One year in: How Trump's first year has affected the Duke community

Since President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2017, The Chronicle has published 337 news articles, opinion columns, editorials and satirical columns that mention his name. He can dominate the national news cycle with an early morning tweet and change immigration policy with a stroke of the pen—but some of his actions hit closer to campus than others.

Here are ten ways that Trump’s first year in office has affected life on campus and the broader Duke community.

Blue Devils take to the streets—from Durham to D.C.

The day of Trump’s inauguration, around 300 people—including Duke professors—gathered in downtown Durham to protest the new president. But students did not just stay in Durham. Some ventured to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration and the Women’s March, including then-first-year Niyah Shaheed. 

“I thought the march definitely achieved its purpose of showing the American people and the rest of the world that the bigotry and hate surrounding Trump's campaign wasn't representative of the attitudes of most people in this country and that we would actively fight to keep this bigotry from prevailing," Shaheed said.

On Jan. 29, protestors stretched the length of Raleigh-Durham International Airport to denounce Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban.” The crowd included several Duke faculty members and students, and was eventually shut down by police because it grew to several times the expected size. On Jan. 31, a crowd of about 250 people gathered in front of the Duke Chapel to also protest Trump’s executive order on immigration. In March, an advocacy group held a “die-in” near the J.B. Duke hotel to protest a possible Obamacare repeal. 

In addition to the protests explicitly against Trump and his policies, there have also been several protests against white supremacy and Confederate monuments.

DACA students fight for protections

A few days into his presidency, Trump signed a controversial executive order banning immigration from seven countries. 

Several Duke students hail from the countries listed in the executive order, but for one professor in particular it created a real problem. Mohsen Kadivar, a research professor of religious studies originally from Iran and now a U.S. permanent resident, was in Germany on a fellowship when the order went into affect. He returned to North Carolina as quickly as possible, cutting short the fellowship that would have lasted several more months, and did not shy away from blaming Trump for the incident.

“President Trump is responsible for the harms that happened to my University and myself,” he said.

In addition to Kadivar’s personal run-in with the order, Duke reacted to the ban, a panel of professors discussing it in April and professors from the affected countries publicly shared their thoughts on the order.

Stephen Miller, alum and Trump advisor

Duke alum Stephen Miller, Trinity ’07, was a columnist for The Chronicle during his time on campus, when he first gained fame for publicly defending the players in the Duke lacrosse case. 

His role in Trump’s campaign and administration has sometimes earned the ire of his fellow Duke alums, and he’s been a central figure in the White House’s internal dysfunction. Recently, a report revealed that the alum has been interviewed as part of Robert Mueller’s special investigation, and he got into a spat with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Two other alums in Trump’s administration—and a mystery Duke tie

But despite being the most prolific Duke alum in the Trump White House, Miller is not the only one. 

Andrew Giuliani, a former men’s golf player who sued the University, took a job in the Office of Public Liaison in March 2017. Paul Teller, Trinity ’93 and special assistant to President Donald Trump for legislative affairs, visited campus in October to talk about health care reform and bipartisanship.

One other possible Duke personnel tie, however, is still a mystery—Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s “legal expert” from Duke has yet to be identified.

Reince Priebus, John Podesta and Adam Schiff visit campus

Reince Priebus, former chair of the Republican National Convention and the record holder for the shortest tenure of a White House Chief of Staff, visited campus in December to talk about his time in Trump’s White House and the 2016 election.

“I know the tweets you haven’t seen,” Priebus said. “For every tweet you’ve seen, there’s another nine you didn’t see.”

Another veteran of the 2016 election cycle that has made a recent appearance on campus is John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman. In his talk, he responded to a student’s question about how he handles accusations like “Pizzagate” and talked with The Chronicle about the future of the Democratic party and the “the misogyny, the racism” that Trump “exudes.”

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)— ranking member of one of the committees overseeing the investigation about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election— also stopped by campus to talk about the investigation and Trump’s efforts to distract from it.

Political engagement through donations, running for office

Following Trump’s shocking election, Duke faculty and staff’s political donations have surged nearly tenfold.  Duke employees made 870 donations in the 323 day period following Trump’s election compared to 88 donations in the same period following Obama’s reelection. Of the 870 donations, only six were to Republican candidates or party committees.

But the push for increased political engagement went farther than employees’ wallets—it also caused at least one Duke alumna to seek political office. Kathy Tran, Trinity ’00, became Virginia’s first Vietnamese American lawmaker after winning election to the state government in November.  

Duke professor pens book on Trump’s mental condition

Dr. Allen Frances, former chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the School of Medicine, published a book called “Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump” in Sept. 2017. Frances warns against diagnosing the president as mentally ill, instead saying his actions are reflective of a “deeper societal disease.”

“There's no evidence that his behavior is a reflection of mental illness. And we should draw a bright line between bad behavior and mental illness…It's an impotent gesture to try and discredit him by saying he's mentally ill,” Frances said. “We should use him as an opportunity to understand ourselves and correct the problems in our country that allowed him to become President.”

Professor Peter Feaver testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about nuclear weapons

Feaver, professor of political science and public policy, testified before the Senate committee in November about the president’s ability to authorize nuclear weapons. Feaver has served under two presidential administrations and was previously on the National Security Council for President George Bush. 

In a 2016 interview with The Chronicle, Feaver talked about being one of 50 top national security experts to sign a letter against Trump’s fitness for the presidency.

Duke’s top lawyer was part of task force that shaped Title IX policy recommendations

When Trump was first elected, there was a lot of speculation about whether he would roll back some of the Obama-era Title IX policies. 

When Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that in August that her department would be seeking public feedback on the best way to replace Obama’s 2011 Dear Colleague letter, she cited a document by an American Bar Association task force that Pamela Bernard, vice president and general counsel for the University, was part of. Bernard’s involvement involvement included a July “listening session” with DeVos. 

Alum writes satire about an alternate universe where Clinton won

At hillarybeattrump.org, it is as if Trump never won the election. The online, alternate universe contains satirical news articles written as if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election. The most recent one, dated Dec. 12, is titled “Alabama election officials turn Roy Moore away from polling station citing its ‘close proximity’ to a junior high school.” 

Brendan McCartney, Trinity '16 and a former columnist for The Chronicle, worked for the Clinton campaign as a field organizer before writing for the website as a side project. 

Conservative news outlets, however, have criticized the site.

“They either have no idea that it is satire or they acknowledge it as satire but are just so offended by the idea of this alternate universe,” McCartney said.

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