NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY

SELF GOAL ON RUSSIAN LINKS

The decision to fire FBI director James Comey was the biggest self-inflicted wound of Trump’s first year. It led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Mueller is probing Russian links to the president, and is closing in.

CHARLOTTESVILLE SHOCKER

Trump’s reaction to a rally by far-right activists in this Virginia city dominated last August, and led to some of the strongest criticism of him from within his own party. The Unite the Right rally stretched over the weekend of Aug. 11 and 12. Among those attending were unabashed white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

THE BAN THAT WASN’T

Trump had been in office for just a week when he signed an executive order that led to protests. The first version of the travel ban that the administration tried to enact banned most travellers to the US from seven majority-Muslim nations. The ban ran into legal trouble and was later revised.

THAT WAS NOT IN GOOD SPORT

Trump’s anger with the NFL dated back to the 1980s, when he was a prominent investor in the rival United States Football League. But he kicked things into a completely different gear year, hammering players who opted to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem in protest of racial injustice.

LITTLE ROCKET MAN’S THE TARGET

In a speech to the UN, Trump called Kim Jong-un “Rocket Man” — a simultaneous reference to North Korea’s missile programme and the Elton John hit often played at Trump rallies during the 2016 campaign.