We Always Knew Who Trump Was

What I recall from reading the news in the early years of Trump’s candidacy and presidency

From the early days of Trumpism, before and after the man was elected, I took a lot of notes. Many of the details have resolved themselves and are no longer actionable items of political protest, but the broader-brush issues are still important to think about.

Now that the administration is history, each of us who lived through the administration should contemplate how history should be told. I am certainly not the only one who should tell it— others surely have more important and interesting perspectives than mine — but, at the same time, it is my responsibility to do some of the work. Here, I’ve organized some pieces of the narrative, in case it remains of some interest to anyone else.

It Was Obvious Who Trump Was During His Campaign

His candidacy and his presidency was always about racism. Trump began in 2011, Sam Sanders explained, with

a racist lie: birtherism. He launched his campaign for the presidency calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. His first major policy initiative was travel restrictions on Muslim-majority nations that felt a lot like a travel ban on people with darker skin. His…