What happened in 2018?
2018 - Vladimir the Meddler - In a reversal of American values, President Trump cozies up to autocratic rulers and dictators meeting privately with Vladimir Putin, in the midst of an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. During this meeting Trump publicly humiliated the American Intelligence Community expressing his acceptance of Putin’s denials. The proof of Russian election meddling was widely accepted as true by the other branches of American government.
Meanwhile, the FBI diligently looks further into illegal activity by the Trump campaign leading up to the 2016 election and indites 13 Russians, and several of Trump’s team including Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen.
After threatening North Korea’s total annihilation in a 2018 speech to the United Nations, Trump later expressed warmth and admiration for Kim Jong-un following the 2019 summit with the North Korean leader. Their meeting has done little to deter North Korea’s long range Nuclear Missile program.
Entering into a large arms deal with Saudi Arabia -(accused of war crimes in Yemen), President Trump accepted Saudi denials of the cold-blooded murder of Wall Street Journal -journalist Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey; reinforcing his contempt for the free press and loyalty to leaders that support Trump’s agenda.
America’s ally in Syria, the Kurds who were fighting ISIS, were abandoned by the U.S.,. allowing Turkish strongman Erdogan unbridled access to attack the Kurds thereby furthering the decay of trust amongst our Nato partners in America’s reliability.
Creating further instability, Trump backs out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, and re-boots sanctions without provocation.
At home, Trump’s administration is focused on a nonsensical southern border wall. Furthering his anti-immigration, deterrence policies, the children of immigrants are separated from their parents and locked in cages at detention centers, while their parents are carted off separately with no access to their children. This is also the time that the American Ambassador to the United Nations announces that the United States will no longer support or participate in the United Nations’ Human Rights Council stating that other members of the council are “hypocrites”.
Across America, a new generation of active teens are staging walk-outs from school in protest of gun violence.
In the mid-term elections, Democrats win the House majority with several new female congresswomen while Republicans hold onto the Senate setting the stage for log jams in legislation.
Across the pond, Brexit is the hot topic in the U.K.
President Xi is granted a lifetime presidential term in office.
The Castro dynasty in Cuba is handed off to a new leader.
Thank you Hollywood for Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
And there’s so much more. See what you can find in the canvas.