If TPM readers expected President Donald Trump’s first year in office to be any less eventful than his barnburner of a presidential campaign, they were in for a surprise.
In a year that included the shock firing of an FBI director, newly visible and unapologetic white nationalism, the #MeToo movement and Anthony Scaramucci’s 10-day-long tenure in the White House, these were TPM’s top 10 most-read stories:
10. WSJ: CLAIMING TO REP FLYNN, LATE REPUBLICAN SOUGHT CLINTON EMAILS FROM HACKERS
By Allegra Kirkland
A veteran Republican opposition researcher who claimed to have ties to former national security adviser Michael Flynn reportedly contacted hackers in the middle of the 2016 campaign in hopes of obtaining emails he believed Russian hackers had obtained from Hillary Clinton’s private server. Read more…
9. GOP REP SAYS HOLDING TOWN HALLS IS LIKE BEING YELLED AT IN A RITUAL BY ‘ORIENTALS’
By Esme Cribb
2017 was a banner year for political incorrectness: Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) in March said that facing his constituents in person at town halls was like “the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you’d put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them.” Read more…
8. TRUMP LOOKS AT THE SUN DURING SOLAR ECLIPSE DESPITE SHOUTED WARNING
By Esme Cribb
When Trump’s administration took a quick afternoon break in August to watch the first total solar eclipse to pass over the United States from one coast to the other since 1918, the President looked at the sun without eye protection despite a shouted warning from aides standing below the balcony where he stood. Read more…
7. JUDGE: TRUMP INCITED VIOLENCE AGAINST PROTESTERS AT KENTUCKY RALLY
By Alice Ollstein
A Kentucky federal judge in April allowed a lawsuit filed by three protesters who were assaulted at a Trump rally in March 2016 to move forward despite Trump’s motion to dismiss charges that his call for supporters to “get ’em out of here” was an incitement of violence. Read more…
6. SENATE INTEL CHAIR: ‘THE UNMASKING THING WAS ALL CREATED BY DEVIN NUNES’
By Allegra Kirkland
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) in July said that his counterpart in the House, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), created a false narrative about a national security adviser from former President Barack Obama’s administration who conservatives accused of improperly requesting and revealing the identities of U.S. individuals swept up in intelligence reports. Read more…
5. ACTIVISTS PRANK CPAC ATTENDEES INTO WAVING RUSSIAN FLAGS AT TRUMP
By Alice Ollstein
Conservative Political Action Conference attendees greeted Trump’s appearance in February with cheers, chants of “USA” and dozens of Russian flags emblazoned with his name and distributed by two young, progressive activists from Washington, D.C. TPM got in touch with them. Read more…
4. GALLUP: TRUMP NET APPROVAL RATING DROPS 8 POINTS IN FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE
By Allegra Kirkland
Trump’s net approval rating dropped by eight points in his first week in office. Bigly! Read more…
3. SPICER: NORDSTROM DROPPING IVANKA TRUMP’S LINE IS ‘DIRECT ATTACK’ ON PREZ
By Kristin Salaky
White House press secretary Sean Spicer in February claimed that Nordstrom’s decision to stop carrying first daughter Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing and accessories, which the department store said was a sales decision, was in fact an attack on the first family and Trump’s policies. Read more…
2. FATHER DENOUNCES SON IDENTIFIED AS PARTICIPANT IN WHITE SUPREMACIST RALLY
By Esme Cribb
The father of a man identified as a participant in a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one person died, publicly denounced his son’s “vile, hateful, and racist rhetoric and actions” in August and told his son, “You will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too.” Read more…
1. TRUMP ORDERS DC NATIONAL GUARD CHIEF TO LEAVE IN MIDDLE OF INAUGURAL CEREMONY
By Caitlin MacNeal
A week before his inauguration ceremony in January, Trump—then the president-elect—demanded that the commanding officer of the Washington, D.C. National Guard resign from his position at 12:01 p.m. in the middle of the ceremony, after Trump took his oath of office but before the celebratory parade. Read more…
