Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47thpresident of the United States. A member of theRepublican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.
Born into a wealthy family in New York City, Trump graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 1968 with abachelor's degree in economics. He became the president of his family's real estate business in 1971, renamed itthe Trump Organization, and began acquiring and building skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He also launched side ventures, many licensing the Trump name, and filed for six business bankruptcies in the 1990s and 2000s. From 2004 to 2015, he hosted the reality television showThe Apprentice, bolstering his fame as a billionaire. Presenting himself as a political outsider, Trump won the2016 presidential election againstDemocratic Party nomineeHillary Clinton.
Since 2015, Trump's leadership style and political agenda—often referred to asTrumpism—have reshaped the Republican Party's identity. Many of his comments and actions have beencharacterized as racist or misogynistic, and he hasmade false or misleading statements andpromoted conspiracy theories to a degree unprecedented in American politics. Trump's actions, especially in his second term, have been described as authoritarian and contributing todemocratic backsliding. After his first term, scholars and historiansranked him as one of the worst presidents in American history.
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, atJamaica Hospital in the New York City borough ofQueens, the fourth child ofFred Trump andMary Anne MacLeod Trump.[1] He is of German and Scottish descent.[2] He grew up with his older siblings,Maryanne,Fred Jr., and Elizabeth, and his younger brother,Robert, in a 23-room mansion in theJamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens.[3] Fred Trump paid his children each about $20,000 a year, equivalent to $265,000 a year in 2024. Trump was a millionaire in inflation-adjusted dollars by age eight.[4]
Trump attended the privateKew-Forest School through seventh grade. He was a difficult child and showed an early interest in his father's business. His father enrolled him inNew York Military Academy, a private boarding school, to complete secondary school.[5] The academy pushed students into sports[6] and taught the imperative of winning.[7] In high school, he earned aB average.[8][a]
Trump considered a show business career but instead, to be closer to home, enrolled atFordham University in 1964.[10] He participated in theReserve Officers' Training Corps program during his first year, attending classes in a military uniform every Wednesday, but dropped it in his second year.[11] He dropped football after three or four weeks and was a mediocre squash and tennis player.[12] His Fordham friends introduced him to golf.[13] His junior year, he transferred to theWharton School of theUniversity of Pennsylvania, most often commuting to his father's office on weekends, and graduating in May 1968 with aBachelor of Science in economics.[14][15] In college[16] he was not the top student he sometimes claimed to be.[17] By the time he went to Wharton—where he does not appear in a list of those receiving honors[b]—he was eyeing a career in real estate.[16] He was exempted from the draft during the Vietnam War due to a claim ofbone spurs in his heels.[18] Notwithstanding five years in military school,[16] he had no interest in going to war.[18]
Growing up, he regarded his father and the family's pastor,Norman Vincent Peale,[19] as mentors.[20] His father told him repeatedly that he was "a king" and to be "a killer".[21]
Starting in 1968, Trump was employed at Trump Management, his father's real estate company,[22] which managed the middle-class apartment complexes Fred had built inQueens,Staten Island, andBrooklyn.[23] His main tasks were collecting rent and making repairs[24] for about five years.[25] Captivated by its glamor and riches,[26] Trump asked his father to expand toManhattan where prices were higher, but his father was content in the outer boroughs.[25] In 1971, he moved to Manhattan where he planned to move the business[27] and commuted to his father's office.[28] That year, his father made himself chairman and Trump president, overseeing 48 private corporations and 15 family partnerships.[16] Trump began using the Trump Organization as an umbrella for the corporate names of his father's businesses.[29]
Roy Cohn, Trump's most important early influence after his father,[30] was hisfixer, lawyer, and mentor[31] for 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s.[32] Cohn taught Trump to think that life is transactional.[33] In 1973, Cohn helped Trump countersue the U.S. government for $100 million (equivalent to $708 million in 2024[34]) over its charges that Trump's properties had discriminated against Black applicants and tenants. Trump's counterclaims were dismissed, and the government's case was settled with the Trumps signing a consent decree agreeing to desegregate. Four years later, the Trumps again faced the courts when they were found in contempt of the decree.[35] Helping Trump projects,[36] Cohn was aconsigliere whose Mafia connections controlled construction unions.[37] In 1979, Cohn introduced political consultantRoger Stone to Trump, who enlisted Stone's services to deal with the federal government.[38]
Trump moved from his studio to a penthouse with a view and got a real estate broker's license in the mid-1970s.[39] Before age thirty, he showed his propensity for litigation, no matter the outcome and cost; even when he lost, he described the case as a win.[40] Over three decades as of 2018, Trump had been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits,[41] liens, and other filings, often filed for nonpayment against him by employees, contractors, real estate brokers, and his own attorneys.[42] Between 1991 and 2009, Trump filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six of his businesses: thePlaza Hotel in Manhattan, the casinos inAtlantic City, New Jersey, and theTrump Hotels & Casino Resorts company.[43][44]
In 1992, Trump, his siblings Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Robert, and his cousinJohn W. Walter formed All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp, each with a 20 percent share. 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 the rents of his rent-stabilized units. In January 1994, the siblings formed Apartment Management Associates and took over the management fees formerly collected by Trump Management. As well as inflating rents, the schemes served to transfer assets from Fred Trump to his children and nephew and lower the tax burden.[45]
Manhattan and Chicago developments
In 1985 with a model of one of his aborted Manhattan development projects[46]
Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture: the renovation of the derelictCommodore Hotel, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal.[47] The financing was facilitated by a $400 million city property tax abatement arranged for him by his father who also, jointly withHyatt, guaranteed a $70 million bank construction loan.[48][49] The hotel reopened in 1980 as theGrand Hyatt Hotel,[50] and that same year, he obtained rights to developTrump Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.[51] The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Corporation and Trump'sPAC and was his primary residence until 2019.[52] In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel with a loan from a consortium of 16 banks.[53] The hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, and a reorganization plan was approved a month later, with the banks taking control of the property.[54]
In 1995, Trump 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.[55][56] The lead bank's attorney said of the banks' decision that they "all agreed that he'd be better alive than dead".[55] In 1996, Trump acquired and renovated the mostly vacant 71-story skyscraper at40 Wall Street, later rebranded as the Trump Building.[57] In the early 1990s, he won the right to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in theLincoln 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.[58] Trump's last major construction project was the 92-story mixed-useTrump International Hotel and Tower in 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.[59]
In 1984, Trump openedHarrah's at Trump Plaza, a hotel and casino, with financing and management help from theHoliday Corporation.[60] It was unprofitable, and he paid Holiday $70 million in May 1986 to take sole control.[61] In 1985, he bought the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel and renamed itTrump's Castle.[62][63] Both casinos filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.[64] Trump bought a third Atlantic City venue in 1988, theTrump Taj Mahal. It was financed with $675 million injunk bonds and completed for $1.1 billion, opening in April 1990.[60] 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.[65] To reduce his $900 million of personal debt, he sold theTrump Shuttle airline; his megayacht, theTrump Princess, which had been leased to his casinos and kept docked; and other businesses.[66] In 1995, Trump founded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR), which assumed ownership of the Trump Plaza.[67] THCR purchased the Taj Mahal and the Trump Castle in 1996 and went bankrupt in 2004 and 2009, leaving him with 10 percent ownership.[60] He remained chairman until 2009.[68]
Golf clubs
In 1985, Trump acquired theMar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.[69] 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.[70] He declared the club his primary residence in 2019.[52] He beganbuilding and buying golf courses in 1999, owning 17 golf courses by 2016.[71]
The Trump Organization often licensed the Trump name for consumer products and services, including foodstuffs, apparel, learning courses, and home furnishings.[72] Over 50 licensing or management deals involved Trump's name, generating at least $59 million for his companies.[73] By 2018, only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name.[72] During the 2000s, Trump licensed his name to residential property developments worldwide, 40 of which were never built.[74]
1985 New Jersey Generals press conference inTrump Tower
In 1970, Trump invested $70,000 of his father's wealth to receive billing as coproducer of a Broadway comedy—and lost the money.[75] After making low-ball bids for theNew York Mets and theCleveland Indians baseball teams, in 1983 for about $6 million, he purchased theNew Jersey Generals, a team in theUnited States Football League.[76] The league folded after the 1985 season, largely due to his attempt to move to a fall schedule (when it would have competed with theNational Football League for audience) and his attempt to force a merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust suit.[77] Trump and his Plaza Hotel hosted several boxing matches at theAtlantic City Convention Hall.[60][78] In 1989 and 1990, he lent his name to theTour de Trump cycling stage race, an attempt to create an American equivalent of European races such as theTour de France or theGiro d'Italia.[79]
From 1986 to 1988, he 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,[80] leading some observers to think he was engaged ingreenmail.[81]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".[80]
Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
In 1988, Trump purchased theEastern Air Lines Shuttle, financing the purchase with $380 million (equivalent to $1.01 billion in 2024[34]) in loans from a syndicate of 22 banks. He renamed the airlineTrump Shuttle and operated it until 1992.[82] He defaulted on his loans in 1991, and ownership passed to the banks.[83] In 1996, he purchased theMiss Universe pageants, includingMiss USA andMiss Teen USA.[84] Due to disagreements with CBS about scheduling, he took both pageants to NBC in 2002.[85][86] In 2007, he received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame for his work as producer of Miss Universe.[87] NBC and Univision dropped the pageants in June 2015 in reaction to his comments about Mexican immigrants.[88]
In 2005, Trump cofoundedTrump University, 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.[89] 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 a hard-sell approach, and former employees testified that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students.[90] Shortly after he won the 2016 presidential election, he agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three cases.[91]
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was aprivate foundation established in 1988.[92] From 1987 to 2006, Trump gave his foundation $5.4 million, which had been spent by the end of 2006. After donating a total of $65,000 in 2007–2008, he stopped donating any personal funds to the charity,[93] which received millions from other donors, including $5 million fromVince McMahon.[94] The foundation gave to health- and sports-related charities, conservative groups,[95] and charities that held events at Trump properties.[93] In 2016,The Washington Post reported that the charity had committed several potential legal and ethical violations, including self-dealing andtax evasion.[96] Also in 2016, the New York attorney general stated the foundation had violated state law by soliciting donations without submitting to required annual external audits and ordered it to cease its fundraising activities in New York immediately.[97] Trump's team announced in December 2016 that the foundation would be dissolved.[98] In June 2018, the New York attorney general's office filed a civil suit against the foundation, Trump, and his adult children, seeking $2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties.[99] In December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed its assets to other charities.[100] 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.[101]
According to a review of state and federal court files conducted byUSA Today in 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions.[41] While he has not filed forpersonal bankruptcy, his over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2009.[44] They continued to operate while the banks restructured debt and reduced his shares in the properties.[44] During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $4 billion.[102] After his corporate bankruptcies of the early 1990s, most major banks, with the exception ofDeutsche Bank, declined to lend to him.[103] After theJanuary 6 Capitol attack, the bank decided not to do business with him or his affiliated company in the future.[104]
Trump has 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.[105] He borrowed at least $60 million from his father, largely did not repay the loans, and received another $413 million (2018 equivalent, adjusted for inflation) from his father's company.[106][45] Posing as a Trump Organization official named "John Barron", Trump called journalist Jonathan Greenberg in 1984, trying to get a higher ranking on theForbes 400 list of wealthy Americans.[107] Trump self-reported his net worth over a wide range: from minus $900 million in 1990[108] to $10 billion in 2015.[109] In 2015,Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion, based on interviews with more than 80 sources.[110] In 2025, the magazine estimated his net worth at $5.1 billion and ranked him the 700th wealthiest person in the world.[111]
Trump has published 19 books under his name, most written or cowritten byghostwriters.[112] His first book,The Art of the Deal (1987), was aNew York Times Best Seller, and was credited byThe New Yorker with making Trump famous as an "emblem of the successful tycoon".[113] The book was ghostwritten byTony Schwartz, who is credited as a coauthor. Trump had cameos in many films and television shows from 1985 to 2001.[114] Trump acquired his style of politics fromprofessional wrestling—with itsstaged fights andname-calling.[115] He sporadically appeared for the professional wrestling companyWWE from the late 1980s includingWrestleMania 23 in 2007.[116][117] Starting in the 1990s, Trump appeared 24 times as a guest on the nationally syndicatedHoward Stern Show.[118] He had his own short-form talk radio program,Trumped!, from 2004 to 2008.[119] From 2011 until 2015, he was a guest commentator onFox & Friends.[120] In 2021, Trump, who had been a member since 1989, resigned fromSAG-AFTRA to avoid a disciplinary hearing regarding the January 6 attack.[121] Two days later, the union permanently barred him.[122]
ProducerMark Burnett made Trump a television star[123] when he createdThe Apprentice, which Trump hosted from 2004 to 2015 (including variantThe Celebrity Apprentice). On the shows, he was a superrich chief executive who eliminated contestants with thecatchphrase "you're fired".The New York Times called his portrayal "a highly flattering, highly fictionalized version" of himself.[124] The shows remade Trump's image for millions of viewers nationwide.[124][125] With the related licensing agreements, they earned him more than $400 million.[126]
Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 election in June 2015.[138][139] He campaigned as a rich, successful businessman and an outsider without political experience,[140][141][142] and claimedmedia bias against him.[143][144] His campaign statements were often opaque and suggestive,[145] and a record number were false.[146][147][148] He became the Republican front-runner in March 2016[149] and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee in May.[150]
Campaigning in Arizona, March 2016
Trump described NATO as "obsolete"[151][152] and espoused views described byThe Washington Post asnoninterventionist andprotectionist.[153] His campaign platform emphasized renegotiatingU.S.–China relations and free trade agreements such asNAFTA and strongly enforcing immigration laws. Other campaign positions included pursuingenergy independence while opposing climate change regulations, modernizingservices for veterans, repealing and replacing theAffordable Care Act, abolishingCommon Core education standards,investing in infrastructure, simplifying thetax code while reducing taxes, and imposingtariffs on imports by companies that offshore jobs. He advocated increasing military spending and extreme vetting or banning of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.[154] He promised to build awall on the Mexico–U.S. border and vowed that Mexico would pay for it.[155] He pledged to deport millions ofillegal immigrants residing in the U.S.,[156] and criticizedbirthright citizenship for incentivizing "anchor babies".[157] According to an analysis inPolitical Science Quarterly, Trump made "explicitly racist and sexist appeals to win over white voters" during his 2016 presidential campaign.[158] In particular, his campaign launch speech drew criticism for claiming Mexican immigrants were "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists";[159] in response, NBC fired him fromCelebrity Apprentice.[160]
Trump's FEC-required reports listed assets above $1.4 billion and outstanding debts of at least $315 million.[161][162] He did not releasehis tax returns, contrary to the practice of every major candidate since 1976 and his promises in 2014 and 2015 to do so if he ran for office.[163][164] He said his tax returns were beingaudited, and that his lawyers had advised him against releasing them.[165] After a lengthy court battle to block release of his tax returns and other records to theManhattan district attorney for a criminal investigation, including two appeals by Trump to theU.S. Supreme Court, in February 2021 the high court allowed the records to be released to the prosecutor for review by a grand jury.[166][167] In October 2016, portions of Trump's state filings for 1995 were leaked to a reporter fromThe New York Times. They show that he had declared a loss of $916 million that year, which could have let him avoid taxes for up to 18 years.[168]
Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017. The day after his inauguration, an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide, including 500,000 in Washington, D.C., protested against him in theWomen's Marches.[175] During his first week in office, Trump signedsix executive orders, including authorizing procedures for repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, advancement of theKeystone XL andDakota Access Pipeline projects, and planning for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.[176]
Before being inaugurated, Trump moved his businesses into arevocable trust,[177][178] rather than ablind trust or equivalent arrangement "to cleanly sever himself from his business interests".[179] He continued to profit from his businesses and knew how his administration's policies affected them.[178][180] Although he said he would eschew "new foreign deals", the Trump Organization pursued operational expansions in Scotland, Dubai, and the Dominican Republic.[178][180] Lobbyists, foreign government officials, and Trump donors and allies generated hundreds of millions of dollars for his resorts and hotels.[181] Trump was sued for violating theDomestic andForeign Emoluments Clauses of theU.S. Constitution, the first time that the clauses had been substantively litigated.[182] One case was dismissed in lower court.[183] Two were dismissed by the Supreme Court as moot after his term.[184]
During the campaign, Trump had pledged to donate his presidential salary[185] and profits from foreign patronage[186] to the U.S. government. He donated his salary to federal agencies and publicized each donation until July 2020. Federal agencies surveyed byThe Washington Post in July 2021 reported not having received any gifts after that month.[187]Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported in 2024 that he had donated $448,000 of an estimated $13.6 million in payments from foreign governments in his first term.[188]
Trump took office at the height of the longesteconomic expansion in American history,[189] which began in 2009 and continued until February 2020, when theCOVID-19 recession began.[190] In December 2017, he signed theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. It reduced tax rates for businesses and individuals and eliminated the penalty associated with theAffordable Care Act's individual mandate.[191][192] The Trump administration claimed that the act would not decrease government revenue, but 2018 revenues were 7.6 percent lower than projected.[193] Under Trump, the federal budget deficit increased by almost 50 percent, to nearly $1 trillion in 2019.[194] By the end of his term, theU.S. national debt increased by 39 percent, reaching $27.75 trillion, and the U.S.debt-to-GDP ratio hit a post-World War II high.[195] Trump also failed to deliver on his campaign promise of a $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan.[196]
He rejects thescientific consensus on climate change.[197]He reduced the budget for renewable energy research by 40 percent and reversed Obama-era policies directed at curbing climate change.[198] Hewithdrew from the Paris Agreement, making the U.S. the only nation to not ratify it.[199] He aimed to boost the production and exports offossil fuels.[200][201] Natural gas expanded under Trump, but coal continued to decline.[202][203] He rolled back more than 100 federal environmental regulations, including those that curbedgreenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and the use of toxic substances. He weakened protections for animals and environmental standards for federal infrastructure projects, and expanded permitted areas for drilling and resource extraction, such as allowingdrilling in the Arctic Refuge.[204]
Trump dismantled federal regulations on health,[205][206] labor,[206] the environment,[207][206] and other areas, including a bill that revoked the Obama-era regulation restricting the sale of firearms to severely mentally ill people.[208] During his first six weeks in office, he delayed, suspended, or reversed ninety federal regulations,[209] often "after requests by the regulated industries".[210] TheInstitute for Policy Integrity found that 78 percent of his proposals were blocked by courts or did not prevail over litigation.[211] During his campaign, Trump vowed to repeal and replace theAffordable Care Act.[212] In office, he scaled back the Act's implementation through executive orders.[213][214] He expressed a desire to "let Obamacare fail"; his administration halved theenrollment period and drastically reduced funding for enrollment promotion.[215][216] In June 2018, the Trump administrationjoined 18 Republican-led states in arguing before the Supreme Court that the elimination of the financial penalties associated with the individual mandate had rendered the Act unconstitutional.[217][218] Their pleading would have eliminatedhealth insurance coverage for up to 23 million Americans, but was unsuccessful.[217] During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to protect funding for Medicare and other social safety-net programs. In January 2020, he expressed willingness to consider cuts to them.[219]
In response to theopioid epidemic, Trump signed legislation in 2018 to increase funding for drug treatments, but was widely criticized for failing to make a concrete strategy.[220] He barred organizations that provide abortions or abortion referrals from receiving federal funds.[221] He said he supported "traditional marriage", but considered thenationwide legality ofsame-sex marriage "settled".[222] His administration rolled back key components of the Obama administration's workplace protections againstdiscrimination of LGBTQ people.[223] His attempted rollback of anti-discrimination protections fortransgender patients in August 2020 was halted by a federal judge after a Supreme Court ruling extended employees' civil rights protections togender identity and sexual orientation.[224] Trump has said he isopposed togun control, although his views have shifted over time.[225] His administration took ananti-marijuana position, revokingObama-era policies that provided protections for states that legalized marijuana.[226] He is a long-time advocate of capital punishment,[227][228] and his administration oversaw thefederal government execute 13 prisoners, more than in the previous 56 years combined, ending a 17-year moratorium.[229] In 2016, he said he supported the use of interrogation torture methods "a hell of a lot worse thanwaterboarding."[230][231]
Trump's comments on the 2017Unite the Right rally, condemning "this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides" and stating that there were "very fine people on both sides", were criticized as implying amoral equivalence between thewhite supremacist demonstrators and the counter-protesters.[232] In a January 2018 discussion of immigration legislation, he reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and African nations as "shithole countries".[233] His remarks were condemned as racist.[234]
In July 2019, Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen—all minorities, three of whom are native-born Americans—should "go back" to the countries they "came from".[235] Two days later the House of Representatives voted 240–187, mostly along party lines, to condemn his "racist comments".[236]White nationalist publications and social media praised his remarks, which continued over the following days.[237] He continued to make similar remarks during his 2020 campaign.[238] In June 2020, during theGeorge Floyd protests, federal law-enforcement officials used tear gas and other crowd control tactics to remove a largely peaceful crowd of lawful protesters fromLafayette Square, outside theWhite House.[239][240] Trump thenposed with a Bible for a photo-op at the nearbySt. John's Episcopal Church,[239][241][242] with religious leaders condemning both the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself.[243] Many retired military leaders and defense officials condemned his proposal to use the U.S. military against anti-police-brutality protesters.[244]
During his first term, Trump granted 237 requests for clemency, fewer than all presidents since 1900 with the exception ofGeorge H. W. Bush andGeorge W. Bush.[245] Only 25 of them had been vetted by the Justice Department'sOffice of the Pardon Attorney; the others were granted to people with personal or political connections to him, his family, and his allies, or recommended by celebrities.[246][247] In his last full day in office, he granted 73 pardons and commuted 70 sentences.[248] Several Trump allies were not eligible for pardons under Justice Department rules, and in other cases the department had opposed clemency.[246] The pardons of three military service members convicted of or charged with violent crimes were opposed by military leaders.[249]
As president, Trump described illegal immigration as an "invasion" of the United States[250] and drastically escalated immigration enforcement.[251][252] He implemented harsh policies against asylum seekers[252] anddeployed nearly 6,000 troops to theU.S.–Mexico border to stop illegal crossings.[253] He reduced the number ofrefugees admitted to record lows, from an annual limit of 110,000 before he took office to 15,000 in 2021.[254][255][256] Trump also increased restrictions on grantingpermanent residency toimmigrants needing public benefits.[257] One of his central campaign promises was to build awall along the U.S.–Mexico border;[258] during his first term, the U.S. built 73 miles (117 km) of wall in areas without barriers and 365 miles (587 km) to replace older barriers.[259] In 2018, Trump's refusal to sign anyspending bill unless it allocated funding for the border wall[260] resulted inthe longest-ever federal government shutdown, for 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019.[261][262] The shutdown ended after he agreed to fund the government without any funds for the wall.[261] To avoid another shutdown, Congress passed a funding bill with $1.4 billion for border fencing in February.[263] Trump later declared anational emergency on the southern border to divert $6.1 billion of funding to the border wall[263] despite congressional disagreement.[264]
In January 2017, Trump signedan executive order thatdenied entry to citizens from six Muslim-majority countries for four months and from Syria indefinitely.[265][266] The order causedmany protests andlegal challenges that resulted innationwide injunctions.[265][266][267]A revised order giving some exceptions was also blocked by courts,[268][269] butthe Supreme Court ruled in June that the ban could be enforced on those lacking "abona fide relationship with a person or entity" in the U.S.[270] Trump replaced the ban in September witha presidential proclamation extending travel bans to North Koreans, Chadians, and some Venezuelan officials, but excluded Iraq and Sudan.[271] The Supreme Court allowed that version to go into effect in December 2017,[272] and ultimately upheld the ban in 2019.[273] From 2017 to 2018, the Trump administration hada policy of family separation that separated over 4,400 children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the U.S.–Mexico border,[274][275] an unprecedented[276] policy sparked public outrage in the country.[277] Despite Trump initially blaming Democrats[278][279] and insisting he could not stop the policy with an executive order, he acceded to public pressure in June 2018 and mandated that illegal immigrant families be detained together unless "there is a concern" of risk for the child.[280][281] A judge later ordered that the families be reunited and further separations stopped except in limited circumstances,[282][283] though over 1,000 additional children were separated from their families after the order.[275]
Trump described himself as a "nationalist"[284] and his foreign policy as "America First".[285] He supportedpopulist,neo-nationalist, and authoritarian governments.[286] Unpredictability, uncertainty, and inconsistency characterized foreign relations during his tenure.[285][287] Relations between the U.S. and its European allies were strained under Trump.[288] He criticizedNATO allies and privately suggested that the U.S. shouldwithdraw from NATO.[289][290] Trump supported many of the policies of Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu.[291] In 2020, Trump hosted the signing of theAbraham Accords between Israel and theUnited Arab Emirates andBahrain to normalize their foreign relations.[292]
Shaking hands with Russian president Vladimir Putin during the2018 summit inHelsinki, Finland
By the end of Trump's first year in office, 34 percent of his original staff had resigned, been fired, or been reassigned.[305] By July 2018, 61 percent of his senior aides had left[306] and 141 staffers had left in the previous year.[307] Both figures set a record for recent presidents.[308] Close personal aides to Trump quit or were forced out.[309] He publicly disparaged several of his former top officials.[310]
Trump had fourWhite House chiefs of staff, marginalizing or pushing out several.[311] In May 2017, hedismissed FBI director James Comey, saying a few days later that he was concerned about Comey's role in the Trump–Russia investigations.[312][313] Three of Trump's 15 original cabinet members left or were forced to resign within his first year.[314][309] Trump was slow to appoint second-tier officials in the executive branch, saying many of the positions are unnecessary. In October 2017, there were hundreds of sub-cabinet positions without a nominee.[315] By January 8, 2019, of 706 key positions, 433 had been filled and he had no nominee for 264.[316]
Trump appointed 226federal judges, including 54 to thecourts of appeals andthree to theSupreme Court:Neil Gorsuch,Brett Kavanaugh, andAmy Coney Barrett.[317] His Supreme Court appointments politically shifted the Court to the right.[318][319][320] In the 2016 campaign, he pledged thatRoe v. Wade would be overturned "automatically" if he were elected and given the opportunity to appoint two or three anti-abortion justices. He later took credit whenRoe was overturned byDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022; all three of his Supreme Court nominees voted with the majority.[321][322] Trump disparaged courts and judges he disagreed with, often in personal terms, and questioned the judiciary's constitutional authority. His attacks on courts drew rebukes from observers, including sitting federal judges, concerned about the effect of his statements on thejudicial independence and public confidence in the judiciary.[323][324]
Trump initially ignored public health warnings and calls for action from health officials within his administration.[325] Trump established theWhite House Coronavirus Task Force on January 29.[326] On March 27, he signed into law theCARES Act—a $2.2 trillion bipartisaneconomic stimulus bill—the largest stimulus in U.S. history.[327][328] After weeks of attacks to draw attention away from his slow response, Trump halted funding of theWorld Health Organization in April.[329] In April 2020, Republican-connected groups organizedanti-lockdown protests against the measures state governments were taking to combat the pandemic;[330][331] Trump encouraged the protests onTwitter,[332] although the targeted states did not meet his administration's guidelines for reopening.[333] He repeatedly pressured federal health agencies to take actions he favored,[334] such as approving unproven treatments.[335][336] In October, Trump was hospitalized atWalter Reed National Military Medical Center for three days with a severe case ofCOVID-19.[337]
After he assumed office, Trump was the subject of increasingJustice Department and congressional scrutiny, with investigations covering his election campaign, transition, and inauguration, actions taken during his presidency, hisprivate businesses, personal taxes, andcharitable foundation.[338] There were ten federal criminal investigations, eight state and local investigations, and twelve congressional investigations.[339]
In July 2016, theFBI launchedCrossfire Hurricane, an investigation into possible links between Russia and Trump's 2016 campaign.[340] After Trump fired Comey in May 2017, the FBI opened a second investigation into Trump's personal andbusiness dealings with Russia.[341] In January 2017, three U.S. intelligence agencies jointly stated with "high confidence" thatRussia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to favor Trump.[342][343] Many suspicious[344]links between Trump associates and Russian officials were discovered.[345][346][347] Trump told Russian officials he was unconcerned about Russia's election interference.[348] Crossfire Hurricane was later transferred toRobert Mueller'sspecial counsel investigation;[349] the investigation into Trump's ties to Russia was ended by Deputy Attorney GeneralRod Rosenstein after he told the FBI that Mueller would pursue the matter.[350][351] At the request of Rosenstein, the Mueller investigation examined criminal matters "in connection with Russia's 2016 election interference".[350] Mueller submittedhis final report in March 2019.[352] The report found that Russia did interfere in 2016 to favor Trump[353] and that Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged the effort,[354][355][356] but that the evidence "did not establish" that Trump campaign members conspired or coordinated with Russia.[357][358] Trump claimed the report exonerated him despite Mueller writing that it did not.[359] The report also detailed potential obstruction of justice by Trump but "did not draw ultimate conclusions"[360][361] and left the decision to charge the laws to Congress.[362]
In April 2019, theHouse Oversight Committee issuedsubpoenas seeking financial details from Trump's banks, Deutsche Bank andCapital One, and his accounting firm,Mazars USA. He sued the banks, Mazars, and committee chairElijah Cummings to prevent the disclosures.[363] In May, two judges ruled that both Mazars and the banks must comply with the subpoenas;[364][365][366] Trump's attorneys appealed.[367] In September 2022, Trump and the committee agreed to a settlement regarding Mazars, and the firm began turning over documents.[368]
Thesecond impeachment came after the January 6 Capitol attack, for which the House charged Trump withincitement of insurrection on January 13, 2021.[373] Trump left office on January 20, and was acquitted on February 13. Seven Republican senators voted for conviction.[374]
Trump filed to run for reelection only a few hours after becoming president in 2017.[375] He held his first reelection rally less than a month after taking office[376] and officially became theRepublican nominee in August 2020.[377] Trump's campaign focused on crime, claiming that cities would descend into lawlessness if Democratic nominee Joe Biden won.[378] He repeatedly misrepresented Biden's positions[379][380] and appealed to racism.[381] Starting in early 2020, Trump sowed doubts about the election, claiming without evidence that it would be rigged and that widespread use of mail balloting would produce massive election fraud.[382][383] Heblocked funding for the U.S. Postal Service, saying he wanted to prevent any increase in voting by mail.[384] He repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results if he lost and commit to apeaceful transition of power.[385][386]
Joe Biden won the November 2020 election, receiving 81.3 million votes (51.3 percent) to Trump's 74.2 million (46.8 percent)[387][388] and 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232,[389] with theElectoral College formalizing Biden's victory on December 14.[389] Trump declared victory before the results were known on the morning after the election.[390] Days later, when Biden was projected the winner, Trump baselessly alleged election fraud.[391] As part ofan effort to overturn the results, Trump and his allies filed manylawsuits challenging the results, which were rejected by at least 86 judges in both state and federal courts for having no factual or legal basis.[392][393]
Trump's allegations were also refuted by state election officials,[394] and the Supreme Court declined to heara case asking it to overturn the results in four states won by Biden.[395] Trump repeatedly sought help to overturn the results, personally pressuring Republican local and state office-holders,[396] Republican legislators,[397] the Justice Department,[398] and Vice President Pence,[399] urging actions such asreplacing presidential electors,[397] or that Georgia officials"find" votes and announce a "recalculated" result.[396] In the weeks after the election, Trump withdrew from public activities.[400] He initially blocked government officials from cooperating inBiden's presidential transition.[401][402] After three weeks, the administrator of theGeneral Services Administration declared Biden the "apparent winner" of the election, allowing the disbursement of transition resources to his team.[403] While Trump said he recommended that the GSA begin transition protocols, he still did not formally concede.[404][405] Trump did not attendBiden's inauguration on January 20.[406]
In December 2020, reports emerged that U.S. military leaders were on high alert, and ranking officers had discussed what to do if Trump declaredmartial law.[407] CIA directorGina Haspel and Army generalMark Milley, chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff, grew concerned that Trump might attempt acoup or military action against China or Iran.[408][409] Milley insisted that he be consulted about any military orders from Trump, including the use of nuclear weapons.[410][411]
A crowd of Trump supporters during the attack
At noon on January 6, 2021, whileCongress was certifying the presidential election results in theU.S. Capitol, Trump helda rally at the nearby Ellipse. Speaking from behind a glass barrier,[412] he called for the election to be overturned and urged his supporters to "fight like hell" and "take back our country" by marching to the Capitol.[413] His supporters thenformed a mob that broke into the building, disrupting certification and causing the evacuation of Congress.[414] During the attack, Trump posted on social media but did not ask the rioters to disperse. In atweet at 6 p.m., he told them to "go home with love & in peace", called them "great patriots", and restated that he had won the election.[415] Congress later reconvened and confirmed Biden's victory in the early hours of January 7.[416]
More than 140 police officers were injured, and five people died during or after the attack.[417][418] The event has been described as an attemptedself-coup by Trump.[e]
Between presidencies (2021–2025)
Upon leaving the White House, Trump began living at Mar-a-Lago, establishing an office there as provided for by theFormer Presidents Act.[422] His continuingfalse claims concerning the 2020 election were commonly referred to as the "big lie" by his critics, although in May 2021, he and many of his supporters began using the term to refer to the election itself.[423][424] The Republican Party used his false claims about the election to justifyimposing new voting restrictions in its favor.[425][426][427] He continued to pressure state legislators to overturn the election.[428] Unlike other former presidents, Trump continued to dominate his party; a 2022 profile inThe New York Times described him as a modernparty boss.[429] He continued fundraising, raising awar chest containing more than twice that of the Republican Party, and profited from fundraisers many Republican candidates held at Mar-a-Lago. Much of his focus was on party governance and installing in key posts officials loyal to him.[429] In the2022 midterm elections, he endorsed over 200 candidates for various offices.[430] In February 2021, he registered a new company,Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), for providing "social networking services" to U.S. customers.[431][432] In March 2024, TMTG merged withspecial-purpose acquisition companyDigital World Acquisition and became apublic company.[433] In February 2022, TMTG launchedTruth Social, a social media platform.[434]
In 2019, journalistE. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s andsued him for defamation over his denial.[435] Carroll sued him again in 2022 forbattery and further defamation.[436] He wasfound liable for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered to pay $5 million in one case[437] and $83.3 million in the other.[438] Federal appeals courts upheld both findings and awards in December 2024 and September 2025, respectively.[439][438]
In 2022,New York filed a civil lawsuit against Trump accusing him of inflating the Trump Organization's value to gain an advantage with lenders and banks.[440][441] He was found liable and ordered to pay nearly $355 million plus interest.[441] In August 2025, the appeals court upheld his liability and nonmonetary penalties, but voided the monetary penalty as excessive.[442]
Classified intelligence material found during search of Mar-a-Lago
In January 2022, theNational Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 boxes of documents Trump had taken to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, some of which were classified.[446] In the ensuing Justice Department investigation, officials retrieved more classified documents from his lawyers.[446] On August 8, 2022,FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago for illegally held documents, including those in breach of theEspionage Act, collecting 11 sets of classified documents, some marked top secret.[447][448] Afederal grand jury constituted by Special CounselJack Smith indicted Trump in June 2023 on 31 counts of "willfully retaining national defense information" under theEspionage Act, among other charges.[446][449][450] Trump pleaded not guilty.[451] In July 2024, judgeAileen Cannon dismissedthe case, ruling Smith's appointment as special prosecutor was unconstitutional.[452] After his reelection, the2020 election obstruction case and the classified documents case were dismissedwithout prejudice due to Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.[453]
In May 2024, Trumpwas convicted on 34 felony counts offalsifying business records.[454] The case stemmed from evidence that he bookedMichael Cohen's hush-money payments to adult film actressStormy Daniels as business expenses to cover up his alleged 2006–2007 affair with Daniels during the 2016 election.[454][455] On January 10, 2025, the judge gave Trump a no-penalty sentence known as an unconditional discharge, saying that punitive requirements would have interfered with presidential immunity.[456]
In November 2022, Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election and created a fundraising account.[457][458] In March 2023, the campaign began diverting ten percent of the donations to hisleadership PAC. His campaign had paid $100 million towards his legal bills by March 2024.[459][460]
During the campaign, Trump made increasingly violent and authoritarian statements.[461]He said that he would weaponize the FBI and the Justice Department against his political opponents[462][463] and use the military to target Democratic politicians and those that did not support his candidacy.[464][465] He used harsher and more dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric than during his presidency.[466]His rhetoric, calling his political opponents "the enemy", vermin, and fascists, has been described by some historians and scholars as authoritarian,fascist,[467]and unlike anything a political candidate has ever said in American history.[468][465][469]Age and health concerns also arose during the campaign, with several medical experts highlighting an increase in rambling,tangential speech andbehavioral disinhibition.[470]
Trump mentioned "rigged election" and "election interference" earlier and more frequently than in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns and refused to commit to accepting the 2024 election results.[471][472] Analysts forThe New York Times described this as an intensification of his "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy; the newspaper stated that the claim of a rigged election had become the backbone of the campaign.[472]
Trump began his second term uponhis inauguration on January 20, 2025.[484] He became theoldest individual to assume the presidency,[485] the first president with a felony conviction, and the second person to serve two nonconsecutive terms as president.[486] His attempts to expand presidential power and conflict with the courts have been described as a defining characteristic of his second term.[487]
More than a month before the 100-day mark of Trump's second term, he hadissued more executive orders than any other U.S. president's first 100 days.[488] Many of these tested his legal authority, and drew immediate legal action.[489] Four days into his second term, analysis conducted byTime found that nearly two-thirds of his executive actions "mirror or partially mirror" proposals fromProject 2025.[490] In his first weeks, several of his actions ignored or violated federal laws, regulations, and the Constitution according to American legal scholars.[491][492][493] His orders and actions were challenged by over 300 lawsuits nationwide, with most of them still moving through the courts by July 2.[494][495]
Trump's second presidency was described as having fewer guardrails against conflicts of interest than his first,[496] and breaking with decades of ethical norms.[497] He maintained a publicly traded company inTrump Media & Technology Group, and diversified it into financial services.[498] He pursued new overseas real estate deals involving state-affiliated entities, and had several branding and licensing deals selling Trump-branded merchandise.[496] He profited from events held at his hotels and golf courses and did not place his assets in a blind trust, as previous presidents had done.[499] In August 2025, Trump's mandatory disclosure of investment showed that, since taking office, he had made 690 purchases of municipal bonds and corporate stock totaling at least $103.7 million. Included was stock in companies affected by his changes to federal policies.[500]
Trump launched, promoted, and personally benefited fromtwo cryptocurrency tokens ("meme coins"),$Trump and $Melania.[501][502] He also directly benefited from his family's cryptocurrency companyWorld Liberty Financial, which engaged in an unprecedented mixing of private enterprise and government policy.[503]
In July 2025, the Trump administration accepted a$400 million luxury jet from Qatar. The aircraft will serve asAir Force One until the end of his second term, when it will be transferred to his presidential library. The retrofitting as Air Force One is estimated to cost up to $1 billion.[504]
Trump implemented a hiring freeze across the federal government and ordered telework of federal employees to be discontinued within 30 days.[505][506] He ordered a review of many career civil service positions with the intention ofreclassifying them into at-will positions without job protections.[506][507][508] He initiated mass job terminations of federal employees,[509] which were described by legal experts as unprecedented or in violation of federal law,[510] with the intent of replacing them with workers more aligned with his agenda.[511] By late February, the administration had fired more than 30,000 people.[512] To facilitate further terminations, it adopted a novel legal interpretation that vastly expands the range of departments and agencies considered as having national security for their primary function,[513][514][515] declaring various federal workers' unions "hostile".[516][517] A late March executive order based on this interpretation excluded dozens of departments and agencies fromfederal labor-management relations programs, prompting them to sue to invalidate theircollective bargaining agreements,[518][515] which could remove union protections from one million federal employees.[516][519] He ordered an end todiversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) projects in the federal government and rescindedLyndon B. Johnson's 1965Executive Order 11246, which had mandated that federal contractors take affirmative action to end racial discrimination.[520][521]
During his second presidency, the Trump administration took a series of actions using the government to target political opponents andcivil society. His actions were described by the media as part of his promised "retribution" and "revenge" campaign, within the context of a strongly personalist and leader-centered conception of politics.[527][509][528] He threatened, signed executive actions, and ordered investigations into his political opponents, critics, and organizations aligned with the Democratic Party.[529] He ended the post-Watergate norm ofJustice Department independence, weaponizing it and agencies across the federal government to target his political enemies.[530][531] He continued filing personal lawsuits against his political opponents, companies, and news organizations that angered him.[532] By July 2025, Trump had extracted more than $1.2 billion in settlements in a "cultural crackdown" against a variety of institutions that largely chose to settle rather than fight back.[533][534] Trump's actions against civil society were described by hundreds of legal experts and political scientists asauthoritarian, contributing todemocratic backsliding, and negatively impacting therule of law.[535][536][537]
Trump's pardons and grants of clemency favored political allies and loyalists,[538][539] and disproportionately pardoned "the powerful, famous, well-connected and wealthy" accused of white-collar crime.[539] Trumpgranted clemency to all January 6 rioters convicted or charged on his first day in office, including those who violently attacked police, by pardoning more than 1,500 and commuting the sentences of 14.[540][541]
Trump inherited a resilient economy from the Biden administration, with increasing economic growth, low unemployment, and declining inflation.[542]He ordered agencies to stop enforcement of disfavored rules in an attempt at large-scale deregulation that legal experts described as illegal and contrary to decades of federal law.[543][544] He sought greater government control over private businesses and shifted away from traditional conservativefree market orthodoxy,[545] engaging instate capitalism by taking direct government equity stakes in multiple U.S. corporations.[546][547][548]
He promotedclimate change denial and misinformation,[554] appointed oil, gas, and chemical lobbyists to theUnited States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse climate regulations and pollution controls,[555] and by October 2025 had cancelled $7.6 billion in funding for clean energy projects approved by the previous administration.[556]
Trump relied on declaring national emergencies to justify hundreds of actions and bypass congressional approval or regulatory review.[557] For instance, he declared a national energy emergency, allowing the suspension of environmental regulations, loosening the rules for fossil fuel extraction and limiting renewable energy projects.[558][559] Trump withdrew the U.S. from theParis Agreement on climate change during his first presidency,Biden reentered the agreement in 2021, and Trump again withdrew from the agreement during his second presidency.[560]
Dismantling government agencies enforcing the laws against political corruption and white-collar fraud,[561] Trump reduced the Department of Justice'sPublic Integrity Section from 30 to five lawyers,[562][563] dismissed 17 independentinspectors general at government agencies[564] and 12 members of independent oversight boards and watchdog agencies,[565] and disbanded the squad in the FBI's Washington field office that investigated allegations of fraud and corruption against government officials and members of Congress.[566][567] He pardoned or dropped charges against officials accused of corruption.[566]
Trump attributed societal problems todiversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives andwokeness.[568] Equating diversity with incompetence,[568] he reversed pro-diversity policies in the federal government.[569][570] He sought to remake civil society to his preferences by executive order.[571][572] On DEI and antisemitism grounds, he threatened cultural institutions[573] and sixty universities,[574] and forced law firms to capitulate to his political agenda.[572]
Througha series of executive orders and other actions, Trump banned trans people from the military,[579] restricted or defunded gender-affirming healthcare, opposedinclusive language,[580] censored research and education materials,[581] and targeted schools, universities, and cultural institutions accused of promoting what his government calls "gender ideology",[582] barred transgender athletes from sports, and required US passports to state transgender people's sex assigned at birth.[583]
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
In July 2025, Trump signed theOne Big Beautiful Bill Act into law. The bill made the temporary tax cuts of the 2017Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and added additional tax deductions for a total of around $4.5 trillion, mostly benefiting the highest income brackets and costing people in the lowest income bracket $1,600 per year. It increased funding for national defense, deportations, the border wall, and Trump's proposedGolden Dome missile defense system. It removed tax credits for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power and for buyers of electric vehicles. The bill cut funding forMedicaid andSNAP and added additional work requirements for eligibility and a $35 co-payment for some Medicaid services; the cuts and additional requirements will take effect after the 2026 general election. The bill was projected by theCongressional Budget Office to increase the budget deficit by $3.4 trillion by 2034, cause 11.8 million people to lose Medicaid coverage, and eliminate SNAP benefits for three million people.[584][585]
His administration favoredhard power to achieve itsAmerica First foreign policy goals,[591] and dismantled or withdrew support from domestic and international organizations dedicated to advancing Americansoft power.[592][593] The moves were described as ceding American global influence and creating a void filled byRussia andChina.[594][f] Trump's relations with allies were transactional and ranged from indifference to hostility, including threats of annexation.[596][597]
Trump's economic policies have been described asprotectionist,[604] with Trump imposing tariffs on most countries, including large tariffs on major trading partners China, Canada, and Mexico.[605] He started a globaltrade war, imposing tariffs at the highest level since the 1930Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act at the onset of theGreat Depression.[606][607] Economists argued that the administration misunderstood the relationship betweentrade deficits and tariffs, using flawed assumptions.[608] Trump suspended American financial contributions to theWorld Trade Organization.[609]
Federal judges found many of the administration's actions to be illegal.[616] Following legal setbacks, Trump increased his criticism of the judiciary and called for impeachment of federal judges who ruled against him.[617] By mid-July, aWashington Post analysis found he defied judges and the courts in roughly one third of all cases against him, actions which were described by legal experts as unprecedented for any presidential administration.[618]
Multiple analyses conducted by academic scholars andThe New York Times found that both Republican and Democratic judicial appointees have found numerous constitutional and statutory flaws with Trump administration policies.[619]His administration asserted a constitutional right to ignore federal law in its justification of several actions such as in his refusal to enforce afederal ban on TikTok, with legal experts describing it as claiming a "constitutional power to immunize private parties to commit otherwise illegal acts with impunity".[620][621][622]
Many of Trump's comments and actions have been characterized as racist.[653] In a 2018 national poll, about half of respondents said he is racist; a greater proportion believed that he emboldened racists.[654] 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.[655] Racist andIslamophobic attitudes are strong indicators of support for Trump.[656] He has been accused of racism for insisting a group of five black and Latino teenagers were guilty of raping a white woman in the 1989Central Park jogger case, even after they were exonerated in 2002.[657]
In 2011, Trump became the leading proponent of the racist"birther" conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, was not born in the United States.[658] He claimed credit for pressuring the government to publish Obama's birth certificate, which he considered fraudulent.[659] In September 2016, he acknowledged that Obama was born in the U.S.,[660] though he reportedly expressed birther views privately in 2017.[661] During the 2024 presidential campaign, he made false attacks against the racial identity of his opponent, Kamala Harris, that were described as reminiscent of the birther conspiracy theory.[662] His 2024 campaign made extensive use ofdehumanizing language andracial stereotypes.[663]In 2025, he promoted false claims ofwhite genocide in South Africa[664] and created theWhite South African refugee program.[665]
Trump has a history of belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media.[666][667] He made lewd comments, disparaged women's physical appearances, and referred to them using derogatory epithets.[667] As of 2020, 26 women have publiclyaccused 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 the allegations.[668] In October 2016, a 2005 "hot mic" recording surfaced in whichhe 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 thepussy."[669] He characterized the comments as "locker-room talk".[670][671] The incident's widespread media exposure led to his first public apology, videotaped during his 2016 presidential campaign.[672]
Research suggests that Trump's rhetoric is associated with an increased incidence of hate crimes,[678][679] and that he has an emboldening effect on expressing prejudicial attitudes due to his normalization of explicit racial rhetoric.[680] During his 2016 campaign, he urged or praised physical attacks against protesters or reporters.[681][682] Numerous defendants investigated or prosecuted for violent acts and hate crimes cited his rhetoric in arguing that they were not culpable or should receive leniency.[683][684] A nationwide review byABC News in May 2020 identified at least 54 criminal cases, from August 2015 to April 2020, in which he was invoked in direct connection with violence or threats of violence mostly by white men and primarily against minorities.[685] Trump's refusal to condemn the white supremacistProud Boys during a 2020 presidential debate[686] and his comment, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by", were said to have led to increased recruitment for the pro-Trump group.[687] Counterterrorism researchers described his normalization andrevisionist history of the January 6 Capitol attack, andgrant of clemency to all January 6 rioters, as encouraging future political violence.[688][689]
Fact-checkers fromThe Washington Post,[695] theToronto Star,[696] and CNN[697] compiled data on "false or misleading claims" (orange background) and "false claims" (violet foreground).
Trump frequently makes false statements in public remarks,[698][146] to an extent unprecedented inAmerican politics.[698][699][700] His falsehoods are a distinctive part of his political identity[699] and have been described asfirehosing.[701] His false and misleading statements were documented byfact-checkers, including atThe Washington Post, which tallied 30,573 false or misleading statements made by him during his first presidency,[695] increasing in frequency over time.[702]
Some of Trump's falsehoods were inconsequential,[703][704] while others had more far-reaching effects, such as his unproven promotion of antimalarial drugs as a treatment for COVID-19,[705][706] causing a U.S. shortage of these drugs andpanic-buying in Africa and South Asia.[707][708] Other misinformation, such as misattributing a rise in crime inEngland and Wales to the "spread of radical Islamic terror", served his domestic political purposes.[709] His attacks on mail-in ballots and other election practices weakened public faith in the integrity of the 2020 presidential election,[710][711] while his disinformation about the pandemic delayed and weakened the national response to it.[712][713][714] He habitually does not apologize for his falsehoods.[715] Until 2018, the media rarely referred to his falsehoods as lies, including when he repeated demonstrably false statements.[716][717][718]
Trump's social media presence attracted worldwide attention after he joined Twitter in 2009. He posted frequently during his 2016 campaign and as president untilTwitter banned him after the January 6 attack.[719] He often used Twitter to communicate directly with the public and sideline the press;[720] in 2017, his press secretary said that histweets constituted official presidential statements.[721] During his 2024 campaign and second presidency he frequently posted AI-generated content of himself aspop-culture icons or mocking immigrants.[722][723]
After years of criticism for allowing Trump to post misinformation and falsehoods, Twitter began to tag some of his tweets with fact-checks in May 2020.[724] In response, he said social media platforms "totally silence" conservatives and he would "strongly regulate, or close them down".[725] After the January 6 attack, he was banned fromFacebook,Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms.[726] The loss of his social media presence diminished his ability to shape events[727][728] and correlated with a dramatic decrease in the volume of misinformation on Twitter.[729] In February 2022, he launched social media platformTruth Social where he attracted a fraction of his Twitter following.[730]Elon Musk, afteracquiring Twitter, reinstated his Twitter account in November 2022.[731][732] The two-year ban atMeta Platforms lapsed in January 2023, allowing him to return to Facebook and Instagram.[733]
Trump sought media attention throughout his career, maintaining a "love-hate" relationship with the press.[734] In the 2016 campaign, he benefited from a record amount of free media coverage,[735] estimated at $2 billion.[736] As a candidate and as president, he frequently accused the press of bias, calling it the "fake news media" and "theenemy of the people".[737]
The first Trump presidency reduced formal press briefings from about one hundred in 2017 to about half that in 2018 and to two in 2019. They also revoked the press passes of two White House reporters, which were restored by the courts.[738] His 2020 presidential campaign suedThe New York Times,The Washington Post, and CNN for defamation in opinion pieces about his stance on Russian election interference. All the suits were dismissed.[739][740] By 2024, he repeatedly voiced support foroutlawing political dissent and criticism,[741] and said that reporters should be prosecuted for not divulging confidential sources and media companies should possibly lose their broadcast licenses for unfavorable coverage of him.[742]
In his second term, Trump's actions against the media were unprecedented in modern American history,[743] and historians described them as mirroring actions by authoritarian leaders to censor political opponents and negatively impacting thefreedom of speech andfree press.[744][745] The campaign to police speech drew comparisons tocancel culture, governmentcensorship, andMcCarthyism.[746][747][748] Some were sued and many social media companies,[749] broadcasters, and newspapers capitulated to the Trump agenda.[750] Trump launched lawsuits and created blacklists against certain media outlets, took over the process run by theWhite House Correspondents' Association to choose what outlets have access to him and made a policy of limited access for all wire services.[751][752] TheFederal Communications Commission launched investigations into media outlets accused of bias against him.[753] As a result of Trump's threats, media executives instructed journalists and their staff toself-censor and reduce criticism of Trump,[754] and CBS agreed to create an Ombudsman to monitor its news channels to root out "bias" at CBS News.[755]
In 1977, Trump marriedIvana Zelníčková.[756] They had three children:Donald Jr. (b. 1977),Ivanka (b. 1981), andEric (b. 1984). The couple divorced in 1990, following his affair with model and actressMarla Maples.[757] He and Maples married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They have one daughter,Tiffany (b. 1993), whom Maples raised in California.[758] In 2005, he married Slovenian modelMelania Knauss.[759] They have one son,Barron (b. 2006).[760]
Trumphad a 15-year friendship withJeffrey Epstein. Persons who knew them at the time said they frequently hit on and competed for women.[761] Media attention and public pressure mounted in 2025, when his administration did not releasefiles relating to Epstein, despite Trump's promise to do so during the 2024 campaign.[762]
Trump says he has never drunk alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or used drugs,[763][764] and that he sleeps about four or five hours a night.[765][766] He has called golfing his "primary form of exercise", but usually does not walk the course.[767] Trump considers exercise a waste of energy as he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite amount of energy", which is depleted by exercise.[768][769]
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".[770] 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.[770][771]
Trump called himself aPresbyterian and aProtestant in 2016.[772][773] In 2020, he said he was anondenominational Christian.[774] However, many have questioned the depth of these religious affiliations. A survey during his first presidency (2017–2021) showed that 63 percent of Americans did not believe that he was religious, despite professing a Christian affiliation, and that only 44 percent of Americans believed Trump was a Christian.[775] Some of Trump's comments on the Bible or Christian practice have led critical observers to suggest that his knowledge of Christianity is superficial or erroneous, and few biographers have described him as deeply or even particularly religious.[776][777]
In Trump's first term, from 2017 to 2021, international approval ratings of U.S. leadership dropped from about 22 percent in aGallup poll[783] of 134 countries to just 16 percent—lower than China'sXi Jinping and Russia'sVladimir Putin—in aPew Research poll[784] of 13 countries. In 2017, estimation of U.S. leadership declined most among allies.[785]
Domestically, in his first term, Trump had chiefly partisan support: 88 percent among Republicans and 7 percent among Democrats.[786] In a 2021 Gallup poll, he was the only president never to reach a 50 percent approval rating, and he was the first not to be named most admired in his first year in office.[787]
In his second term's first quarter according to Gallup, Trump's approval rating was 45 percent—somewhat better than his first term, and far below the 60 percent average of other presidents. Support remained polarized; he had the approval of 90 percent among Republicans, 37 percent among independents, and 4 percent among Democrats.[788] His second term also saw large drops in global public opinion of the United States.[789]
After Trump's first term,historians ranked Trump as the fourth-worst president inC-SPAN's 2021 survey of presidential historians.[790] He rated lowest in the leadership characteristics categories for moral authority and administrative skills.[791][792] TheSiena College Research Institute's 2022 surveyranked him third-worst. He was ranked near the bottom in all categories except for luck, willingness to take risks, and party leadership, and ranked last in several categories.[793] In 2018 and 2024, members of theAmerican Political Science Association ranked him the worst president.[794][795]
^Later, in 2015, he threatened his high school, colleges, and theCollege Board with legal action if they released his academic records.[9]
^UPenn's 1968 commencement program lists Trump as a recipient of a Bachelor's of Science in Economics and not a recipient of Academic Honors.[15]
^Presidential elections in the U.S. are decided by theElectoral College. Each state names a number of electors equal to its representation inCongress and (in most states) all electors vote for the winner of their state's popular vote.
^A Republican president combined with Republican control of both chambers of Congress
^Franks & Hesami 2021, "Results of the current study... may lend credence to accusations that some Trump supporters have a cult-like loyalty to the 45th president".
Lajevardi, Nazita; Oskooii, Kassra A. R. (2018). "Old-Fashioned Racism, Contemporary Islamophobia, and the Isolation of Muslim Americans in the Age of Trump".Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics.3 (1):112–152.doi:10.1017/rep.2017.37.
Rothe, Dawn L.; Collins, Victoria E. (November 17, 2019). "Turning Back the Clock? Violence against Women and the Trump Administration".Victims & Offenders.14 (8):965–978.doi:10.1080/15564886.2019.1671284.
.jpg)
_(3x4_close_cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
_(retouched).jpg)
.jpg)
_(alternate).jpg)
.jpg)
