The following is a timeline of instances of extremism in the Trump administration in October 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-LGBT
Oct 1
Trump administration begins denying visas to same-sex domestic partners of foreign diplomats and United Nations employees, requiring those already in the US to get married by the end of the year or leave the country.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 2
New report finds DHS held migrant children in detention centers far longer than the law allowed and was unable to track family members from whom it had separated them.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 3
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for 300,000 immigrants.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 4
Trump administration tries to move ahead with plan to pay Mexico $20 million to deport immigrants.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 9
AP investigation finds holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children whom the Trump administration separated from their parents to American families.
Anti-Black
Oct 9
Acting EPA Director Andrew Wheeler says he “doesn’t recall” repeatedly engaging with racist and conspiratorial content on social media.
White Nationalist
Oct 10
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon meets with white nationalist Michael Brooks while on London trip.
Anti-Black
Oct 10
President Trump suggests Chicago implement “stop and frisk” because “It works, and it was meant for problems like Chicago.”
Neo-Confederate
Oct 12
President Trump praises Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 12
Emails expose Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross proposed adding citizenship question to the 2020 census on the advice of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Kris Kobach, vice chair of Trump’s defunct voter fraud commission.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 12
Trump administration actively considers new family separation policy.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 16
President Trump threatens to cut off aid to Honduras unless migrant caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence is stopped.
Anti-Muslim
Hate Group
Oct 16
National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz announces he will leave the Trump administration to return to the anti-Muslim hate group Center for Security Policy.
Anti-Muslim
Hate Group
Oct 17
High-ranking military officials speak alongside Frank Gaffney, founder of the anti-Muslim hate group Center for Security Policy at its symposium.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 18
President Trump threatens to “close our Southern border” to stop migrant caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence.
Anti-Black
Oct 20
President Trump tweets false claims about voter fraud, threatening “violators will be subject to maximum penalties, both civil and criminal!”
Anti-LGBT
Oct 21
Department of Health and Human Services proposes to define gender as determined by genitalia at birth, effectively denying civil rights protections to transgender Americans.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 21
Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers repeats President Trump’s claim that migrant caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence is made up of “invaders.”
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 22
President Trump calls migrant caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence “an assault.”
Anti-Muslim
Oct 22
President Trump falsely claims migrant caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence includes “unknown Middle Easterners.”
White Nationalist
Oct 22
President Trump calls himself a “nationalist.”
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 23
Department of Justice announces it is planning to propose a dramatic expansion of the circumstances in which Attorney General Jeff Sessions can take and rule on individual people’s immigration cases.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 24
Federal court rules part of President Trump’s executive order to end federal grant funding for sanctuary cities is unconstitutional.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 25
President Trump considers closing Southern border to Central Americans fleeing violence in a policy similar to Muslim ban.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 29
Department of Defense announces that more than 5,000 active-duty military troops will deploy to the Southern border in response to a caravan of Central Americans fleeing violence.
Anti-Black
Oct 29
President Trump calls Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum a “thief,” citing no evidence.
Anti-LGBT
Hate Group
Oct 29
Attorney General Jeff Sessions defends Trump administration’s anti-LGBT policies and praises unnamed anti-LGBT hate groups at an event at which an attorney for the anti-LGBT hate group Alliance Defending Freedom also spoke.
Anti-Semitic
Oct 29
Former president of Pittsburgh synagogue says President Trump is not welcome because he is the “purveyor of hate speech.”
Anti-Semitic
Oct 29
Vice President Mike Pence chooses Messianic rabbi to give a “unity prayer” at campaign rally in the wake of murder of 11 Jews in Pittsburgh synagogue.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 30
President Trump says he will use an executive order to eliminate birthright citizenship, which is protected under the 14th Amendment.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 30
Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to delay a trial over adding a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
Anti-Immigrant
Oct 31
President Trump calls the Constitution’s citizenship clause a “crazy policy.”