2019 Day 761: Trump asked his acting attorney general if a Trump-appointed attorney could lead the Michael Cohen investigation; congressional leaders did not object to the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Trump; Rosenstein will resign as deputy attorney general and leave the Justice Department in March; Michael Flynn and several other Trump administration appointees promoted the sale of nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia despite repeated warnings; at least 16 states are challenging Trump's plan to use a national emergency declaration to funnel billions of dollars into his border wall. Feb 19, 2019
2020 Day 1126: Trump offered to pardon Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks founder agreed to say Russia was not involved in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee; Trump retweeted the claim that he was “the victim of a seditious conspiracy out of the” Justice Department and the FBI; Attorney General Bill Barr told multiple people that he is considering quitting if Trump doesn't stop tweeting about the Justice Department; Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are urging Trump to keep Barr in the job; and Trump asked a top Defense Department official who advised against cutting off U.S. military aid to Ukraine tp resign. Feb 19, 2020
2021 Day 31: The United States officially returned to the Paris climate accord; Biden affirmed that the United States is “fully committed” to NATO but warned global leaders that “democratic progress is under assault”; Biden privately told a group of mayors and governors that the $15-an-hour minimum wage hike was unlikely to be in the final Covid-19 relief bill; the Manhattan district attorney’s office enlisted an expert on white-collar crime to investigate Trump and the Trump Organization; and the U.S. Capitol Police suspended six officers with pay for their actions during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Feb 19, 2021
2025 Day 1492: Trump claimed that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law”; Trump signed an executive order expanding his authority over independent federal agencies; Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked his ability to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel; Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is seeking access to the IRS’s Integrated Data Retrieval System, which contains sensitive taxpayer records; a federal judge denied a request to temporarily block Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal data and making personnel decisions at multiple agencies; the Trump administration fired FDA staff overseeing food safety, medical devices, and tobacco products; the Trump administration fired hundreds of nuclear safety workers but later reversed course, struggling to reach them due to lost email access; the Trump administration fired 20 immigration judges; the Trump administration fired hundreds of FAA employees; Trump endorsed a House Republican budget plan proposing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts alongside $2 trillion in spending cuts and a $4 trillion debt ceiling increase; Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency claimed to have saved $55 billion by canceling government contracts, but an $8 billion savings claim turned out to be a clerical error on an $8 million contract; Trump admitted inflation is rising but blamed Biden’s “reckless spending”; Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” after the Ukrainian leader accused him of spreading Russian disinformation; and 44% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president – down from 47% on Inauguration Day. Feb 19, 2025
2026 Day 1857: Trump used the first meeting of his Board of Peace to announce that he’ll decide "over the next probably 10 days" whether to continue nuclear talks with Iran or order a U.S. military strike; Trump is reportedly weighing an initial limited strike on Iran, hitting a small set of military or government targets to pressure Tehran into a nuclear deal; the Trump administration ordered ICE to arrest refugees who have been in the U.S. for a year but haven’t obtained permanent resident status yet; the FCC opened an investigation into ABC’s “The View” over potential violations of the Equal Time Rule after the show booked Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico; and Trump signed an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act to increase domestic production of glyphosate and elemental phosphorus. Feb 19, 2026