Donald John Trump, an American politician, media personality, and businessman, has held the office of the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021 and is set to serve as the 47th president beginning in 2025. A prominent member of the Republican Party, his career has spanned various fields, from real estate development to reality television, before his impactful entry into the nation’s highest political office. His unique journey and approach have significantly reshaped the American political landscape, drawing both fervent support and considerable scrutiny.
Born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York City, Trump is the fourth child of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, of German and Scottish descent. He was raised in a mansion within the Jamaica Estates neighborhood alongside his older siblings, Maryanne, Fred Jr., and Elizabeth, and his younger brother, Robert. By the age of eight, he was already a millionaire in inflation-adjusted dollars, benefiting from his father’s annual payments of approximately $20,000, equivalent to $265,000 in 2024.
His formative years were shaped by two key mentors: his father, Fred Trump, who repeatedly encouraged him to be “a killer” and “a king” who would not back down, and Norman Vincent Peale, the family’s pastor, who advocated self-confidence as a pathway to prosperity. Trump attended the private Kew-Forest School through seventh grade, showing an early interest in his father’s business, despite being a self-described difficult child.
To complete his secondary education, his father enrolled him in the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school. Though he considered a career in show business, Trump ultimately enrolled at Fordham University in 1964. Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. He received an exemption from the draft during the Vietnam War due to a claim of bone spurs in his heels.
Trump’s professional journey commenced in 1968 when he joined his father’s real estate company, Trump Management, known for owning racially segregated middle-class rental housing in New York City’s outer boroughs. By 1971, he was made president of the company, which he subsequently rebranded as the Trump Organization. This period marked the beginning of his extensive use of litigation, a propensity that would define much of his business career.
For 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s, Roy Cohn served as Trump’s fixer, lawyer, and mentor. In 1973, Cohn assisted Trump in a $100 million countersuit against the U.S. government, which had charged Trump’s properties with racially discriminatory practices. Although Trump’s counterclaims were dismissed, the government’s case concluded with a consent decree requiring the Trumps to desegregate, a decree they were found in contempt of four years later.
By 2018, Trump had been involved in over 4,000 lawsuits, liens, and other filings, frequently initiated by employees, contractors, real estate brokers, and even his own attorneys for nonpayment. Cohn, described as a consigliere, leveraged his Mafia connections to control construction unions, a factor that assisted Trump’s projects. Cohn also introduced political consultant Roger Stone to Trump, who was then enlisted to navigate interactions with the federal government.
Throughout his career, six of Trump’s businesses declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. These included the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the Atlantic City casinos, and the Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts company, with filings occurring between 1991 and 2009. These bankruptcies allowed the businesses to continue operations while debts were restructured and his ownership shares adjusted.
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In 1992, Trump, along with his siblings Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Robert, and his cousin John W. Walter, established All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp. This entity, which reportedly had no offices, is alleged to have functioned as a shell company. Its purpose was purportedly to pay vendors providing services and supplies for Trump’s rental units, then bill Trump Management with markups ranging from 20 to over 50 percent, with the owners sharing the generated proceeds.
These increased costs were also reportedly used to secure state approval for rent increases on his rent-stabilized units. In January 1994, the siblings formed Apartment Management Associates, which took over the management fees previously collected by Trump Management. These schemes not only facilitated rent inflation but also served to transfer assets from Fred Trump to his children and nephew, thereby reducing tax burdens.
Trump first garnered significant public attention in 1978 with his family’s initial Manhattan venture: the renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The project’s financing was significantly aided by a $400 million city property tax abatement, orchestrated by his father, who also, jointly with Hyatt, guaranteed a $70 million bank construction loan. The transformed hotel reopened as the Grand Hyatt Hotel in 1980.
That same year, Trump secured the rights to develop Trump Tower, a prominent mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. This building later became the headquarters of the Trump Corporation and Trump’s PAC, and served as his primary residence until 2019. In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel with a loan from a consortium of 16 banks; however, the hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, leading to the banks assuming control following a reorganization plan.
By 1995, Trump had defaulted on over $3 billion in bank loans, resulting in lenders seizing the Plaza Hotel and most of his other properties in a comprehensive and challenging restructuring that allowed him to avoid personal bankruptcy. An attorney for the lead bank noted the banks’ decision reflected a belief that he would be “better alive than dead.” In 1996, Trump acquired and renovated the mostly vacant 71-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street, subsequently rebranded as the Trump Building.
In the early 1990s, Trump secured the right to develop a 70-acre tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River. However, burdened by debt from other ventures, he sold most of his interest in the project, known as Riverside South, to Asian investors in 1994, who then financed its completion. His last major construction project was the 92-story mixed-use Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, which commenced operations in 2008.
In 2024, The New York Times and ProPublica reported that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating whether Trump had twice written off losses from construction cost overruns and lagging residential unit sales in the Chicago building, which he had declared worthless on his 2008 tax return.
Trump’s foray into the Atlantic City casino industry began in 1984 with the opening of Harrah’s at Trump Plaza, a hotel and casino, developed with financing and management support from the Holiday Corporation. This venture proved unprofitable, prompting Trump to pay Holiday $70 million in May 1986 to gain sole control. In 1985, he acquired the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel, renaming it Trump Castle.
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Both Harrah’s at Trump Plaza and Trump Castle sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992. In 1988, Trump purchased a third Atlantic City venue, the Trump Taj Mahal. This project was financed with $675 million in junk bonds and completed at a cost of $1.1 billion, opening in April 1990. The Taj Mahal also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991, leading to a restructuring agreement under which Trump ceded half of his initial stake and personally guaranteed future performance.
To mitigate his substantial personal debt of $900 million, Trump divested various assets, including the Trump Shuttle airline and his megayacht, the Trump Princess, which had been leased to his casinos and kept docked. In 1995, he founded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR), which took ownership of the Trump Plaza. THCR subsequently acquired the Taj Mahal and the Trump Castle in 1996.
However, THCR itself faced bankruptcy in both 2004 and 2009, ultimately leaving Trump with a 10 percent ownership stake. He continued to serve as chairman of the company until 2009, navigating its complex financial challenges through the early 21st century.
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Beyond casinos, Trump expanded into other luxury properties, acquiring the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1985. In 1995, he transformed the estate into a private club, implementing initiation fees and annual dues, while retaining a wing of the house for his private residence. He formally declared Mar-a-Lago his primary residence in 2019.
His ventures into golf course ownership began in 1999, and by 2016, he owned 17 golf courses globally. The Trump Organization frequently leveraged the Trump name through licensing agreements for a diverse array of consumer products and services, including foodstuffs, apparel, educational courses, and home furnishings. More than 50 such licensing or management deals generated at least $59 million for his companies.
By 2018, however, only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name. During the 2000s, Trump licensed his name to numerous residential property developments worldwide, though 40 of these projects ultimately remained unbuilt, highlighting the speculative nature of some of his branding endeavors.
Trump also engaged in a variety of side ventures, starting in 1970 with a $70,000 investment to be credited as coproducer of a Broadway comedy. In September 1983, he purchased the New Jersey Generals, a team within the United States Football League. The league disbanded after the 1985 season, largely attributed to Trump’s efforts to shift to a fall schedule, which would have put it in direct competition with the National Football League (NFL), and his attempt to force a merger with the NFL through an antitrust suit.
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He expanded his business interests into sports entertainment, with his Plaza Hotel hosting several boxing matches at the Atlantic City Convention Hall. From 1989 to 1990, he lent his name to the Tour de Trump cycling stage race, an endeavor to establish an American equivalent to renowned European races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d’Italia.
Between 1986 and 1988, Trump acquired significant blocks of shares in various public companies, often suggesting an intent to take over the company, only to sell his shares for a profit. This practice led some observers to suspect he was engaged in greenmail. The New York Times reported that while he initially made millions from such stock transactions, he “lost most, if not all, of those gains after investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously.
In 1988, Trump acquired the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle, financing the purchase with $380 million in loans from a syndicate of 22 banks, equivalent to $1,010 million in 2024. He renamed the airline Trump Shuttle and operated it until 1992. However, he defaulted on his loans in 1991, leading to ownership being transferred to the banks.
In 1996, he purchased the Miss Universe pageants, which included Miss USA and Miss Teen USA. Due to disagreements with CBS regarding scheduling, he moved both pageants to NBC in 2002. His work as a producer of Miss Universe earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. However, NBC and Univision severed ties with the pageants in June 2015, in response to his comments concerning Mexican immigrants.
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In 2005, Trump cofounded Trump University, a company that offered real estate seminars, some costing up to $35,000. After New York State authorities informed the company that its use of “university” violated state law due to its lack of academic accreditation, 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 false statements and consumer fraud.
Additionally, two class actions were filed in federal court against Trump and his companies. Internal documents revealed instructions for employees to employ a hard-sell approach, and former employees testified to being defrauded or lied to. Shortly after his victory in the 2016 presidential election, Trump agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three cases.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation, a private foundation established in 1988, also faced scrutiny. From 1987 to 2006, Trump contributed $5.4 million to his foundation, which was fully expended by the end of 2006. After donating an additional $65,000 in 2007–2008, he ceased contributing personal funds to the charity, which subsequently received millions from other donors, including $5 million from Vince McMahon.
The foundation disbursed funds to health and sports-related charities, conservative groups, and charities that hosted events at Trump properties. In 2016, The Washington Post reported potential legal and ethical violations, including self-dealing and tax evasion. The New York attorney general also stated in 2016 that the foundation had violated state law by soliciting donations without required annual external audits, ordering it to immediately cease fundraising in New York.
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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 the foundation, Trump, and his adult children, seeking $2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties. The foundation officially ceased operations in December 2018, disbursing its remaining 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, partly to finance his presidential campaign.
Trump’s financial landscape has been a subject of considerable discussion. He famously stated he began his career with “a small loan of a million dollars” from his father, which he claimed to have repaid with interest. However, records indicate he borrowed at least $60 million from his father, largely without repayment, and received an additional $413 million (adjusted for inflation to 2018 equivalent) from his father’s company.
In 1984, Trump, posing as a Trump Organization official named “John Barron,” reportedly contacted journalist Jonathan Greenberg in an attempt to secure a higher ranking on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans. His self-reported net worth has varied widely, from a negative $900 million in 1990 to $10 billion in 2015. Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion in 2015, based on interviews with over 80 sources, and at $5.1 billion in 2025, ranking him as the 700th wealthiest person globally.
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Trump’s media career has been extensive, marked by the publication of 19 books under his name, most of which were ghostwritten or cowritten. His inaugural book, The Art of the Deal (1987), achieved New York Times Best Seller status and was credited by The New Yorker with establishing Trump’s fame as an “emblem of the successful tycoon.” Tony Schwartz, the book’s ghostwriter, is credited as a coauthor.
From 1985 to 2001, Trump made cameo appearances in numerous films and television shows. His political style has been observed to draw influences from professional wrestling, characterized by staged conflicts and direct name-calling. He made sporadic appearances for the professional wrestling company WWE starting in the late 1980s, including a notable appearance at Wrestlemania 23 in 2007.
Beginning in the 1990s, Trump appeared 24 times as a guest on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show. He also hosted his own short-form talk radio program, Trumped!, from 2004 to 2008. From 2011 until 2015, he was a guest commentator on Fox & Friends. In 2021, Trump, a SAG-AFTRA member since 1989, resigned from the union to avert a disciplinary hearing concerning the January 6 Capitol attack, leading to the union permanently barring him two days later.
Producer Mark Burnett significantly elevated Trump’s television presence by creating The Apprentice, which Trump hosted from 2004 to 2015, including its variant, The Celebrity Apprentice. On these programs, he portrayed a superrich chief executive, famously eliminating contestants with the catchphrase “you’re fired.” The New York Times described his portrayal as “a highly flattering, highly fictionalized version” of himself, which significantly remade his public image for millions of viewers nationwide. These shows, along with related licensing agreements, generated over $400 million for him.
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Trump’s political aspirations predated his successful presidential campaigns. He registered as a Republican in 1987, later shifting affiliations to the Independence Party (New York state affiliate of the Reform Party) in 1999, a Democrat in 2001, a Republican again in 2009, unaffiliated in 2011, and finally back to Republican in 2012. In 1987, he placed full-page advertisements in major newspapers outlining his perspectives on foreign policy and strategies to eliminate the federal budget deficit.
In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater, seeking consideration to be Republican nominee George H. W. Bush’s running mate, a request Bush reportedly found “strange and unbelievable.” Trump was also a candidate in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries for three months before withdrawing in February 2000. In 2011, he considered challenging President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February and delivering speeches in early primary states, but ultimately announced in May 2011 that he would not run.
Trump officially announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election in June 2015. His campaign strategy centered on presenting himself as a wealthy, successful businessman and a political outsider, often claiming media bias against him. His campaign statements were frequently characterized as opaque and suggestive, with a record number of them later identified as false.
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He emerged as the Republican front-runner by March 2016 and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee in May. During his campaign, Trump described NATO as “obsolete” and espoused views characterized by The Washington Post as noninterventionist and protectionist. His platform emphasized renegotiating U.S.–China relations and free trade agreements like NAFTA, and rigorously enforcing immigration laws.
Other key campaign positions included pursuing energy independence while opposing climate change regulations, modernizing services for veterans, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, abolishing Common Core education standards, investing in infrastructure, simplifying the tax code while reducing taxes, and imposing tariffs on imports from companies that offshore jobs. He also advocated for increasing military spending and implementing extreme vetting or outright bans on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. A central promise was to construct a wall on the Mexico–U.S. border, vowing that Mexico would bear its cost. He further pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and criticized birthright citizenship as an incentive for “anchor babies.
An analysis in Political Science Quarterly indicated that Trump employed “explicitly racist and sexist appeals to win over white voters” during his 2016 campaign. His campaign launch speech drew significant criticism for asserting that Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists,” remarks that led NBC to fire him from Celebrity Apprentice.
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Trump’s FEC-required reports listed assets exceeding $1.4 billion and outstanding debts of at least $315 million. In a departure from the practice of every major candidate since 1976 and his own promises in 2014 and 2015, he did not release his tax returns, citing ongoing audits and legal advice. In October 2016, portions of his 1995 state filings were leaked to a New York Times reporter, revealing he had declared a loss of $916 million that year, which could have allowed him to avoid taxes for up to 18 years.
After a prolonged legal battle to prevent the release of his tax returns and other records to the Manhattan district attorney for a criminal investigation, including two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, the high court ultimately permitted the release of these records to the prosecutor for grand jury review in February 2021.
Trump secured 306 pledged electoral votes against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s 232. Following elector defections on both sides, the official count was 304 to 227. He became the fifth person to be elected president despite losing the popular vote, receiving nearly 2.9 million fewer votes than Clinton, with 46.3% to her 48.25%. Notably, he was the only president who had not served in the military or held any government office prior to his presidency. His election also marked the return of a Republican undivided government, and his victory sparked protests in major U.S. cities.
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Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017. The day following his inauguration, an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide, including 500,000 in Washington, D.C., participated in the Women’s Marches to protest against him. During his initial week in office, Trump signed six executive orders, which included authorizing procedures for repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, advancing the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline projects, and initiating planning for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Before his inauguration, Trump transferred his businesses into a revocable trust, rather than a blind trust or similar arrangement designed to fully separate himself from his business interests. He continued to profit from his businesses and maintained awareness of how his administration’s policies affected them. Despite stating he would avoid “new foreign deals,” the Trump Organization pursued operational expansions in Scotland, Dubai, and the Dominican Republic. Lobbyists, foreign government officials, and Trump donors and allies generated hundreds of millions of dollars for his resorts and hotels.
Trump faced lawsuits alleging violations of the Domestic and Foreign Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution, marking the first instances where these clauses were substantively litigated. One case was dismissed in a lower court, and two others were dismissed by the Supreme Court as moot after his term concluded. During his campaign, Trump pledged to donate his presidential salary and profits from foreign patronage to the U.S. government. He publicly donated his salary to federal agencies until July 2020.
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However, federal agencies surveyed by The Washington Post in July 2021 reported no further gifts after that month. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported in 2024 that Trump had donated $448,000 of an estimated $13.6 million in payments from foreign governments during his first term.
Trump assumed office amidst the longest economic expansion in American history, which had begun in 2009 and continued until the onset of the COVID-19 recession in February 2020. In December 2017, he signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced tax rates for businesses and individuals and eliminated the penalty associated with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. While his administration claimed the act would not reduce government revenue, 2018 revenues were 7.6 percent lower than projected.
Under his administration, the federal budget deficit increased by nearly 50 percent, reaching almost $1 trillion in 2019. By the end of his term, the U.S. national debt had grown by 39 percent, totaling $27.75 trillion, and the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio achieved a post-World War II high. Notably, Trump did not deliver on the $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan that he campaigned on.
Trump is the only modern U.S. president to conclude his term with a smaller workforce than when he took office, with a reduction of three million people. He rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and implemented policies that reflected this stance. His administration reduced the budget for renewable energy research by 40 percent and reversed Obama-era policies aimed at curbing climate change. He notably withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, making the U.S. the sole nation not to ratify it.
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His energy policy aimed to boost the production and exports of fossil fuels; natural gas production expanded during his term, but coal continued its decline. He rolled back over 100 federal environmental regulations, including those addressing greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and the use of toxic substances. Furthermore, he weakened protections for animals, environmental standards for federal infrastructure projects, and expanded areas permitted for drilling and resource extraction, such as allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
His administration dismantled federal regulations across various sectors, including health, labor, and the environment. This included signing a bill that simplified the process for severely mentally ill individuals to purchase firearms. During his initial six weeks in office, he delayed, suspended, or reversed ninety federal regulations, often in response to requests from regulated industries. The Institute for Policy Integrity found that 78 percent of his administration’s proposals were either blocked by courts or did not prevail over litigation.
Throughout his 2016 campaign, Trump consistently vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Once in office, he systematically scaled back the Act’s implementation through executive orders. He openly expressed a desire to “let Obamacare fail,” and his administration notably halved the enrollment period and drastically reduced funding for enrollment promotion. In June 2018, the Trump administration joined 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.
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This legal challenge, if successful, would have eliminated health insurance coverage for up to 23 million Americans, but it was ultimately unsuccessful. While campaigning, Trump promised to protect funding for Medicare and other social safety-net programs, but in January 2020, he indicated a willingness to consider cuts to them.
In response to the opioid epidemic, Trump signed legislation in 2018 to increase funding for drug treatments, though he faced widespread criticism for failing to develop a concrete strategy. His administration implemented policies that barred organizations providing abortions or abortion referrals from receiving federal funds. He stated support for “traditional marriage” but acknowledged the nationwide legality of same-sex marriage as “settled.
However, his administration rolled back key components of the Obama administration’s workplace protections against discrimination of LGBTQ people. An attempted rollback of anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients in August 2020 was halted by a federal judge, following a Supreme Court ruling that extended civil rights protections for employees to gender identity and sexual orientation.
Trump has consistently expressed opposition to gun control, although his views have evolved over time. His administration adopted an anti-marijuana stance, revoking Obama-era policies that offered protections for states that had legalized marijuana. A long-time advocate of capital punishment, his administration oversaw the execution of 13 federal prisoners, a number greater than in the preceding 56 years combined, effectively ending a 17-year moratorium. In 2016, he indicated support for interrogation torture methods that were “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”
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Trump’s comments on race relations and immigration have frequently ignited controversy. His remarks regarding the 2017 Unite the Right rally, where he condemned “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” and stated there were “very fine people on both sides,” were widely criticized for implying a moral equivalence between white supremacist demonstrators and counter-protesters. In January 2018, during discussions on immigration legislation, he reportedly referred to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and African nations as “shithole countries,” remarks that were condemned as racist.
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.” Two days later, the House of Representatives voted 240–187, largely along party lines, to condemn his “racist comments.” White nationalist publications and social media applauded his remarks, which continued over subsequent days, with similar comments made during his 2020 campaign.
In June 2020, amidst the George Floyd protests, federal law-enforcement officials employed tear gas and other crowd control tactics to disperse a largely peaceful assembly of lawful protesters from Lafayette Square, outside the White House. Trump then proceeded to pose with a Bible for a photo opportunity at the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church, an action that drew condemnation from religious leaders regarding both the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself. Many retired military leaders and defense officials also condemned his proposal to deploy the U.S. military against anti-police-brutality protesters.
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During his first term, Trump granted 237 requests for clemency, a number fewer than all presidents since 1900, with the exceptions of George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. Only 25 of these clemency grants had undergone vetting by the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney; the remainder were extended to individuals with personal or political connections to him, his family, and his allies, or were recommended by celebrities. On his final full day in office, he granted 73 pardons and commuted 70 sentences.
Several Trump allies were not eligible for pardons under Justice Department rules, and in other instances, the department had explicitly opposed clemency. The pardons of three military service members who had been convicted of or charged with violent crimes were met with opposition from military leaders.
As president, Trump intensified immigration enforcement, describing illegal immigration as an “invasion” of the United States. He implemented harsh policies against asylum seekers, overseeing a drastic escalation in border security measures. His administration was also responsible for significant policies such as the Trump travel ban, the family separation policy on the border, and efforts to expand the Mexico–United States border wall.
Upon beginning his second presidency, Trump initiated mass layoffs of federal workers and imposed tariffs on nearly all countries, including substantial tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico. He also signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. His administration’s actions, including the intimidation of political opponents and civil society, deportations of immigrants, and extensive use of executive orders, have led to over 300 lawsuits challenging their legality. High-profile cases have highlighted his broad interpretation of the unitary executive theory, resulting in significant conflicts with federal courts.
Both Republican and Democratic judicial appointees have identified numerous constitutional and statutory flaws within Trump administration policies. Since 2015, Trump’s leadership style and political agenda, often referred to as Trumpism, have profoundly reshaped the Republican Party’s identity. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racist or misogynistic. He has frequently made false and misleading statements and promoted conspiracy theories to a degree unprecedented in American politics.
His actions, particularly in his second term, have been described as authoritarian and contributing to democratic backsliding. Following his first term, scholars and historians ranked him as one of the worst presidents in American history. In 2023, Trump was found liable in civil cases for sexual abuse and defamation, as well as for business fraud. In 2024, he was found guilty of falsifying business records, making him the first U.S. president convicted of a felony.
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After winning the 2024 presidential election against Kamala Harris, he was sentenced to a penalty-free discharge, and two felony indictments against him for retention of classified documents and obstruction of the 2020 election were dismissed without prejudice. A racketeering case related to the 2020 election in Georgia remains pending. Donald Trump’s singular trajectory, marked by his entrepreneurial drive, media savvy, and a political approach that has consistently challenged established norms, continues to profoundly influence the American landscape, ensuring his ongoing prominence in national discourse and historical evaluation.
