Issues of the Trump Presidency -- Primary Source Readings

This grouping of 11 primary source U.S. history readings relate to issues President Trump raised during the beginning years of his presidency. Three use President Trump’s remarks directly; the WTO, Sanctuary Cities and the Immigration Ban use President Trump’s remarks. But most are historical background on the issues he’s raised: international trade, multilateral trade agreements, sanctuary cities, infrastructure spending, immigration, and warrantless surveillance.

Immigration and Sanctuary Cities

1. Alien Acts of 1798: Rep. Samuel Sewall, Rep. Albert Gallatin, Madison’s Report of 1800, Maine Gov. John Baldacci’s “sanctuary” declaration in 2005
2. Know-Nothing era immigration issues: Samuel Morse, Congressman John Smith Chipman 3. Immigration in the 1920s: Congressmen Percy Quin and William “Bourke” Cockran, Summary of Johnson-Reed Act
3. Sanctuary Cities in the Trump Era: Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Steve Chabot, Pres. Donald Trump, Rep. Justin Amash, National Fraternal Order of Police
4. The Trump Travel Ban of 2017-18: Executive Order 13769, Pres. Donald Trump, Rep. Justin Amash, U.S. Supreme Court (U.S. v. Hawaii)

Government spending
6. Infrastructure spending and the economy: John Maynard Keynes’ “General Theory,” Frederick Bastiat’s “What is Seen and What Is Unseen”

International Trade
7. International Trade: David Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage from "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation"
8. The Smoot-Hawley Bill and the Protective Tariff: Sen. Reed Smoot, Sen. John William “Elmer” Thomas
9. NAFTA Agreement: H. Ross Perot, Vice President Al Gore, President George H.W. Bush, Rep. David Dreier, Rep. Richard Gephardt, Rep. Helen Bentley
10. World Trade Agreement: Pres. Donald Trump, the World Trade Organization. Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Peter DeFazio

Surveillance
11. Intelligence and Privacy after 9/11: Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, President Barack Obama, Rep. Justin Amash, Sen. Tom Cotton, Sen. Dianne Feinstein

These readings are a great way to teach U.S. history and link it to current events or teach current events in a deeper and more historical way!

They can be used as homework assignments, emergency sub-plans or classroom work. Each reading has 8-18 document-based questions at the end, which are combination of reading comprehension and DBQ-style questions that help with an AP class (though I give them to my standard level students as well).

74 pages total.