News broke Friday morning that Trump had chosen Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general.
Sessions opposes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and has expressed support for a ban on Muslims. Sessions also has a troubling history of racist comments.
Also on Friday, Trump reached a $25 million settlement agreement in a fraud lawsuit involving his failed Trump University venture.
The size of the settlement is a damning indication of the severity of the grievances against Trump University — especially coming from Trump, who has, in the past, mocked business that chose to settle lawsuits, according to the New York Times.
Since the election, reports of acts of hate committed in the name of Trump have surged.
Just last week, swastikas were spray-painted in a park named for Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, along with the words “Go Trump.” Hijab-wearing Muslim women have been attacked and harassed. And the hate isn’t just random and dispersed — it’s also organized.
Protesters continue to gather to speak out against Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon.
Trump’s selection of Bannon to play a key role in his presidency only stokes the fears of those who are terrified that Breitbart’s brand of hyperbolic and combative racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and transphobia could become national policy.
And the mounting concern about Trump’s business conflicts of interest.
Fears about how Trump will simultaneously manage both his business interests and the interests of the United States have only mounted. Trump will enter office with “unprecedented” conflicts of interest, including an ongoing lawsuit between the Trump Organization and the government over a Trump hotel on government land, his debt to Deutsche Bank and his vested interest in the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Trump’s promises that his business affairs will be managed by his children are also worrying, because several of those children sit on his transition team and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, were recently photographed in a meeting with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. If a recent meeting is any indication, Trump seems to be planning to go on with much of his business as usual.
