Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. In November 2024, he was reelected to a nonconsecutive second term as president, and is the president-elect.
Trump graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. After becoming president of the family real estate business in 1971, Trump renamed it the Trump Organization and reoriented the company toward building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. After a series of business failures in the late 1990s, he launched side ventures, mostly licensing the Trump name. From 2004 to 2015, he produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice. He and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 legal actions, including six business bankruptcies.
Trump won the 2016 presidential election as the Republican Party nominee, defeating the Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton, while losing the popular vote,[a] and became the first U.S. president without prior military or government service. The Mueller investigation later determined that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump. His campaign positions were described as populist, protectionist, and nationalist. His election and policies sparked numerous protests and led to the creation of Trumpism, a political movement. Trump promoted conspiracy theories and made many false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to a degree unprecedented in American politics. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged, racist, and misogynistic.
In his first term, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, funded an expansion of the Mexico–United States border wall (often called the Trump wall), and implemented a family separation policy. He rolled back more than 100 environmental policies and regulations and signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which cut taxes and eliminated the individual mandate penalty of the Affordable Care Act. He appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court. He reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic, ignored or contradicted recommendations from health officials, used political pressure to interfere with testing efforts, and spread unverified information about unproven treatments. Trump initiated a trade war with China and withdrew the U.S. from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Iran nuclear deal. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times, but made no progress on denuclearization. After his first term, scholars and historians ranked Trump one of the worst presidents in American history
.Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden but refused to concede, falsely claiming widespread electoral fraud and attempting to overturn the results. On January 6, 2021, Trump urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, which many of them attacked. He is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice: his first impeachment in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden, and his second impeachment in 2021 for incitement of insurrection; the Senate acquitted him in both cases. In 2024, he was prosecuted in New York wherein the jury found him guilty of falsifying business records related to his hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, making him the first U.S. president to be convicted of a felony. Trump faced more felony indictments related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents and interference in the 2020 election, and he was found liable in trials for the sexual abuse and defamation of E. Jean Carroll and the financial fraud by the Trump Organization.
After leaving office, Trump continued to dominate the Republican Party. In the 2024 presidential election, he defeated the Democratic candidate, incumbent vice president Kamala Harris. Winning the popular and electoral college votes, he will become the second U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.
It is difficult to try to predict the decisions that US President-elect Donald Trump will make when he returns to the White House.
But one thing seems unlikely to change: his dislike of patient, principled diplomacy as a means to peace and his preference for transactional politics and populist gestures.
This brings openings and perils in some areas in Africa.
Eight years ago, the Obama administration was working with the African Union (AU) to change United Nations (UN) rules for funding peacekeepers to put African missions on a firm financial basis.
The AU Commission worked with the UN and other multilateral organisations to construct an "African peace and security architecture" that ranged from proactive diplomacy to avert looming conflicts through to coordinated mediation efforts and peacekeeping operations, all underpinned by norms and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the AU Constitutive Act.
How long ago that seems.
Plans for more robust peacekeeping evaporated in the transition to the first Trump administration.
Since then, no new UN or AU peacekeeping missions have been authorised. Several - including in Darfur, Sudan and Mali - have been closed, and others scaled down.
The Biden administration did not reverse the trend.
The idea of "liberal peace" - that peace, democracy, justice and open markets all go together - had long been a powerful strand in US global strategy.
The AU embraced its multilateralism but recoiled from being lectured on human rights and democracy and were divided on Western military interventions such as in Libya.
Some African leaders preferred Trump’s candour and focus on results.
The "Trump Doctrine" for the Middle East and Africa swept aside multilateralism in favour of transactional deals with American allies in Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and, above all, Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed set the strategy of the Abraham Accords, and Trump basked in the glory when Arab countries signed up.
Trump’s other consistent positions were hostility towards China’s influence on the continent and aversion to deploying American soldiers.
Getty Images A member of Ethiopia's Republican March Band poses for photo before at the ceremony for the inaugural production of energy at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in Guba, Ethiopia, on 20 February 2022
Ethiopia's decision to build a huge dam on a tributary of the River Nile has caused tensions with Egypt
At the request of Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi - described by Trump as "my favourite dictator" - then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin took charge of mediating Egypt’s dispute with Ethiopia over the Nile waters.
The immediate issue was how much water would be retained by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as it approached completion.
As the talks faltered, Washington put its thumb on the scales, suspending aid to Ethiopia, while Trump suggested that Egypt might "blow up" the dam.
America recognised Morocco’s claim over Western Sahara in exchange for Rabat signing the Abraham Accords and thereby recognising Israel.
Unconventional Trump brings openings and perils for Africa
Reuters Donald Trump attends campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US, on 5 November 2024Reuters
It is difficult to try to predict the decisions that US President-elect Donald Trump will make when he returns to the White House.
But one thing seems unlikely to change: his dislike of patient, principled diplomacy as a means to peace and his preference for transactional politics and populist gestures.
This brings openings and perils in some areas in Africa.
Eight years ago, the Obama administration was working with the African Union (AU) to change United Nations (UN) rules for funding peacekeepers to put African missions on a firm financial basis.
The AU Commission worked with the UN and other multilateral organisations to construct an "African peace and security architecture" that ranged from proactive diplomacy to avert looming conflicts through to coordinated mediation efforts and peacekeeping operations, all underpinned by norms and principles enshrined in the UN Charter and the AU Constitutive
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