The Trump A to Z, from America First to ‘Zero’

Washington, United States | AFP | This is a look at President Donald Trump’s first year in office, from A to Z:

AMERICA FIRST: Trump’s most sacred mantra.

BAN: As in travel. With the stated goal of keeping out terrorists, Trump decreed successive bans — always challenged in court — on arrivals of people from half a dozen mainly Muslim countries.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Trump shocked the world by pulling the United States out of the Paris global warming accord, arguing it would hurt the US economy.

DREAMERS: A term for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to America illegally as children and until now protected from deportation under the so-called DACA program, which Trump is phasing out.

EXCLAMATION POINT: Perhaps Trump’s favorite punctuation mark, often found at the end of his myriad tweets.

FAKE NEWS: How the president describes the output of mainstream media, which he accuses of treating him unfairly by chasing what he considers non-stories — such as, he says, Russia’s alleged interference to help him win election — and not giving him credit when he deserves it.

GORSUCH: The last name of Neil Gorsuch, the conservative judge that Trump nominated to the US Supreme Court. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate after a year of political arm-wrestling what many see as one of Trump’s chief victories since taking office.

HEALTH CARE: A central plank of Trump’s campaign was repealing Barack Obama’s signature health care law that gave coverage to millions of Americans who lacked it. Trump largely watched from the sidelines, albeit loudly, as his divided Republican Party tried repeatedly — and failed — to come up with an alternative.

IVANKA: Trump’s eldest daughter, once seen as a potentially moderating influence on her unpredictable father, and perhaps a force to empower women. She has since set the record straight, calling such expectations “unrealistic.”

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS: Trump promised upon taking office that his pro-growth economic policy will create 25 million of them over a decade. While that may be a stretch, the administration boasts that the jobless rate has fallen to a 16-year low under its watch.

KELLYANNE CONWAY: The senior Trump aide who, just days after the inauguration, gave the first sign that Trump’s White House may take liberties with objective reality. Conway coined the term “alternative facts” to defend exaggerated attendance figures at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony.

LOVE: “Love fest”, anyone? That was Trump’s way of describing a recent meeting with Republican lawmakers, the same day one of them accused him of debasing the nation and another said he’d leave Congress to disassociate himself from Trump and his behavior.

MOOCH (The): The nickname of Anthony Scaramucci, the New York financier who lasted 10 days as Trump’s communications director until he strolled through the revolving door of a White House criticized as chaotic and riven by infighting.

NUKES: North Korea has them and tests them and Trump has threatened to destroy that country if it threatens America or its allies in Asia. Iran was feared to be developing them, until world powers reached a landmark 2015 accord curbing its nuclear drive, only to see Trump ignore advice from his allies and threaten to tear up the accord.

OUTBURSTS: They have been legion, setting the tone of Trump’s presidency. He has publicly humiliated his own attorney general, for instance, and locked horns with everyone from war widows to black American football players to a judge of Mexican heritage.

PUERTO RICO: Hit by a ferocious hurricane in September in what became a PR nightmare for Trump’s administration and its disaster response — exemplified by an image of Trump tossing rolls of paper towels to survivors during a visit to the US island territory.

(I)Q: Trump voiced confidence his IQ is higher than that of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who reportedly called Trump a moron, preceded by the F word, for expressing interest in a huge increase in the US nuclear arsenal.

RUSSIA: The country that, allegedly, conspired — with team Trump collusion — to help defeat Hillary Clinton last November. It is arguably Trump’s biggest headache, and has prompted use of the word impeachment. He fired FBI chief James Comey to thwart investigation of the case. The probe continued under special prosecutor Robert Mueller and has yielded its first indictments: against ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort and a one-time business partner Rick Gates, and a former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about Kremlin-related contacts.

STEVE BANNON: The bruising, behind-the-scenes adviser who championed the nationalist-populist agenda that swept Trump to power. Darling of the so-called “alt-right,” Bannon left the White House as it was reeling from the fallout over Trump’s equivocal response to a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

TWITTER: Trump’s favorite conduit for reaching his political base, talking himself up and attacking enemies real and perceived, at any time of day or night. He’s got more than 40 million followers!

USA: Pronounced U-S-A, of course, but with the stress on the A; a frequent chant at the campaign-style, stream-of-consciousness rallies Trump still holds.

VOTERS: Trump’s fired-up base, who propelled his insurgent bid for the White House and who polls suggest still stand behind their man despite the turbulence of his first year.

WALL: The multi-billion dollar barrier Trump wants to build on the border with Mexico with the stated goal of keeping out drug traffickers and undocumented foreigners who Trump says steal US jobs.

XENOPHOBIA: Intense fear of foreigners, a charge leveled against the Trump administration for its anti-immigrant stance, and notably as part of legal challenges to its travel ban.

YUGE: A phonetic rendering of Trump’s way of saying the word ‘huge.’

ZERO: Another staple of Trump speak, a way to add negative emphasis, such as his assertion there was “zero collusion” between his campaign Russia.