The Year of Living Normally
As the Trump presidency reaches the eve of its first year, the US government teeters on the verge of a shutdown. After 12 months of a nonstop, often maddening news cycle, one can forgive the federal government for needing a break. I know my news-tab gathering laptop has been wanting to shutdown for months. The crazy first year is ending with an ironic twist only possible in the Trump era: With the president invoking religion as he addressed the March for Life participants, shadowed by headlines that feature details of his relationship with an adult movie star, including his request that she spank him with a rolled up issue of Forbes that featured him on the cover (hey, at this point, old media will take any use case it can get). In other words, it was just another day in the first year of a presidency the likes of which we’ve never seen. Here are a few links to provide a non-exhaustive (we’re all too exhausted for that) look back at the year that was.
+ From me: The Year of Living Normally. “The original Narcissus stared at his own reflection in a pond. Trump renamed the pond Trump Pond.”
+ Digg has a roundup of some of Trump’s strangest moments so far.
+ The Guardian tries to narrow a list down to the 12 weirdest days from Trump’s first year. (The piece could have just as easily been titled, Twelve Random Days.)
+ A few areas where Trumpism had its biggest impact: From The Marshall Project: Nine ways the law-and-order president has smashed Obama’s legacy. NatGeo with a running list of how Trump is changing the environment. The excellent Dahlia Lithwick on the highly efficient way Trump is remaking the judiciary. And the NYT on how international perceptions of America have changed in just one year.
+ Adam Gopnik: A Year of Donald Trump in the White House.
+ FIveThirtyEight: How Trump ranks in popularity vs. past presidents.
+ This administration has had unprecedented turnover.
+ And maybe, Christopher Hebert was the only one who had the right news strategy over the past year. “For the next year, I won’t turn the radio back on again. I won’t turn on the TV news. I won’t read a paper. I will embark on a journey into purposeful, determined ignorance.” My year of living ignorantly.