The 100 Worst Things Trump Has Done Since Descending That Escalator

Donald Trump has done a lot of bad, evil, crazy, and weird things since he came down that golden escalator in July 2015. Some of them were truly ghastly—family separation, January 6. Others were partly ghastly and partly embarrassing or gobsmacking (the love/hate affair with “Rocket Man” Kim Jong Un). Still others were just embarrassing—Sharpiegate, trying to buy Greenland. All of them, serious or not, contribute to the picture of a man who shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office again.

Just two weeks out from this pivotal Election Day, we’ve taken upon ourselves the public service of ranking the 100 worst things Trump’s done since that fateful July day. This is partly for your entertainment and amusement. But there’s a serious point here too. We want to remind people of just how horrible, on such an insistently recurring basis, the man was. And is. And will be.

The order was determined, and the items written, by editors Ryan Kearney, Jason Linkins, and Alex Shephard. We’ll be unfurling them every day this week in batches of 20. So: Read, agree, disagree, argue, and pass them along to Uncle Stan in Aliquippa. Unless you calculate that it’ll just make Uncle Stan like Trump more.

—TNR editor Michael Tomasky

100. Shark or Electrocution: The Eternal Debate

Where does one even begin with the presidency of Donald Trump? We’re going with a long-running debate he used to share with the public as to whether it’s preferable to die in the jaws of a shark or get electrocuted. It’s a nostalgic way to ease our way into one man’s addlepated corruption, while leaving us a lot of room to build up to other, much worse things. —J.L.

99. Fat-Shames Chris Christie

Oh, these two! Trump and the former New Jersey governor have had a tumultuous relationship over the years, with Christie going from opponent to sycophant to opponent again in what we loosely called “the 2024 Republican presidential primary.” For Christie, the highlight of his latest failed attempt at higher office came when Trump made fun of his weight at a New Hampshire rally. “Christie, he’s eating right now,” Trump said. “He can’t be bothered.” Hey, at least Trump remembered you, Chris! —J.L.

98. That Weird “Dance” Party in Philly

One of the more pressing questions of the 2024 presidential campaign is also perhaps its most absurd: How much of Trump’s odd behavior is the result of cognitive decline, and how much is it just … who he is? There is no clearer representation of this conundrum than Trump’s October 14 rally in suburban Philadelphia. As he was speaking in a hot, crowded room, his rambling performance—ostensibly a town hall with his supporters—was derailed by two medical emergencies. Rather than leave the stage, Trump decided to stick around—and demanded his handlers play a series of his favorite tunes, including Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” the celestial “Ave Maria,” and the song that has become his bizarre signature: the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” The entire display lasted roughly as long as his town hall. The crowd slowly dwindled; Trump, dancing with himself, didn’t seem to mind.—A.S.

Wow -- this was weird. Trump wrapped up his "town hall" in Oaks, Pennsylvania, after just a few questions, and right after he said he would take a few more questions. More music then played while Trump stood around on stage. Deeply bizarre scenes. pic.twitter.com/C3SJpsQagV

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 15, 2024

97. Greenland With Envy

We can’t believe we have to explain this, but Greenland is neither a private island nor up for sale. At 836,330 square miles, it is the biggest island in the world, one that exists within the Kingdom of Denmark but which is also largely autonomous. Nonetheless, President Trump was obsessed with the idea of buying Greenland. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously,” Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s prime minister, said in 2019. By that point in Trump’s delirious presidency, we Americans knew better.—R.K.

96. Tells Boy Scouts About a Sex Party on a Yacht

In July 2017, Trump gave what still might be his weirdest speech. Appearing before 24,000 Boy Scouts in West Virginia, he ranted about Obamacare, the “fake news” media, and the “cesspool” of Washington, D.C., for over 30 minutes. But the weirdest moment came when he alluded to a fellow real estate developer having wild, seemingly sex-fueled parties on his yacht in the 1970s.—A.S.

95. Duncing About Architecture

A few weeks after Trump was inaugurated, Architectural Record obtained a draft of a proposed executive order called “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” which would mandate a “classical style” for buildings under its purview. Why? As TNR contributor Kate Wagner explained at length, the move was more or less rooted in the obsessions of crypto-fascist weirdos. This was an early example of how the Trump era required us to go down so many different rabbit holes of far-right lore. Anyone up for testicle tanning?—J.L.

94. Please Clap—or Be Accused of Treason

Trump’s extremely boring 2018 State of the Union address was coldly received by Democrats. That’s hardly unusual for the party out of power in the White House, but to Trump it was “like death and un-American,” he whined during a speech the following week. “Somebody said treasonous. Yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not?” Three years later, he himself would come closer to committing treason than any president in U.S. history.—R.K.

93. The Biggest, Most Beautiful Tariffs

Trump recently said tariff is the “most beautiful word in the dictionary.” But what are economists saying about his proposal to levy tariffs on $3 trillion worth of imports, including a trade war–inducing 60 percent tariff on goods from China? David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, described them as a “perfect stagflation machine,” something that reflects “a two-year-old’s mentality,” and “one of those magical economic proposals that can actually cause inflation and put you into a recession—at the same time.” Sounds pretty ugly to us.—J.L.

92. Woos Black Voters With a … Mug Shot

For most people, it is not good to have your mug shot taken. But Trump is not most people. Shortly after being booked on racketeering charges that had been brought against him in Georgia, Trump saw a silver lining. “A lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said, seemingly making the racist suggestion that Black people related to him for being a criminal.—A.S.

91. Showers, Dishwashers, and Toilets Have “No Water”

For years, Trump has ranted in speeches about the water pressure of home appliances, complaining that it takes him forever to wash his “gorgeous head of hair,” he has to flush the toilet 15 times, and dishwashers don’t actually wash dishes. He even went so far as to implement a rule lifting the limit on the flow rate of shower heads. But Biden reversed it in 2021, and Trump’s pumpkin head hasn’t looked the same since.—R.K.

90. Morning Joe Derangement Syndrome

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski know how to get under Trump’s skin. The proof is in the berserk things he says about the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. In 2017, he called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy” and claimed she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” during a visit to Mar-a-Lago. Three years later, he suggested that Scarborough had murdered a congressional staffer in 2001 while serving as a Republican congressman from Florida.—R.K.

89. The Lecter Lecture

Why has Trump taken to shouting out Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer from Thomas Harris’s famous series of novels, on the campaign trail? Some people believe it’s something that goes hand in hand with Trump’s conflation of asylum-seekers with insane asylums. Or it could just be an inside joke he’s having with himself. Either way, the lambs are screaming somewhere.—J.L.

88. Disasterclass

Trump earned himself a fresh round of media mockery in September 2018 when he referred to Hurricane Florence as “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water,” which is what you have to offer, one supposes, when you’re a climate change denier staring hard evidence of climate change right in the face. Anyway, big disasters were truly not Trump’s bag, as we’d all come to learn during the pandemic.—J.L.

87. Hell Is Other People

Trump went out of his way to hurt the late Representative John Dingell’s wife, Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, in a December 2019 Battle Creek rally, implying that the widow’s recently deceased husband was “looking up” at her from Hell. (Apropos of nothing in particular, you all realize that when Trump dies, he’s going to lie in state, right? There’s going to be a big ceremony in Washington, and all the living presidents will have to make a speech. That’s going to be wild.)—J.L.

86. Carries His Feud with John McCain to the Grave

It’s easy to understand why Trump wasn’t invited to John McCain’s funeral. Trump has questioned McCain’s status as a war hero by saying he likes “people who weren’t captured,” and he has spent his entire political career denigrating McCain’s political career. And yet, months later Trump was still fuming that he wasn’t invited to McCain’s funeral. “I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted, which as president I had to approve,” he said in a speech at an Ohio tank factory. “I don’t care about this, I didn’t get a thank-you. That’s OK.” For sure.—A.S.

85. Infrastructure Week 4EVA

During his 2016 campaign, Trump promised to invest a trillion dollars in infrastructure repairs. These never materialized, but it did help build a single running joke that the media was able to keep dryly referring to over the entirety of the Trump era as “a metaphor for any well-intentioned proposal doomed to go nowhere,” like the Mueller investigation or the New York Mets.—J.L.

84. Bugging Out Over Obama

It was early 2017, about a month and a half after Trump assumed the presidency, and yet he was still obsessed with … Barack Obama?! “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Trump tweeted on March 4. “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” It’s a useful reminder that Trump will promote election conspiracy theories no matter the outcome.—R.K.

83. A Hurricane of Lies

Helene left not only unimaginable destruction in its wake but also a flood of misinformation. And that’s catnip to Trump. “I’ll be there shortly, but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas,” he posted on Truth Social, referring to North Carolina. He also claimed, “They’re being treated very badly in the Republican areas.” And: “Kamala spent all her FEMA money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country.” All lies.—R.K.

82. That Helsinking Feeling

At a July 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, while standing alongside Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, Trump offered a “stunning rebuke of the U.S. intelligence community” by suggesting their assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election had missed the mark. “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” he said. It was almost enough to suggest that he wasn’t quite on the level!—J.L.

81. Remember When We All Sided With Megyn Kelly?

In the first GOP presidential debate in 2015, co-moderator Megyn Kelly reasonably asked Trump about his persistent denigration of women as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” The question really stuck in his craw, such that a day later he complained to Don Lemon, “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”—R.K.

80. “Deep State” Delusions

As his presidency faltered and failed, and investigations into his 2016 campaign and activities as president grew more damaging, Trump advanced a conspiracy theory to deflect the blame: There existed, in Washington, D.C., a massive, coordinated group of government and national security employees bent on undercutting him. The problem wasn’t that Trump was incompetent or that he was committing crimes; it was that people were trying to stop his incompetence and crimes. Now, with the backing of Project 2025, Trump is running to crush the federal bureaucracy and replace it with toadies. “We will demolish the deep state,” he promises. He means it.—A.S.

79. Non-Standard Deduction

Remember when Trump refused to submit his tax returns to media scrutiny back in 2016, and people were shocked at how he so wantonly broke with established norms? Mitt Romney called it disqualifying! Anyway, it comes in at 79 on this list.—J.L.

78. Winks at Gun Owners to Kill Hillary Clinton

It seems almost quaint, in retrospect. These days, Trump blatantly encourages violence against his opponents, or promises to commit it himself, if elected. But in 2016, he was slightly more subtle—by his gutter-low standards, anyway. At a rally that August, he mused about Hillary Clinton, “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” then added: “Although the Second Amendment people—maybe there is, I don’t know.”—R.K.

77. Not So Sharpie

Does any story better capture the stupidity of the Trump presidency? As Hurricane Dorian hurtled toward Florida in late August of 2019, Trump canceled a planned trip to Poland to monitor the situation. On September 1, in a bid to show he was in control, he appeared with a map showing the hurricane’s path—but one doctored, apparently via marker, to show that it would hit Alabama as well as Florida. The National Weather Service in Birmingham attempted to correct him and calm rattled residents, tweeting, “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.” But Trump dug in and continued to insist that he was right—even after the storm made landfall, without affecting Alabama at all. It was all very dumb. But it nevertheless spoke to the attendant risk that is always present when Trump speaks: He will undermine trust in experts, he will lie, and people could get hurt as a result.—A.S.

76. Quits the UN Human Rights Council

In 2018, the United States became the first member of the council to voluntarily leave. The Trump administration’s diplomatic tantrum was triggered by the council’s resolutions condemning Israel’s brutal treatment of Palestinians. In leaving the council, the U.S. joined the very best company: Eritrea, Iran, and North Korea.—R.K.

75. Trump vs. the NFL

For years, Trump relentlessly criticized former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial injustice—kneeling during the national anthem—as unpatriotic and un-American. “You have to stand, proudly, for the national anthem or you shouldn’t be playing, you shouldn’t be there,” Trump said to Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade. “Maybe you shouldn’t be in the country.” The end result was the end of Kaepernick’s career. But there was another, stranger wrinkle as well. As a result of this fake controversy, many Republicans turned on the “woke” NFL.—A.S.

74. “I Am Your Retribution”

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2016, Trump insisted that he “alone can fix it.” It was a message that captured his authoritarianism then. Seven years later, Trump had a different, darker message. “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice,” he said in March. “And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.” It’s just a slogan, but it’s one that captures how much more dangerous—and fascistic—he’s become. It wouldn’t be out of place in a Leni Riefenstahl film.—A.S.

73. Mocks Reporter With Disability

Serge Kovaleski, a reporter for The New York Times, has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joints. In 2015, upset that Kovaleski contradicted his false claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered on 9/11, Trump visually mocked Kovaleski’s condition during a rally and called him a “poor guy.” Trump later claimed, to the belief of no one, that he didn’t know anything about Kovaleski. The incident stuck in voter’s minds, though: In a poll more than eight months later, respondents said it was his worst offense.—R.K.

72. The Enemy of the Press

Since at least 2017, whenever Trump has felt the heat from the media’s reporting, he’s resorted to disparaging the press as “the enemy of the people”—a phrase The New York Times called “a pet locution of autocrats.” As clear a slander as it is, however, we’re probably fortunate that Trump is so eternally combative. Think about it: Had Trump figured out what presidents like George W. Bush understood—that flattering reporters was a better strategic option—he’d have already enacted everything in Project 2025 by now.—J.L.

71. Weaponizes Social Media

Social media posts pale in comparison to the Muslim ban and calling antisemitic white supremacists “fine people.” But Trump’s persistent platforming of racists and bigots is a huge part of his legacy. No one in recent memory has done more to elevate or legitimize hate in mainstream American political discourse and Trump has done it repeatedly, advancing propaganda videos from far-right Islamaphobic organizations in Europe and tweets making vile lies about Jewish billionaire George Soros or suggesting that Jews who vote for Democrats are somehow “disloyal” to Israel.—A.S.

70. A Dictator on “Day One”

At a Fox News town hall last December, amid growing alarm over Trump’s authoritarian plans for a potential second term, Sean Hannity handed Trump an easy out. “The media has been focused on this and attacking you—you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody,” Hannity asked him. Instead, Trump only raised more alarm, saying, “Except for day one.… After that, I’m not a dictator.” How comforting.—R.K.

69. Pen Pals With Kim Jong Un

Trump has little respect for democratically elected leaders, but he adores autocrats. Vladimir Putin is, of course, his favorite. But he has a special place in his heart for Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s murderous dictator. Yes, Trump has threatened and demeaned him—calling him, among other things, “little rocket man.” But he has also praised him, saying he has “a beautiful vision for his country.” That vision, per the State Department’s human rights report, is one of “unlawful or arbitrary killings … forced disappearances … torture … political prison camps … coerced abortion.” In February of 2022, when Trump was indicted for stealing classified documents from the White House, one item he took with him stood out: “love letters” from Kim.—A.S.

68. 261 Rounds

That’s how many times Trump played golf as president, by The Washington Post’s estimate. If accurate, that’s one round every 5.6 days. Given that Trump is notorious for cheating at golf, TNR decided to conduct its own rigorous, scientific study of his favorite hobby and concluded that he nudged, booted, threw, relocated, or otherwise unfairly moved his ball 4,698 times as president. (Do the math, and you’ll get it.)—R.K.

67. Overtime Pickpocket

As part of Trump’s insatiable need to undo as much of the Obama legacy as possible, his administration went to work months after taking office to take apart his predecessor’s rule that extended overtime benefits to millions of workers, eventually arriving at something that left an estimated 8.2 million behind. This was in keeping with much of his economic policy, which tended to run counter to the populist promises he campaigned on.—J.L.

66. The Inaugural -gate

Had Trump any political instincts—or had any advisers worth a damn—he might have responded to reports that his inauguration crowd wasn’t as large as Obama’s by saying something like, “The people who voted for me work hard for a living, and they can’t just up and come to Washington for a party.” Instead, we got the patent lies and photo manipulations known as Crowdgate. The mere fact that Obama was a bigger draw opened up a gushing vein of insecurity that Trump has never gotten over.—J.L.

65. Suggests Gen. Mark Milley Deserves to Die

In September 2023, The Atlantic published a feature on Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that repeated a previously reported anecdote about Milley calling his Chinese counterpart to assure him that Trump was not going to order an attack on the country. The following day, Trump raged on Truth Social, “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been death!”—R.K.

64. Pet obsessions

The conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, had been thoroughly debunked by the time Trump took the stage in his only debate with Kamala Harris on September 10. But his running mate, JD Vance, had magnified the lie just a day prior, so it felt inevitable that Trump would do the same. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in,” he said. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating … they’re eating the pets of the people who live there.”—R.K.

63. Pushes for Election Delay

In late July of 2020, when it was becoming increasingly clear that he would lose, Trump suggested that the election should be delayed. No, not because of the pandemic, but because of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and corruption. “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history,” Trump tweeted on July 30. “It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???” These allegations, particularly surrounding mail-in voting, would become a crucial part of his effort to overturn the 2020 election after he lost it.—A.S.

62. The Flight 93 Presidency

Michael Anton was one of the first right-wing “intellectuals” to attempt to back-fill Trumpism, writing “The Flight 93 Election,” a flamboyant and reactionary argument that supporting Trump was necessary to advance the goals of the conservative movement. Then, in Trump’s first year, Anton was appointed as deputy assistant to the president for strategic communications on the National Security Council, becoming the most prominent example of radical appointees who pushed the administration in an authoritarian direction. The picks Trump would make in his second term, should he be re-selected, will be far worse. Anton will likely be among them—in a more powerful position than ever.—A.S.

61. “Shithole Countries”

In January of 2018, in an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers about a bipartisan immigration deal, Trump reportedly fumed about provisions protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” he asked, according to The Washington Post.—R.K.

Coming Wednesday: 60—41.