Donald Trump

Politician and businessperson

• Born: June 14, 1946
• Place of Birth: New York, New York

Donald Trump initially made his name developing his family's real estate business, becoming an internationally known billionaire. He later diversified into other business ventures and hosted a popular reality television series, The Apprentice. In 2016, he garnered an unexpected groundswell of popular support for his presidential campaign and was elected the forty-fifth president of the United States. In office he frequently drew controversy, and he became the first president to be impeached twice, though he was acquitted both times. Trump lost his reelection bid in 2020 but remained a high-profile and polarizing figure after leaving office, wielding strong influence over the Republican Party. In 2023 he became the first former US president to be criminally indicted, and the following year he became the first convicted on felony charges. Nevertheless, he was reelected as president in 2024.

Early Life

Donald John Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, the son of Fred Christ Trump and Mary MacLeod Trump. His father was a real estate developer and investor, which eventually inspired Trump to enter the real estate field. Trump's rambunctious behavior at the Kew-Forest School resulted in his being sent to the New York Military Academy by the age of thirteen. There, he succeeded in both academics and athletics, playing football, soccer, and basketball.

From there, Trump attended Fordham University through his sophomore year, after which he transferred to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968. Upon graduation, he returned home to New York City and promptly started working at his father's real estate company, the Trump Organization.

First Ventures

The road from student to real estate industry tycoon was slow but steady as Trump received his first experiences in the business under his father. Trump's early projects included the overseeing of rental properties throughout Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, and he eventually branched out into other parts of the country. One of his notable early triumphs came in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he repaired a foreclosed apartment building and rented it to full capacity, earning the company a $6 million profit from the building's sale.

By 1971, Trump had turned his attention to a burgeoning Manhattan, spending the majority of the decade focusing on business ventures in this New York City borough. He took the run-down, failing Commodore Hotel and formed a partnership with the Hyatt Hotels Corporation to restore the structure. By 1980, renovation of the newly named Grand Hyatt was completed, providing Trump with the profits to enter into more ambitious real estate ventures. However, his developments were also subject to lawsuits alleging racial discrimination, including violations of the Fair Housing Act. After a countersuit, the case was settled without the Trumps admitting guilt.

Mature Wealth

By 1982, Trump had completed his next major project—construction of the $200 million apartment complex and shopping center known as the Trump Tower in New York City. The fifty-eight-story high-rise became known for its luxurious fixtures and elegant style, immediately establishing the public's perception of Trump as a man of great wealth and lavish taste. He soon expanded into other areas of the leisure and entertainment business, turning his attention toward Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he obtained a gambling license and a partnership with Holiday Inn to open Harrah's Casino at Trump Plaza in 1982. Trump bought out Holiday Inn's interest in the project in 1986, and he renamed the $250 million property the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

Not everything Trump touched throughout the 1980s was an instant success, including his purchase of an apartment complex near New York City's Barbizon-Plaza Hotel. He had hoped to convert both the hotel and a nearby apartment building into condominiums, but this plan was met with resistance by residents of the apartment house, who wanted to remain in their rent-controlled apartments. Although it took him longer than he anticipated, by 1997 Trump had converted both buildings to condominiums, renaming the Barbizon Hotel Trump Parc and the adjoining building Trump Parc East. During the conversion, he remained in constant communication with the New York City government, offering his company's development services at a fraction of the cost of other bidders. This initiative led his company to be hired to complete the city's failed restoration of the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park. What was once scheduled as a two-and-a-half-year project had not been finished after six years, at which point Trump stepped in to complete the remainder of the renovation in three months, saving the city $750,000 of the project's remaining $3 million budget.

Two years later, in 1988, Trump purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York City, spending an initial $407 million to buy the property and an additional $50 million in remodeling costs. As the 1980s rolled into the next decade, he also returned to Atlantic City to acquire the Hilton Hotel's $320 million resort, renaming it Trump's Castle, while also purchasing the world's largest hotel and casino, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.

Trump's excessive spending and huge profits in the 1980s were brought to a halt when the United States entered an economic recession at the beginning of the 1990s. This economic downturn sent Trump's net worth plummeting from an estimated $1.7 billion to $500 million. In 1991, Trump sold half of his share in the Taj Mahal, and the following year he filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan for the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and obtained several needed loans. Nonetheless, Trump pressed on throughout the lean years, and his net worth climbed to $2 billion in 1997, thanks to a series of restructuring plans and wise investments, along with several successful real estate licensing ventures in Manhattan, the New York City suburbs, and Florida. Meanwhile, he also published several popular books, including Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987), coauthored with Tony Schwartz; Trump: Surviving at the Top (1990), written with Charles Leerhsen; and Trump: The Art of the Comeback (1997), coauthored by Kate Bohner.

After riding out the economic roller coaster in the 1990s, Trump found the first decade of the twenty-first century to be one of his most successful periods. In this decade, he sold his late father's company to a group of investors for $600 million, earning $200 million for Trump after he split the proceeds with his siblings. This decade also saw his involvement in several new building projects, including the Trump International Hotel and Tower chain in Honolulu, Chicago, Toronto, and Atlanta.

In 2004, Trump, who by then was a household name, unexpectedly evolved into a television personality. His reality showThe Apprentice premiered that year on NBC and became a popular program. He diversified into other ventures, founding the Trump Financial mortgage firm; the Trump University education company (later subject to high-profile lawsuits over illegal business practices that were settled in 2016 for $25 million); a chain of Trump restaurants; and the Trump Signature Collection menswear line. He also became co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization. In 2010, Trump was included on Forbes magazine's list of the world's billionaires, with his net worth calculated at $2 billion. In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth at $4.5 billion, but by March 2017 that number had somewhat decreased to $3.7 billion, reportedly due to declining value of some of his assets and changes in New York City's real estate market.

2016 Presidential Bid

Trump had dabbled in politics at various times beginning in the 1980s, donating money to both Republican and Democratic politicians. He was registered at different times with both major parties. In 2000, he briefly campaigned for the Reform Party nomination for president, and he considered a run for the 2012 Republican Party nomination but ultimately decided against it.

In June 2015, Trump declared his candidacy as a Republican for the 2016 presidential election. He began an unorthodox, headline-grabbing populist campaign based on curtailing illegal immigration, creating jobs, and otherwise "making America great again," according to his iconic campaign slogan. In particular, he criticized free trade deals that he claimed had sent American jobs abroad and vowed to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act, ACA, or "Obamacare"). Trump's message struck a chord with many blue-collar conservative voters, particularly white men without college degrees, and he was soon the Republican frontrunner, despite alienating the Republican establishment by departing from hallowed party lines on such topics as free trade and Social Security.

Railing against "political correctness" and what some called basic standards of decency, the Trump campaign quickly drew media attention for inflammatory statements directed against immigrants, Hispanic and Latino people, Muslims, veterans, and women, as well as his opponents in the primaries and general election. He alarmed civil libertarians and liberals with his calls to bring back waterboarding for terrorists, prevent Muslims from entering the country, enact large tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, deport millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, and loosen libel laws to make it easier to sue newspapers, among other proposals. However, none of these controversies shook his basic support among many middle-American voters, who saw him as the one candidate willing to "tell it like it is."

In May 2016, following Trump's landslide victory in Indiana during the primary elections, his main challengers for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich, suspended their campaigns. Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Convention, declared Trump the party's presumptive nominee. Trump received more votes in the primaries than any Republican candidate in US history, beating out a record previously set by George W. Bush in 2000. In July, Trump announced his selection of Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, as his running mate. The Republican Party officially nominated Trump and Pence as its presidential and vice presidential candidates on July 19. Trump and Pence faced off against Democrat Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, in the general presidential election.

Trump's campaign during the run up to the general election continued to be both unprecedented and controversial. Heavily criticized by Democrats for his inexperience and radical views, Trump also lacked support from many establishment Republicans. Many conservatives and moderates rescinded their support in the wake of scandals such as the revelation of sexist comments Trump had made in 2005. However, Trump continued to successfully energize his base, attacking Clinton on issues such the investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Trump also benefited from WikiLeaks' publication of hacked emails from the Clinton campaign, which damaged the Democratic candidate's image.

Still, up until election day, many polls consistently projected Clinton to win easily. However, Trump carried key swing states, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, to win the presidency despite losing the popular vote by nearly three million votes. It was considered one of the biggest upsets in US political history. Trump was inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States on January 20, 2017.

In response to the controversial comments Trump had made and policies he had supported while campaigning, a large protest was organized and carried out on the day following his inauguration. In what became known as the Women's March on Washington, hundreds of thousands of people crowded streets in the capital—with companion marches in major cities across the country and around the world—to both protest Trump's election and advocate for the rights of women as well as those of immigrants and members of the LGBTQ communities.

In the White House

In his first months in office Trump focused on getting his cabinet in place, but faced considerable resistance from Democratic members of Congress and even some Republicans regarding his nominees for these positions. At the same time, he began issuing a series of executive orders based on some of the policies he had pushed during his campaign.

Among the most controversial of these orders was Executive Order 13769, a travel ban that called for restricting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Immediate effects of the ban, which was signed on January 27, 2017, included revocation of visas that had already been approved and the detainment at airports of incoming lawful permanent residents of the United States, also known as green-card holders. The travel ban was strongly criticized by Democratic members of Congress and protested by a large percentage of the American public before being indefinitely halted by a federal appeals panel, which ruled that there was a lack of evidence proving that the ban was necessary to promote national security. Trump made several more attempts to institute the ban with updated versions, which were again blocked by district courts. The case of the third ban, which included North Korea and Venezuela in addition to the countries covered in the previous ban, was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ultimately voted in a 5–4 decision to uphold it in June 2018.

Due to both opposition resistance and much tumult in filling administration positions, the first one hundred days of Trump's presidency were marked by few real policy or legislative achievements. His administration's first attempt at repealing the ACA—a bill drafted by House Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan, and named the American Health Care Act (AHCA)—was widely criticized by lawmakers, including a number of Republicans. It also drew criticism from numerous professional health organizations. The bill was withdrawn from consideration in the House of Representatives on March 24, 2017, due to a lack of "yes" votes, despite the House's Republican majority. A revised version of the repeal bill was passed by the House on May 4 by a narrow margin but was unable to pass the Senate, as were various other versions, including a last-ditch amendment effort in September 2017. In October, Trump signed an executive order circumventing some of the provisions of the ACA by requiring the development of cheaper, ACA-exempt health insurance plans with fewer benefits and fewer consumer protections. Analysts expected that this, along with Trump's removal of the individual health insurance mandate several months later, would drive healthy people away from the ACA-mandated state exchanges, leaving only older people and those with chronic health conditions on the exchanges' ACA-compliant plans and thus driving up the cost of those plans.

Trump also faced a series of crises early in his presidency. Multiple US intelligence agencies determined that the Russian government had interfered in the 2016 election, primarily by spreading both information and disinformation intended to sway the election in favor of Trump. In February 2017 Michael Flynn, Trump's national security adviser and formerly a member of his campaign team, was asked to resign for having misled White House officials about details of conversations he had with Russian officials after Trump had been elected but before he had taken office. In March 2017, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey confirmed that the FBI was conducting an investigation into Russia's election interference, as well as the possibility of collusion between Russia and members of the Trump campaign.

On May 9, Trump fired Comey, ostensibly due to Comey's handling of an earlier investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server. However, two days later Trump admitted in an interview with NBC News that the firing was based at least in part on the ongoing Russia investigation. Trump's critics suggested this could constitute obstruction of justice, an offense seen by some as grounds for impeachment. As a result of the firing, and for other alleged attempts to influence the FBI investigation—including an assertion by Comey that Trump had asked him in a private meeting to "let this [Russia investigation] go,"—Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, to conduct an independent investigation.

Meanwhile, Trump kept his promise to fill the vacant seat in the Supreme Court that Republicans had previously blocked President Barack Obama from filling. In January 2017 he nominated Neil Gorsuch to the post, and the conservative judge was confirmed that April. When Justice Anthony Kennedy resigned in July 2018, Trump nominated another conservative judge, Brett Kavanaugh, whose belief in strengthening executive privilege to the extent that an incumbent president would not be able to be sued or investigated for criminal activity was controversial in light of the ongoing Russia investigation. Kavanaugh's confirmation was delayed by allegations of sexual assault and harassment against him by five women. Trump defended Kavanaugh, comparing the allegations to those made against himself by nineteen women and saying that in both cases the accusations were politically motivated lies. Kavanaugh's eventual confirmation gave Trump the advantage of working with a solid conservative majority in the judicial branch.

On June 1, 2017, Trump announced the United States' intended withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, under which countries set voluntary targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to mitigate climate change. The announcement was supported by many Republicans and certain business interests, such as the fossil fuel industry, but otherwise drew much condemnation both internationally and domestically. In response, the governors of New York, California, and Washington State announced the formation of the United States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of US states and territories aiming to uphold the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Many other states and Puerto Rico soon joined the coalition.

Trump's domestic policies also often proved controversial, with some critics suggesting that his statements fostered an atmosphere conducive to racism and other forms of bigotry. One notable flashpoint came after various far-right groups, including white supremacists, neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and far-right militia members, gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, to protest the city's planned removal of Confederate monuments and statues from public areas. The rally, attendees of which carried weapons and torches and chanted overtly anti-Semitic slogans, was met by counterprotesters and soon turned violent. One rally attendee linked with white supremacist groups drove a car into the crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring others. Trump was widely criticized for omitting any mention of the victim and not specifically condemning the white supremacist movement in his initial remarks on the incident. In later comments he continued to suggest that both sides were at fault in the event and expressed sympathy for the protest organizers, drawing rebukes from many civil rights activists. Trump's remarks were praised by former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader David Duke and prominent white supremacist Richard Spencer. In September 2017 Trump signed a Congressional resolution condemning white supremacists, including the KKK, but reiterated his statement that both sides were to blame at Charlottesville, drawing further controversy.

As president, Trump was a strong supporter of Israel. In October 2017 he announced the United States' withdrawal from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), citing that organization's alleged "anti-Israel bias." In December 2017, he announced that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which at the time no other nation did, and move its Israeli embassy there. This drew strong criticism from the United Nations; 128 countries voted for a resolution demanding that Trump retract his declaration. He refused to do so, and the new US embassy in Jerusalem opened in May 2018. The United States' withdrawal from UNESCO became official in January 2019.

Among Trump's most significant political victories was the passage of a major tax reform bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In December 2017, Trump signed into law the Republican-supported bill providing significant tax cuts for business entities and slight cuts for individuals, while also eliminating some of the deductions available to individuals and lowering the maximum amount of certain deductions. Particularly controversial was the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes. According to polling data from a variety of sources, Americans overwhelmingly disapproved of the law when it was first passed; over time, more people came to approve of it, but disapproval remained slightly higher than approval. The change was expected to increase the national debt.

In April 2018, Trump instituted a zero-tolerance policy for illegal border crossings that involved migrant parents and their minor children being detained in separate facilities. This led to widespread public outcry, particularly because, as deportation proceedings for children and adults go through different systems that move at different speeds, it was likely that the families would not be reunited for years, if ever. In June of that year, a federal judge issued an injunction temporarily stopping the practice. However, immigration reform remained a key goal for the Trump administration. In particular, Trump continued to call for the building of a border wall between the United States and Mexico, a signature refrain from his campaign.

Trump's domestic and foreign policies continued to be often overshadowed by media speculation regarding the Mueller investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 election. It was revealed in January 2018 that Trump had tried to dismiss Mueller, leading to further concerns regarding obstruction of justice. In July of that year, Trump gave a joint press conference with Russian president Vladimir Putin in which he blamed the Mueller investigation for poor relations between Russia and the United States and reiterated his assertion that there had been no Russian interference in the 2016 US election, drawing bipartisan criticism. By the end of 2018, Mueller's investigation had led to the conviction of five of Trump's associates, including Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, for financial crimes and lying to Congress.

Midterm

In the midterm elections in November 2018, Trump's Republican Party lost control of the House of Representatives to Democrats. In December 2018, the federal government entered a record-long shutdown because of disagreements over funding for Trump's proposed border wall. In January 2019, Trump signed a bill to temporarily reopen the government after thirty-five days, and a spending bill was agreed to the next month. Failing to win the wall funding he sought, Trump followed through on his threat to declare a national emergency at the border, allowing him to access billions of dollars in military construction funds. Sixteen states filed a lawsuit arguing against Trump's ability to bypass Congress regarding border security, and Congress itself voted to overturn the emergency declaration with bipartisan support. Trump vetoed that resolution, the first such action of his presidency.

With the House in Democratic control, Trump was subject to new congressional investigations beginning in 2019. These investigations heard testimony in early 2019 in which Cohen (who had earlier been sentenced to prison time for fraud and campaign finance violations), accused the Trump administration of racism and dishonesty. Trump dismissed such characterization as lies.

The president then won an important victory in March 2019 when US attorney general William P. Barr released his summary of the Mueller investigation's final report, indicating that there was no evidence of direct collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. The report declined to take a position on whether Trump had obstructed justice, though it detailed ten occasions on which he may have. Barr, however, personally decided that Trump was not guilty of obstruction, and also raised the possibility that the Obama administration had spied on the Trump campaign. Trump declared himself exonerated of all suspicion and called the findings proof of what he had long called a "witch hunt" by his opponents, even suggesting he would seek retribution. A redacted version of the Mueller report was released to the public in April 2019, but interpretations of the findings and their implications for Trump's presidency remained highly polarized.

Trump continued to follow his unusually blunt style of foreign policy through 2019. He announced in May of that year that he would implement new tariffs on goods imported from Mexico if the country failed to increase its efforts toward immigration enforcement, but ultimately retracted this threat by the following month. He also stepped up the trade war he had launched with China in 2018, approving in May 2019 higher tariffs on approximately $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and announcing further upcoming tariffs. Meanwhile, in May 2018 Trump withdrew the United States from the so-called Iran nuclear deal, a multilateral agreement concluded in 2015 designed to forestall Iran's construction of a nuclear bomb; Trump had always condemned the agreement as weak, although Iran was repeatedly certified as complying with it. Trump also took steps to undo the thaw in US-Cuban relations instituted under the Obama administration, barring public and private craft from visiting the country and ending certain types of educational travel.

President Trump and his administration also faced ongoing volatility on domestic issues. For example, his plan to significantly weaken Obama-era regulations on vehicle emissions faced a notable setback in July 2019 when major automakers Ford, Honda, Volkswagen, and BMW joined the state of California in support of a stricter policy. In another challenge to Trump, California passed a law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to appear on the ballot, leading the administration to sue the state in August 2019. There also continued to be considerable turnover in Trump's cabinet: interior secretary Ryan Zinke officially stepped down in early 2019 after an ethics investigation, secretary of homeland security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April 2019, and secretary of labor Alexander Acosta heeded calls for his resignation in July 2019 amid outrage over his leniency in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal.

Trump's 2020 reelection campaign was officially launched with a rally in June 2019. Meanwhile, he frequently attacked Democratic primary candidates, most of whom made opposition to the president a key part of their platforms. Trump's contentious relationship with Democrats prominently made headlines in July 2019, when he posted on Twitter that four women of color US Representatives should "go back" to where they came from (despite the fact that three of the women were born in the United States). The House voted to formally condemn the derogatory statements as racist. The incident even prompted an attempt at impeachment, although the resolution was soundly defeated.

The question of impeachment had divided House Democrats ever since they assumed the majority in January 2019, with advocates saying numerous of Trump's actions, most prominently the alleged obstruction of justice detailed in the Mueller report, demanded impeachment. However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi long hewed to the line that impeachment would be too politically divisive for the country and would ultimately help Trump win reelection in 2020. This hesitance was swept aside in September 2019, when news broke of a State Department whistleblower complaint over a conversation in which Trump asked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate leading Democratic presidential candidate (and former vice president) Joe Biden and his son, who had dealings in Ukraine. The resulting scandal escalated as it emerged that the Trump administration had consistently pressured Ukraine to aid Trump's reelection efforts, including by delaying military aid. The controversy over a US president apparently asking a foreign leader to take action to damage a domestic political opponent led a critical mass of House Democrats to support the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry.

Even as the impeachment process dominated the news cycle, Trump also continued to make headlines in other ways. In early October 2019 he announced US troops would withdraw from areas of Syria being targeted by Turkish forces, drawing criticism for failing to support US-aligned Kurdish forces in the region. Later that month the White House announced the 2020 G7 summit would be hosted at a Trump-owned resort in Florida, a decision that was quickly withdrawn after widespread concerns over conflicts of interest in such an arrangement. Soon after, Trump also announced that he was switching his legal residency to Florida, claiming poor political treatment in his former home state and city of New York. In November 2019 a suit by New York's attorney general against the Trump Foundation ordered Trump to pay $2 million settlement for violating his fiduciary duty by allowing unlawful coordination between his foundation and his 2016 election campaign. Trump himself claimed the suit was being misrepresented to harm him politically.

Impeachment and Acquittal

Pelosi officially announced an impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019. A resolution approving the impeachment investigation was passed in late October, and official hearings began that November. Key witnesses including the US ambassador to the European Union testified that Trump had ordered a wide-ranging campaign to pressure Ukraine. In early December 2019 the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment charging Trump with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. However, around the same time Democratic leaders also provided the president with a legislative victory, agreeing to support a revised version of his trade deal with Canada and Mexico intended to replaced the controversial North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

On December 18, 2019, the House of Representatives held a final debate over the impeachment charges. As expected, there was a clear partisan divide over the issue, with all Republicans opposing impeachment and all but a few Democrats supporting it. With the Democratic majority in the House, the vote on both charges passed. Trump became just the third president, after Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, to be impeached. However, with the Republican-controlled Senate considered likely to acquit the president, many Democrats argued for a delay in sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial. Meanwhile, Trump and his allies characterized the impeachment as a politically motivated hoax.

In early 2020 the House of Representatives sent its articles of impeachment to the Senate, where Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts presided over the trial beginning on January 16. Debate quickly arose over whether the Senate would hear additional witnesses and evidence, especially as prominent figures such as Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton suggested the president had indeed engaged in quid pro quo on Ukraine. Most Republicans dismissed the call for witnesses as unnecessary or overly politicized, while Democrats alleged further obstruction and questioned the fairness of the trial. On January 31 the Senate voted against allowing witnesses, with only two Republicans supporting the movement.

The Republican-controlled Senate then moved quickly through the final phases of the trial, and held a final vote on February 5, 2020. As was widely expected, Trump was acquitted on both charges, as the vote fell almost entirely along party lines. All fifty-three Republican senators voted against the obstruction charge, while all forty-seven Democrats and independents voted guilty. On the charge of abuse of power, Republican senator Mitt Romney notably joined the opposition in voting guilty, for a 52–48 vote to acquit.

Trump and his supporters immediately characterized the acquittal as vindication and continued to accuse Democrats of conducting a partisan witch hunt. His opponents, however, suggested that the trial had been undermined and accused Republicans of ignoring evidence. Many observers noted that a number of Republican senators in fact acknowledged that Trump had exerted inappropriate pressure in Ukraine, but determined his actions were not enough to warrant removal from office.

Presidency Post-Impeachment

Even as Trump celebrated his acquittal in the impeachment trial, a major new challenge was developing: the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. The highly contagious disease, which could be asymptomatic in some carriers but cause severe flu-like symptoms and even death in others, originated in China in late 2019 and spread throughout the world over the next several months. In late January 2020, soon after the first confirmed case in the United States, the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern; it was declared a pandemic that March.

Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic drew much attention both domestically and internationally. Initially he downplayed the severity of the outbreak, appointing Vice President Pence to lead response efforts but publicly stating the United States was highly prepared to deal with the disease and claiming that the risk to Americans was very low. These assurances quickly proved false, as the virus spread throughout the country and the death toll began to mount. Certain urban areas, notably New York City, saw particularly high rates of infection and health experts complained about facilities overwhelmed by patients and shortages of vital supplies. Meanwhile, the deep social and economic impact of the pandemic also came into focus, as authorities urged people to follow social isolation practices and nonessential business to close. The stock market dropped sharply and unemployment claims rose drastically, essentially erasing a decade of steady economic growth.

On March 13, 2020, Trump declared a national emergency to help coordinate response efforts. Soon after, his administration created the Families First Coronavirus Act to expand some worker benefits. He also signed a $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress, which included direct payments to taxpayers under certain income thresholds as well as an extensive program for federal business loans, and other federal aid programs followed. However, Trump faced also faced intense criticism on his handling of the crisis, especially as the United States became the global leader in COVID-19 cases. Health experts took issue with his spread of misinformation on the disease, including promotion of unconfirmed treatments, as well as his suggestions of ending social isolation policies earlier than doctors recommended. Meanwhile, Trump criticized the WHO's handling of the pandemic, withdrawing US funding to the organization and then announcing the end of American involvement with WHO altogether on May 29, 2020.

Another challenge Trump faced was widespread civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020. The incident revitalized the Black Lives Matter movement and led to massive protests and demonstrations across the United States, with calls to recognize and take action against police brutality, systemic racism, and white privilege. Trump acknowledged Floyd's death as a tragedy but generally criticized the protests, focusing on instances of looting and suggesting military action to enforce law and order. He denied any pervasive systemic issues with racial discrimination by law enforcement, and strongly opposed calls to defund or dismantle certain police departments as well as attempts to remove controversial monuments such as statues of Confederate leaders. Much controversy arose after authorities cleared peaceful protesters near the White House with rubber bullets and tear gas in order to allow Trump to walk to a church for a photo op using a Bible as a prop on June 1. While Trump's allies largely supported his anti-protester stance, critics suggested he once again used charged or coded language to stoke racial tensions.

Amid the social and economic challenges of 2020, Trump also turned his attention to his reelection campaign. He largely opposed state efforts to increase vote-by-mail options that arose out of COVID-19 concerns, warning of potential voter fraud. However, experts continually noted that such fraud was exceedingly rare and that voter suppression and foreign interference efforts were much more realistic problems for the 2020 election. Trump was officially nominated as the Republican Party presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in August 2020, with supporters claiming he would defend American values and restore economic growth. He and his surrogates also frequently attacked Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.

In September 2020 Trump scored a foreign policy victory as his administration helped broker an agreement in which the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain both formally recognized the nation of Israel, becoming just the third and fourth Arab countries to do so. He suggested the deal would usher in a new era of peace in the Middle East. However, the agreements were opposed by many Palestinian leaders.

Later that month, following the death of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump nominated the conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat. The move was highly controversial as Republicans had previously blocked President Obama from filling a seat in similar circumstances before an election, but now argued Trump had the right to do so. Democrats suggested they would fight the appointment, but Barrett was ultimately confirmed the following month. The Supreme Court battle was one of the main issues at hand in the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, held on September 29, 2020. However, observers largely criticized that event, as both candidates devolved into personal attacks and Trump consistently interrupted both Biden and the moderator. Trump's refusal to outright condemn right-wing extremist groups such as the Proud Boys—he instead suggested they should "stand back and stand by"—also drew much controversy.

Just days after Trump's third Supreme Court nomination and the first 2020 presidential debate, the president dominated headlines for a different reason: on October 2, 2020, the White House announced that Trump and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19. Trump was moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and later reports indicated that he faced mild to moderate symptoms, although statements from doctors and administration officials presented mixed messages, including that he had received treatments such as supplementary oxygen and steroids usually reserved for severe cases. Meanwhile, several other members of the Trump administration also tested positive. Trump was released from the hospital after three days and continued to downplay COVID-19.

2020 Election and Second Impeachment

The 2020 US presidential election was held on November 3, though an unprecedented number of early and mail-in ballots had already been cast as many states expanded options due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump and his Republican allies continued to cast doubt on the integrity of the voting process, claiming—with no evidence—that Democrats would seek to steal the election through fraud. The final polls before Election Day suggested Trump was trailing Biden by a significant margin both nationally and in most swing states, and even faced close races in traditional Republican strongholds such as Texas and Georgia.

Despite some predictions that Trump would lose in a landslide, as results began to come in, a different picture emerged. Projections quickly showed Trump winning important states such as Florida, Ohio, and Texas by fairly strong margins and outperforming many expectations elsewhere. However, many observers noted that early reports tended to first reflect results of in-person voting, which skewed conservative, while liberal-leaning mail-in-ballots would take longer to count. News networks indicated that final results from crucial battleground states might take days, and the race was not called on Election Day as counting continued.

Trump's early leads in many swing states dwindled and even disappeared as more votes were tallied, prompting the president and his supporters to launch fresh attacks on the process. Some called for the counting to be stopped, falsely claiming that votes had to be counted on Election Day to be legitimate. Social media sites were forced to censor a flood of misinformation from conservative sources, including putting warning labels on misleading claims from Trump himself. Then, on November 7, all major media outlets called Pennsylvania in favor of Biden, based on the slim but significant lead he had built in the state and the number of ballots remaining to be counted. With the other states that had already been called, this put Biden over the threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. While official tallying continued, Biden was widely declared president-elect, having won the popular vote by millions.

Trump did not immediately concede, however. Indeed, he continued to publicly claim that he had in fact won the election and that Democrats had counted invalid votes, despite no evidence of this. He also threatened legal action, noting that the vote margins in some states would warrant recounts. Most Republicans rallied around him, stating that the election would not be concluded until all legal votes had been counted. Still, mathematically there remained no clear avenue for Trump to claim the votes he would need to win. Many of the lawsuits filed by Trump's legal team were quickly dismissed, and as states began to certify their results Biden maintained a clear lead of 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232. Biden's lead in the popular vote also grew to over 7 million.

Many observers considered Trump's efforts to undermine the election results unprecedented in US history. For weeks after the election he directed his administration to delay the usual presidential transition procedures. However, on November 23 he finally authorized the General Services Administration to begin that process. The official vote of the Electoral College was tallied on December 14, 2020, reaffirming Biden's victory. Still, Trump refused to formally concede and continued to suggest the election had been "stolen," though he and his supporters were unable to provide any evidence and their lawsuits continued to be ineffective. Trump's unprecedented actions included pressuring Georgia's secretary of state to "find" enough votes for him to win the state and urging Pence, in his capacity as Senate president, to reject vote counts from certain swing states. Meanwhile, a group of pro-Trump US representatives announced their plan to object to Congress's certification of the election, a mostly symbolic gesture but still an extraordinary move.

As Congress met for the certification process on January 6, 2021, Trump held a rally nearby and called on his supporters to march to the US Capitol and "fight," reiterating his refusal to concede. The crowd then stormed past police and broke into the Capitol, ransacking the Senate chamber and various offices. Legislators had to be evacuated, temporarily halting the certification process. The insurrection would ultimately lead to five deaths. Rather than immediately condemn the attackers, Trump suggested they were reacting naturally to an unfair election and stated his "love" for the insurgents, while also telling them to go home. His remarks were widely condemned, and soon after his social media accounts were indefinitely banned for inciting violence. Congress quickly reconvened, and Pence defied Trump by officially declaring Biden's win, though some Republicans still objected. Afterward, Trump for the first time announced he would respect the transition of power, though he suggested he would not attend Biden's inauguration. He also eventually released a statement more strongly denouncing the rioters.

In the days following the January 6 Capitol attack, many high-level Republicans began to join Democrats in criticizing Trump's role in the situation. Some called on the president to resign, while others suggested he should be removed from office under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment or be impeached again. On January 13 the House held votes on the latter two options. A resolution asking Pence to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment was passed in a near party-line vote, with only one Republican joining all Democrats in approval. However, Pence had previously stated he would not take up the action. The House then approved a single article of impeachment, charging Trump with incitement of insurrection. Ten Republicans joined Democrats in a 232–197 vote, making Trump the first president to be impeached twice. However, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to convene the Senate for a trial until Trump was out of office.

Trump's last day as president was January 20, 2021. His final actions included a slew of pardons and sentence commutations, including for high-profile names such as his former adviser Steve Bannon and rapper Lil' Wayne. Trump then took part in an official sendoff ceremony before flying to Florida, skipping the traditional meeting with his successor. He soon announced the creation of the "Office of the Former President," an organization to coordinate his ongoing activities. Meanwhile, the House's article of impeachment was sent to the Senate, where Democrats agreed to further delay Trump's trial in order to first focus on Biden's cabinet appointees. Senate Republicans also tried to dismiss the charge as unconstitutional because Trump was already out of office, but the effort failed in a 55–45 vote, with five Republican senators joining all Democrats in voting in favor of proceeding with the trial.

Trump's second impeachment trial began on February 9, 2021, and moved quickly. The prosecutors drew much attention for showing graphic new footage of the Capitol attack and highlighting Trump's own words. The defense, meanwhile, was widely criticized for a meandering opening argument, but their closing effort was seen as stronger despite repeating several misleading or false claims. On February 13 the Senate acquitted Trump even as a majority found him guilty, as the 57–43 vote did not reach the two-thirds margin necessary to convict. Seven Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats to convict. Notably, a few other Republicans, including McConnell, openly denounced Trump and his actions yet ultimately voted against conviction on the grounds that he was no longer in office. Still, political observers noted that the verdict indicated Trump's continuing deep influence in the Republican Party.

Post-Presidency

In the first few months after leaving office Trump continued to make the false claim that Biden had lost the election and disparage the Republicans who had voted against him during his second impeachment trial. He kept in close touch with allies and wielded influence by vetting supporters considering primary campaigns. Much speculation also swirled around the possibility that Trump would launch a 2024 presidential campaign. His continued hold over his party was demonstrated in May 2021 when House Republicans ousted their colleague Liz Cheney from her leadership role due to her criticism of Trump's false election narrative. Meanwhile, also that May Facebook upheld its suspension of Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts after a review by the company's oversight board, and the following month the company announced the suspension would last at least two years. Trump held his first rally since leaving the presidency in late June 2021, in Ohio.

At the same time, congressional attempts to obtain Trump's tax returns that had begun during his presidency continued. After the Department of Justice released an opinion in late July 2021 directing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to turn over the documentation to Congress, it was reported in early August that Trump's lawyers had filed a court document requesting that the exchange be prohibited based on arguments that the request by the House Ways and Means Committee had not been genuine but political. In October 2021, Trump was ordered by a New York judge to give a recorded deposition as part of a lawsuit taken against him for his anti-immigration rhetoric, among other things, by a group of Mexican immigrants who claimed they were assaulted outside Trump Tower in 2015.

In late 2021, Trump announced that he would be launching his own social media app, called Truth Social. He called the move an attempt to stand up to technology companies like Twitter and Facebook, both of which had blocked Trump from its platforms. Meanwhile, Trump attempted to prevent the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack from accessing requested White House documents. In November 2021 a federal judge denied both his lawsuit over the documents and an emergency request in which Trump cited executive privilege. The following month Trump appealed to the Supreme Court to keep the documents confidential. Also that December, Trump was issued a subpoena to testify in New York attorney general Letitia James' civil fraud investigation into his business practices; he subsequently sued James in an effort to end the investigation. In January 2022 the Supreme Court turned down Trump's request to block his White House records from being released. The following month it was reported that Trump had improperly taken boxes of documents and other materials from the White House upon leaving office; the National Archives took possession of the materials and announced that they may have included classified information, which triggered a Department of Justice investigation.

Trump's Truth Social platform officially debuted in late February 2022. Media outlets reported that the launch was marred by technical glitches, and some attempted users were put on a waiting list. Nevertheless, the app quickly topped the most-downloaded chart at the Apple App Store. By March, however, the app saw a 93 percent drop in downloads since its launch.

Meanwhile, Trump's accounting firm, Mazars, announced that February that they would no longer act as his accountant or be involved with the Trump Organization. Around this same time, Trump earned attention for his positive remarks about Vladimir Putin even as the Russian president oversaw an invasion of Ukraine that was widely condemned by the international community. In late March 2022 Trump again made headlines, after a federal judge ruled in a civil case involving one of Trump's lawyers that both the lawyer and Trump himself had most likely committed several felonies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. No criminal charges were immediately brought, however. Trump's other legal troubles also continued; in late April a New York state judge held him in contempt of court over his refusal to cooperate in the New York attorney general's investigation. Trump faced a $10,000 fine for every day he failed to respond to James's outstanding subpoena for records related to his business dealings. The following month the contempt order was released on the condition that Trump pay the fine accrued up to that point.

In August 2022 the FBI searched Trump's home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, having secured a search warrant based on information that documents, some of which had been classified, had potentially been taken there from the White House. It was later confirmed that the investigative team found and removed a large number of files and had begun assessing them to determine contextual as well as legal relevancy. Following the raid, Trump successfully requested that a federal judge appoint a special master to review the seized material for issues of attorney-client privilege or possibly executive privilege. He also claimed, without evidence, that he had declassified all of the documents found at Mar-a-Lago. US District Judge Raymond Dearie was appointed as the special master in September after being approved by both Trump and the Department of Justice. That same month an appeals court ruled that the Department of Justice could continue examining the approximately one hundred seized documents that were marked as classified while Dearie reviewed the thousands of other seized files.

Also in September 2022 the New York attorney general's investigation resulted in James formally suing Trump; his children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka; and the Trump Organization for fraud by overvaluing assets. That October, James formally requested a judge's intervention in prohibiting Trump from potentially transferring, without judicial approval, any business assets to a new holding company that he had recently formed in Delaware and filed for registration in New York amid the lawsuit. Meanwhile, Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN that cited damages worth $475 million. In another legal development, later in October it was reported that Trump had officially been subpoenaed as part of the House of Representatives' investigation into the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.

Trump received much media attention around the 2022 midterm elections held on November 8. Republicans underperformed expectations in the election, failing to win control of the Senate and taking fewer House seats than generally forecast. Many analysts interpreted this as in part due to Trump's influence, pointing out that several high-profile candidates he backed in crucial swing states proved to be problematic and ultimately lost races that had been seen as winnable. As a result, a growing number of conservatives criticized Trump and called for the Republican Party to move on to new leaders. However, others noted that Trump retained significant support among the party base. On November 15 Trump formally launched a 2024 presidential campaign, becoming the first Republican to do so. Days later his Twitter account was reinstated, following the results of a Twitter poll from the company's new owner, Elon Musk, who claimed to be supporting free speech. However, Trump suggested he would not return to using Twitter.

Later that November another scandal surrounded Trump after he hosted a dinner with rapper Kanye West, who had recently generated much controversy for anti-Semitic statements, and the White supremacist figure Nick Fuentes, known for his denial of the Holocaust. While Trump claimed he had not known who Fuentes was, he did not apologize for the meeting or publicly repudiate Fuentes's ideology. Many observers, including some Republican leaders, sharply criticized Trump for giving a platform to anti-Semitism. Then, in early December, Trump suggested on Truth Social that election fraud could justify "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." Once again Trump was met with condemnation from across the political spectrum for his inflammatory comment.

Trump faced several other notable challenges throughout December 2022. That month, the House Ways and Means Committee voted to publicly release Trump's tax returns, which it had obtained after a decision by the Supreme Court the previous month ended Trump's years-long effort to keep the information private. An initial report showed that Trump often paid very little in federal taxes, including zero in 2020, by reporting major losses in his businesses. The committee also revealed that during the first half of his presidency Trump was not audited by the IRS despite the fact that the president's taxes are supposed to be reviewed annually. Trump and his spokespeople, meanwhile, continued to argue that the scrutiny of his taxes was politically motivated. The same month, the Trump Organization was convicted on seventeen tax-related criminal charges; though Trump himself was not charged in the case, it was still seen as a setback for the former president amid his other ongoing legal challenges. Then, on December 19, the House panel investigating the January 6 attack officially accused Trump of federal crimes including obstruction of Congress, conspiracy, and inciting insurrection. This marked the first time in US history a president was referred to the Justice Department by Congress for possible criminal prosecution, though the action had no direct legal force. The Justice Department concluded on March 2, 2023, that presidents did not have absolute immunity for speech if the speech is found to have incited violence.

In late January 2023, meanwhile, the technology company Meta announced that Trump's accounts on Facebook and Instagram would be reinstated, but carefully monitored for further policy violations. The decision was criticized by many watchdog groups for giving Trump greater visibility as he continued to frequently spread false and misleading information.

Criminal Indictments and Conviction

Trump's legal troubles continued to escalate in early 2023 as the Manhattan district attorney's office reached the late stages of an investigation into his finances. That wide-ranging probe, which had begun in 2018, had evolved over the years to focus on hush-money payments Trump made beginning in 2016 to quell claims that he had had extramarital relationships. In 2023 a grand jury heard testimony from several witnesses, including Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, who had facilitated some of the payments. Trump decried the proceedings as another politically motivated attack against him, and called on his supporters to protest. In late March he was formally indicted in the case, making him the first former president to face criminal charges. On April 4 Trump turned himself in for arrest and arraignment in New York City, pleading not guilty to thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. The charges revolved around allegations that the hush-money scheme represented both an attempt to influence the 2016 election and state tax fraud, escalating what would normally be a misdemeanor to felony status.

In late April and into May, Trump also drew attention as a civil lawsuit in which writer E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s went to trial. The jury in that case found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, ordering him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages, although it determined there was not enough proof of rape. Trump's legal team attempted to have the reward amount reduced or the case retried, but those requests were denied. Later in the year, in a separate case regarding 2019 statements Trump had made about Carroll's claims, a federal judge found Trump liable of defamation based on the jury's decision, and ordered a trial to determine damages.

Another criminal case against Trump dominated headlines in June 2023, as he was federally indicted on thirty-seven felony counts stemming from the US Justice Department's investigation into his handling of classified information. After surrendering for arrest and arraignment in Miami, Trump pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which included obstruction of justice and making false statements as well as illegally withholding national defense information and concealing government documents. As with previous legal cases against him, Trump criticized the charges as political persecution and used the publicity to rally support for his presidential campaign. In late July the federal prosecutors in the case filed additional charges against Trump, including accusations that he attempted to destroy or conceal evidence (specifically, security camera footage from Mar-a-Lago) and pressed others to do so as well.

The federal probe into the January 6 storming of the US capitol and other efforts to overturn the 2020 election also saw major developments. In July 2023 it was reported that Trump had received a letter from Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the investigation, indicating that Trump had been identified as a probe target. He was officially indicted in the case on August 1 on four criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official government proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy to deprive people of civil rights. He again pleaded not guilty. Many media outlets, legal experts, and other observers suggested that this third criminal indictment against Trump was considerably more serious than the previous two, as it held major implications for the fundamental structure of the US political system.

On August 14 Trump was indicted in a fourth criminal case, this one a state-level investigation into efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. He faced thirteen counts, including accusations of racketeering, while eighteen of his advisers and allies were also charged. By the end of the month, he had pleaded not guilty to these charges as well. Analysts noted that while the Georgia case in some ways overlapped with the federal January 6 case, it was distinguished by the fact that it involved Georgia's expansive version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Yet despite facing multiple criminal and civil legal cases, Trump maintained deep support from his voter base and many congressional Republicans. Polls indicated that he continued to be the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination by a wide margin and was neck-and-neck in a projected rematch against Biden. In part due to this significant lead, he did not participate in the Republican presidential primary debates.

In late September 2023, a New York judge in the civil case brought by the New York Attorney General ruled that Trump had committed fraud in the form of overvaluations of several of his assets during the course of his business career. Part of the decision included revoking the certifications for the properties cited in the lawsuit, significantly impacting Trump's control over them and the continued operation of his business empire. The trial to determine damages and other aspects of the case began that October, and much media attention subsequently surrounded Trump's courtroom testimony. Meanwhile, later in October, a judge in the federal January 6 criminal case imposed a partial gag order on Trump, ruling that he could not publicly attack prosecutors, court staff, witnesses, or others involved in the case, but noting that he was still free to broadly criticize the case itself and to criticize other politicians or other aspects of government. Trump framed the gag order as an assault on his free speech and appealed the ruling.

By late 2023, several states earned attention for legal cases to determine whether Trump should be banned from 2024 election ballots based on alleged Fourteenth Amendment violations related to the January 6 Capitol attack. Some state courts dismissed such cases, but in December, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was indeed ineligible to appear on the state's primary ballot due to insurrection. A similar decision was also issued by Maine's secretary of state later that month, but any action in these ballot challenges was put on hold as the Colorado case was appealed to the US Supreme Court. In March 2024, Trump earned a significant legal victory, as the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states do not have the power to enforce Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment against federal office holders or candidates.

Trump maintained his status as party front-runner by a wide margin as the 2024 primary election season began. In January 2024, he won both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Over the following months, he continued to rack up primary victories while his field of challengers dwindled.

However, Trump's legal problems also continued, drawing intense media coverage. In January 2024, he was ordered by a jury to pay $83.3 million in the second defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll. In February, a verdict was reached in the New York civil fraud case, with Trump and the Trump Organization ordered to pay almost $355 million (plus interest) and barred from doing business in New York State for three years. Trump did gain some financial reprieve after an appeals court reduced the bond in that case to $175 million in late March, while at the same time he saw a major boost to his wealth due to a successful merger and IPO of the company behind his Truth Social platform. But he was unsuccessful in multiple attempts to delay the start of the trial in the criminal hush-money case, which began in April. In late May, the jury in that case found Trump guilty on all thirty-four counts, making him the first former president convicted of a felony. In July 2024, a judge dismissed the classified documents case against Trump.

2024 Reelection

On July 13, 2024, Trump survived an assassination attempt while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was injured on his ear by the attempt, while one attendee died and two others were critically injured. The shooter was killed by the Secret Service. Days later, Trump announced Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate and was formally nominated as the Republican Party presidential candidate.

In the immediate lead up to the 2024 presidential election, Trump continued to dominate headlines with controversial statements, including increasing suggestions that he would retaliate against political opponents if elected and would reject the results if he lost. After Biden abruptly ended his reelection campaign in late July and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, Trump often used sexist and racially charged language to attack Harris. His ongoing inflammatory rhetoric did not blunt his popularity, however, and pundits projected a close race through Election Day on November 5, 2024.

Although many observers had suggested it might once again take days to determine the winner of the presidential election, within a day all major media outlets projected victory for Trump. Crucially, he won the key swing states North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to surpass the 270-vote threshold in the Electoral College. He was also projected to win the popular vote, making him the first Republican to do so in the twenty-first century. Trump made history as the oldest person elected US president, at age seventy-eight, and was only the second president (after Grover Cleveland in 1892) to win non-consecutive terms.

Bibliography

Ball, Molly. "Trump's First Month: An Evaluation." The Atlantic, 28 Feb. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/trumps-first-month-an-evaluation/518058/. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.

Baker, Peter, et al. "Trump Employs an Old Tactic: Using Race for Gain." The New York Times, 20 July 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/07/20/us/politics/trump-race-record.html. Accessed 11 June 2020.

Baker, Peter, and Maggie Haberman. "Trump Rebuffs Protests Over Systemic Racism and Calls Police 'Great People.'" The New York Times, 8 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/us/politics/defund-police-trump.html. Accessed 11 June 2020.

Barrett, Devlin, and Philip Rucker. "Trump Said He Was Thinking of Russia Controversy When He Decided to Fire Comey." The Washington Post, 11 May 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-says-fbi-director-comey-told-him-three-times-he-wasnt-under-investigation-once-in-a-phone-call-initiated-by-the-president/2017/05/11/2b384c9a-3669-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37‗story.html. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Biesecker, Michael, et al. "In the Wake of Trump's Attempted Assassination, Investigators Search for Clues around the Motive." Associated Press, 15 July 2024, apnews.com/article/trump-assassination-attempt-thomas-matthew-crooks-shooter-881581c46c07025898027143fc9132e5#. Accessed 15 July 2024.

Blair, Gwenda. The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire. Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas, and Mitch Smith. "What to Know About the Efforts to Remove Trump From the 2024 Ballot."The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2024, www.nytimes.com/article/trump-ballot-remove-2024.html. Accessed 29 Jan. 2024.

Bond, Shannon. "Meta Allows Donald Trump Back on Facebook and Instagram." NPR, 25 Jan. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/01/25/1146961818/trump-meta-facebook-instagram-ban-ends. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.

Bromwich, Jonah E., Ben Protess, and William K. Rashbaum. "Judge Holds Trump in Contempt Over Documents in New York AG's Inquiry." The New York Times, 26 Apr. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/nyregion/trump-investigation-letitia-james-contempt.html. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.

Bromwich, Jonah E., William K. Rashbaum, and Ben Protess. "NY Attorney General Accuses Trump of 'Staggering' Fraud in Lawsuit." The New York Times, 21 Sept. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/nyregion/trump-fraud-lawsuit-ny.html. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.

Buettner, Russ, et al. "Trump's Taxes: Red Flags, Big Losses and a Windfall from His Father." The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/us/politics/trump-tax-returns-findings.html. Accessed 22 Dec. 2022.

"Donald Trump Fast Facts." CNN, 26 Sept. 2024, www.cnn.com/2013/07/04/us/donald-trump-fast-facts/index.html. Accessed 6 Nov. 2024.

Durkee, Alison. "Trump Gag Orders: Here's Everything the Ex-President Can't Say in the Cases Against Him." Forbes, 18 Oct. 2023, www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/10/18/trump-gag-orders-heres-everything-the-ex-president-cant-say-in-the-cases-against-him/?sh=47dc2028c6ec. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

Fandos, Nicholas. "Trump Acquitted of Two Impeachment Charges in Near Party-Line Vote." The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/trump-acquitted-impeachment.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2020.

Fandos, Nicholas. "Trump Impeached for Inciting Insurrection." The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/trump-impeached.html. Accessed 14 Jan. 2021.

Fandos, Nicholas, and Michael D. Shear. "Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress." The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html. Accessed 20 Dec. 2019.

Flegenheimer, Matt, and Michael Barbaro. "Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment." The New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/11/09/us/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-president.html. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.

Foran, Clare, and Ashley Killough. "House Votes to Condemn Trump's Racist Tweets." CNN, 16 July 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/07/16/politics/trump-racist-comments-resolution-house-democrats/index.html. Accessed 20 Aug. 2019.

Foster, Robin, and E. J. Mundell. "Trump Released from Hospital After 3 Days of COVID Treatment." US News & World Report, 5 Oct. 2020, www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-10-05/trump-to-be-released-from-hospital-after-3-days-of-covid-treatment. Accessed 27 Oct. 2020.

Holmes, Kristen. "Trump Calls for the Termination of the Constitution in Truth Social Post." CNN, 4 Dec. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/12/03/politics/trump-constitution-truth-social/index.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.

Johnston, David Cay. The Making of Donald Trump. Melville House, 2016.

Karni, Annie, and Maggie Haberman. "Trump Pulls Back From Declaring a National Emergency to Fund a Wall." The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/national-emergency-risks-trump.html. Accessed 11 Feb. 2019.

Kates, Graham. "Trump Fraud Ruling Adds to His String of Legal Losses In New York." CBS News, 19 Feb. 2024, www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fraud-ruling-new-york-legal-losses/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

"Keeping Track of the Trump Investigations." The New York Times, 15 July 2024, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/us/trump-investigations-charges-indictments.html. Accessed 15 July 2024.

Kranish, Michael, and Marc Fisher. Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power. Scribner, 2016.

Kumar, Anita, Gabby Orr, and Meridith McGraw. "'Like a Ghost' in the White House: The Last Days of the Trump Presidency." Politico, 20 Jan. 2020, www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/20/last-days-of-donald-trump-459751. Accessed 22 Jan. 2021.

Lemire, Jonathan, Zeke Miller, and Will Weissert. "Biden Defeats Trump for White House, Says 'Time to Heal.'" AP, 8 Nov. 2020, apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9. Accessed 9 Nov. 2020.

Linton, Caroline, et al. "Trump Pleads Not Guilty at Miami Arraignment, Greets Supporters after Court Appearance." CBS News, 14 June 2023, www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/live-coverage-trump-arraignment-miami-court-federal-indictment/. Accessed 14 June 2023.

Mangan, Dan. "Trump Suffers Big Loss in E. Jean Carroll Defamation Case, Judge Says He’s Liable." CNBC, 6 Sept. 2023, www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/trump-suffers-big-loss-in-e-jean-carroll-defamation-case-judge-says-hes-liable.html. Accessed 7 Sept. 2023

Marritz, Ilya, et al. "Former President Donald Trump Has Been Indicted by a Manhattan Grand Jury." NPR, 30 Mar. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/03/30/1164766452/trump-indictment-new-york-bragg-stormy-daniels. Accessed 31 Mar. 2023.

Mascaro, Lisa, Eric Tucker, and Mary Clare Jalonick. "Trump Acquitted, Denounced in Historic Impeachment Trial." AP, 13 Feb. 2021, apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-riots-trials-impeachments-b245b52fd7d4a079ae199c954baba452. Accessed 15 Feb. 2021.

Mazzetti, Mark, and Katie Benner. "Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy, but Stops Short of Exonerating President on Obstruction." The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/24/us/politics/mueller-report-summary.html. Accessed 10 Apr. 2019.

Miller, Zeke, et al. "Trump Wins the White House in Political Comeback Rooted in Appeals to Frustrated Voters." AP, 6 Nov. 2024, apnews.com/article/election-day-trump-harris-white-house-83c8e246ab97f5b97be45cdc156af4e2. Accessed 6 Nov. 2024.

O'Brien, Timothy L. TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald. Warner Business Books, 2005.

Orr, Gabby, et al. "Former President Donald Trump Announces a White House Bid for 2024." CNN, 16 Nov. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/11/15/politics/trump-2024-presidential-bid. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

"'Not An Easy Transition': Inside Trump's Unconventional First Months Out of Office." CNN, 28 Apr. 2021, www.cnn.com/2021/04/28/politics/trump-post-presidency/index.html. Accessed 28 Apr. 2021.

Page, Susan. "Not Just One More Indictment: A Stress Test for Trump, the Campaign, and the Country." USA Today, 2 Aug. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/08/02/trump-indictment-stress-test-2024-campaign/70456978007/. Accessed 2 Aug. 2023.

Parker, Ned, et al. "Exclusive: Trump Campaign Had at Least 18 Undisclosed Contacts with Russians: Sources." Reuters, 18 May 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-contacts-idUSKCN18E106. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Sisak, Michael R., et al. "Guilty: Trump Becomes First Former US President Convicted of Felony Crimes." AP, 31 May 2024, apnews.com/article/trump-trial-deliberations-jury-testimony-verdict-85558c6d08efb434d05b694364470aa0. Accessed 31 May 2024.

Slater, Robert. No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump. Prentice Hall, 2005.

Subramanian, Courtney, et al. "President Trump Hospitalized at Walter Reed after Testing Positive for COVID-19." USA Today, 3 Oct. 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/10/02/trump-heads-walter-reed-hospital-after-positive-covid-19-test/5894256002/. Accessed 5 Oct. 2020.

"Trump's Social Media Company Gains in Its First Day of Trading on Nasdaq." AP, 26 Mar. 2024, apnews.com/article/trump-media-truth-social-nasdaq-stock-106d7c423174ca1d7cc3cc9a3f3897a0. Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.

Wolfe, Jan. "Trump's Declassification Defense Draws Skepticism From Judges." The Wall Street Journal, 22 Sept. 2022, www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-declassification-defense-draws-skepticism-from-judges-11663868282?mod=hp‗lead‗pos6. Accessed 22 Sept. 2022.