Donald Trump – U.S. Presidency, Family & Businesses, Facts & Other

• Politician
• businessman
• real-estate developer
• television personality
• author

• The party affiliations of Trump have changed over the years.

• He registered to vote as a Republican in the year 1987.

• Joined Reform Party (1999-2001).

• Joined Democrats (2001-2009).

• Joined back the Republican Party (2009-2012).

• Remained independent (2011-2012).

• In May, 2012, again returned to the Republican Party.

• Floated the idea of running for Governor of New York in 2006 and 2014 and for the President of the USA in 1988, 2004, 2012.

• On 16 June, 2015, he announced his candidacy for the President of the USA.

• On 8 November 2016, he became the 45th President of the United States.

• He began his real-estate career at “Elizabeth Trump and Son” which was his father’s company.

• In 1971, he moved to Manhattan and started larger construction projects.

• In Atlantic City, New Jersey, he acquired the Taj Mahal Casino in 1988.

• Trump completed a 72-story Residential Tower called “Trump World Tower” in 2001.

• At present. Donald Trump runs a Business Empire worth more than 4 Billion USD.

in meters- 1.91 m

in Feet Inches- 6’ 3”

in Pounds- 198 lbs

Fordham University, New York City, New York (1964-1966)

Mother- Mary Anne MacLeod

Brothers- Robert Trump (Born 1948), Fred Trump Jr. (Died from alcoholism)

Sisters- Maryanne Trump Barry (Born 1937, Senior United States Circuit Judge), Elizabeth (a retired Chase Manhattan Bank Executive)

• Ivana Trump (1977)
• Gabriella Sabatini (1989)
• Carla Bruni (1991)
• Marla Maples (Married, 1993-1998)
• Kara Young (2001)
• Melania Trump (2005-Present)

• Ivana Trump (1977–1992, Model)
• Marla Maples (1993–1999, Actress)
• Melania Trump (2005-present, Jewelry designer)

• Daughter- Ivanka Trump (Businesswoman),Tiffany Trump (Actress)
• Son- Barron Trump (Businessman), Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. (Businessman)

Lawsuits and Investigations

Fair Housing Act Discrimination Trial

In 1973, the federal government filed a complaint against Trump, his father and their company alleging that they had discriminated against tenants and potential tenants based on their race, a violation of the Fair Housing Act, which is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

After a lengthy legal battle, the case was settled in 1975. As part of the agreement, the Trump company had to train employees about the Fair Housing Act and inform the community about its fair housing practices.

Trump wrote about the resolution of the case in his 1987 memoir Art of the Deal: “In the end, the government couldn’t prove its case, and we ended up taking a minor settlement without admitting any guilt.”

Trump University

In 2005, Trump launched his for-profit Trump University, offering classes in real estate and acquiring and managing wealth. The venture had been under scrutiny almost since its inception and at the time of his 2015 presidential bid, it remained the subject of multiple lawsuits.

In the cases, claimants accused Trump of fraud, false advertising and breach of contract. Controversy about the suits made headlines when Trump suggested that U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel could not be impartial in overseeing two class action cases because of his Mexican heritage.

On November 18, 2016, Trump, who had previously vowed to take the matter to trial, settled three of the lawsuits for $25 million without admission of liability. In a statement from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, he called the settlement, “a stunning reversal by Trump and a major victory for the over 6,000 victims of his fraudulent university.”

Donald J. Trump Foundation

Later, in a separate incident related to Trump University, it was reported that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi decided not to join the existing New York fraud lawsuit. This came just days after she had received a sizable campaign donation from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was founded in 1988 as a private charity organization designed to make donations to nonprofit groups. In November 2016, it was reported that Bondi’s name was on Trump’s list as a possible U.S. Attorney General contender.

As a result of the improper donation to Bondi’s campaign, Trump was required to pay the IRS a penalty and his foundation came under scrutiny about the use of its funds for non-charitable activities. According to tax records, The Trump Foundation itself was found to have received no charitable gifts from Trump since 2008, and that all donations since that time had come from outside contributors.

In fall 2019, after Trump admitted to misusing money raised by his foundation to promote his presidential campaign and settle debts, he was ordered to pay $2 million in damages.

Donald Trump’s Political Party: Republican or Democrat?

Trump is currently registered as a Republican. He has switched parties several times in the past three decades.

In 1987, Trump registered as a Republican; two years later, in 1989, he registered as an Independent. In 2000, Trump ran for president for the first time on the Reform platform. In 2001, he registered as a Democrat.

By 2009, Trump had switched back to the Republican party, although he registered as an Independent in 2011 to allow for a potential run in the following year’s presidential election. He finally returned to the Republican party to endorse Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential run and has remained a Republican since.

Trump’s 2016 Presidential Campaign vs. Hillary Clinton

Trump became the official Republican nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Defying polls and media projections, he won the majority of electoral college votes in a stunning victory on November 8, 2016. Despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by almost 2.9 million votes, Trump’s electoral win — 306 electoral college votes to Clinton’s 232 — clinched his victory as the 45th president of the United States.

After one of the most contentious presidential races in U.S. history, Trump’s rise to the office of president was considered a resounding rejection of establishment politics by blue-collar and working-class Americans.

In his victory speech, Trump said: “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.” About his supporters, he said: “As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign, but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hard-working men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their families.”

Election Platforms

On July 21, 2016, Trump accepted the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. In his speech, he outlined the issues he would tackle as president, including violence in America, the economy, immigration, trade, terrorism, and the appointment of Supreme Court justices.

On immigration, he said: “We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.”

He also promised supporters that he would renegotiate trade deals, reduce taxes and government regulations, repeal the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare), defend Second Amendment gun rights, and “rebuild our depleted military,” asking the countries the U.S. is protecting “to pay their fair share.”

Inauguration

On January 20, 2017, Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts. Trump took the oath of office placing his hand on the Bible that was used at Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration and his own family Bible, which was presented to him by his mother in 1955 when he graduated from Sunday school at his family’s Presbyterian church.

In his inaugural speech on January 20th, Trump sent a populist message that he would put the American people above politics. “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people,” he said. “January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.”

He went on to paint a bleak picture of an America that had failed many of its citizens, describing families trapped in poverty, an ineffective education system, and crime, drugs and gangs. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said.

The day after Trump’s inauguration, millions of protesters demonstrated across the United States and around the world. The Women’s March on Washington drew over half a million people to protest Trump’s stance on a variety issues ranging from immigration to environmental protection.

Activists and celebrities taking part in the protests included Gloria Steinem, Angela Davis, Madonna, Cher, Ashley Judd, Scarlett Johansson, America Ferrera, Alicia Keys and Janelle Monáe.

First 100 Days

The first 100 days of Trump’s presidency lasted from January 20, 2017 until April 29, 2017. In the first days of his presidency, Trump issued a number of back-to-back executive orders to make good on some of his campaign promises, as well as several orders aimed at rolling back policies and regulations that were put into place during the Obama administration.

Several of Trump’s key policies that got rolling during Trump’s first 100 days in office include his Supreme Court nomination; steps toward building a wall on the Mexico border; a travel ban for several predominantly Muslim countries; the first moves to dismantle the Affordable Care Act; and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.

In addition, Trump signed orders to implement a federal hiring freeze, withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and reinstate the Mexico City policy that bans federal funding of nongovernmental organizations abroad that promote or perform abortions.

He signed an order to scale back financial regulation under the Dodd-Frank Act, created by the Obama administration and passed by Congress after the financial crisis of 2008. And he called for a lifetime foreign-lobbying ban for members of his administration and a five-year ban for all other lobbying.

On March 16, 2017, the president released his proposed budget. The budget outlined his plans for increased spending for the military, veterans affairs and national security, including building a wall on the border with Mexico.

It also made drastic cuts to many government agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and the State Department, as well as the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Community Development Block Grant program which supports Meals on Wheels.

Trump’s Supreme Court Nominations

Trump has nominated two Supreme Court Justices: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Neil Gorsuch

On January 31, 2017, Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The 49-year-old conservative judge was appointed by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.

Judge Gorsuch was educated at Columbia, Harvard and Oxford and clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. The nomination came after Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia, was denied a confirmation hearing by Senate Republicans.

As Gorsuch’s legal philosophy was considered to be similar to Scalia’s, the choice drew strong praise from the conservative side of the aisle. “Millions of voters said this was the single most important issue for them when they voted for me for president,” Trump said. “I am a man of my word. Today I am keeping another promise to the American people by nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.”

After Gorsuch gave three days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in March, the Senate convened on April 6 to advance his nomination. Democrats mostly held firm to deny the 60 votes necessary to proceed, resulting in the first successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee.

But Republicans quickly countered with another historic move, invoking the “nuclear option” to lower the threshold for advancing Supreme Court nominations from 60 votes to a simple majority of 50. On April 7, Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate to become the 113th justice of the Supreme Court.

Pressuring Ukraine and Whistleblower Complaint

In September 2019, The Washington Post reported that Trump had ordered the withholding of nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine in mid-July, one week before a phone call in which he urged Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden. This tied into reports of a whistleblower complaint from the intelligence community regarding communications between Trump and Ukraine, and the failure of the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, to relay the complaint to Congress.

Trump admitted to discussing Joe and Hunter Biden with Zelensky, and even released a transcript of their conversation, though he denied that he withheld the military aid as a means for pressuring his counterpart into digging up dirt on a political rival. He later doubled down on his assertion that the Bidens needed to be investigated, calling for the Chinese government to do so.

In October, as House Democrats attempted to secure testimony from the unidentified whistleblower, reports surfaced of another individual who claimed first-hand knowledge of several allegations noted in the complaint. William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, soon defied State Department orders to share his recollection of events with investigators and corroborate the claims of quid pro quo. He was followed by Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, who reportedly confirmed that he was on the phone call between Trump and Zelensky and was concerned that the demand to investigate the Bidens would jeopardize U.S.-Ukraine relations.

Democratic Calls for Impeachment of Donald Trump

By the time Mueller’s special counsel investigation into Trump ended in March 2019, some Democrats were calling for the initiation of impeachment proceedings, including 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.

Calls for impeachment grew after Mueller held a press conference regarding his report in May 2019. Mueller said he could not clear the President of obstruction of justice but declined to pursue impeachment, leaving Democrats to decide if Trump’s conduct should be investigated for impeachable offenses. However, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were not in favor of pursuing impeachment.

In July 2019, after the House voted to condemn Trump for his Twitter comments about four congresswoman of color, Democrat Al Green of Texas filed a resolution to launch impeachment proceedings against the president. With most of his Democratic colleagues not yet ready to make the plunge, the resolution was defeated by a 332-to-95 vote.

However, the tide turned with the reports of Trump pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden and the administration’s attempt to conceal the whistleblower complaint. On September 24, 2019, Pelosi announced that the House was launching a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump.

On October 31, following five weeks of investigations and interviews, the House voted 232-196 to approve a resolution that established rules for the impeachment process. All but two Democrats and the House’s lone independent voted for the measure, while Republicans were unanimous in their opposition.

Impeachment hearings commenced on November 13 with testimony from Taylor and another State Department official, as Trump was busy meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The following week, Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, provided his account of the pressure campaign ordered by President Trump, noting that Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo and other top administration officials were aware of what was happening.

On December 10, 2019, House Democrats announced they were moving forward with two articles of impeachment, charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Eight days later, the House again voted almost entirely along party lines for the two articles, making Trump the third U.S. president to be impeached by the House, after Andrew Johnson, in 1868, and Bill Clinton, in 1998; President Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached.

Trump’s 2020 Reelection Campaign

On June 18, 2019, Trump launched his 2020 reelection bid with one of his patented rallies at the 20,000-seat Amway Center in Orlando, Florida.

Along with extolling his economic record, the president whipped his supporters into a frenzy by lashing out at the special counsel “witch hunt” and his political enemies, adding that his new slogan would be “Keep America Great.”

“We are going to keep on working,” he declared. “We are going to keep on fighting. And we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning.”