Donald Trump

-the 45th and current President of the United States-

"We are going to keep on working... we are going to keep on fighting. And
we are going to keep on winning, winning, winning." (D.T.)
 Who Is Donald Trump?
Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States;
he took office on January 20, 2017. Previously, he was a real estate mogul and a
former reality TV star.
Born in Queens, New York, in 1946, Trump became involved in large,
profitable building projects in Manhattan. In 1980, he opened the Grand Hyatt
New York, which made him the city's best-known developer.
In 2004, Trump began starring in the hit NBC reality series The
Apprentice. Trump turned his attention to politics, and in 2015 he announced his
candidacy for president of the United States on the Republican ticket.
After winning a majority of the primaries and caucuses, Trump became
the official Republican candidate for president on July 19, 2016. That November,
Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States, after defeating
Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump’s Parents and Siblings
Trump’s father, Frederick Trump, was a builder and real estate developer
who specialized in constructing and operating middle-income apartments in
Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn.
Trump’s mother, Mary MacLeod, immigrated from Tong, Scotland, in
1929 at the age of 17. She and Fred Trump married in 1936. The couple settled in
Jamaica, Queens, a neighborhood that was, at the time, filled with Western
European immigrants. As the family’s wealth increased, Mary became a New
York socialite and philanthropist.
Fred died in 1999, and Mary passed away the following year.
Donald was the fourth of five children.
Donald Trump’s Wives:
Melania Trump
Trump is currently married to former Slovenian model Melania
Trump (née Knauss), who is more than 23 years his junior. In January 2005, the

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couple married in a highly-publicized and lavish wedding. Among the many
celebrity guests at the wedding were Hillary Clinton and former President Bill
Clinton.
Ivana Trump
In 1977, Trump married his first wife Ivana Trump, (née Zelnickova
Winklmayr), a New York fashion model who had been an alternate on the 1972
Czech Olympic Ski Team. She was named vice president in charge of design in
the Trump Organization and played a major role in supervising the renovation of
the Commodore and the Plaza Hotel.
The couple had three children together: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka and
Eric. They went through a highly publicized divorce that was finalized in 1992.
Marla Maples
In 1993 Trump married his second wife, Marla Maples, an actress with
whom he had been involved for some time and already had a daughter, Tiffany.
Trump would ultimately file for a highly publicized divorce from Maples
in 1997, which became final in June 1999. A prenuptial agreement allotted $2
million to Maples.
Donald Trump’s Children
Trump has five children. He and his first wife, Ivana Trump, had three
children together: Donald Trump Jr., born in 1977; Ivanka Trump, born in 1981,
and Eric Trump, born in 1984. Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples, had
daughter Tiffany Trump in 1993. And current wife Melania Trump gave birth to
Trump’s youngest child, Barron William Trump, in March 2006.
Trump's sons — Donald Jr. and Eric— work as executive vice presidents
for The Trump Organization. They took over the family business while their father
serves as president.
Trump's daughter Ivanka was also an executive vice president of The
Trump Organization. She left the business and her own fashion label to join her

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father's administration and become an unpaid assistant to the president. Her
husband, Jared Kushner, is also a senior adviser to President Trump.
Donald Trump’s Childhood and Education
Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York. He was an
energetic, assertive child. In the 1950s, the Trumps’ wealth increased with the
postwar real estate boom.
At age 13, Trump’s parents sent him to the New York Military Academy,
hoping the discipline of the school would channel his energy in a positive manner.
He did well at the academy, both socially and academically, rising to become a
star athlete and student leader by the time he graduated in 1964.
Trump entered Fordham University in 1964. He transferred to the
Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania two years later and
graduated in 1968 with a degree in economics.
During his years at college, Trump worked at his father’s real estate
business during the summer. He also secured education deferments for
the draft for the Vietnam War and ultimately a 1-Y medical deferment after he
graduated.
Donald Trump’s Religion
Trump was raised Presbyterian by his mother, and he identifies as a
mainline Protestant.
Trump’s Real Estate and Businesses
Trump followed his father into a career in real estate development,
bringing his grander ambitions to the family business. Trump’s business ventures
include The Trump Organization, Trump Tower, casinos in Atlantic City and
television franchises like The Apprentice and Miss Universe. Trump has business
deals with the Javits Center and the Grand Hyatt New York, as well as other real
estate ventures in New York City, Florida and Los Angeles.
Federal income disclosure forms Trump filed in 2017 list Trump's golf
courses, including Trump National Doral and Mar-a-Lago in Florida, as earning

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about half of his income. Other financial ventures include aircraft, merchandise
and royalties from his two books, The Art of the Deal and Crippled America: How
to Make America Great Again.
The Art of the Deal
In 1987, Trump published the book The Art of the Deal, co-authored with
Tony Schwartz. In the book, Trump describes how he successfully makes business
deals.
“I DON’T do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever
need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form,” Trump wrote.
The book made the New York Times best-seller list, although the number
of copies sold has been debated; sales have been estimated at between 1 to 4
million copies to-date. Schwartz later became an outspoken critic of the book and
of Trump, saying he felt remorseful for helping make the president “more
appealing than he is.”
Donald Trump’s Wealth
Over the years, Trump’s net worth have been a subject of public debate.
Because Trump has not publicly released his tax returns, it’s not possible to
definitively determine his wealth in the past or today. However Trump valued his
businesses at at least $1.37 billion on his 2017 federal financial disclosure form,
published by the Office of Government Ethics. Trump’s 2018 disclosure form put
his revenue for the year at a minimum of $434 million from all sources.
In 1990, Trump asserted his own net worth in the neighborhood of $1.5
billion. At the time, the real estate market was in decline, reducing the value of
and income from Trump's empire. The Trump Organization required a massive
infusion of loans to keep it from collapsing, a situation which raised questions as
to whether the corporation could survive bankruptcy. Some observers saw
Trump's decline as symbolic of many of the business, economic and social
excesses that had arisen in the 1980s.

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 A May 2019 investigation by The New York Times of 10 years of
Trump’s tax information found that between 1985 and 1994, his businesses lost
money every year. The newspaper calculated that Trump’s businesses suffered
$1.17 billion in losses over the decade.
Trump later defended himself on Twitter, calling the Times’s report “a
highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!” He tweeted that he reported “losses for tax
purposes,” and that doing so was a “sport” among real estate developers.
Trump's Tax Returns
Trump’s net worth was questioned over the course of his 2016 presidential
run, and he courted controversy after repeatedly refusing to release his tax returns
while they were being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. He did not release
his tax returns during the election, and he has not to date. It was the first time a
major party candidate had not released such information to the public before a
presidential election since Richard Nixon in 1972.
After Democrats regained control of the House with the 2018 elections,
Trump again faced calls to release his tax returns. In April 2019, Congressman
Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested six
years' worth of the president's personal and business tax returns from the IRS.
Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin rejected the request, as well as Neal's follow-
up subpoena for the documents.
In May the New York State Assembly passed legislation that authorized
tax officials to release the president's state returns to the chairmen of the House
Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint
Committee on Taxation for any "specified and legitimate legislative purpose."
With New York City serving as the home base for the Trump Organization, it was
believed that the state returns would contain much of the same information as the
president's federal returns.
In September 2019, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
subpoenaed the accounting firm Mazars USA for Trump's personal and corporate

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tax returns dating back to 2011, prompting a challenge from the president's
lawyers. A Manhattan federal district judge dismissed Trump's lawsuit in October,
though the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit agreed to temporarily
delay enforcement of the subpoena while considering arguments in the case. A
few days later, that same appeals court rejected Trump's bid to block another
subpoena issued to Mazars USA, this one from the House Committee on
Oversight and Reform.
In December 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over
whether the president could block the disclosure of his financial information to
congressional committees and the Manhattan district attorney.
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

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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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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

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Community Development Block Grant program which supports Meals on
Wheels.
Donald Trump on Climate Change
During the 2016 presidential election, Trump called climate change a
“hoax.” He later recanted, saying, "I don't think it's a hoax, I think there's probably
a difference."
However in an October 2018 interview on Fox News, Trump accused
climate scientists of having a “political agenda” and said that he was unconvinced
that humans were responsible for rising temperatures.
In November 2018, The Fourth National Climate Assessment, compiled
by 13 federal agencies including the EPA and Department of Energy, found that,
left unchecked, climate change would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy.
Trump told reporters, "I don't believe it."
In June 2019, Trump met with Prince Charles and reportedly discussed
climate change at length. In an interview with British TV host Piers Morgan,
Trump said "I believe that there is a change in weather and I think it changes both
ways...It used to be called global warming, that wasn't working, then it was called
climate change and now actually it is called extreme weather."
Trump later told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he pushed back Prince
Charles’ suggestions that the United States do more to combat climate change,
saying that the U.S. “now has among the cleanest climates there are based on all
statistics.”
Paris Climate Agreement
On June 1, 2017, Trump withdrew from the 2015 Paris Climate
Agreement, which President Obama had joined along with the leaders of 195 other
countries. The accord requires all participating nations to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions in an effort to curb climate change over the ensuing century and also to
allocate resources for the research and development of alternative energy sources.

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 With Trump’s decision, the United States joined Syria and Nicaragua as
the only three countries to reject the accord. However, Nicaragua eventually
joined the Paris Climate Agreement months later.
Oil Extraction
Soon after taking office, Trump revived the controversial Keystone XL
and Dakota Access Pipelines to transfer oil extracted in Canada and North Dakota.
The pipelines had been halted by President Obama following protests from
environmental and Native American groups.
Trump owned shares of Energy Transfer Partners, the company in charge
of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, but sold his stake in the company
in December 2016. Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren also contributed
to Trump’s presidential campaign, raising concerns over conflict of interest.
Coal Mining
On March 28, 2017, the president, surrounded by American coal miners,
signed the "Energy Independence" executive order, calling for the Environmental
Protection Agency to roll back Obama's Clean Power Plan, curb climate and
carbon emissions regulations and to rescind a moratorium on coal mining on U.S.
federal lands.
Endangered Species Act
In August 2019, the Trump administration announced it was overhauling
the Endangered Species Act. This included changes to legislation that gave the
government increased discretion over matters of climate change and economic
cost when determining whether a species should be protected.
Donald Trump on Health Care
One of Trump’s first executive orders in office was calling on federal
agencies to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" aspects of the
Affordable Care Act to minimize financial burden on states, insurers and
individuals.

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 On March 7, 2017, House Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan,
introduced the American Health Care Act, a plan to repeal and replace the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, the controversial bill ultimately didn't
have enough Republican votes and was withdrawn a few weeks later, representing
a major legislative setback for Speaker Ryan and Trump.
After intense negotiations among party factions, a new Republican health
care plan was brought to a vote in the House of Representatives on May 4, 2017,
and passed by a slim margin of 217 to 213. That passed the buck to the Senate.
Almost immediately after a draft was unveiled on June 22, conservative
senators such as Ted Cruz declared they could not support the bill's failure to
significantly lower premiums, while moderates like Susan Collins voiced
concerns over its steep cuts to Medicaid. On June 27, Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell elected to delay his planned vote for the bill. When the
third, so-called “skinny repeal,” bill finally went to a vote on in the Senate July
28, it failed by three votes.
In September, a new bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act was put forth
by Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Senator Bill Cassidy of
Louisiana. However, on September 26, Senate Republicans announced they
would not move forward with the current plan, as they were short of the required
votes. “We are disappointed in certain so-called Republicans,” Trump responded.
On October 12, 2017 Trump signed an executive order in a move that
could dismantle the ACA without Congress’s approval, expanding health
insurance products — mostly less comprehensive plans through associations of
small employers and more short-term medical coverage.
He also announced that he would get rid of health insurance subsidies.
Known as cost-sharing reduction payments, which lower the cost of deductibles
for low-income Americans, they were expected to cost $9 billion in 2018 and
$100 billion over the next decade.

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 Birth Control Mandate
On October 6, 2017, the Trump administration announced a rollback of
the birth control mandate put in place by the Obama administration’s Affordable
Care Act, which required insurers to cover birth control at no cost without
copayments as a preventive service. For years, the mandate was threatened by
lawsuits from conservative and religious groups.
The Trump administration said the new exemption applied to any
employer that objects to covering contraception services on the basis of “sincerely
held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” The change is in line with Trump’s
promises as a candidate to ensure that religious groups “are not bullied by the
federal government because of their religious beliefs.”
Opponents of the measure said that it could potentially affect hundreds of
thousands of women, and that access to affordable contraception in the mandate
provided prevents unintended pregnancies and saves women’s lives.
Trump on Abortion
As president, Trump has said that he is “strongly pro life” and wants to
ban all abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in
danger. He has supported bans on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and has
cited his appointments of conservative Supreme Court judges Neil Gorsuch and
Brett Kavanaugh as helping to make abortion laws in some states more restrictive.
Trump changed his beliefs on abortion from pro-choice to anti-abortion in
1999. In 2016, he said that he supported “some form of punishment” for women
who undergo abortions; he later released a statement saying he only thought
practitioners should be punished for performing abortions, not women for having
them.
Trump’s Tax Plan
On April 26, 2017, Trump announced his tax plan in a one-page outline
that would dramatically change tax codes. The plan called for streamlining seven
income tax brackets to three — 10, 25 and 35 percent.

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 The initial outline did not specify which income ranges would fall under
those brackets. The plan also proposed to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to
15 percent, eliminate the alternative-minimum tax and estate tax, and simplify the
process for filing tax returns. The proposal did not address how the tax cuts might
reduce federal revenue and increase debt.
On December 2, 2017, Trump achieved the first major legislative victory
of his administration when the Senate passed a sweeping tax reform bill.
Approved along party lines by a 51-49 vote, the bill drew criticism for extensive
last-minute rewrites, with frustrated Democrats posting photos of pages filled with
crossed-out text and handwriting crammed into the margins.
Among other measures, the Senate bill called for the slashing of the
corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, doubling personal deductions and ending
the Obamacare mandate. It also included a controversial provision that allowed
for "unborn children" to be named as beneficiaries of college savings accounts,
which critics called an attempt to support the pro-life movement. Despite
estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that the bill would cost $1.5 trillion
over a decade, GOP senators insisted that charges would be offset by a growing
economy.
After the bill's passage, Trump tweeted: “Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts
in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going
for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work
and commitment!” On December 20, the final tax bill formally passed both
chambers of Congress.
Following partisan battles over a spending bill in early 2018, which
resulted in a brief government shutdown and stopgap measures, Trump threatened
to torpedo a $1.3 trillion spending bill with a last-minute veto. Reportedly angry
that the bill did not fully fund his long-promised Mexican border wall, he
nevertheless signed the bill into law on March 23, hours before another
government shutdown would have gone into effect.

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 Donald Trump and Mexico
Border Wall
Trump issued an executive order to build a wall at the United States’
border with Mexico. In his first televised interview as president, Trump said the
initial construction of the wall would be funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars, but that
Mexico would reimburse the U.S. “100 percent” in a plan to be negotiated and
might include a suggested import tax on Mexican goods.
In response to the new administration's stance on a border wall, Mexican
president Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a planned visit to meet with Trump.
"Mexico does not believe in walls," the Mexican president said in a video
statement. "I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall."
After funding for the wall failed to materialize, from either Mexico or
Congress, Trump in April 2018 announced that he would reinforce security along
the U.S. border with Mexico by using American troops because of the "horrible,
unsafe laws" that left the country vulnerable. The following day, the president
signed a proclamation that directed National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico
border.
The Department of Homeland Security said that the deployment would be
in coordination with governors, that the troops would "support federal law
enforcement personnel, including [Customs and Border Protection]," and that
federal immigration authorities would "direct enforcement efforts."
In December 2018, shortly before a newly elected Democratic majority
was set to take control of the House, Trump announced he would not sign a bill
to fund the government unless Congress allocated $5.7 billion toward building his
long-promised border wall. With Democrats refusing to give in to his demand, a
partial government shutdown ensued for a record 35 days, until all sides agreed
to another attempt at striking a compromise.
On February 14, 2019, one day before the deadline, Congress passed a
$333 billion spending package that allocated $1.375 billion for 55 miles of steel-

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post fencing. After indicating that he would sign the bill, the President made good
on his threat to declare a national emergency the following day, enabling him to
funnel $3.6 billion slated for military construction projects toward building the
wall.
In response, a coalition of 16 states filed a lawsuit that challenged Trump's
power to circumvent Congress on this issue.
"Contrary to the will of Congress, the president has used the pretext of a
manufactured 'crisis' of unlawful immigration to declare a national emergency and
redirect federal dollars appropriated for drug interdiction, military construction
and law enforcement initiatives toward building a wall on the United States-
Mexico border," the lawsuit said.
After the House voted for a resolution to overturn the national emergency
declaration in late February, the Senate followed suit on March 14 when 12
Republican senators joined a united Democratic side to vote for the resolution.
Trump promptly issued the first veto of his presidency the following day, calling
the resolution a "vote against reality."
In late July 2019, the Supreme Court overturned an appellate decision and
ruled that the Trump administration could begin using Pentagon money for
construction during the ongoing litigation over the issue.
Border Separation Policy
As part of attempts to seal the U.S. border with Mexico, the Trump
administration in 2018 began following through on a "zero-tolerance" policy to
prosecute anybody found to have crossed the border illegally. As children were
legally not allowed to be detained with their parents, this meant that they were to
be held separately as family cases wound through immigration courts.
A furor ensued after reports surfaced that nearly 2,000 children had been
separated from their parents over a six-week period that ended in May 2018,
compounded by photos of toddlers crying in cages. Trump initially deflected
blame for the situation, insisting it resulted from the efforts of predecessors and

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political opponents. "The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the
Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda," he tweeted.
The president ultimately caved to pressure from the bad PR, and on June
20 he signed an executive order that directed the Department of Homeland
Security to keep families together.
"I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated," he said,
adding that it remained important to have "zero tolerance for people that enter our
country illegally" and for Congress to find a permanent solution to the problem.
In the meantime, the DHS essentially revived the "catch-and-release" system that
the zero-tolerance policy was meant to eradicate, while dealing with the logistics
of reuniting families.
Travel Ban
President Trump signed one of his most controversial executive orders on
January 27, 2017, calling for "extreme vetting" to "keep radical Islamic terrorists
out of the United States of America." The president's executive order was put into
effect immediately, and refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly
Muslim countries traveling to the U.S. were detained at U.S. airports.
The order called for a ban on immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan,
Libya, Somalia and Yemen for at least 90 days, temporarily suspended the entry
of refugees for 120 days and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely. In an interview
with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump also said he would give priority
to Christian refugees trying to gain entry into the United States.
After facing multiple legal hurdles, Trump signed a revised executive
order on March 6, 2017, calling for a 90-day ban on travelers from six
predominantly Muslim countries including Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and
Yemen. Iraq, which was included in the original executive order, was removed
from the list.
Travelers from the six listed countries, who hold green cards or have valid
visas as of the signing of the order, will not be affected. Religious minorities

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would not get special preference, as was outlined in the original order, and an
indefinite ban on Syrian refugees was reduced to 120 days.
On March 15, just hours before the revised ban was going to be put into
effect, Derrick Watson, a federal judge in Hawaii, issued a temporary nationwide
restraining order in a ruling that stated the executive order did not prove that a ban
would protect the country from terrorism and that it was “issued with a purpose
to disfavor a particular religion, in spite of its stated, religiously neutral purpose.”
At a rally in Nashville, Trump responded to the ruling, saying: "This is, in the
opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach.”
Judge Theodore D. Chuang of Maryland also blocked the ban the
following day, and in subsequent months, the ban was impeded in decisions
handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond,
Virginia, and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals once again.
However, on June 26, 2017, Trump won a partial victory when the
Supreme Court announced it was allowing the controversial ban to go into effect
for foreign nationals who lacked a "bona fide relationship with any person or
entity in the United States." The court agreed to hear oral arguments for the case
in October, but with the 90-to-120-day timeline in place for the administration to
conduct its reviews, it was believed the case would be rendered moot by that point.
On September 24, 2017, Trump issued a new presidential proclamation,
which permanently bans travel to the United States for most citizens from seven
countries. Most were on the original list, including Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen,
Somalia, while the new order included Chad, North Korea and some citizens of
Venezuela (certain government officials and their families). The tweak did little
to pacify critics, who argued that the order was still heavily biased toward Islam.
“The fact that Trump has added North Korea — with few visitors to the
U.S. — and a few government officials from Venezuela doesn’t obfuscate the real
fact that the administration’s order is still a Muslim ban,” said Anthony D.
Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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 On October 10, the Supreme Court cancelled a planned hearing on an
appeal of the original travel ban. On October 17, the day before the order was to
take effect, Judge Watson of Hawaii issued a nationwide order freezing the Trump
administration’s new travel ban, writing that the order was a “poor fit for the
issues regarding the sharing of ‘public-safety and terrorism-related information
that the president identifies.”
On December 4, 2017, the Supreme Court allowed the third version of the
Trump administration’s travel ban to go into effect despite the ongoing legal
challenges. The court’s orders urged appeals courts to determine as quickly as
possible whether the ban was lawful.
Under the ruling, the administration could fully enforce its new
restrictions on travel from eight nations, six of them predominantly Muslim.
Citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, along
with some groups of people from Venezuela, would be unable to unable to
emigrate to the United States permanently, with many barred from also working,
studying or vacationing in the country.
On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the president's travel ban by
a 5-4 vote. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said that Trump
had the executive authority to make national security judgments in the realm of
immigration, regardless of his previous statements about Islam. In a sharply
worded dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the outcome was equivalent to
that of Korematsu v. United States, which permitted the detention of Japanese-
Americans during World War II.
'Public Charge' Rule
In August 2019, the Trump administration unveiled a new regulation
designed to weed out immigrants who would potentially require government
assistance. Known as the "public charge" rule, for people who are dependent on
Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits, the policy tightened requirements for

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legal immigrants seeking to become permanent residents by focusing on factors
like education, assets, resources and financial status.
Trump and Obama
“Birther” Controversy
Beginning in early 2011, Trump expressed doubts about the validity of
Obama’s birth country to media outlets. To quell the staunch outcry from
birtherists, Obama eventually released his birth certificate in April 2011, verifying
that he was born in the United States. Regardless, Trump continued to be a vocal
critic of President Obama—not only regarding his place of birth, but also on a
variety of his policies.
In 2013, Trump tweeted that a Hawaiian State Health Director, who died
of cardiac arrhythmia following a plane crash, was somehow connected to a
cover-up of President Obama's birth certificate. In 2016, as he began to clinch his
own nomination as the GOP candidate for president, Trump toned down his
stance, telling CNN, “I have my own theory on Obama. Someday I will write a
book.”
Later that fall, feeling pressure from his campaign advisors to put the
conspiracy theory to rest as part of a strategy to appeal to minority voters, Trump
issued a statement: "President Barack Obama was born in the United States,
period.” At the same time, he also blamed his presidential rival, Hillary Clinton,
and her campaign for starting the birther controversy.
Wiretapping Allegations
On March 4, 2017, without citing specific evidence, Trump released a
series of tweets accusing former president Obama of wiretapping the campaign
headquarters at Trump Tower before the election.
FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department to issue a
statement refuting Trump’s allegation, while the White House called for a
congressional investigation into Trump’s claims.

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 On March 16, 2017, bipartisan leaders from the Senate Intelligence
Committee said there was no evidence to support the president’s claim that Trump
Tower had been wiretapped. On March 20, 2017, Comey addressed the
wiretapping allegations, saying that he had “no information that supports those
tweets and we have looked carefully inside the FBI.”
Comey also confirmed that the FBI was investigating the Russian
government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including links
and coordination between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and
the Russian government as well as whether any crimes were committed.
Former FBI Director James Comey and Trump
On May 9, 2017, Trump abruptly fired Comey, who was in the midst of
leading the investigation into whether any Trump advisers colluded with Russia
to influence the outcome of the presidential election.
The president said he based his decision on recommendations from
Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who
asserted that Comey should be dismissed over his handling of the investigation of
Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
The announcement sent shockwaves throughout the government, with
critics comparing Comey's dismissal to the 1973 "Saturday Night Massacre" when
President Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating
the Watergate scandal which eventually led to Nixon's resignation.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer told reporters at a
press conference that “every American will rightly suspect that the decision to fire
Director Comey was part of a cover-up.”
Trump later told reporters at the White House that he had fired Comey
“because he wasn’t doing a good job,” and he told Lester Holt in an NBC News
interview that his decision was not solely based on recommendations from
Sessions and Rosenstein. "Regardless of the recommendation, I was going to fire
Comey," the president told Holt in the televised interview.

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 There was more fallout a week after Comey's firing when the New York
Times reported that Trump had asked Comey to shut down the investigation into
former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
According to the New York Times, Comey wrote in a memo that the
president told him in a meeting a day after Flynn resigned: "I hope you can see
your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you
can let this go." The White House denied this claim in a statement.
On June 8, Comey made a highly anticipated appearance before the Senate
Intelligence Committee. He accused Trump of lying to the public about the nature
of his tenure and dismissal, noting that he believed he was fired to affect the FBI
probe into Russia's influence in the 2016 election.
Israel and the Recognition of Jerusalem
On December 6, 2017, Trump announced that the U.S. was formally
recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and would move the American
embassy there from its current location in Tel Aviv. The declaration broke
decades of precedent, in which the U.S. refused to take sides in the conflict
between Israelis and Palestinians over territorial rights to the city.
Fulfilling one of his campaign pledges, Trump referred to the move as "a
long overdue step to advance the peace process," noting it "would be folly to
assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or
better result." He also stressed that the move would not interfere with any
proposals for a two-state solution.
The announcement was praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu but not as warmly received by American allies France, Britain and
Germany, which called it disruptive to the peace process. Leaders of the
predominantly Muslim countries Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and
Lebanon all condemned the move, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
said the U.S. could no longer be considered a mediator in the region.

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 On December 21, the U.N. General Assembly voted 128 to 9 to demand
that the U.S. rescind its formal recognition of Jerusalem. Britain, France,
Germany and Japan all voted for the resolution, though others, like Australia and
Canada, abstained from the symbolic vote.
After dispatching Vice President Mike Pence to help smooth things over
with Arab leaders in the Middle East, Trump sought to re-establish ties with
American allies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January
2018. He praised U.K. Prime Minister May and enjoyed a friendly meeting with
Netanyahu, though he also took a shot at the Palestinian Authority for refusing to
meet with Pence.
Continuing with a recalibrated approach to relations with its Middle
Eastern ally, the Trump administration announced in November 2019 that it no
longer considered Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under
international law.
A few weeks later, the president sought to bolster support among
American Jews by signing an executive order aimed at cracking down on anti-
Semitism at college campuses. The order effectively allowed the government to
recognize Judaism as both a race or nationality and a religion, empowering the
Education Department to withhold funding from college or educational programs
accused of discriminatory actions against Jews.
Iran
In May 2018, over the objections of European allies, Trump announced
that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal enacted by his
predecessor and reimposing sanctions on the Middle Eastern country.
The announcement initially drew a tepid response from Iran, but President
Hassan Rouhani had stronger words on the issue while addressing diplomats in
July, noting that "war with Iran is the mother of all wars" and warning his
American counterpart to "not play with the lion's tail, because you will regret it
eternally."

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 That seemingly enraged Trump, who fired off an all-caps tweet addressed
to Rouhani: "Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer
consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered
before," he wrote. "We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented
words of violence & death. Be cautious!"
Tensions mounted again by April 2019, when the Trump administration
announced it would no longer grant economic exemptions to the five countries —
China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey — which had been permitted to buy
oil from Iran. Several oil tankers were subsequently attacked near the Strait of
Hormuz, with the U.S. holding Iran responsible for the brazen actions.
In June 2019, the Iranian military shot down an American drone over
contested airspace. Trump said he was minutes away from ordering a strike in
retaliation, before electing to impose new sanctions instead.
In late December, after an American civilian contractor was killed in a
rocket attack on an Iraqi base, the U.S. carried out military strikes against an
Iranian-backed militia deemed responsible for the attack. After protesters
responded by breaching the outer wall of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, the animosity
escalated with the death of Iran's top security and intelligence commander in a
drone strike authorized by President Trump.
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."

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