Donald Trump
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| Donald Trump | |
| Known for | 45th President of the United States |
|---|---|
| Birth | June 14, 1946 |
| Death | |
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is a convicted felon, a third-generation real estate developer, and was the forty-fifth president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
On January 6, 2021, be became the only U.S. president to foment an insurrection against the federal government in an attempt to stay in power after he lost both the popular vote and the electoral college in the 2020 election.
He was also the first U.S. president to have never had any experience in public service in elected office or the military before being elected, the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, and the first U.S. president to be charged and convicted of a crime.
Trump was indicted four times in 2023 on ninety-one felony counts. He was indicted by two American states and the U.S. federal government. He was convicted of thirty-four felony counts in the American state of New York of falsifying business records to hide a sex scandal to aid his 2016 campaign for the American presidency on May 30, 2024.
Donald Trump was preceded as President by Barack Obama and succeeded by Joe Biden.
Early life
Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York to Fred and Mary Trump (née MacLeod).
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968.
The Trump Organization
In 1971, Donald Trump became president of E. Trump & Son, the real-estate business that his father and his paternal grandmother founded in 1927.
Donald Trump renamed it to The Trump Organization around 1973. He expanded the business into building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses, as well as licensing the use of the Trump brand.
On December 6, 2022, The Trump Organization was convicted on 17 criminal charges of financial fraud.
On September 26, 2023, Donald Trump was found liable for financial fraud by inflating the value of his fortune by billions and lying about real estate assets in statements to insurers and banks. The New York business certificates of Donald Trump were ordered to be cancelled and the corporate entities dissolved. Donald Trump appealed the ruling and the New York State Court of Appeals paused the dissolution on October 6, 2023.
On February 16, 2024, Judge Engoron ruled that Donald Trump personally owed $454 million for fraud. The money owed by Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., the Trump Organization, and the interest that was accrued as of the date of the ruling was $9.9 million.
Donald Trump had until March 25, 2024, to post a bond of the total amount of the fine while the case was being appealed. After he didn't pay, Donald Trump had to pay 9.9 percent interest on the fine each day.
On March 25, 2024, an appeals court lowered the bond to $175 million USD. Knight Specialty Insurance Company agreed to keep the total penalty amount in a cash account that will gain interest, which prevented the seizure and sale of Trump Organization properties to cover the fine.
The Art of the Deal and Trump: The Game
The Art of the Deal, a book that described how he made deals in his business was credited to Donald Trump and written by the journalist Tony Schwartz. It was released in 1984. The latter was paid $250,000 USD and half of the $1.1 million USD of sales of the book. Schwartz said in July 2016 that Trump's only contribution to the book was to remove a few critical moments that criticized his business colleagues.
Trump: The Game, a 1989 Milton Bradley board game, was produced as a result of the sales of the book. It sold eight hundred thousand units for total sales of USD 20 million, although only forty percent of the expected two million units were sold. After the success of The Apprentice, Parker Brothers re-released the game in 2004 with changes to match the aesthetic of the television series.
Donald Trump stated the year Trump: The Game was released that he would give his portion of the sales of the board game to charity. An article written by the journalist Christina Wilkie, published by The Huffington Post in 2016, stated that none of the $1 million USD Donald Trump stated by Trump could be substantiated as having been given to charity.
Fraudulent charity: the Donald J. Trump Foundation
Donald Trump founded a charitable organization, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, in 1988.
Trump admitted he used the money donated to the foundation for his own personal use, and in November 2019, he reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against the charity. As a result of the settlement, Trump had to pay $2 million as restitution as well as reimburse $11,525 to the foundation. The foundation had to undergo court-ordered dissolution.
A total of $1.8 million USD was in the foundation's bank account, including the reimbursement. This money was paid to eight charities in December 2019.
Film and television appearances and The Apprentice
Donald Trump became a familiar face in the United States as he appeared as himself in several film and television productions as well as in advertisements from the 1980s to the 2010s.
Television producer Mark Burnett approached Trump to host a reality television series, and in 2004, The Apprentice first aired. It was a reality series wherein people apply to ostensibly work for the Trump Organization. Five more yearly television seasons were produced before the show was retooled with celebrity contestants. The Celebrity Apprentice, hosted by Trump, aired for seven seasons.
Donald Trump's final The Celebrity Apprentice season aired in 2015 as he was running for President of the United States. Due to the racist statements he made during his campaign, Trump was fired from the series. Trump was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger and it continued for one more season as The New Celebrity Apprentice in 2017.
A tabletop game version, The Apprentice Game, was released by Parker Brothers in 2004.
Appearances in video games
Trump Casino was licensed for use in the 1989 video game, The Ultimate Casino Gambling Simulation. It was billed by the developer and publisher, Capstone Software, as "the official Trump Castle simulation". Capstone Software also published two sequels. Trump Castle II was developed by Brian A. Rice, Inc. and was published in 1991. Capstone Software developed the final game in the series, Trump Castle 3, which was published in 1993.
Donald Trump's name, appearance, and voice were licensed for the 2002 video game Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon.
The Apprentice was licensed for video game adaptations which were published by Legacy Interactive. The 2005 video game The Apprentice was developed by Big Top Games and the 2007 video game The Apprentice: Los Angeles was developed by Aliasworlds Entertainment.
Although Trump makes money from licensing his name and likeness, anything performed in the official capacity of running for federal office, or while in federal office, in the United States is in the public domain. Because of this, developers and publishers were able to include Donald Trump in their video games.
Stardock included Donald Trump in their political campaign simulators The Political Machine 2012 in 2012, The Political Machine 2016 in 2016, and The Political Machine 2020 in 2020.
Emerson Design released a turn-based role-playing game based on the Paper Mario series titled Super POTUS Trump in 2017.
Bankruptcies
Trump ventured into several unsuccessful businesses, which led to six bankruptcies. His casino businesses filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five times, in 1991, 1992, 2004, 2009, and 2014. Plaza Hotel in New York City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 14, 1984.
In 1989, Trump paid $62 million to purchase the unfinished Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino. He kept the tower that had formerly been a Holiday Inn, which was renamed Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino East Tower. The remainder was demolished.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and Trump Castle filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
It closed on September 16, 2014, and the main hotel tower was imploded on February 17, 2021.
Trump Marina
Trump Castle opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 19, 1985.
Trump Castle, along with Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
Trump Castle was renamed Trump Marina in 1997. Landry's purchased Trump Marina in February 2011 and took control of the property on May 23, 2011. After the purchase, it was renamed Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel, which was opened on October 1, 1907, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, was purchased by Trump at auction in 1988 for either $390 million USD or $407.5 million USD.
The hotel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992. Trump sold the Plaza Hotel at a loss in 1995 for $325 million USD.
Trump's World's Fair at Trump Plaza
In June 1989, Trump spent $63 million to purchase the Atlantis casino hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which opened as the Playboy Hotel on April 14, 1981, and was renamed in 1984.
As it was only separated from Trump Plaza by the Atlantic City Convention Hall, after the purchase, it was renamed the Trump Regency at Trump Plaza.
In 1995, the ownership of the Trump Plaza was transferred to Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. The company renamed the casino hotel Trump's World's Fair at Trump Plaza on May 15, 1996.
It closed on October 3, 1999, and the land was sold at auction to Bruce Toll of Toll Brothers.
Trump Taj-Mahal
Trump purchased a controlling stake in Resorts International, the owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for $79 million in July 1987. His intent was to own the company's unfinished Atlantic City casino hotel which was to be named Taj Mahal.
After Merv Griffin and Donald Trump both sought to control the company, the two reached an agreement in November 1988. Griffin purchased the company and Trump purchased the Taj Mahal from the company for $273 million.
Trump raised $675 million to complete the casino, mostly through junk bonds with a fourteen percent interest rate. The Trump Taj Mahal opened on April 2, 1990.
The total cost of opening the casino hotel was $1 billion, which led to the Trump Taj Mahal filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991.
On March 1, 2017, Hard Rock International purchased the Trump Taj Mahal. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City opened on June 27, 2018.
Trump Entertainment Resorts
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts was founded as a publicly traded company in 1995 as the operator of Trump Plaza and the unfinished floating casino, Trump Casino, in Gary, Indiana.
In 1996, it purchased the Trump Taj Mahal for $890 million and the Trump Castle casino and hotel from the Trump Organization for $486 million. It also assumed $355 million in debt.
In March 2001, the company assumed control of the Indian casino, Spotlight 29 Casino, in Coachella, California.
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004, after which it was renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts.
Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two more times, in 2009 and 2014.
The company closed on October 10, 2016. The company's assets were acquired by Icahn Enterprises, and the company's websites were redirected to Donald Trump's website.
Trump Casino
Trump Casino, a floating casino in Gary, Indiana, opened in 1996.
In 2005, it was sold to Majestic Star Holdings, which operated the Majestic Star Casino. The casino was renamed Majestic Star II after the purchase. Both Majestic Star casinos were closed in April 2021.
Trump 29 Casino
In March 2001, Trump Entertainment Resorts assumed control of the management of Spotlight 29 Casino, which was originally founded on January 14, 1995, in Coachella, California, and was owned by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians of California.
The casino reopened on April 2, 2002, as the Trump 29 Casino. The casino's relationship with Donald Trump ended in 2006 when the casino management agreement was bought out for $6 million, and the casino reverted to its original name.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation
Donald Trump used Twitter and Facebook to spread misinformation. Misinformation stated by Donald Trump was also spread to other platforms by other users.
The false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, the first African-American president, was ineligible for the position due to being born in Africa, when he was in fact born in the US state of Hawaii, was spread by Donald Trump on Twitter. According to ABC News, Donald Trump tweeted or retweeted this conspiracy theory at least 67 times from 2011 until his ban from Twitter on January 8, 2021.
In 2015, Trump retweeted another false conspiracy about Barack Obama that was started by a website that regularly posted conspiracy theories and misleading content, Breitbart News Network. The false conspiracy theory claimed Barack Obama supported the Islamist terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
2016 campaign for President of the United States
Donald Trump ran an ultimately successful campaign for President of the United States in 2016.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation during campaign
In 2016, during his campaign for President of the United States, Donald Trump promoted several conspiracies against his opponents.
Trump mentioned an unfounded conspiracy theory in a Fox News interview that was started by the National Enquirer. This conspiracy theory, which was further spread through Twitter, stated that US Senator Ted Cruz's father was involved in Lee Harvey Oswald's murder of US president John F. Kennedy.
Trump retweeted false conspiracy theories that Seth Rich, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, was murdered because he sent documents to WikiLeaks that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States.
Trump revived a false conspiracy in an interview with The Washington Post that was started in the 1994 conspiracy film, The Clinton Chronicles. This false conspiracy theory, which was further spread through Twitter, inferred that the July 1993 suicide of then-deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was actually a murder that was carried out by, or covered up by, then-President Bill Clinton and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.
Presidency
Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the United States on January 21, 2017.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation while in office
In 2017, the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory started when anonymous individual or individuals used the name "Q" to spread baseless conspiracies about a criminal cabal of Democrats and celebrities would be thwarted by President Trump. Donald Trump retweeted the conspiracy and alluded to it several times before fully embracing it at his rallies and on social media in 2022.
In 2019, Donald Trump tweeted the false conspiracy theory that the sexual predator Jeffery Epstein didn't commit suicide in prison, but was instead murdered by Bill Clinton.
2020 campaign for President of the United States
In 2020, Donald Trump ran his ultimately unsuccessful re-election campaign for President of the United States.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation during campaign
As he had done during his 2016 campaign, Trump retweeted various conspiracy theories against his opponents.
A false conspiracy theory was pushed by Trump in 2020, which was further spread through Twitter at a press conference. As he had done with Barack Obama, who was the first African-American President of the United States, Donald Trump erroneously stated that Kamala Harris, who would become the first African-American and Asian-American Vice President of the United States, wasn't born in the United States and thus wasn't eligible to become vice president.
Also in 2020, Trump tweeted a false conspiracy theory that then-MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered Lori Klausutis, a woman who worked in Scarborough's Florida office when he served as a United States Representative for the first district of Florida.
First impeachment
Attempted Bribery
In June 2019, the Trump administration withheld military equipment that the United States Congress approved for the fiscal year to be sent to Ukraine in their fight against invasion by Russia, led by then-president Vladimir Putin, and Russian-backed separatists.
Trump made a phone call to then-Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 25, 2019 refusing to release military aid unless Zelenskyy gave him information related to an unfounded conspiracy theory wherein then-Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, pressured Ukraine. This pressure was supposedly meant to fire the top prosecutor to protect his son Hunter from being investigated in the Ukrainian investigation of the latter's previous employer, the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
When the news that Donald Trump held back Congress-approved equipment in an effort to get help from a foreign power to find information against his likely opponent in the upcoming election, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced articles of impeachment.
Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives but was acquitted by the Senate.
Second impeachment
2021 United States Capital insurrection
After losing to Joe Biden in the November 3, 2020 election, Donald Trump falsely claimed that widespread election fraud caused the election to be stolen from him.
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump held a rally where he continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen and told his supporters to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from doing his constitutional duty to approve the electoral college votes for Joe Biden.
Although he had a single line in his speech about marching "peacefully and patriotically", the rest of Donald Trump's speech, and those of other speakers at the rally, told the Trump supporters to be angry, fight, and prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office.
Prior to the rally, Donald Trump's supporters went to the United States Capitol building and erected a hangman's noose. After the rally, Trump's supporters marched to the Capitol and shouted "Hang Mike Pence". Trump supporters attempted an insurrection by breaking into the Capitol building and members of Congress, along with Vice President Mike Pence and his family, were ushered to safety. Ultimately seven people died in connection with the insurrection, and one-hundred-thirty-eight police officers were injured.
Donald Trump waited one-hundred-eighty-seven minutes to tell the insurrectionists to disperse. While the violence was happening, Trump used social media, including telling the insurrectionists "You are loved". This led to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram banning him on their platforms over fears that he would incite more violence.
Impeachment by the United States House of Representatives
Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced articles of impeachment against Donald Trump related to the failed insurrection by Trump's supporters.
Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on January 13, 2021, making him the first United States president, and the first United States federal official, to be impeached twice.
The Senate impeachment trial ran from February 9, 2021, to February 13, 2021. Because Donald Trump's presidential term ended on January 20, 2021, he was the first ex-president to be subject to a Senate impeachment trial.
Acquital by the United States Senate
Seven Republican senators joined all forty-eight Democrat senators and two independent senators who caucused with the Democrats to impeach Donald Trump.
However, Trump was acquitted by the Senate as the fifty-seven votes to impeach were ten short of the required sixty-seven senators needed to remove Trump from office.
Post-presidency
Donald Trump continued to spread the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen after his presidency.
Founding of Truth Social and return to social media
Due to being banned from the major social media platforms, Donald Trump formed Trump Media & Technology Group with then-Representative Devin Nunes of California as its chief executive officer in February 2022.
Trump Media & Technology Group released Truth Social, a social network with a user base comprised mostly of people with a far-right political ideology, for iOS on February 21, 2022. On May 20, 2022, Truth Social was updated so that it could be used via the web. On August 30, 2022, Google stated that it would not approve Truth Social for release for Android on Google Play due to a violation of its policies prohibiting physical threats and incitement to violence. However, after stronger content moderation policies were implemented, Truth Social was approved by Google for release on Google Play on October 12, 2022.
Donald Trump's social media accounts were reinstated on Twitter on November 19, 2022, on Facebook and Instagram on January 25, 2023, and on YouTube on March 17, 2023. After his bans were lifted, Trump once again posted on these social media platforms.
Despite trying to ban TikTok while president due to it being controlled by a Chinese-owned company, Trump began using the social media app on June 1, 2024.
Criminal charges
First indictment and conviction
Donald Trump was indicted by the state of New York on March 30, 2023, on thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. It was related to a $130,000 payment that was made in 2016 while running for President to adult film actor Stephanie Clifford, better known under her stage name Stormy Daniels, to prevent her from selling her story about an alleged affair with Trump.
He was convicted of all thirty-four felony counts on May 30, 2024.
Second indictment
Trump received his second indictment, and his first federal indictment, on June 9, 2023. It charged the former president with thirty-seven felony counts related to illegally keeping classified documents, showing classified documents to people without security clearances, and instructing a staffer of Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, to destroy evidence by deleting video footage at the estate. Three more felony counts, for a total of forty, were added to the indictment on July 27, 2023, related to classified documents Trump showed people without security clearances at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
On July 15, 2024, Aileen Cannon, Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump. The reasoning behind the dismissal was that the appointment of special prosecutor Jack Smith violated the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution because he was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland rather than by the President or Congress.
Third indictment
Trump was indicted for a third time, and for a second time federally, on August 3, 2023. The former president was charged with four felony counts related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which led to the deadly attempted insurrection of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Fourth indictment
Trump was indicted for a fourth time, and for the second time by a U.S. state, on August 14, 2023. He was one of the nineteen people charged in an indictment by the state of Georgia with forty-one felony counts related to attempts to coerce Georgia officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Civil charges
2019 E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
On June 21, 2019, a journalist named E. Jean Carroll published an article in New York magazine claiming that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in late 1995 or early 1996. On July 2, 2019, a book she wrote titled What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal was published which also included the sexual assault accusation against Trump.
On November 4, 2019, E. Jean Carroll filed a civil lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Trump for damaging her reputation by claiming that she only published the book for publicity as well as insulting her appearance.
In September 2020, government lawyers from the United States Department of Justice argued that Donald Trump had acted in his official capacity as president when he responded to Carroll's accusation.
In June 2021, during the Joe Biden presidency, the Department of Justice argued to the United States Court of Appeals that government lawyers should represent Trump as he was a federal employee at the time of the accusation.
2022 E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit
The Adult Survivors Act was enacted in the U.S. state of New York in May 2022. It allowed people who were sexually abused to file civil charges, from November 24, 2022, to November 24, 2023, against the alleged offender who committed the act during a period in which the statute of limitations had expired.
On November 24, 2022, E. Jean Carroll filed a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Donald Trump. Due to the Adult Survivors Act, she was able to sue Trump for the sexual abuse she had claimed he committed against her in the New York City Bergdorf Goodman department store. The lawsuit also included defamation charges against Trump for statements he made against her in October 2022 on Truth Social.
The jury reached a unanimous decision on May 9, 2023, that found that Donald Trump did not rape Carroll under the strict definition of New York State law, but that he did sexually abuse and defame her. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million USD.
Return to the 2019 lawsuit and additional defamation against E. Jean Carroll
On May 10, 2023, the day after the jury found Trump that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, the former appeared on the cable news network, CNN, and continued to insult Carroll by calling her a "whack job" and saying that he doesn't "know who the hell she is". This led her to file an additional defamation claim against Donald Trump.
On July 11, 2023, the Department of Justice reversed its prior position, no longer asserting that Donald Trump had not acted within the scope of his office when he responded to the accusations, and no longer arguing for government lawyers to represent Trump.
On September 6, 2023, Kaplan issued a partial summary judgment in favor of Carroll when he ruled that Trump was liable for defamation of E. Jean Carroll through the statements that he made in 2019.
The jury reached a decision on January 26, 2024, after deliberating for three hours, awarded Carroll Carroll $7.3 million USD in emotional damages, $11 million USD in damages to her reputation, and $65 million USD in punitive damages, totaling $83.3 million USD.
2024 campaign for President of the United States
In 2024, Donald Trump ran another campaign for President of the United States.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation during campaign
During his 2024 campaign, Trump used Truth Social to spread a conspiracy theory against his opponent.
A false conspiracy theory was pushed by Trump in 2023. He falsely claimed that Nimarata Nikki Haley, the first Indian American to serve in a United States Presidential Cabinet, had parents who weren't citizens when she was born in the United States which would supposedly make her ineligible to run for President. People born in the United States had birthright citizenship, something Donald Trump campaigned to end.
Use of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution to bar Trump's campaign
A clause in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution bars insurrectionists and those who gave them aid from holding federal office.
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
Because Donald Trump incited the 2021 insurrection of the United States Capitol, states sought to bar him from running for office in 2024. In 2023, he was deemed ineligible by the Supreme Court of Colorado on December 19, 2023, and by the Secretary of State in Maine on December 29, 2023.
On March 4, 2024, in the case Trump v. Anderson, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Donald Trump could remain on the ballot because he was running for federal office which needed an act of Congress to invalidate his candidacy.
Assassination attempt
On July 13, 2024, Thomas Crooks fired shots from the roof of a building across from a Trump campaign rally in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump was shot in the ear, two attendees were hurt, and one was killed. A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the assailant.
Crooks was a 20-year-old white male who was wearing a shirt from a YouTube channel that featured guns and explosives. He was a registered Republican, although he donated $15 USD to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic voter contact campaign, in 2021. Other than the donation, he was not politically involved, and no clear motive was assertained.
