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1/ This week marks the two-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration, and Atlantic writers have spent the past 24 months examining the many twists and turns of his presidency.
2/ On January 20, 2017, as Trump stood on the threshold of the Oval Office, @mollyesque reflected on how he got there and previewed what his term would mean for the nation. bit.ly/2Cw3fs7
3/ @davidfrum outlined the steps that Trump, having secured the presidency, could take to lead America toward autocracy in our March 2017 issue. bit.ly/2RzzEIT
@davidfrum 4/ And, three months after Trump’s inauguration, @SSestanovich asserted that the president’s contradictory campaign promises about foreign policy had contributed to his electoral victory, but presented an impossible path forward for his presidency. bit.ly/2Cr2osL
5/ In October of 2017, Ta-Nehisi Coates explored the racist dynamics that brought Trump to power following Obama. “Trump truly is something new," he wrote: “the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president.” bit.ly/2RypHLJ
6/ That same month, @EliotACohen warned that Trump’s presidency could have a corrosive effect on America’s position in the global order as well, describing how international alliances had already begun realigning to de-emphasize the United States. bit.ly/2RzCwFt
7/ @jacklgoldsmith also cautioned that while Trump’s impact on American democracy had so far been limited, he had already “coarsened politics and induced harmful norm-breaking” that could have far-reaching effects on his office. bit.ly/2RypOXF
8/ @AdamSerwer wrote shortly thereafter about how Trump’s supporters empowered his discriminatory agenda while disavowing their own racism. bit.ly/2CqQdMP
9/ @bfcarlson described one international relationship that was thriving under the Trump administration in our March 2018 issue. “Trump may make more sense in China than he does in Washington,” he wrote. bit.ly/2Ct73KZ
10/ In our April 2018 issue, @MJGerson considered a contradiction in the evangelical community, which professed values seemingly incompatible with Trump’s character but may have been a “decisive factor in Trump’s improbable victory.” bit.ly/2CCQuMP
11/ Four months after that, @HillaryClinton issued another warning about Trump’s threat to American democracy. “The administration’s malevolence may be constrained,” she asserted. “But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege.” bit.ly/2CrkFWY
12/ @FranklinFoer detailed how Trump had transformed American immigration enforcement. “Many of the formal restraints on ICE have been removed,” he wrote, enabling the agency to “[drive] out undocumented immigrants” by cultivating fear. bit.ly/2Cq5JIO
13/ The same month, @RosaISmith compared Trump to the wealthy villains of “The Great Gatsby.” The decades-old novel, she wrote, helps explain the president’s careless and dangerous relationship to power and, for that reason, “reads like a warning.” bit.ly/2CnA7Dm
14/ @JeffreyGoldberg referenced a different, real-life character: the American mobster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. In an August 2018 article, he explored the similarities between Trump’s statements and the language of organized crime. bit.ly/2CtCF36
15/ Frum revisited his take on autocracy in October 2018, reviewing the ways in which American institutions had acted to check Trump’s excesses—and the ways they had failed. bit.ly/2CqJ27g
16/ @AdamSerwer wrote that Trump’s negative treatment of various groups was guided by cruelty. This cruelty, he argued, “is how the powerful have ever kept the powerless divided and in their place, and enriched themselves in the process.” bit.ly/2Ct7o0d
17/17 Read more about the administration’s most norm-shattering moments here: bit.ly/2Cw4gjV #TrumpUnthinkable
