The thirteenth week of the Trump administration saw the president engage in questionable actions and communications at home and on the international stage.

President Trump further diminished United States (U.S.) government transparency and attacked domestic political opponents this week, while sending muddled messages and signals to overseas allies and adversaries. Continued resistance to the new regime was again on display in the U.S. capital and elsewhere as protestors gathered for multiple demonstrations to oppose the current rulers of the White House.

In a very un-democratic move the Trump administration announced that the American public no longer has access to White House visitor logs which track details of those who come and go to see the president. Former President Obama had previously allowed access to the logs to enhance government transparency. The unwelcome reversal by Trump will surely add to a sense of secrecy that already exists about who is exactly meeting the officials at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Americans paid annual income taxes due to federal and state governments this week and the issue of the U.S. president not yet releasing his tax returns to the public was once more at the political forefront. Protestors assembled in Washington, D.C. And other major American citiesto demand that President Trump reveal his sources ofincome and tax deductions taken just as other politicians and the public have long done. Trump, the first U.S. president or presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to not release his tax returns, responded by accusing the protestors of being paid to rally against him, although he offered no evidence.

Protestors marched in Washington and major urban centers across the U.S. again later in the week to affirm the value of science and voice opposition to antiscience policies of the Trump administration. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied in D.C. Alone and called for U.S. Government leaders to understand that environmental regulations and science funding and education should not be slashed to accommodate big business in the name of economic growth. The crowds demanded that Trump stop filling government posts with individuals hostile to science and recognize that support for scientists can lead to the latest breakthroughs and discoveries that will benefit America.

Controversial communications by the Trump administration on important foreign affairs were many this week. Amidst mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula President Trump tweeted that he was sending a powerful U.S. Naval armada to the region. Media reported soon after that an American aircraft carrier was nowhere near Korea, but instead spotted more than 3,000 miles away in the Indian Ocean. White House officials explained that there was a miscommunication with the Pentagon on the naval deployment, but observers of international affairs in Beijing and Pyongyang likely drew their own conclusions.

Suppression of information

Also, a congratulatory phone call from President Trump to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following a closely split referendum in Turkey also attracted criticism of White House communications. Many in the U.S. And around the world have recently expressed concern over news that civil society leaders and politicians in Turkey have been exiled, imprisoned or murdered for opposing sweeping new proposals to increase the power of the Turkish president. His phone call to Ankara Trump provided the latest reminder that geo-political interests have precedent over the defense of human rights and promotion of democracy abroad.

The suppression of information available to the American public by the current U.S. administration and its consistent spinning of legitimate opposition protests as paid insurrections are of concern to many. Moreover, the president’s embrace of foreign dictators and repeated use of bluff as a military and political tactic are worrying signs that this administration is on its way to radically changing democracy in America and the way in which the U.S. interacts with the world.