Mar 10, 2019 6 min read

The chaotic, dysfunctional, and corrupt nature of Donald Trump’s presidency and administration cannot be overstated.

Since Trump took office, there has been an unprecedented number of administration officials who have resigned or been fired, some while under investigation:

Ryan Zinke, Secretary of Interior and Trump appointee, resigned. John Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, was fired. James Mattis, Secretary of Defense and Trump appointee, resigned. Mira Ricardel, Deputy National Security Adviser, was fired. Jeff Sessions, Attorney General and Trump appointee, was fired. Don McGhan, White House counsel, resigned. Joe Hagin, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, resigned. Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Trump appointee, resigned. Tom Homan, Director of ICE and Trump appointee, resigned. Ty Cobb, White House special counsel, resigned. Nadia Schadlow, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy, was fired. Tom Bossert, Homeland Security Adviser, was fired. Michael Anton, National Security Council, resigned. H.R. McMaster, National Security Adviser, resigned. Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the UN and Trump appointee, resigned. Hope Hicks, White House Communications Director, resigned. David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Trump appointee, was fired. Josh Raffel, Deputy Communications Director, resigned. John Dowd, Trump’s lead lawyer, resigned. Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State and Trump appointee, was fired. John McEntee, personal aide to the president, was fired. John Feeley, U.S. ambassador to Panama and Obama appointee, resigned. Gary Cohn, chief economic adviser, resigned. Rachel Brand, Associate Attorney General and Trump appointee, resigned. David Sorensen, White House speechwriter, resigned. Rob Porter, White House staff secretary, resigned. Taylor Weyeneth, Deputy Chief of Staff of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, resigned. Brenda Fitzgerald, Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Trump appointee, resigned. Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Director and Obama appointee, was fired. Marc Short, Director of Legislative Affairs, resigned. Omarosa Manigault Newman, assistant to the president and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison, resigned. Dina Powell, Deputy National Security Adviser, resigned. Jeremy Katz, deputy director at the National Economic Council, resigned. Rick Dearborn, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, resigned. George Sifakis, assistant to the president and Director of the Office of Public Liaison, resigned. Tom Price, Health and Human Services Secretary and Trump appointee, resigned. Keith Schiller, Director of Oval Office Operations, resigned. Sebastian Gorka, White House deputy assistant, was fired. Carl Icahn, Special Adviser on Regulatory Reform, resigned. Steve Bannon, White House Chief Strategist, was fired. Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Senior Director for Intelligence on the National Security Council, was fired. George Gigicos, White House Director of Scheduling and Advance, resigned. Anthony Scaramucci, White House Communications Director, was fired. Reince Priebus, White House Chief of Staff, was fired. Derek Harvey, National Security Council Adviser, was fired. Michael Short, Assistant Press Secretary, was fired. Rich Higgins, Strategic Planning Aide, was fired. Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, resigned. Mark Corallo, spokesman and communications strategist for Trump’s legal team, resigned. Walter Shaub, Office of Government Ethics Director and Obama appointee, resigned. Tera Dahl, Deputy Chief of Staff for the National Security Council, resigned. Michael Dubke, White House Communications Director, resigned. James Comey, FBI Director and Obama appointee, was fired. Angella Reid, White House Chief Usher, resigned. Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General and Obama appointee, resigned. K.T. McFarland, Deputy National Security Adviser, resigned. Katie Walsh, Deputy Chief of Staff, resigned. Michael Flynn, National Security Adviser, was fired. Sally Yates, U.S. Deputy Attorney General and Obama appointee, was fired.

There has been an unprecedented number of people connected to Trump and his campaign who have been indicted or accepted plea deals:

George Papadopoulos, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, was arrested in July 2017 and pleaded guilty in October 2017 to making false statements to the FBI. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chair, was indicted on a total of 25 different counts by Mueller’s team. Rick Gates, a former Trump campaign aide and Manafort’s longtime junior business partner, was indicted on similar charges to Manafort. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements to the FBI. Thirteen Russian nationals and three Russian companies were indicted on conspiracy charges and identity theft related to a Russian propaganda effort designed to help President Trump win. Richard Pinedo pleaded guilty to an identity theft charge in connection with the Russian indictments. Alex van der Zwaan, a London lawyer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Rick Gates. Konstantin Kilimnik was charged with attempting to obstruct justice by tampering with witnesses in Manafort’s pending case last year. Twelve Russian GRU officers were charged with crimes related to the hacking and leaking of leading Democrats’ emails in 2016. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to eight counts related to hush money payments to women who alleged affairs with Donald Trump. Roger Stone, longtime Trump adviser, was indicted on seven counts.

Trump continually sides with murderous dictators. He stated that he “fell in love” with Kim Jong-un after they exchanged “beautiful letters.” Recently, when addressing the death of Otto Warmbier, an American student who died in 2017 after being imprisoned in North Korea, Trump stated that he believes Kim Jong-un because “He tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word.”

Trump believes King Salman of Saudi Arabia because he gave him a “flat denial” that the Saudi Crown Prince had ordered the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies on the issue of Russia’s state-sponsored meddling in the 2016 presidential election because “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

These are facts, and none of this is normal or acceptable. We, the people of the United States, should not become accustomed to this administration. We should find it unacceptable and undesirable every single day. To quote Congressman Elijah Cummings, “We’re better than this.”

Sharon Laffey is Washington County Democratic Committee recording secretary and Democratic committeewoman, Buffalo Township.