Donald Trump early life and education

 Early life and education

A black-and-white photograph of Trump as a teenager, smiling, wearing a dark pseudo-military uniform with various badges and a light-colored stripe crossing his right shoulder
Trump at New York Military Academy, 1964

Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York City, the fourth child of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.[ He is of German and Scottish descent. He grew up with older siblings MaryanneFred Jr., and Elizabeth and younger brother Robert in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens. He attended the private Kew-Forest School through seventh grade[ and New York Military Academy, a private boarding school, from eighth through twelfth grade.

Ivana Trump and King Fahd shake hands, with Ronald Reagan standing next to them smiling. All are in black formal attire.
Trump (rightmost) and wife Ivana in the receiving line of a state dinner for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 1985, with U.S. president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan

In 1964, Trump enrolled at Fordham University. Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,graduating in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. In 2015, he threatened his high school, colleges, and the College Board with legal action if they released his academic records.

Trump went to Sunday school as a child and was confirmed in 1959 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens.In the 1970s, Trump's parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church, part of the Reformed Church in America.In 2015, he said he was a Presbyterian and attended Marble Collegiate Church; the church said he was not an active member In 2019, he appointed his personal pastor, televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison. In 2020, he said he identified as a nondenominational Christian.

In 1977, Trump married Czech model Ivana Zelníčková.They had three children: Donald Jr. (born 1977), Ivanka (1981), and Eric (1984). The couple divorced in 1990, following Trump's affair with actress Marla Maples. Trump and Maples married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They have one daughter, Tiffany (born 1993), who was raised by Maples in California. In 2005, Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss.They have one son, Barron (born 2006).[19]

Business career

Real estate

Trump in 1985 with a model of one of his aborted Manhattan development projects[20]

Starting in 1968, Trump was employed at his father's real estate company, Trump Management, which owned racially segregated middle-class rental housing in New York City's outer boroughs.] In 1971, his father made him president of the company and he began using the Trump Organization as an umbrella brand. Between 1991 and 2009, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six of his businesses: the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts company.

Manhattan and Chicago developments

Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture, the renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The financing was facilitated by a $400 million city property tax abatement arranged for Trump by his father who also, jointly with Hyatt, guaranteed a $70 million bank construction loan. The hotel reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel and that same year, Trump obtained rights to develop Trump Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Corporation and Trump's PAC and was Trump's primary residence until 2019

In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel with a loan from a consortium of sixteen banks. The hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, and a reorganization plan was approved a month later, with the banks taking control of the property 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 Trump to avoid personal bankruptcy The lead bank's attorney said of the banks' decision that they "all agreed that he'd be better alive than dead.

In 1996, Trump acquired and renovated the mostly vacant 71-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street, later rebranded as the Trump Building. In the early 1990s, Trump won the right to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River. Struggling with debt from other ventures in 1994, Trump sold most of his interest in the project to Asian investors, who financed the project's completion, Riverside South.

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

Atlantic City casinos

The entrance of the Trump Taj Mahal, a casino in Atlantic City. It has motifs evocative of the Taj Mahal in India.
Entrance of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City

In 1984, Trump opened Harrah's at Trump Plaza, a hotel and casino, with financing and management help from the Holiday Corporation.[39] It was unprofitable, and Trump paid Holiday $70 million in May 1986 to take sole control. In 1985, Trump bought the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel and renamed it Trump Castle.  Both casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.

Trump bought a third Atlantic City venue in 1988, the Trump Taj Mahal. It was financed with $675 million in junk bonds and completed for $1.1 billion, opening in April 1990. Trump filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991. Under the provisions of the restructuring agreement, Trump gave up half his initial stake and personally guaranteed future performance. To reduce his $900 million of personal debt, he sold the Trump Shuttle airline; his megayacht, the Trump Princess, which had been leased to his casinos and kept docked; and other businesses.

In 1995, Trump founded Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR), which assumed ownership of the Trump Plaza THCR purchased the Taj Mahal and the Trump Castle in 1996 and went bankrupt in 2004 and 2009, leaving Trump with 10 percent ownership. He remained chairman until 2009.

Clubs

In 1985, Trump acquired the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. In 1995, he converted the estate into a private club with an initiation fee and annual dues. He continued to use a wing of the house as a private residence. Trump declared the club his primary residence in 2019.The Trump Organization began building and buying golf courses in 1999.It owns fourteen and manages another three Trump-branded courses worldwide.

Licensing of the Trump brand

The Trump name has been licensed for consumer products and services, including foodstuffs, apparel, learning courses, and home furnishings.  According to The Washington Post, there are more than 50 licensing or management deals involving Trump's name, and they have generated at least $59 million in revenue for his companies. By 2018, only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name.

Side ventures

Trump, Doug Flutie, and an unnamed official standing behind a lectern with big, round New Jersey Generals sign, with members of the press seated in the background
Trump and New Jersey Generals quarterback Doug Flutie at a 1985 press conference in Trump Tower

In September 1983, Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals, a team in the United States Football League. After the 1985 season, the league folded, largely due to Trump's attempt to move to a fall schedule (when it would have competed with the NFL for audience) and trying to force a merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust suit.[56][57]

Trump and his Plaza Hotel hosted several boxing matches at the Atlantic City Convention Hall.[39][58] In 1989 and 1990, Trump lent his name to the Tour de Trump cycling stage race, an attempt to create an American equivalent of European races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia.[59]

From 1986 to 1988, Trump purchased significant blocks of shares in various public companies while suggesting that he intended to take over the company and then sold his shares for a profit,[60] leading some observers to think he was engaged in greenmail.[61] The New York Times found that Trump 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".[60]

In 1988, Trump purchased the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle, financing the purchase with $380 million (equivalent to $979 million in 2023)[62] in loans from a syndicate of 22 banks. He renamed the airline Trump Shuttle and operated it until 1992.[63] Trump defaulted on his loans in 1991, and ownership passed to the banks.[64]

In 1992, Trump, his siblings Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Robert, and his cousin John W. Walter, each with a 20 percent share, formed All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp. The company had no offices and is alleged to have been a shell company for paying the vendors providing services and supplies for Trump's rental units, then billing those services and supplies to Trump Management with markups of 20–50 percent and more. The owners shared the proceeds generated by the markups.[65][66] The increased costs were used to get state approval for increasing the rents of Trump's rent-stabilized units.[65]

From 1996 to 2015, Trump owned all or part of the Miss Universe pageants, including Miss USA and Miss Teen USA.[67][68] Due to disagreements with CBS about scheduling, he took both pageants to NBC in 2002.[69][70] In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work as producer of Miss Universe.[71] NBC and Univision dropped the pageants in June 2015.[72]

Trump University

In 2004, Trump co-founded Trump University, a company that sold real estate seminars for up to $35,000.[73] 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.[74]

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.[75] 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.[76][77][78] Shortly after he won the 2016 presidential election, Trump agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three cases.[79]

Foundation

The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a private foundation established in 1988.[80][81] 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,[82] which received millions from other donors, including $5 million from Vince McMahon.[83] The foundation gave to health- and sports-related charities, conservative groups,[84] and charities that held events at Trump properties.[82]

In 2016, The Washington Post reported that the charity committed several potential legal and ethical violations, including alleged self-dealing and possible tax evasion.[85] Also in 2016, the New York attorney general determined the foundation to be in violation of state law, for soliciting donations without submitting to required annual external audits, and ordered it to cease its fundraising activities in New York immediately.[86] Trump's team announced in December 2016 that the foundation would be dissolved.[87]

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.[88] In December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed its assets to other charities.[89] 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.[90][91]

Roy Cohn was Trump's fixer, lawyer, and mentor for 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s.[92] According to Trump, Cohn sometimes waived fees due to their friendship.[92] In 1973, Cohn helped Trump countersue the U.S. government for $100 million (equivalent to $686 million in 2023)[62] over its charges that Trump's properties had racial discriminatory practices. Trump's counterclaims were dismissed, and the government's case was settled with the Trumps signing a consent decree agreeing to desegregate.[93] In 1975, an agreement was struck requiring Trump's properties to furnish the New York Urban League with a list of all apartment vacancies, every week for two years, among other things.[94] Cohn introduced political consultant Roger Stone to Trump, who enlisted Stone's services to deal with the federal government.[95]

According to a review of state and federal court files conducted by USA Today in 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions.[96] While Trump has not filed for personal bankruptcy, his over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2009.[97] They continued to operate while the banks restructured debt and reduced Trump's shares in the properties.[97]

During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $4 billion.[98] After his corporate bankruptcies of the early 1990s, most major banks, with the exception of Deutsche Bank, declined to lend to him.[99] After the January 6 Capitol attack, the bank decided not to do business with Trump or his company in the future.[100]

Media career

Trump has produced 19 books under his name. At least some of them have been written or co-written by ghostwriters.[101] His first book, The Art of the Deal (1987), was a New York Times Best Seller. While Trump was credited as co-author, the entire book was written by Tony Schwartz. According to The New Yorker, the book made Trump famous as an "emblem of the successful tycoon".[102]

A red star with a bronze outline and "Donald Trump" and a TV icon written on it in bronze, embedded in a black terrazzo sidewalk
Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Trump had cameos in many films and television shows from 1985 to 2001.[103]

Starting in the 1990s, Trump was a guest about 24 times on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show.[104] He had his own short-form talk radio program called Trumped! from 2004 to 2008.[105][106] From 2011 until 2015, he was a guest commentator on Fox & Friends.[107][108]

From 2004 to 2015, Trump was co-producer and host of reality shows The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. On the shows, Trump was a superrich and successful chief executive who eliminated contestants with the catchphrase "you're fired". The New York Times called his portrayal a "highly flattering, highly fictionalized version of Mr. Trump". The shows remade his image for millions of viewers nationwide.[109][110] With the related licensing agreements, they earned him more than $400 million.[111]

In February 2021, Trump, who had been a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1989, resigned to avoid a disciplinary hearing regarding the January 6 attack.[112] Two days later, the union permanently barred him.[113]

Political career

Donald Trump shakes hands with Bill Clinton in a lobby; Trump is speaking and Clinton is smiling, and both are wearing suits.
Trump and President Bill Clinton, June 2000

Trump registered as a Republican in 1987;[114] a member of the Independence Party, the New York state affiliate of the Reform Party, in 1999;[115] a Democrat in 2001; a Republican in 2009; unaffiliated in 2011; and a Republican in 2012.[114]

In 1987, Trump placed full-page advertisements in three major newspapers,[116] expressing his views on foreign policy and how to eliminate the federal budget deficit.[117] In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater, asking to be put into consideration to be Republican nominee George H. W. Bush's running mate. Bush found the request "strange and unbelievable".[118]

Presidential campaigns and speculations (2000–2011)

Trump was a candidate in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries for three months, but withdrew from the race in February 2000.[119][120][121]

Trump, leaning heavily onto a lectern, with his mouth open mid-speech and a woman clapping politely next to him
Trump speaking at CPAC 2011

In 2011, Trump speculated about running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, making his first speaking appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2011 and giving speeches in early primary states.[122][123] In May 2011, he announced he would not run.[122] Trump's presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time.[124]

2016 presidential campaign

Trump's fame and provocative statements earned him an unprecedented amount of free media coverage, elevating his standing in the Republican primaries.[125] He adopted the phrase "truthful hyperbole", coined by his ghostwriter Tony Schwartz, to describe his public speaking style.[102][126] His campaign statements were often opaque and suggestive,[127] and a record number were false.[128][129][130] Trump said he disdained political correctness and frequently made claims of media bias.[131][132]

Trump speaking in front of an American flag behind a lectern, wearing a black suit and red hat. The lectern sports a blue "TRUMP" sign.
Trump campaigning in Arizona, March 2016

Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015.[133][134] His campaign was initially not taken seriously by political analysts, but he quickly rose to the top of opinion polls.[135] He became the front-runner in March 2016[136] and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee in May.[137]

Hillary Clinton led Trump in national polling averages throughout the campaign, but, in early July, her lead narrowed.[138] In mid-July Trump selected Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate,[139] and the two were officially nominated at the 2016 Republican National Convention.[140] Trump and Clinton faced off in three presidential debates in September and October 2016. Trump twice refused to say whether he would accept the result of the election.[141]

Campaign rhetoric and political positions

Trump's political positions and rhetoric were described as right-wing populist.[142][143][144] Politico described them as "eclectic, improvisational and often contradictory", quoting a health-care policy expert at the American Enterprise Institute as saying that his political positions were a "random assortment of whatever plays publicly".[145] NBC News counted "141 distinct shifts on 23 major issues" during his campaign.[146] Trump appeals to Christian nationalists, according to a 2021 study.[147]

Trump described NATO as "obsolete"[148][149] and espoused views that were described as noninterventionist and protectionist.[150] His campaign platform emphasized renegotiating U.S.–China relations and free trade agreements such as NAFTA, strongly enforcing immigration laws, and building a new wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. Other 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 by companies that offshore jobs. He advocated increasing military spending and extreme vetting or banning of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.[151]

Trump helped bring far-right fringe ideas and organizations into the mainstream.[152] In August 2016, Trump hired Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News—described by Bannon as "the platform for the alt-right"—as his campaign CEO.[153] The alt-right movement coalesced around and supported Trump's candidacy, due in part to its opposition to multiculturalism and immigration.[154][155][156]

Financial disclosures

Trump's FEC-required reports listed assets above $1.4 billion and outstanding debts of at least $315 million.[157][158] Trump did not release his 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.[159][160] He said his tax returns were being audited, and that his lawyers had advised him against releasing them.[161] After a lengthy court battle to block release of his tax returns and other records to the Manhattan district attorney for a criminal investigation, including two appeals by Trump to the U.S. Supreme Court, in February 2021 the high court allowed the records to be released to the prosecutor for review by a grand jury.[162][163]

In October 2016, portions of Trump's state filings for 1995 were leaked to a reporter from The New York Times. They show that Trump had declared a loss of $916 million that year, which could have let him avoid taxes for up to 18 years.[164]

Election to the presidency

On November 8, 2016, Trump received 306 pledged electoral votes versus 232 for Clinton, although, after elector defections on both sides, the official count was ultimately 304 to 227.[165] The fifth person to be elected president while losing the popular vote, Trump received nearly 2.9 million fewer votes than Clinton.[166] He also was the only president who neither served in the military nor held any government office prior to becoming president.[167] His victory was a political upset.[168] Polls had consistently shown Clinton with a nationwide—although diminishing—lead, as well as an advantage in most of the competitive states.[169]

Pennsylvania Ave., completely packed with protesters, mostly women, many wearing pink and holding signs with progressive feminist slogans
Women's March in Washington on January 21, 2017

Trump won 30 states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, states which had been considered a blue wall of Democratic strongholds since the 1990s. Clinton won 20 states and the District of Columbia. His victory marked the return of an undivided Republican government—a Republican White House combined with Republican control of both chambers of Congress.[170]

In late 2016, Time named Trump its Person of the Year.[171][172]

Trump's election victory sparked protests in major U.S. cities.[173][174] On the day after his inauguration, an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide, including an estimated half million in Washington, D.C., protested against him in the Women's Marches.[175]

2020 presidential campaign

Breaking with precedent, Trump filed to run for a second term within a few hours of assuming the presidency.[176] He held his first reelection rally less than a month after taking office[177] and officially became the Republican nominee in August 2020.[178]

In his first two years in office, Trump's reelection committee reported raising $67.5 million and began 2019 with $19.3 million in cash.[179] By July 2020, the Trump campaign and the Republican Party had raised $1.1 billion and spent $800 million, losing their cash advantage over Biden.[180] The cash shortage forced the campaign to scale back advertising spending.[181]

Trump campaign advertisements focused on crime, claiming that cities would descend into lawlessness if Biden won.[182] Trump repeatedly misrepresented Biden's positions[183][184] and shifted to appeals to racism.[185]

Election

Starting in the spring of 2020, Trump began to sow doubts about the election, claiming without evidence that the election would be rigged and that the expected widespread use of mail balloting would produce massive election fraud.[186][187] When, in August, the House of Representatives voted for a $25 billion grant to the U.S. Postal Service for the expected surge in mail voting, Trump blocked funding, saying he wanted to prevent any increase in voting by mail.[188] He repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results if he lost and commit to a peaceful transition of power.[189][190]

Biden won the election on November 3, receiving 81.3 million votes (51.3 percent) to Trump's 74.2 million (46.8 percent)[191][192] and 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232.[193]

False claims of voting fraud, attempt to prevent presidential transition

At 2 a.m. the morning after the election, with the results still unclear, Trump declared victory.[194] After Biden was projected the winner days later, Trump stated that "this election is far from over" and baselessly alleged election fraud.[195] Trump and his allies filed many legal challenges to the results, which were rejected by at least 86 judges in both the state and federal courts, including by federal judges appointed by Trump himself, finding no factual or legal basis.[196][197] Trump's allegations were also refuted by state election officials.[198] After Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Chris Krebs contradicted Trump's fraud allegations, Trump dismissed him on November 17.[199] On December 11, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case from the Texas attorney general that asked the court to overturn the election results in four states won by Biden.[200]

Trump withdrew from public activities in the weeks following the election.[201] He initially blocked government officials from cooperating in Biden's presidential transition.[202][203] After three weeks, the administrator of the General Services Administration declared Biden the "apparent winner" of the election, allowing the disbursement of transition resources to his team.[204] Trump still did not formally concede while claiming he recommended the GSA begin transition protocols.[205][206]

The Electoral College formalized Biden's victory on December 14.[193] From November to January, Trump repeatedly sought help to overturn the results, personally pressuring Republican local and state office-holders,[207] Republican state and federal legislators,[208] the Justice Department,[209] and Vice President Pence,[210] urging various actions such as replacing presidential electors, or a request for Georgia officials to "find" votes and announce a "recalculated" result.[208] On February 10, 2021, Georgia prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Trump's efforts to subvert the election in Georgia.[211]

Trump did not attend Biden's inauguration.[212]

Concern about a possible coup attempt or military action

In December 2020, Newsweek reported the Pentagon was on red alert, and ranking officers had discussed what to do if Trump declared martial law. The Pentagon responded with quotes from defense leaders that the military has no role in the outcome of elections.[213]

When Trump moved supporters into positions of power at the Pentagon after the November 2020 election, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and CIA director Gina Haspel became concerned about a possible coup attempt or military action against China or Iran.[214][215] Milley insisted that he should be consulted about any military orders from Trump, including the use of nuclear weapons.[216][217]

January 6 Capitol attack

On January 6, 2021, while congressional certification of the presidential election results was taking place in the U.S. Capitol, Trump held a noon rally at the Ellipse, Washington, D.C.. He called for the election result to be overturned and urged his supporters to "take back our country" by marching to the Capitol to "fight like hell".[218][219] Many supporters did, joining a crowd already there. The mob broke into the building, disrupting certification and causing the evacuation of Congress.[220] During the violence, Trump posted messages on Twitter without asking the rioters to disperse. At 6 p.m., Trump tweeted that the rioters should "go home with love & in peace", calling them "great patriots" and repeating that the election was stolen.[221] After the mob was removed, Congress reconvened and confirmed Biden's win in the early hours of the following morning.[222] According to the Department of Justice, more than 140 police officers were injured, and five people died.[223][224]

In March 2023, Trump collaborated with incarcerated rioters on a song to benefit the prisoners, and, in June, he said that, if elected, he would pardon many of them.[225]

2024 presidential campaign

Trump at a rally in Arizona, 2024

On November 15, 2022, Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election and set up a fundraising account.[226][227] In March 2023, the campaign began diverting 10 percent of the donations to Trump's leadership PAC. Trump's campaign had paid $100 million towards his legal bills by March 2024.[228][229]

In December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump disqualified for the Colorado Republican primary for his role in inciting the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress. In March 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court restored his name to the ballot in a unanimous decision, ruling that Colorado lacks the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding federal office.[230]

Trump's escalation of election rigging claims before the 2024 election[231]

During the campaign, Trump made increasingly violent and authoritarian statements.[232][233][234][235] He also said that he would weaponize the FBI and the Justice Department against his political opponents[236][237] and use the military to go after Democratic politicians and those that do not support his candidacy.[238][239] Trump used harsher, more dehumanizing anti-immigrant rhetoric than during his presidency.[240][241][242][243] His embrace of far-right extremism[244][245] and harsher rhetoric against his political enemies have been described by historians and scholars as populist, authoritarian, fascist,[d] and unlike anything a political candidate has ever said in American history.[246][239][254] Age and health concerns about Donald Trump also arose during the campaign, with several medical experts cited by The New York Times highlighting an increase in rambling, tangential speech and behavioral disinhibition.[259]

He 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.[260][231] Analysts for The New York Times described this as an intensification of Trump's "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy; the paper said the claim of a rigged election had become the backbone of the campaign.[231]

Beginning with his 2016 campaign, Trump's politics and rhetoric led to the creation of a political movement known as Trumpism. Trump's political base has been compared to a cult of personality.[e]

On July 13, 2024, Trump's ear was grazed by a bullet[272] in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania.[273][274] The campaign declined to disclose medical records.[275] Two days later, the 2024 Republican National Convention nominated Trump as their presidential candidate, with Senator JD Vance as his running mate.[276]

Election and presidential transition

Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States in November 2024, defeating the incumbent vice president Kamala Harris.[277] He became the second president in U.S. history elected to serve nonconsecutive terms after former president Grover Cleveland, who won reelection in 1892.[278] The Associated Press and BBC News described it as an extraordinary comeback for a former president.[279][280][281][282] Aged 78 at the time of the election, Trump is the oldest person to be elected U.S. president. He was also projected to become the first Republican in two decades to secure the popular vote in the U.S. presidential elections

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