January 2018 saw 155 examples of horrible behavior, with the biggest increases coming in the categories of belittling and mocking people and immigrant-hating, with smaller increases in authoritarianism, propaganda, and attacking equal protection under the law.

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After a lull in December, January again saw an increase and new record number of loathsome deeds and awful language by Donald, members of his Administration, and his key supporters (like VIPs in the Republican Party). January saw a marked increase in propaganda, authoritarianism, belittling or mocking people, immigrant-hating, and threats against the equal treatment of everyone before the law.

Of the 155 instances of horrible behavior, 45 (29.0% of the total) included one or more uses of propaganda. For example, Donald claimed that his Administration had “raised the bar” on airline safety even though there have been no fatal passenger airline crashes since 2009. Donald’s Administration also released a memo that claimed most incidents of international terrorism were caused by immigrants, but at the same time totally ignored that the bulk of terrorist attacks in the US are actually domestic terrorism performed by US citizens. And finally, two members of Donald’s opioid commission (created to address the opioid addiction and overdose issue in the US) called their own commission “a sham.”

For the first time, over half of all the instances of monstrous behavior by Donald and his Administration involved authoritarianism – 83 instances out of 155 total (53.5%). The previous high was in November, which had 20 fewer instances. Some of the most egregious examples were how Donald’s nominee to take over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) called for arresting the mayors of sanctuary cities and charging them as accessories to any crimes committed by undocumented immigrants in their cities. Donald shut down his voting fraud panel rather provide documents to one of the panel’s Democratic members and argued before a federal court that, since the panel was no longer functioning, the Administration didn’t have to provide the documents. Finally, Donald ignored federal law and allowed two Russian spymasters to enter the US even though they have been legally banned from US territory.

December saw the largest number of instances of Donald belittling or mocking someone since I started tracking in July, 2017 – 18 instances. Donald likes attaching nicknames to his political opponents as a way to belittle them, such as calling Senator Richard Durban (D-Illinois) “Dicky Durban” and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) “sneaky Feinstein” in tweets. But in January, Donald’s most significant attempt to mock and belittle people was his so-called “Fake News Awards.” Fact-checkers overwhelmingly found that his “awards” were for mistakes that were corrected rapidly by the media organizations and journalists, a fact that demonstrated their own ethics as compared to Donald’s lack thereof.

January saw a huge increase in immigrant-hating by Donald and his Administration, rising from 18 instances in December to 33 in January. As a percentage, the increase went from 13% in December to 21.3% in January. Donald’s Administration continued to attack the civil liberties of undocumented, underage girls by denying yet another girl access to an abortion. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that no “good nation” should allow illiterate immigrants into their country because they supposedly “have no skills.” And the Administration recommended changes to the H-1B visa program that would result in immigrant high tech workers being deported rather than having their visas extended while the workers are waiting for legal permanent residency (aka their “green card”).

On US ideal is that our laws treat everyone equally. We made strides in this area under former President Obama that Donald seems intent on reversing. January saw the highest number of attacks on this ideal to date – 25. This continues a four-month trend of increasing attacks on equal protection before the law that started in October. For example, the Administration weakened penalties for nursing homes that neglect their residents (something that often results in serious injury or death). The Department of Justice has increased its pursuit of the death penalty, a sentence that is given to minority criminals at a rate out of proportion with their crimes. Donald created a new Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom in the Department of Health and Human Services civil rights office with the stated goal of allowing religious discrimination against patients. And in what might be the most glaring case in January, one fraternal twin of a married gay couple was ruled a US citizen while the other twin was ruled an undocumented immigrant by ICE.

Summary
In the month of January, 2018, I identified 156 unique items that met one or more of my 51 categories (see below for a complete list).

Horrible categories