February 2018 was a month that saw a Super Bowl and the Olympics, talk of a military parade in Washington and an actual military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. A shooting in Florida left 17 dead but was a catalyst for student activism. A White House staffer dealt with high-profile crises and controversies.
These are some of the stories, moments and images that defined the past month:
1. Super Bowl LII
February 4: The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41-33.
2. President Trump wants to have a military parade
February 6: Trump told top Pentagon officials he wants a parade like they had in France, when he visited for Bastille Day. Robert O’Neill, the former Navy SEAL who said he fired the shot that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, called it “third world b——-,” while some lawmakers said it would show weakness.
3. Omarosa is a contestant on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’
February 7: The former “Apprentice” contestant and head of the White House Office of Public Liaison returned to reality television. On “Celebrity Big Brother,” she criticized her former boss, saying she was “haunted” by his tweets on a daily basis, that she wouldn’t vote for him again and that she’s considering writing a memoir.
4. Kim Jong Un has a military parade
February 8: It was held the day before the Olympics opened in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
5. The 2018 PyeongChang Games opening ceremony
February 9: The Korean Unified team marched in together, Russian athletes marched as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” because Russia was banned for widespread doping fraud and Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless Tongan, returned. Vice President Mike Pence, who visited South Korea as part of a five-day trip where he criticized North Korea’s human rights record and promised harsh sanctions against them, was seated in front of Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, deputy director of North Korea’s Propaganda and Agitation Department. They did not speak.
6. Portraits of former President Obama and Michelle Obama unveiled
February 12: The portraits of the former president, by Kehinde Wiley, and the former first lady, by Amy Sherald, were unveiled at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Obama commented on the “hotness” of his wife’s portrait.
7. Parkland shooting
February 14: Seventeen people were killed by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
8. Romney returns
February 16: After delaying his campaign announcement because of the shooting, 2012 Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announces his re-entry to politics, running for US Senate in Utah. In the middle of the PyeongChang Games, Romney filmed his announcement video on the Utah Olympic Oval and talked about the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
9. Special counsel Robert Mueller indicts 13 Russians
February 16: Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities, including the troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, on charges of conducting “information warfare against the United States, with the stated goal of spreading distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general” during the 2016 campaign, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.
10. Alleged affair between Trump and a Playboy model revealed
February 16: Excerpts from an eight-page handwritten note from former Playboy model Karen McDougal that said Trump had an affair with her beginning in 2006 were published by the New Yorker.
11. #NeverAgain
Survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School push for changes to gun legislation, through demonstrations, interviews with the news media and traveling to Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, to talk to state lawmakers.
12. ‘I hear you’
February 21: At a listening session with survivors of the shooting and victims’ family members at the White House, Trump listens to their emotional pleas to make sure mass shootings don’t continue. Photographers spot Trump holding a page of notes that includes the words “I hear you.”
13. False ‘crisis actors’ conspiracy theory
Online conspiracy theorists spread false information about shooting survivors, incorrectly claiming the students were “crisis actors.” David Hogg, 17, told CNN the conspiracy theories only helped draw attention to the students’ cause. “These people that have been attacking me on social media, they’ve been great advertisers,” he said. “Ever since they started attacking me, my Twitter followers are now a quarter of a million people. People have continued to cover us in the media.”
14. Hope Hicks testifies, resigns
February 27, 28: The White House communications director, among Trump’s longest-serving aides, testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday as part of its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign, and she admitted she’s told white lies for Trump. The following day, she announced she was resigning.
15. Jared Kushner’s security clearance downgraded
February 27: It went from “top secret” to “secret” (the White House chief calligrapher now has a higher clearance than Kushner), and came amid reports that officials from four countries — Mexico, Israel, China and the United Arab Emirates — had conversations about manipulating him through his lack of experience, business deals and money troubles.
16. ‘Take the guns first, go through due process second’
February 28: Trump has called on lawmakers to act on legislation to protect schools from mass shootings, but he left them confused on where he stands on the issue during a meeting in which he described himself as a “fan” of the National Rifle Association, said members of Congress are “petrified” of the NRA and suggested taking guns without due process.