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120-521: In the aftermath of Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 U.S. presidential election , the American Thinker published a variety of articles that had claims of election fraud. Faced with a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems , Lifson acknowledged that the site had relied upon "discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories". The American Thinker likewise admitted that its election claims were "completely false and have no basis in fact" and that "it

240-703: A $ 100 million mortgage on Trump Tower (refinanced in 2022) and the liquidation of over $ 200 million in stocks and bonds. He personally guaranteed $ 421 million in debt, most of which is due by 2024. As of October 2021 , Trump had over $ 1.3 billion in debts, much of which was secured by his assets. In 2020, he owed $ 640 million to banks and trust organizations, including Bank of China , Deutsche Bank , and UBS , and approximately $ 450 million to unknown creditors. The value of his assets exceeds his debt. Trump has produced 19 books under his name. At least some of them have been written or co-written by ghostwriters . His first book, The Art of

360-714: A $ 70 million bank construction loan. The hotel reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel , and that same year, he obtained rights to develop Trump Tower , a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Corporation and Trump's PAC and was his primary residence until 2019. In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel with a loan from a consortium of sixteen banks. The hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, and

480-466: A 20 percent share, formed All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp. The company had no offices and is alleged to have been a shell company for paying the vendors providing services and supplies for Trump's rental units, then billing those services and supplies to Trump Management with markups of 20–50 percent and more. The owners shared the proceeds generated by the markups. The increased costs were used to get state approval for increasing

600-719: A company that sold real estate seminars for up to $ 35,000. After New York State authorities notified the company that its use of "university" violated state law (as it was not an academic institution), its name was changed to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in 2010. In 2013, the State of New York filed a $ 40 million civil suit against Trump University, alleging that the company made false statements and defrauded consumers. Additionally, two class actions were filed in federal court against Trump and his companies. Internal documents revealed that employees were instructed to use

720-683: A conditional deal with the Taliban to withdraw United States troops from Afghanistan in 2021 . Trump met North Korea 's leader Kim Jong Un three times. He withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear agreement and later escalated tensions in the Persian Gulf by ordering the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani . Robert Mueller 's Special Counsel investigation (2017–2019) concluded that Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and that while

840-497: A dark picture of contemporary America, pledging to end "American carnage" caused by urban crime and saying America's "wealth, strength, and confidence has dissipated" by jobs lost overseas. He declared his strategy would be " America First ." The largest single-day protest in U.S. history, the Women's March , took place the day after his inauguration and was driven by opposition to Trump and his policies and views. The Trump administration

960-549: A degree unprecedented in American politics. After his first term, scholars and historians ranked him as one of the worst presidents in American history. He lost the 2020 presidential election , but did not concede, falsely claiming widespread electoral fraud and attempting to overturn the results , including his involvement in the January ;6 Capitol attack . In 2024, he was found guilty of falsifying business records , making him

1080-417: A distinctive part of his political identity, and they have also been described by Republican political advisor Amanda Carpenter as a gaslighting tactic. His White House had dismissed the idea of objective truth , and his campaign and presidency have been described as being " post-truth ", as well as hyper- Orwellian . Trump's rhetorical signature included disregarding data from federal institutions that

1200-412: A hard-sell approach, and former employees testified that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students. Shortly after he won the 2016 presidential election, he agreed to pay a total of $ 25 million to settle the three cases. The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a private foundation established in 1988. From 1987 to 2006, Trump gave his foundation $ 5.4 million which had been spent by

1320-402: A history of belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media. He made lewd comments, disparaged women's physical appearances, and referred to them using derogatory epithets. At least 25 women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct , including rape, kissing without consent, groping, looking under women's skirts, and walking in on naked teenage pageant contestants. He has denied

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1440-581: A hotel and casino, with financing and management help from the Holiday Corporation . It was unprofitable, and he paid Holiday $ 70 million in May 1986 to take sole control. In 1985, he bought the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel and renamed it Trump Castle . Both casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992. Trump bought a third Atlantic City venue in 1988, the Trump Taj Mahal . It

1560-465: A major arms sale to Saudi Arabia ; denied citizens from several Muslim-majority countries entry into the United States; recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel ; and brokered the Abraham Accords , a series of normalization agreements between Israel and various Arab states . Trump withdrew United States troops from northern Syria, allowing Turkey to occupy the area . His administration made

1680-775: A management technique, resulting in low morale and policy confusion among his staff. Trump proved unable to effectively compromise during the 115th U.S. Congress , which led to significant governmental gridlock and few notable legislative accomplishments despite Republican control of both houses of Congress. Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin found Trump lacked several traits of an effective leader, including "humility, acknowledging errors, shouldering blame and learning from mistakes, empathy, resilience, collaboration, connecting with people and controlling unproductive emotions." In January 2018, Axios reported Trump's working hours were typically around 11:00   a.m. to 6:00   p.m. (a later start and an earlier end compared to

1800-500: A real nut job   ... I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off." On May 11, Trump said in a videoed interview, "...   regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey   ... in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story." On May 18, Rosenstein told members of the U.S. Senate that he recommended Comey's dismissal while knowing Trump had already decided to fire Comey. In

1920-482: A reorganization plan was approved a month later, with the banks taking control of the property. In 1995, he defaulted on over $ 3 billion of bank loans, and the lenders seized the Plaza Hotel along with most of his other properties in a "vast and humiliating restructuring" that allowed him to avoid personal bankruptcy. The lead bank's attorney said of the banks' decision that they "all agreed that he'd be better alive than dead". In 1996, Trump acquired and renovated

2040-467: A review of state and federal court files conducted by USA Today in 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions. While he has not filed for personal bankruptcy , his over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2009. They continued to operate while

2160-507: A sitting president, Roberts criticized Trump's characterization of a judge who had ruled against his policies as an "Obama judge", adding "That's not law." In October 2020, twenty Republican former U.S. attorneys , among them appointees by each Republican president since Eisenhower, characterized Trump as "a threat to the rule of law in our country." Greg Brower , who worked in the Trump administration, asserted, "It's clear that President Trump views

2280-694: A travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries, funded the Trump wall expanding the U.S.–Mexico border wall, and implemented a family separation policy at that border. He rolled back more than 100 environmental policies and regulations, signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and appointed three justices to the Supreme Court. He initiated a trade war with China, withdrew the U.S. from several international agreements, and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without progress on denuclearization. He responded to

2400-475: A variety of allegations, at least some of which had already been investigated or debunked. In spring 2018, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn he wanted to order the Department of Justice to prosecute Clinton and Comey, but McGahn advised Trump such action would constitute abuse of power and invite possible impeachment . In May 2018, Trump demanded that the Department of Justice investigate "whether or not

2520-419: A white woman in the 1989 Central Park jogger case , even after they were exonerated in 2002 when the actual rapist confessed and his DNA matched the evidence. In October 2024, the men sued Trump for defamation after he said in a televised September debate that they had committed the crime and killed the woman. In 2011, when he was reportedly considering a presidential run, Trump became the leading proponent of

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2640-542: Is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He won the 2024 presidential election as the nominee of the Republican Party and is scheduled to be inaugurated as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Trump graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. After becoming president of

2760-526: Is depleted by exercise. In 2015, his campaign released a letter from his longtime personal physician, Harold Bornstein , stating that he would "be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency". In 2018, Bornstein said Trump had dictated the contents of the letter and that three of Trump's agents had seized his medical records in a February 2017 raid on Bornstein’s office. Many of Trump's comments and actions have been described as racist . In national polling, about half of respondents said that he

2880-440: Is racist; a greater proportion believed that he emboldened racists. Several studies and surveys found that racist attitudes fueled his political ascent and were more important than economic factors in determining the allegiance of Trump voters. Racist and Islamophobic attitudes are a powerful indicator of support for Trump. He has also been accused of racism for insisting a group of black and Latino teenagers were guilty of raping

3000-627: The Trump Princess , which had been leased to his casinos and kept docked; and other businesses. In 1995, Trump founded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR), which assumed ownership of the Trump Plaza. THCR purchased the Taj Mahal and the Trump Castle in 1996 and went bankrupt in 2004 and 2009, leaving him with 10 percent ownership. He remained chairman until 2009. In 1985, Trump acquired

3120-460: The 2016 U.S. presidential election , though Trump had chosen Bill Hagerty to begin planning for the transition in August 2016. During the transition period, Trump announced nominations for his cabinet and administration . Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, succeeding Barack Obama . He was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts . In his seventeen-minute inaugural address, Trump painted

3240-464: The 2020 presidential election to former Democratic vice president Joe Biden , after his first term in office. Trump was unsuccessful in his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act but rescinded the individual mandate . He sought substantial spending cuts to major welfare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid . Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and a partial repeal of

3360-635: The COVID-19 pandemic with emergency measures , and downplayed its severity. He was impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and in 2021 for incitement of insurrection; the Senate acquitted him in both cases. Trump's politics and rhetoric led to the creation of Trumpism . Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged, racist, and misogynistic. He promoted conspiracy theories and made many false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to

3480-614: The College Board with legal action if they released his academic records. In 1977, Trump married the Czech model Ivana Zelníčková . They had three children: Donald Jr. (1977–), Ivanka (1981–), and Eric (1984–). The couple divorced in 1990, following his affair with the actress Marla Maples . He and Maples married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They have one daughter, Tiffany (1993–), whom Maples raised in California. In 2005, he married

3600-522: The Eastern Air Lines Shuttle , financing the purchase with $ 380 million (equivalent to $ 979 million in 2023) in loans from a syndicate of 22 banks. He renamed the airline Trump Shuttle and operated it until 1992. He defaulted on his loans in 1991, and ownership passed to the banks. In 1992, Trump, his siblings Maryanne , Elizabeth, and Robert , and his cousin John W. Walter, each with

3720-720: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about his contacts with Russia. Flynn was fired amidst the ongoing controversy concerning Russian interference in the 2016 election and accusations that Trump's electoral team colluded with Russian agents. In July 2017, John F. Kelly , who had served as secretary of Homeland Security , replaced Priebus as chief of staff. In September 2017, Tom Price resigned as Secretary of HHS amid criticism over his use of private charter jets for personal travel. Kirstjen Nielsen succeeded Kelly as secretary in December 2017. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

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3840-556: The Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In 1995, he converted the estate into a private club with an initiation fee and annual dues. He continued to use a wing of the house as a private residence. He declared the club his primary residence in 2019. The Trump Organization began building and buying golf courses in 1999. It owns fourteen and manages another three Trump-branded courses worldwide. The Trump Organization has licensed

3960-734: The New Jersey Generals , a team in the United States Football League . After the 1985 season, the league folded, largely due to his attempt to move to a fall schedule (when it would have competed with the NFL for audience) and trying to force a merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust suit. Trump and his Plaza Hotel hosted several boxing matches at the Atlantic City Convention Hall . In 1989 and 1990, he lent his name to

4080-733: The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance started an investigation. His investments underperformed the stock and New York property markets. Forbes estimated in October 2018 that his net worth declined from $ 4.5 billion in 2015 to $ 3.1 billion in 2017 and his product-licensing income from $ 23 million to $ 3 million. Trump's tax returns from 1985 to 1994 show net losses totaling $ 1.17 billion. The losses were higher than those of almost every other American taxpayer. The losses in 1990 and 1991, more than $ 250 million each year, were more than double those of

4200-685: The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey , and the Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts company. Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture, the renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel , adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The financing was facilitated by a $ 400 million city property tax abatement arranged for him by his father who also, jointly with Hyatt , guaranteed

4320-864: The President's Daily Brief , in favor of receiving oral briefings. Intelligence briefers reportedly repeated the President's name and title in order to keep his attention. He was also known to acquire information by watching up to eight hours of television each day, most notably Fox News programs such as Fox & Friends and Hannity , whose broadcast talking points Trump sometimes repeated in public statements, particularly in early morning tweets. Trump reportedly expressed anger if intelligence analyses contradicted his beliefs or public statements, with two briefers stating they had been instructed by superiors to not provide Trump with information that contradicted his public statements. Trump had reportedly fostered chaos as

4440-486: The Reform Party , in 1999; a Democrat in 2001; a Republican in 2009; unaffiliated in 2011; and a Republican in 2012. In 1987, Trump placed full-page advertisements in three major newspapers, expressing his views on foreign policy and how to eliminate the federal budget deficit. In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater , asking to be put into consideration to be Republican nominee George H. W. Bush 's running mate. Bush found

4560-736: The Tour de Trump cycling stage race, an attempt to create an American equivalent of European races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia . From 1986 to 1988, Trump purchased significant blocks of shares in various public companies while suggesting that he intended to take over the company and then sold his shares for a profit, leading some observers to think he was engaged in greenmail . The New York Times found that he initially made millions of dollars in such stock transactions, but "lost most, if not all, of those gains after investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously". In 1988, Trump purchased

4680-536: The U.S. courts of appeals , more than any modern president in the first two years of a presidential term. Trump ultimately appointed 226 Article III federal judges and 260 federal judges in total. His appointees, who were usually affiliated with the conservative Federalist Society , shifted the judiciary to the right . A third of Trump's appointees were under 45 years old when appointed, far higher than under previous presidents. Trump's judicial nominees were less likely to be female or ethnic minority than those of

4800-522: The counter-jihad movement, having published writers such as Pamela Geller , Robert Spencer and Paul Weston . In a 2020 blog post on the site, Thomas Lifson referenced a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters to claim that sea level rise has been slow and constant, and that this rise pre-dated industrialization. This claim went viral over social media in March 2020. The author of

4920-413: The 10% of people with the most conservative online information diets." Brendan Nyhan , one of the authors of the study, said in an interview, "People got vastly more misinformation from Donald Trump than they did from fake news websites." In October 2018, Trump praised U.S. representative Greg Gianforte for assaulting political reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017. According to analysts, the incident marked

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5040-486: The 1982, 1983, and 1984 rankings. Trump has often said he began his career with "a small loan of a million dollars" from his father and that he had to pay it back with interest. He was a millionaire by age eight, borrowed at least $ 60 million from his father, largely failed to repay those loans, and received another $ 413 million (2018 dollars adjusted for inflation) from his father's company. In 2018, he and his family were reported to have committed tax fraud, and

5160-399: The 2017 phone logs or email metadata of reporters from CNN, The New York Times , The Washington Post , BuzzFeed , and Politico as part of investigations into leaks of classified information. Trump continued his use of Twitter following the presidential campaign. He continued to personally tweet from @realDonaldTrump , his personal account, while his staff tweet on his behalf using

5280-502: The CFPB reduced enforcement of rules that protected consumers from predatory payday lenders . Trump scrapped a proposed rule from the Obama administration that airlines disclose baggage fees. Trump reduced enforcement of regulations against airlines; fines levied by the administration in 2017 were less than half of what the Obama administration did the year before. The New York Times summarized

5400-585: The Deal (1987), was a New York Times Best Seller . While he was credited as co-author, the entire book was written by Tony Schwartz . According to The New Yorker , the book made Trump famous as an "emblem of the successful tycoon". Trump had cameos in many films and television shows from 1985 to 2001. Starting in the 1990s, Trump was a guest about 24 times on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show . He had his own short-form talk radio program called Trumped! from 2004 to 2008. From 2011 until 2015, he

5520-781: The Dodd–Frank Act . He appointed Neil Gorsuch , Brett Kavanaugh , and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court . Trump reversed numerous environmental regulations , withdrew from the Paris Agreement on climate change , and signed the Great American Outdoors Act but later issued an Executive Order undercutting its impact. He signed the First Step Act aimed at reforming federal prisons . He enacted tariffs , triggering retaliatory tariffs from China , Canada, Mexico, and

5640-684: The European Union. He withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and signed the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement , a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement with modest changes. The federal deficit significantly increased under Trump due to spending increases and tax cuts. Trump implemented a controversial family separation policy for migrants apprehended at

5760-701: The FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes," which the Department of Justice referred to its inspector general . Although it is not unlawful for a president to exert influence on the Department of Justice to open an investigation, presidents have assiduously avoided doing so to prevent perceptions of political interference. Sessions resisted several demands by Trump and his allies for investigations of political opponents, causing Trump to repeatedly express frustration, saying at one point, "I don't have an attorney general." While criticizing

5880-648: The First Amendment and he must unblock them. The ruling was upheld on appeal. His tweets have been reported as ill-considered, impulsive, vengeful, and bullying , often being made late at night or in the early hours of the morning. His tweets about a Muslim ban were successfully turned against his administration to halt two versions of travel restrictions from some Muslim-majority countries. He has used Twitter to threaten and intimidate his political opponents and potential political allies needed to pass bills. Many tweets appear to be based on stories Trump has seen in

6000-623: The Justice Department and the FBI as his own personal law firm and investigative agency." Early into his presidency, Trump developed a highly contentious relationship with the news media, repeatedly referring to them as the " fake news media" and "the enemy of the people ." As a candidate, Trump had refused press credentials for offending publications but said he would not do so if elected. Trump both privately and publicly mused about taking away critical reporters' White House press credentials . At

6120-427: The Justice Department replaced the prosecutors' proposed sentence with a lighter proposal. This gave the appearance of presidential interference in a criminal case and caused a strong negative reaction. All four of the original prosecutors withdrew from the case; more than a thousand former Department of Justice lawyers signed a letter condemning the action. On July 10, Trump commuted the sentence of Stone days before he

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6240-501: The Mueller probe, the Ukraine probe , immigration, and the COVID-19 pandemic . Senior administration officials had also regularly given false, misleading, or tortured statements to the news media, which made it difficult for the news media to take official statements seriously. Shortly before Trump secured the 2016 Republican nomination, The New York Times reported "legal experts across

6360-459: The New York attorney general determined the foundation to be in violation of state law, for soliciting donations without submitting to required annual external audits, and ordered it to cease its fundraising activities in New York immediately. Trump's team announced in December 2016 that the foundation would be dissolved. In June 2018, the New York attorney general's office filed a civil suit against

6480-632: The Service resigning on the same day. Trump's fiscal 2020 budget proposed a 15% funding cut for the Agriculture Department, calling farm subsidies "overly generous". The administration reversed a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that had made it easier for aggrieved consumers to pursue class actions against banks; the Associated Press characterized the reversal as a victory for Wall Street banks. Under Mick Mulvaney 's tenure,

6600-472: The Slovenian model Melania Knauss . They have one son, Barron (2006–). Trump says he has never drunk alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or used drugs. He sleeps about four or five hours a night. He has called golfing his "primary form of exercise", but usually does not walk the course. He considers exercise a waste of energy because he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite amount of energy", which

6720-543: The Trump administration's "general approach to law enforcement" as "cracking down on violent crime", "not regulating the police departments that fight it", and overhauling "programs that the Obama administration used to ease tensions between communities and the police". Trump reversed a ban on providing federal military equipment to local police departments and reinstated the use of civil asset forfeiture . The administration stated that it would no longer investigate police departments and publicize their shortcomings in reports,

6840-427: The Trump name for consumer products and services, including foodstuffs, apparel, learning courses, and home furnishings. According to The Washington Post , there are more than 50 licensing or management deals involving his name, and they have generated at least $ 59 million in revenue for his companies. By 2018, only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name. In September 1983, Trump purchased

6960-539: The U.S. has experienced democratic backsliding . Many prominent Republicans have expressed similar concerns that Trump's perceived disregard for the rule of law betrayed conservative principles. During the first two years of his presidency, Trump repeatedly sought to influence the Department of Justice to investigate Clinton, the Democratic National Committee , and Comey. He persistently repeated

7080-677: The United Nations . Days after the presidential election, Trump selected RNC Chairman Reince Priebus as his chief of staff . Trump chose Sessions for the position of attorney general. In February 2017, Trump formally announced his cabinet structure, elevating the Director of National Intelligence and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to cabinet level. The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers , which had been added to

7200-475: The United States–Mexico border, starting in 2018. His demand for the federal funding of a border wall resulted in the longest US government shutdown in history . He deployed federal law enforcement forces in response to the racial unrest in 2020 . Trump's " America First " foreign policy was characterized by unilateral actions, disregarding traditional norms and allies. His administration implemented

7320-487: The aftermath of Comey's firing, the events were compared with those of the " Saturday Night Massacre " during Richard Nixon 's administration and there was debate over whether Trump had provoked a constitutional crisis , as he had dismissed the man leading an investigation into Trump's associates. Trump's statements raised concerns of potential obstruction of justice. In Comey's memo about a February 2017 meeting with Trump , Comey said Trump attempted to persuade him to abort

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7440-472: The aftermath of the Watergate scandal, inspectors general find themselves under systematic attack from the president, putting independent oversight of federal spending and operations at risk." Trump dismissed FBI Director James Comey on May 9, 2017, saying he had accepted the recommendations of Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to dismiss Comey. Sessions's recommendation

7560-399: The allegations. In October 2016, a 2005 " hot mic " recording surfaced in which Trump bragged about kissing and groping women without their consent, saying that "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the pussy ." The incident's widespread media exposure led to Trump's first public apology during his 2016 presidential campaign and caused outrage across

7680-417: The banks restructured debt and reduced his shares in the properties. During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $ 4 billion. After his corporate bankruptcies of the early 1990s, most major banks, with the exception of Deutsche Bank, declined to lend to him. After the January 6 Capitol attack , the bank decided not to do business with him or his company in the future. In 1982, Trump made

7800-706: The beginning of his presidency) and that he was holding fewer meetings during his working hours in order to accommodate Trump's desire for more unstructured free time (labelled as "executive time"). In 2019, Axios published Trump's schedule from November 7, 2018, to February 1, 2019, and calculated that around sixty percent of the time between 8:00   a.m. and 5:00   p.m. was "executive time." The number and scale of Trump's statements in public speeches, remarks, and tweets identified as false by scholars, fact-checkers, and commentators were characterized as unprecedented for an American president, and even unprecedented in U.S. politics. The New Yorker called falsehoods

7920-407: The cabinet by Obama in 2009, was removed from the cabinet. Trump's cabinet consisted of 24 members, more than Obama at 23 or George W. Bush at 21. On February 13, 2017, Trump fired Michael Flynn from the post of National Security Advisor on grounds that he had lied to Vice President Pence about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak ; Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to

8040-417: The column was "by turns populist..., free-market..., and civil libertarian". Right Wing Watch has written about American Thinker, including that the site had in 2014 published a complimentary piece on white nationalist Jared Taylor and in 2015 asserted that rainbow-colored Doritos are a "gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of homosexuality". The site has also been described as sympathetic to

8160-558: The course of his first six years in office. Trump's cabinet included U.S. senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions as attorney general , banker Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary , retired Marine Corps general James Mattis as Defense Secretary , and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State . Trump also brought on board politicians who had opposed him during the presidential campaign, such as neurosurgeon Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development , and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador to

8280-470: The day after the election, Trump was projected to have won Wisconsin (a flip from the previous presidential election ), thereby receiving enough electoral votes to secure the presidency, becoming the president-elect of the United States . Trump won the presidential election with 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton's 227, though Clinton won a plurality of the nationwide popular vote, receiving nearly 2.9 million more votes than Trump. Trump thus became

8400-539: The end of 2006. After donating a total of $ 65,000 in 2007–2008, he stopped donating any personal funds to the charity, which received millions from other donors, including $ 5 million from Vince McMahon . The foundation gave to health- and sports-related charities, conservative groups, and charities that held events at Trump properties. In 2016, The Washington Post reported that the charity committed several potential legal and ethical violations, including alleged self-dealing and possible tax evasion . Also in 2016,

8520-619: The family real estate business in 1971, he renamed it the Trump Organization . Trump launched side ventures following a series of bankruptcies in the 1990s, mostly by licensing the Trump name. From 2004 to 2015, he produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice . In 2015, Trump launched a presidential campaign that led to the Trumpism movement. Trump won the 2016 presidential election . His election and policies sparked numerous protests . In his first term , he ordered

8640-614: The fifth person to win the presidency while losing the popular vote . The electoral votes were certified on January 6, 2017. In the concurrent congressional elections , Republicans maintained their majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate , and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both remained in their posts. The presidential transition period began following Trump's victory in

8760-593: The first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. He faced more felony indictments related to his interference in the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents , which were dismissed following his reelection in 2024 . Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in Queens , New York City, the fourth child of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump . He is of German and Scottish descent. He grew up with his older siblings, Maryanne , Fred Jr. , and Elizabeth, and his younger brother, Robert , in

8880-452: The first time the president has "openly and directly praised a violent act against a journalist on American soil." Later that month, as CNN and prominent Democrats were targeted with mail bombs , Trump initially condemned the bomb attempts but shortly thereafter blamed the "Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News" for causing "a very big part of the anger we see today in our society." The Trump Justice Department obtained by court order

9000-409: The foundation, Trump, and his adult children, seeking $ 2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties. In December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed its assets to other charities. In November 2019, a New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $ 2 million to a group of charities for misusing the foundation's funds, in part to finance his presidential campaign. Roy Cohn

9120-540: The inauguration crowd had been the biggest in history, a claim disproven by photographs. Trump's senior adviser Kellyanne Conway then defended Spicer when asked about the falsehood, saying it was an " alternative fact ", not a falsehood. The administration frequently sought to punish and block access for reporters who broke stories about the administration. Trump frequently criticized right-wing media outlet Fox News for being insufficiently supportive of him, threatening to lend his support for alternatives to Fox News on

9240-758: The initial Forbes list of wealthy people for holding a share of his family's estimated $ 200 million net worth (equivalent to $ 631 million in 2023). His losses in the 1980s dropped him from the list between 1990 and 1995. After filing the mandatory financial disclosure report with the FEC in July 2015, he announced a net worth of about $ 10 billion. Records released by the FEC showed at least $ 1.4 billion in assets and $ 265 million in liabilities. Forbes estimated his net worth dropped by $ 1.4 billion between 2015 and 2018. In their 2024 billionaires ranking, his net worth

9360-462: The investigation into Flynn. After Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate in 2014, only 28.6 percent of judicial nominees were confirmed, "the lowest percentage of confirmations from 1977 to 2018". At the end of the Obama presidency, 105 judgeships were vacant. Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , prioritized confirming Trump's judicial appointees, doing so rapidly. By November 2018, Trump had appointed 29 judges to

9480-474: The media, including far-right news websites such as Breitbart and television shows such as Fox & Friends . Trump used Twitter to attack federal judges who ruled against him in court cases and to criticize officials within his own administration, including then- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson , then- National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster , Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein , and, at various times, Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Tillerson

9600-618: The mostly vacant 71-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street , later rebranded as the Trump Building. In the early 1990s, he won the right to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River. Struggling with debt from other ventures in 1994, he sold most of his interest in the project to Asian investors, who financed the project's completion, Riverside South . Trump's last major construction project

9720-605: The nearest taxpayers. In 1995, his reported losses were $ 915.7 million (equivalent to $ 1.83 billion in 2023). In 2020, The New York Times obtained Trump's tax information extending over two decades. Its reporters found that he reported losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. Since 2010 he had also failed to pay back $ 287 million in loans. During the 15 years prior to 2020, using tax credits for business losses, he paid no income taxes in 10 of those years and $ 750 each in 2016 and 2017. He balanced his businesses' losses by selling and borrowing against assets, including

9840-682: The nomination by winning a majority of the delegates to become the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party following the party's presidential primaries. Trump selected Governor Mike Pence of Indiana as his running mate , and they were officially nominated as the Republican ticket at the 2016 Republican National Convention . With Democratic president Barack Obama term-limited, the Democrats nominated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton of New York for president and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia for vice president. Early on November 9, 2016,

9960-510: The official @POTUS account. His use of Twitter was unconventional for a president, with his tweets initiating controversy and becoming news in their own right. Some scholars have referred to his time in office as the "first true Twitter presidency." The Trump administration described Trump's tweets as "official statements by the President of the United States." The federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled in 2018 that Trump's blocking of other Twitter users due to opposing political views violated

10080-572: The pace and volume of the president's misstatements means that we cannot possibly keep up." The Post found that as president, Trump made more than 30,000 false or misleading claims, increasing from an average of six a day in his first year as president to 39 claims a day in his final year. The most common false or misleading claims by Trump involved the economy and jobs, his border wall proposal, and his tax legislation; he had also made false statements regarding prior administrations, as well as other topics, including crime, terrorism, immigration, Russia and

10200-562: The paper describes this interpretation as factually incorrect, constituting climate misinformation. Under threat of litigation, in January 2021 American Thinker published a retraction of unsupported stories it published asserting that Dominion Voting Systems engaged in a conspiracy to rig the 2020 presidential election against President Donald Trump, acknowledging, "These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact." Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946)

10320-646: The political spectrum say" Trump's rhetoric reflected "a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment , the separation of powers , and the rule of law ," adding "many conservative and libertarian legal scholars warn that electing Mr. Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis ." Political scientists warned that candidate Trump's rhetoric and actions mimicked those of other politicians who ultimately turned authoritarian once in office. Some scholars have concluded that during Trump's tenure as president and largely due to his actions and rhetoric,

10440-713: The political spectrum. Starting in 1968, Trump was employed at his father's real estate company, Trump Management, which owned racially segregated middle-class rental housing in New York City's outer boroughs. In 1971, his father made him president of the company and he began using the Trump Organization as an umbrella brand . In 1975, Trump settled a 1973 Department of Justice civil rights lawsuit alleging housing discrimination against black renters by consenting to desegregate. Between 1991 and 2009, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six of his businesses:

10560-416: The possibility of a second Civil War. They forecast the possibility of "several regional republics" emerging following the "overbearing, oppressive leviathan" of Obama's presidency. A 2008 column in the American Thinker drew attention to a California plan to require programmable thermostats that could be controlled by officials in the event of power-supply difficulties. According to The New York Times ,

10680-517: The prevailing evidence "did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government", possible obstructions of justice occurred during the course of that investigation. Trump attempted to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rival Joe Biden, triggering his first impeachment by the House of Representatives on December   18, 2019, but he

10800-493: The previous administration. Of Trump's judicial appointments to the U.S. courts of appeals (circuit courts), two-thirds were white men, compared to 31% of Obama nominees and 63% of George W. Bush nominees. Trump made three nominations to the Supreme Court : Neil Gorsuch , Brett Kavanaugh , and Amy Coney Barrett : Trump's own staffers, subordinates, and allies frequently characterized Trump as infantile. Trump reportedly eschewed reading detailed briefing documents, including

10920-517: The racist "birther" conspiracy theory , alleging that Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, was not born in the U.S. In April, he claimed credit for pressuring the White House to publish the "long-form" birth certificate, which he considered fraudulent, and later said this made him "very popular". In September 2016, amid pressure, he acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S. In 2017, he reportedly expressed birther views privately. Trump has

11040-515: The related licensing agreements, they earned him more than $ 400 million. In February 2021, Trump, who had been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1989, resigned to avoid a disciplinary hearing regarding the January ;6 attack. Two days later, the union permanently barred him. Trump registered as a Republican in 1987; a member of the Independence Party , the New York state affiliate of

11160-461: The remaining 2,000 American troops in Syria would be withdrawn, against the recommendations of his military and civilian advisors. Trump fired numerous inspectors general of agencies, including those who were probing the Trump administration and close Trump associates. In 2020, he fired five inspectors general in two months. The Washington Post wrote, "For the first time since the system was created in

11280-614: The rents of his rent-stabilized units. From 1996 to 2015, Trump owned all or part of the Miss Universe pageants, including Miss USA and Miss Teen USA . Due to disagreements with CBS about scheduling, he took both pageants to NBC in 2002. In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work as producer of Miss Universe. NBC and Univision dropped the pageants in June 2015. In 2004, Trump co-founded Trump University ,

11400-667: The request "strange and unbelievable". Trump was a candidate in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries for three months, but withdrew from the race in February 2000. In 2011, Trump speculated about running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election , making his first speaking appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February and giving speeches in early primary states. In May, he announced he would not run. His presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at

11520-574: The results . At a rally on January 6, 2021, Trump urged his supporters to march to the Capitol , where the electoral votes were being counted by Congress in order to formalize Biden's victory. A mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol , suspending the count and causing Vice President Mike Pence and other members of Congress to be evacuated. On January 13, the House voted to impeach Trump an unprecedented second time for incitement of insurrection , but he

11640-502: The right. On August 16, 2018, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution affirming that "the press is not the enemy of the people." The relationship between Trump, the news media, and fake news has been studied. One study found that between October   7 and November 14, 2016, while one in four Americans visited a fake news website , "Trump supporters visited the most fake news websites, which were overwhelmingly pro-Trump" and "almost 6   in 10 visits to fake news websites came from

11760-428: The risk of further incitement of violence" following the Capitol attack . Trump announced in his final tweet before the suspension that he would not attend the inauguration of Joe Biden . Other social media platforms like Facebook , Snapchat , YouTube and others also suspended the official handles of Donald Trump. Due to Trump's trade tariffs combined with depressed commodities prices, American farmers faced

11880-563: The same time, the Trump White House gave temporary press passes to far-right pro-Trump fringe outlets, such as InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit , which are known for publishing hoaxes and conspiracy theories . On his first day in office, Trump falsely accused journalists of understating the size of the crowd at his inauguration and called the news media "among the most dishonest human beings on earth." Trump's claims were notably defended by Press Secretary Sean Spicer , who claimed

12000-449: The special counsel investigation immediately; he also referred to it as "rigged" and its investigators as biased. After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. In February 2020, Trump tweeted criticism of the prosecutors' proposed sentence for Trump's former aide Roger Stone . A few hours later,

12120-532: The special counsel investigation in July 2019, Trump falsely claimed that the Constitution ensures that "I have to the right to do whatever I want as president." Trump had on multiple occasions either suggested or promoted views of extending his presidency beyond normal term limits. Trump frequently criticized the independence of the judiciary for unfairly interfering in his administration's ability to decide policy. In November 2018, in an extraordinary rebuke of

12240-441: The time. Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015. His campaign was initially not taken seriously by political analysts, but he quickly rose to the top of opinion polls. He became the front-runner in March 2016 and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee in May. First presidency of Donald Trump Donald Trump 's tenure as the 45th president of the United States began on January 20, 2017, when Trump

12360-538: The wealthy Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens. He attended the private Kew-Forest School through seventh grade and New York Military Academy , a private boarding school, from eighth through twelfth grade. In 1964, Trump enrolled at Fordham University . Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania , graduating in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. In 2015, he threatened his high school, colleges, and

12480-681: The worst crisis in decades. Trump provided farmers $ 12   billion in direct payments in July 2018 to mitigate the negative impacts of his tariffs, increasing the payments by $ 14.5   billion in May 2019 after trade talks with China ended without agreement. Most of the administration's aid went to the largest farms. Politico reported in May 2019 that some economists in the United States Department of Agriculture were being punished for presenting analyses showing farmers were being harmed by Trump's trade and tax policies, with six economists having more than 50 years of combined experience at

12600-455: Was acquitted by the Senate on February   5, 2020. Trump reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic , ignored or contradicted many recommendations from health officials in his messaging , and promoted misinformation about unproven treatments and the availability of testing. Following his loss in the 2020 presidential election to Biden, Trump made unproven claims of widespread electoral fraud and initiated an extensive campaign to overturn

12720-603: Was inaugurated and ended on January   20, 2021. Trump, a Republican from New York , took office following his electoral college victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election , in which he lost the popular vote to Clinton by nearly three million votes. Upon his inauguration, he became the first president in American history without prior public office or military background . Trump made an unprecedented number of false or misleading statements during his 2016 campaign and first presidency. His first presidency ended following his defeat in

12840-415: Was Trump's fixer , lawyer, and mentor for 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s. According to Trump, Cohn sometimes waived fees due to their friendship. In 1973, Cohn helped Trump countersue the U.S. government for $ 100 million (equivalent to $ 686 million in 2023) over its charges that Trump's properties had racial discriminatory practices. Trump's counterclaims were dismissed, and the government's case

12960-479: Was a guest commentator on Fox & Friends . From 2004 to 2015, Trump was co-producer and host of reality shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice . On the shows, he was a superrich and successful chief executive who eliminated contestants with the catchphrase "you're fired". The New York Times called his portrayal a "highly flattering, highly fictionalized version of Mr. Trump". The shows remade his image for millions of viewers nationwide. With

13080-517: Was based on Rosenstein's, while Rosenstein wrote that Comey should be dismissed for his handling of the conclusion of the FBI investigation into the Hillary Clinton email controversy . On May 10, Trump met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak . Based on White House notes of the meeting , Trump told the Russians, "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy,

13200-519: Was characterized by record turnover, particularly among White House staff. By early 2018, 43% of senior White House positions had turned over. The administration had a higher turnover rate in the first two and a half years than the five previous presidents did over their entire terms. By October 2019, one in 14 of Trump's political appointees were former lobbyists; less than three years into his presidency, Trump had appointed more than four times as many lobbyists than his predecessor Barack Obama did over

13320-521: Was due to report to prison. In response to the mid-2020 George Floyd protests , some of which resulted in looting, Trump tweeted on May 25 that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Not long after, Twitter restricted the tweet for violating the company's policy on promoting violence. On May 28, Trump signed an executive order which sought to limit legal protections of social media companies. On January 8, 2021, Twitter announced that they had permanently suspended Trump's personal account "due to

13440-592: Was estimated to be $ 2.3 billion (1,438th in the world). In 2018, journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported that Trump had called him in 1984 pretending to be a fictional Trump Organization official named " John Barron ". Greenberg said that, to get a higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans, Trump, speaking as "Barron", falsely asserted that Donald Trump owned more than 90 percent of his father's business. Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on

13560-474: Was eventually fired via a tweet by Trump. Trump also tweeted that his Justice Department is part of the American "deep state" ; that "there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State " Departments ; and that the special counsel investigation is a " WITCH HUNT !" In August 2018, Trump used Twitter to write that Attorney General Jeff Sessions "should stop"

13680-507: Was financed with $ 675 million in junk bonds and completed for $ 1.1 billion, opening in April 1990. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991. Under the provisions of the restructuring agreement, he gave up half his initial stake and personally guaranteed future performance. To reduce his $ 900 million of personal debt, he sold the Trump Shuttle airline; his megayacht,

13800-543: Was fired via a tweet in March 2018; Trump appointed Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson and Gina Haspel to succeed Pompeo as the director of the CIA. In the wake of a series of scandals, Scott Pruitt resigned as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July 2018. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis informed Trump of his resignation following Trump's abrupt December 19, 2018, announcement that

13920-404: Was incompatible to his arguments; quoting hearsay, anecdotal evidence, and questionable claims in partisan media; denying reality (including his own statements); and distracting when falsehoods were exposed. During the first year of Trump's presidency, The Washington Post 's fact-checking team wrote that Trump was "the most fact-challenged politician" it had "ever encountered   ...

14040-517: Was later acquitted by the Senate again on February   13, after he had already left office. Trump was elected for a second non-consecutive term in 2024 and will start his second presidency as the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Donald Trump officially announced his candidacy for the nomination of the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential election on June 16, 2015, at his Trump Tower residence. In May 2016, Trump clinched

14160-522: Was settled with the Trumps signing a consent decree agreeing to desegregate. In 1975, an agreement was struck requiring Trump's properties to furnish the New York Urban League with a list of all apartment vacancies, every week for two years, among other things. Cohn introduced political consultant Roger Stone to Trump, who enlisted Stone's services to deal with the federal government. According to

14280-573: Was the 92-story mixed-use Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) which opened in 2008. In 2024, the New York Times and ProPublica reported that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating whether he had twice written off losses incurred through construction cost overruns and lagging sales of residential units in the building he had declared to be worthless on his 2008 tax return. In 1984, Trump opened Harrah's at Trump Plaza ,

14400-422: Was wrong for us to publish these false statements." Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other In 2009, in the wake of the election of Barack Obama , the American Thinker joined a wave of conservative media publications discussing

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