive order amounts to religious discrimination against Muslims in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The White House says it will appeal Robart’s order, and also seeks an emergency stay against it. In the meantime, the Department of Homeland Security suspends “any and all actions” related to the travel ban.

Trump’s tweets, particularly his use of the term “so-called judge,” spark a barrage of responses.

Far from a liberal reformer, Robart was appointed by George W. Bush and is known for his conservative legal views. Friends say he’s unlikely to be swayed by Trump’s comments.

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Feb. 3

Trump has suggested slapping new tariffs on Chinese and Mexican goods. He’s also appeared to be considering a proposal by House Republicans for a border adjustment tax, under which exports from the United States would be tax-exempt, but imports would be taxed at the border.

Some economists say that imposing tariffs on imports broadly would raise prices for American consumers and cause significant problems for global production systems, eventually slowing corporate sales, investments and hiring.

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Trump comments on an attempted terrorist attack in Paris in which soldiers guarding the Louvre Museum shoot an attacker who lunged at them with a machete. The suspect is identified as an Egyptian man who had been living in the United Arab Emirates before traveling to Paris on a tourist visa. Neither Egypt nor the United Arab Emirates is among the countries whose citizens are banned from traveling to the U.S. under Trump’s executive order.

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Trump might be referring to violent protesters who shut down a speech that Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to give at UC Berkeley two days before. School officials blamed the violence on “black block agitators,” self-described anarchists or antifascists who attach themselves to peaceful protests but are intent on causing damage, though there’s no evidence to suggest they are paid for their time.

Trump’s tweet also comes as protests against his travel ban continue throughout the country. Those are largely peaceful and incident-free.

It’s not the first time Trump has blamed “professional” or “paid” protesters for demonstrations against his presidency. He made similar claims in response to a near-riot that prompted the cancellation of a rally along his campaign trail, as well as demonstrations that erupted nationwide after his election. The theory that powerful leftists were conspiring to disrupt Trump’s inauguration by hiring professional agitators was also advanced by some conservative outlets, including Breitbart News, in the days leading up to the ceremony.

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At the meeting, Trump vows that major reductions in financial regulations are coming — and signals his intention to rely on Wall Street for advice on the matter.

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Trump thanks Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after Turnbull refutes a Washington Post report describing a phone call between the two leaders as a heated exchange.

In comments to Australian media, Turnbull denies that Trump hung up on him and characterizes their conversation as “courteous.”

Turnbull also reportedly says that Trump has committed to honoring a deal for the U.S. to accept some 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore detention centers, even though Trump had taken to Twitter to ridicule the arrangement two days before.

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Later in the day, the Trump administration imposes economic sanctions on Iran as punishment for the country’s ballistic missile test and its support for militant groups in regional conflicts.

The penalties, which target 25 Iranian companies and individuals, appear calibrated to increase pressure on Iran without jeopardizing the landmark nuclear deal negotiated under the Obama administration, or creating a new international crisis.

After Trump’s election, Obama had warned of imposing new U.S. sanctions on Iran while it remains in compliance with the deal, saying that doing so would open a rift with the other major signatories — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.

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It’s another shot fired in a war of words between Trump and the former governor of California, who replaced Trump as host of “The Apprentice” after Trump won the presidency.

At an appearance the day before at the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump had requested prayers for Schwarzenegger, calling his takeover of the reality television show “a total disaster” and saying that “the ratings went down the tubes.” In response, Schwarzenegger took to Twitter and suggested that he and Trump switch jobs.

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Feb. 2

Citing a Reuters report that Samsung is considering building a U.S. factory, the linked article contains this takeaway:

“Companies can grab headlines with news of even considering bringing production to the U.S., and the Trump White House benefits from the ability to take credit. These moves may not add up to significant job growth, but it's hard to beat the PR.”

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Trump repeats comments made a day earlier by national security advisor Michael Flynn.

The president has variously promised to dismantle or revise the 2015 deal, which curbed Iran's ability to build or acquire nuclear weapons for at least a decade in exchange for an easing of sanctions on its trade, finances and oil industry.

While the U.S. did not give Iran $150 billion under the agreement, Iran did receive access to an estimated $100 to $150 billion of its own money that had been frozen in international accounts.

In November, then-CIA Director John Brennan issued a rare public warning against scrapping the deal, saying that doing so would be “disastrous.”

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Trump makes an unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return of the remains of a Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen, the first known casualty of an operation Trump ordered.

Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, 36, died during a raid on a compound used by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group’s Yemen-based offshoot.

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In a largely party-line vote, Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil chief executive, wins Senate approval by 56 to 43 and is sworn in hours later. Only three Democrats and one independent cross party lines to join Senate Republicans, a sign of how divisive his nomination has been.

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Trump responds to violent protesters who shut down a speech that conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to give at UC Berkeley the night before. University leaders had staunchly defended the appearance despite hundreds of requests to ban Yiannopoulos.

Legal experts say presidents have no authority to cut off federal funds for alleged violations of the 1st Amendment. If such cuts were made, they’d be acutely felt: the University of California each year receives $9 billion in federal funds for research, education and healthcare.

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Feb. 1

Trump takes aim at an agreement made late last year by former President Obama for the United States to take in some 1,250 refugees, whom Australia refuses to accept, from offshore detention centers.

Some label the tweet political humiliation: It comes after a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in which, The Washington Post reports, Trump accuses Australia of trying to export the next Boston bombers to America before abruptly hanging up. Trump later refutes the report, and Turnbull describes their conversation as “courteous.”

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Earlier in the day, White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn says the U.S. has put Iran “on notice” for carrying out a medium-range ballistic missile test and attacks by proxy forces on a Saudi frigate. His cryptic comment appears to signal the Trump administration is taking a tougher stance on Iran than its predecessor.

The missile test took place a day after Iran vowed to retaliate against Trump’s executive order limiting immigration for citizens of seven countries, including Iran. It’s not clear whether the two events are linked, but one analyst called the timing “suspect.”

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The dispute over the language comes after Trump describes the policy as a “ban” in a tweet sent on Monday, then the White House the next day insists that the word is verboten and chastises reporters for using it. Trump again uses the word “ban” when referring to the policy in a tweet sent three days later.

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Jan. 31

Trump nominates federal Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to fill the Supreme Court seat of the late Antonin Scalia. He casts his decision as another campaign promise kept.

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This comes as Democratic lawmakers temporarily stop the clock on Rex Tillerson’s nomination for secretary of State, prevent votes on Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as Health and Human Services secretary and Steve Mnuchin as secretary of Treasury by staging a walkout at the Senate Finance Committee and force a delay of the vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general.

(The next day, the Senate confirms Tillerson and the Senate Judiciary Committee approves Sessions’ nomination, though all the panel's Democrats vote against it. Also, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee vote to recommend the nominations of Tom Price and Steve Mnuchin after changing rules to allow for the process to go forward in the absence of Democratic lawmakers.)

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Trump responds to an emotional rally on the steps of the Supreme Court in which Democratic lawmakers protest the refugee and travel ban.

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Jan. 30

In response to a letter acting Atty. Gen. Sally Yates sent to the Department of Justice questioning the legality of Trump’s travel ban and announcing the Justice Department wouldn’t defend it in court, Trump portrays the statement as part of a partisan move against him. Hours later, Yates is fired.

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A photo taken after Trump signs an executive order requiring that federal agencies scrap two existing regulations for every new one adopted.

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Trump unveils his pick in a prime-time, televised White House ceremony.

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Trump responds to outrage over his executive order banning refugees and immigrants from certain countries after reports that it came as a surprise even to the agencies tasked with implementing it, causing chaos at airports across the country. He instead blames the havoc on protests against the order.

The statistics Trump cites represent only the number of people who arrived in the U.S. from other countries and were prevented from entering in the first 24 hours after the order went into effect. (An additional 173 travelers were stopped from boarding flights to the U.S. within the same time period, a Homeland Security official said in a statement.)

The total number of people detained after the first 24 hours is unclear, as federal officials initially refused requests to provide official statistics. A week later, the State Department estimates that 60,000 visas were canceled as a result of the order. In addition, calculations by the Los Angeles Times have found that up to 8 million people in the U.S. illegally could be considered priorities for deportation under the order.

Notably, Trump uses the word “ban.” The next day, the White House adamantly insists that the term is verboten. “This is not a ban,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tells reporters in a fiery news briefing. “When we use words like ‘travel ban,’” he says later, “that misrepresents what it is.”

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Jan. 29

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In the statement, Trump says the executive order is “not about religion” and “not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting.”

His order bans visa applicants from seven majority-Muslim countries while providing an exception for “religious minorities.”

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Citing the confusion that erupted at U.S. airports in the wake of Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven countries, the statement from Sens. McCain and Graham says that the order “was not properly vetted.”

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Trump’s executive order provides an exception for “religious minorities,” a category that could include Christians fleeing largely Muslim countries as well as other groups including Yazidis and Bahais that face persecution in the Mideast.

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Jan. 28

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It's not the first time Trump has raised similar claims. But while the New York Times did publish an open letter to subscribers questioning whether the paper and other news outlets had underestimated Trump's support, it did not apologize or label its own coverage bad. The outlet also says its online audience grew during the election.

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Jan. 27

After the swearing-in of Defense Secretary James Mattis, Trump announces two executive orders. One instructs the Pentagon to carry out a top-to-bottom review of the nation’s military and draw up plans for improvements. The second temporarily halts the nation's refugee program and blocks visa applicants from seven countries that the administration considers of major terrorism concern.

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Vice President Mike Pence conducts a ceremonial swearing-in of Defense Secretary James Mattis during Trump's first visit to the Pentagon since his inauguration.

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Trump manages to offend some of his Jewish supporters by issuing a statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day that omits mention of Jewish victims.

It’s also the same day he signs an executive order suspending the nation’s refugee program and blocking visa applicants from seven countries, which the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society calls “incredibly offensive.”

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The March for Life is typically the largest conservative demonstration of the year, a gathering held to rally opposition against the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling in 1973, which defined women’s legal right to abort a pregnancy.

Trump makes for a somewhat unlikely champion — he described himself in a 1999 television interview as “very pro-choice” despite hating abortion — but he appears intent on proving his later-in-life embrace of the anti-abortion cause.

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The same day, Trump and Mexican President Peña Nieto speak on the phone and agree to work out their differences, according to statements from both presidential press offices. The two also agree for the time being “not to speak publicly about this controversial theme,” says the statement from the Mexican president’s office, apparently alluding to the dispute about payment for the wall.

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Phillips created an app that helps Americans report perceived voter fraud and Trump has boasted that he’s a guru on the issue. But Phillips appears to be registered to vote in three states: Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, according to the Associated Press.

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Jan. 26

The day before, Trump had signed an executive order designating so-called sanctuary cities — municipalities that defy federal immigration laws — as ineligible to receive federal grants. California officials appear ready to fight the order.

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Hours later, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancels his planned meeting with Trump, citing disagreements about who would pay for construction of the wall. Nieto announces the decision in a tweet.

The incident sparks concern that Mexico or the United States will pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which could prove costly for the economically intertwined countries.

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The tweet comes as Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking thousands of classified reports to WikiLeaks, pens an editorial for The Guardian in which she writes that Obama’s legacy consists of “very few permanent accomplishments” because the former president wasn’t bold enough.

Nine days earlier, Obama had reduced Manning’s 35-year prison sentence to the nearly seven years she has served.

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Jan. 25

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Trump signs executive orders to start construction of a border wall, expand authority to deport thousands, increase the number of detention cells and punish cities and states that refuse to cooperate.

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Trump eventually moves up the announcement by two days, to Tuesday, amid the continued fallout from the executive action he signed temporarily banning all refugee admissions and visa applicants from seven countries.

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Trump misses a crucial fact: It’s not illegal to be registered to vote in multiple states.

In fact, Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, is registered in more than one state. The same is true for some of the president’s senior officials, including his pick to lead the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, along with senior advisor Stephen K. Bannon and Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

It is a felony to cast ballots in more than one state — yet it rarely happens.

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Jan. 24

The numbers come from Chicago Tribune data used in a news story about violence in the city so far this year.

But Trump’s “I will send in the Feds!” remark creates confusion in Chicago, where even police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says he had “no idea what he is talking about.”

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At the meeting, Trump tells leaders of the country's largest automakers that he will curtail "unnecessary" environmental regulations and make it easier to build plants in the U.S., changes that he expects will shore up the manufacturing jobs he repeatedly promised to voters on the campaign trail.

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Trump moves to revive oil pipeline projects that were blocked by Obama. He says he’ll demand the Keystone Pipeline be built using American steel.

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The photo appears to be a rebuke of reports that the crowd at Trump's inauguration was smaller than that at Obama’s.

The day after the ceremony, Press Secretary Sean Spicer had accused the media of reporting incorrect information about the size of the crowds and insisted, improbably, that it was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration.

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Jan. 23

Later in the day, Trump withdraws from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement that the Obama administration had painstakingly negotiated but that had been moribund for the last year after losing political support. Trump confirms that he will be pursuing bilateral trade talks instead of multiparty deals.

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Jan. 22

Trump dismissively responds to massive protests that grew out of opposition to his election, including a Women’s March on Washington that drew an estimated half a million people and similar rallies in 673 “sister” cities across the U.S. and around the world.

Though he acknowledges in a follow-up message the marchers’ right to demonstrate, Trump’s comment contributes to the unapologetically aggressive tone his White House sets in its first days.

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While Trump’s inauguration did score more viewers than Obama’s second inaugural in 2013, which averaged 20.6 million, ratings for inauguration ceremonies are higher in years when a new president is sworn in. Obama’s first swearing-in ceremony in 2009 was watched by 37.8 million people.

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Jan. 21

Trump refers to a speech at CIA headquarters in which he blamed the media for falsely reporting crowd sizes at his inauguration to be smaller than they were, and for ginning up his fight with the intelligence community, though he had, a week earlier, compared agents’ tactics to those of the Nazis while accusing them of leaking an unsubstantiated report about him.

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Jan. 20

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

His tweets echo his inaugural address, which he uses to craft the same vision of a devastated, decayed America that he presented when he accepted his nomination. He emphasizes a country under siege from problems that he vows to swiftly solve. Some analysts note that the address appears to speak chiefly to the 46% of Americans who voted for Trump, rather than attempting to unite the country as a whole.

Trump continues to use the phrase “America First,” which has an anti-Semitic and isolationist history going back to the years before the U.S. entry into World War II, when a broad-based coalition of politicians and business leaders came together to oppose U.S. involvement in the war in a movement marred by anti-Semitic and pro-fascist rhetoric.

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