The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency

by John Dickerson

According to a research project by the University of Oxford provided to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Russian effort “demonstrates a sustained effort to manipulate the US public and undermine democracy….to target US voters and polarize US social media users. The Russian effort targeted many kinds of communities within the US, but particularly the most extreme conservatives and those with particular sensitivities to race and immigration.”13 The committee concludes that the Russian efforts were almost entirely devoted to helping Donald Trump. The only pro-Hillary group, “Muslims for Hillary,” was designed not to help her in that community, but to associate the Democratic nominee with a group her Republican rival demonized and wanted to ban from the United States.