Trump’s first year full of twists, turns, turmoil

Washington — A bleak description of “American carnage.” A forceful rollback of his predecessor’s achievements. A blatant falsehood from the White House podium. And that was just the first 24 hours. In his first year in office, Donald Trump proved to be a singular figure, casting aside norms and traditions, fighting with Republicans and Democrats alike and changing how the nation and the presidency are viewed at home and abroad.

Seemingly each day spawned several can-you-believe-it headlines that would have defined a previous president’s term. But in the hyper-accelerated Trump news cycle, many were forgotten by the next morning.

Appropriate for a former reality TV star, Trump’s first year was can’t-miss drama, full of unforgettable characters, surprise casting changes and innumerable plot twists. It came against the backdrop of a deeply polarized nation, a looming nuclear threat, whispers about the president’s fitness for office and, for good measure, the shadow of the Russia investigation.

The reviews weren’t kind. Trump’s first-year approval rating stood at 39 percent, the lowest of any president. But viewers couldn’t look away.

“He is a compulsively watchable political character,” said Jon Meacham, presidential historian and biographer. “The country elected the most unconventional president in our history and he has proven to be just that. To me, the story of the first year is the atmospheric chaos that the president has created, sustained and perpetuated.”

Trump was the first president to be elected without any government or military experience. And from the first moments of Trump’s inauguration, it was clear that Washington had never seen anything like this before.

His inaugural speech was a dark pitch to the nation’s forgotten, suggesting a retreat from the world under the slogan of “America First.” It soon led to an uproar over the White House press secretary’s wild claims about the inauguration crowd size. Soon, other crowds were the story. Millions of people flooded streets around the globe for the “Women’s March” to protest Trump’s presidency. That set the template for the socalled #Resistance, which swarmed airports just days later when the White House suddenly announced its travel ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority countries.

There would be little attempt from Trump to bring those protesters into the fold. Despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, the president forged forward as if elected with a sweeping mandate, aiming his policies directly at his base — with moves such as the rollback of environmental regulations and civil rights protections — and blaming Democrats for any Washington failure.

Always eager to have a foe, Trump governed as he campaigned, and not just by incessantly reliving his 2016 election over Hillary Clinton. Trump frequently instigated fights and rarely let a slight go unanswered via his favorite weapon, his Twitter account.

Any talk of restraining his Twitter usage was soon forgotten. He used the 140-character — and later, up to 280 — bursts to target foes, traffic in conspiracy theories, salute the programming on Fox News, rattle Congress and unnerve world capitals.

“The country elected the most unconventional president in our history and he has proven to be just that. To me, the story of the first year is the atmospheric chaos that the president has created, sustained and perpetuated.” PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN JON MEACHAM