The following is a timeline of instances of extremism in the Trump administration in November 2018.
President Trump has opened the White House doors to extremism, not only consulting with hate groups on policies that erode our country’s civil rights protections but enabling the infiltration of extremist ideas into the administration’s rhetoric and agenda.
Once relegated to the fringes, the radical right now has a toehold in the White House.
Groups and individuals referenced in the list below are not associated with hate groups and extremist ideology unless indicated by a hate group profile.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 1
President Trump suggests the US troops he dispatched to the US-Mexico border could shoot migrants approaching the border if those migrants threw rocks.
Anti-Black
Nov 2
Reports emerge that President Trump told Michael Cohen black people are “too stupid” to vote for him; suggested countries run by black leaders are “shitholes;” and told him “only blacks could live like this” as they drove through a Chicago neighborhood.
Anti-Black
Nov 5
President Trump and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions issue baseless warnings about voter fraud.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 5
U.S. Border Patrol begins preparing for encounters at the border with armed militias who are responding to President Trump’s rhetoric about the caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 5
NBC and Fox News pull racist anti-immigration political ad approved by Trump after previously airing it.
Anti-Black
Nov 7
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions drastically limits the ability of federal law enforcement officials to use court-enforced agreements to overhaul local police departments accused of abuses and civil rights violations.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 7
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns at President Trump’s request.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 8
Federal appeals court rules that the Trump administration can’t end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 9
President Trump signs proclamation preventing migrants from seeking asylum at places other than ports of entry.
Anti-Muslim
Hate Group
Nov 12
Reports emerge that President Trump is considering former ICE Director Tom Homan, who was honored by anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America in September, to succeed Kirstjen Nielsen as Homeland Security Secretary.
White Nationalist
Nov 14
President Trump makes unfounded claims in interview with an outlet with ties to white nationalism that voters are changing their clothes to cast multiple ballots.
Anti-Immigrant
Hate Group
Nov 15
President Trump’s choice to run ICE, Ronald Vitiello, is questioned during his Senate confirmation hearing about having attended a conference hosted by anti-immigrant hate group FAIR.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 16
Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments over Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 19
Federal judge blocks President Trump’s “asylum ban” that would have prevented migrants from seeking asylum anywhere other than a port of entry.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 20
President Trump attacks “activist judges” after a federal judge blocks his “asylum ban” preventing people from seeking asylum at places other than a port of entry.
Anti-LGBT
Nov 23
The Trump administration attempts to bypass federal appeals courts, asking the Supreme Court to take up three cases challenging Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 24
President Trump proposes requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico after starting the asyulm process, a change to the current practice of allowing them into the US to wait for their asylum claims to be heard.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 25
Customs and Border Patrol agents fire tear gas on migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 27
The Justice Department asks federal judge to lift his order blocking President Trump’s “asylum ban,” which would prevent people from seeking asylum anywhere other than a port of entry.
Anti-Immigrant
Nov 28
Health and Human Services inspector general memo reports the Trump administration waived FBI fingerprint background checks for the caregivers of more than 2,300 immigrant teenagers held in a tent detention center in Texas.
Anti-Immigrant
Hate Group
Nov 28
Senate committee delays vote to confirm President Trump’s choice to run ICE, Ronald Vitiello, who attended a conference hosted by anti-immigrant hate group FAIR, citing “serious concerns” about him.