Donald Trump

By 1993, Trump married his second wife, actress Marla Maples, with whom he already had a daughter, Tiffany. Trump's second marriage ended when he filed for divorce in 1997, again a highly publicized divorce, in 1997, which would be finalized in June 1999.

Trump would marrymarried again in January 2005 to former Slovenian model Melania Trump (née Knauss) in a public and lavish wedding. Melania, more than twenty-three years his junior, and DonaldTrump have one child together, Barron Trump.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Donald Trump would go on to expand expanded the business by investing in luxury hotels and residential properties, shifting the business's development focus to Manhattan and later to Atlantic City, New Jersey. One of these expansions included the purchase of the decrepit Commodore Hotel near Grand Central Station. Trump used his father's political connections in the city, as well as a partnership with the Hyatt Corporation to refurbish the building and part of Grand Central Station. The deal included a complex profit-sharing agreement with the city of New York that included a forty-year property tax abatement, the first such tax break granted to a commercial property in New York City. The building reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel and offered 1,400 rooms.

The 1980s also saw the Trump Organization's foray into the casino business, specifically in Atlantic City, where his properties would includeincluded Harrah's at Trump Plaza, developed in 1984, and later renamed to Trump Plaza; Trump's Castle Casino Resort in 1985; and the Trump Taj Mahal in 1990, which was then the largest casino in the world. This period also saw Trump purchase the New Jersey Generals, a team participating in the short-lived U.S. Football League; Mar-a-Lago, a 118-room mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, which had been built in the 1920s by heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post; and a 282-foot yacht named the Trump Princess, which at the time was the world's second-largest yacht. He also purchased an East Coast air-shuttle service., which he would namenamed Trump Shuttle.

Despite some of his real estate successes in this period, Trump's real estate business continued to struggle, with his company Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts filing for bankruptcy in 2004, after several properties had accumulated unmanageable debt. The company, which was renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts, would filefiled for bankruptcy again in 2009.

This extended as well to Trump Financial, a mortgage company; the Trump Foundation, a charity organization; and the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, which was formerly known as the Trump University, an was an online education company focused on real estate investment and entrepreneurialism. The latter venture was targeted by a class-action lawsuit, which alleged fraud on behalf of former students. It ceased operation in 2011, and Trump settled the lawsuits for $25 million in November of 2016. In 2019, Trump would agreeagreed to pay $2 million in damages and admit guilt to settle another lawsuit that alleged Trump illegally used assets from the Trump Foundation to fund his 2016 presidential campaign. The Trump Foundation was dissolved as part of the settlement.

In 2004, Trump partnered with NBC again and Mark Burnett Productions to produce and star in the reality television show The Apprentice. The show quickly became popular and would see several Emmy nominations but never a win. The show would launchlaunched a spin-off, The Celebrity Apprentice, before Trump left as the host to pursue his political career in 2015. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger became the new host of The Celebrity Apprentice, before the show was canceled in 2017. The original The Apprentice show had not, in 2023, been canceled, but it had not aired since 2017. Rupert Murdoch attempted to buy the rights to The Apprentice, but it eventually fell apart in fears that Trump would use the show as a platform for political campaigning.

Following his ban from social media platforms Facebook and Twitter in 2021, Donald Trump floated the idea of building a new social media platform owned by himself. The platform would bewas created and launched in February 2022 by Trump Media & Technology Group, a group founded in October 2021. The application was launched on iOS and was approved for Android in October 2022.

During the presidential race and throughout Donald Trump's presidency, there were questions about his net worth. Further controversy occurred when he refused to release his tax returns during the election cycle—citing an audit by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)—and he would not release his tax returns during his presidency, becoming the first major party candidate to do so since Richard Nixon in 1972. When Democrats regained control of the House in the 2018 elections, Trump faced further calls to release his tax returns.

This came to a head in April 2019, when Congressman Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns from the IRS. This request and a follow-up subpoena for documents would bewere rejected by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The New York Assembly in May of 2019 passed legislation that authorized tax officials to release the president's state returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, which led to a subpoena for Trump's personal and corporate tax returns dating back to 2011. This was challenged in court, although Trump's challenge would bewas dismissed, and the enforcement of the subpoena would bewas delayed. The Supreme Court would hearheard arguments over whether a president could block the disclosure of financial information to congressional committees. His tax returns would eventually be publicly released in December of 2022.

Other orders included a federal hiring freeze, withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific partnership, reinstating Mexico City policy banning federal funding of non-governmental organizations abroad that promote or perform abortions, scaling back financial regulations under the Dodd-Frank Act, and a lifetime foreign-lobbying ban for members of his administration and a five-year ban for all other lobbying. He released his proposed budget at this time, which outlined plans for increased spending for the military, veterans affairs, and national security; while making spending cuts to government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and reduced funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Community Development Block Grant program. Much of this funding would bewas later restored, as the cuts proved controversial.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on September 24, 2019, that the House would pursue an inquiry into Trump following allegations that the president had requested the Ukrainian government investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in exchange for aid. Trump denied the allegations and would gowent on to call the inquiry a witch hunt. Following weeks of public hearings, the House voted to impeach Trump on December 18, 2019, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Trump joined the short list of presidents who had previously been impeached, which included Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

In January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the continuing spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. Soon after, the first known case in the United States was identified, and officials urged Trump and his administration to take action, with various models suggesting the possibility for massive death and severe damage to the U.S. economy COVID-19 could cause. At the end of January, Trump imposed a partial ban on foreign travelers from China or who had recently visited China. He also downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19 and promoted unproven and potentially deadly alternative remedies for the virus. Trump would gowent on to declare a national emergency, suspended travel to the United States from European countries, and recommended Americans practice social distancing, while suggesting governors should make their own arrangements to source and obtain respirators and ventilators, considered vital to the response at the time.

Despite these efforts, by the time of the 2020 election, more than 9.5 million Americans had developed COVID-19, and more than 225,000 were known to have died from the illness. Some suggested these numbers, as well as Trump's predilection to downplay COVID-19 and promote some theories that officials considered to be false, if not conspiracy theories, would leadled to his eventual loss to Joe Biden.

Due to the novel conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, many voters chose to vote by mail, causing concerns for some about the potential for voter fraud. Trump tended to encourage his constituents to vote in-person, rather than trust the mail-in ballots; while Joe Biden encouraged voters to choose to vote as they were comfortable. Either way, the mail-in ballots meant determining the election results took longer than in previous years, and it would taketook days before Biden could be declared the winner of the election.

In late 2022, Donald Trump announced his intent to run for president again. If he won, it would make him the second president in U.S. history to serve as president in two non-consecutive terms. The announcement came after the 2022 midterm elections, in which Trump was blamed for elevating candidates who parroted his claims about election fraud, which alienated key voters and would leadled to the defeat of those Republican candidates and stall the expected gains for the Republican party.

He won the election as the forty-fifth president of the United States in a surprise victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, although he lost the popular vote. The campaign by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump included various controversies, including Trump's lewd comments on women and female genitalia. These controversies led many pollsters and pundits to express confidence in a victory for Hillary Clinton. However, when voting began on November 8, 2016, Trump began with a series of critical wins in the "Rust Belt" states whichthat would lead to a Trump win in the electoral college vote by 304 to 227. Trump's unprecedented win led to questions about the reliability of polls and the strategic mistakes of the Clinton campaign.

This came to a head in April 2019, when Congressman Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, requested six years of Trump's personal and business tax returns from the IRS. This request and a follow-up subpoena for documents would be rejected by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. The New York Assembly in May of 2019 passed legislation that authorized tax officials to release the president's state returns to the House Ways and Means Committee, which led to a subpoena for Trump's personal and corporate tax returns dating back to 2011. This was challenged in court, although Trump's challenge would be dismissed, and the enforcement of the subpoena would be delayed. The Supreme Court would hear arguments over whether a president could block the disclosure of financial information to congressional committees. His tax returns would eventually be publicly released in December of 2022.

During his term in office, Donald Trump would nominatenominated 274 individuals to fedearlfederal judgeships, and made 245 judicial appointments. Of those appointments, 234 were Article III judges. Trump would also withdrawwithdrew eight nominations during this time, while a further 143 received no vote from the senate. In the case of the Supreme Court, Trump made three nominations, and in some cases, these nominations have been one of the biggest long-term impacts of Trump's presidency. These nominations included Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch.

In January of 2017, Donald Trump made his first appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Neil Gorsuch was the appointment to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia. On April 3, 2017, voting began for Neil Gorsuch's nomination, and on the same day, Senate Democrats announced they could sustain a filibuster against htethe nominationomination of the judge. In anticipation of the filibuster, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell indicated he could restrict the use of filibusters for Supreme Court nominations, also referred to as the nuclear option. The Senate would votevoted on April 6 of, 2017, to restrict the use of filibusters on presidential nomiantions,nominations and ended the debate on the Gorsuch nomination. The final vote was recorded as a 54-45 vote, and Gorsuch received his commission on April 10, 2017.

Brett Kavanaugh's nomination and confirmation as the 114th associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - byCourt—by a vote of 50-48-1 - was50-48-1—was the most controversial of Trump's nominations to the Supreme Court. This was because of allegations of past sexual misconduct on behalf of Kavanaugh, which he denied, but prompted a fifth day of confirmation hearings to try and investigate the allegations. At the time of his nomination, Kavanaugh was serving as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals on the D.C. Circuit, and had previously been appointed by presidentPresident George W. Bush. Kavanaugh replaced a retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The final Supreme Court judge nominated by Trump was Amy Coney Barrett. She was confirmed as the 115th associate justice of the Supreme Cout by a vote of 52-48 on October 26, 2020, and succeeded Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 29, 2020. At the time of her nomination, Barrett was serving as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, and she had also previously worked as a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on September 24 of, 2019, that the House would pursue an inquiry into Trump following allegations that the president had requested the Ukrainian government investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in exchange for aid. Trump denied the allegations and would go on to call the inquiry a witch hunt. Following weeks of public hearings, the House voted to impeach Trump on December 18, 2019, charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Trump joined the short list of presidents who had previously been impeached, which included Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

In January 2020, the World Health Organization declared the continuing spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. Soon after, the first known case in the United States was identified, and officials urged Trump and his administration to take action, with various models suggesting the possibility for massive death and severe damage to the U.S. economy COVID-19 could cause. At the end of January, Trump imposed a partial ban on foreign travelers from China or who had recently visited China. He also downplayed the threat posed by COVID-19, and promoted unproven, and potentially deadly, alternative remedies for the virus. Trump would go on to declare a national emergency, suspended travel to the United States from European countries, and recommended Americans practice social distancing, while suggesting governors should make their own arrangements to source and obtain respirators and ventilators, considered vital to the response at the time.

Part of Trump's COVID-19 response was the public-private partnership called Operation Warp Speed, which was intended to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnositicsdiagnostics. The program promoted mass production of multiple vaccines based on different vaccine technology, and based on preliminaryevidencepreliminary evidence allowing for faster distribution. It anticipated that some vaccines would not prove safe and effective, making the program costly, but intended to lead to a viable and widely available vaccine sooner than traditional vaccine developments. The program would be credited by many for developing the eventual vaccines offered by Pfizer and Moderna.

Despite these efforts, by the time of the 2020 election, more than 9.5 million Americans had developed COVID-19, and more than 225,000 were known to have died from the illness. Some suggested these numbers, as well as Trump's predilictionpredilection to downplay COVID-19 and promote some theories that officials considered to be false, if not conspiracy theories, would lead to his eventual loss to Joe Biden.

During the Spring of 2020, Trump began to campaign for a second term in office. He was running this time against Democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden. This election cycle was unlike any other, as it took place under the threat and health-based restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump ran his campaign in a nearnearly similar manner to his 2016 campaign, choosing to appear at rallies attended by hundreds, if not thousands, of people; in contrast to Biden, who campaigned mostly through online video events. During his campaign, both Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Both recovered quickly, and Trump resumed his campaigning style. The key concerns of the 2020 election tended to includeincluded the pandemic, the high unemployment rate caused by the pandemic response, racial tensions across the country, and healthcare.

The final tally showed Biden won about 81 million votes to Trump's approximate 74 million, and won 306 electoral colleges to Trump's 232. On December, 14, 2020, the electoral college formally elected Biden as the next presieentpresident of the United States. During the campaign, and in the aftermath, many suggested Biden won because the American people wanted a return to "normal" politics, and were tired of Trump's brash style, and that Joe Biden represented that normal.

Trump refused to concede the election in the weeks following the 2020 election. He continued to declare that he won the election, even though he and his legal team failed to present evidence to back up those claims. This continued belligerence against the results of the election led to Trump holding a rally neearnear the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th, 2021, while Congress was in a joint session to count the electoral votes. There, he spoke to thousands of people who had come to Washington, D.C., to hear Trump speak and protest the results of the election, which they tended to also to believe had been stolen. It has been alleged that Trump encouraged the crowd to march on Capitol hillHill and voice their displeasure, both during the rally, and based on comments made on social media.

The result was the massive mob of protestors marched on the U.S. Capitol in what was believed to be an attempt to prevent Congress from declaring Biden the victor. The protestors eventually overran the heavily outnumbered security and police forces, which had forestalled the protestors long enough to evacuate Congress to safety. The protestors broke through the barriers and were able to walk through the Capitol building without contest in most cases.

As a result of the attack on the Capitol, there have been various claims of the amountnumber of people who died on the day, ranging from 1one to 10ten. However, on the day, one person woulddid die as a result of being shot by Capitol police. Four others died due to medical emergencies, including two protestors who died of a heart attack, one who died of an accidental overdose, and a Capitol police officer who died of a stroke due to the excitement of the day. Other officers committed suicide in the days and months after the riot, apparently in relation to the to the riot, which some count as casualties of the day.

Due to his involvement on January 6th, 2021, both in his public speaking and his social media posting, the House of Representatives voted, on January 13, 2021, to impeach Trump for incitement to insurrection by a vote of 232-197; this included ten Republican members who voted to impeach. The resolution alleged that Trump had attempedattempted to subvert and obstruct the certification of the election results, and incited a crowd to attack the Capitol, thatwhich leadled to the death of various people, among other seditious acts. Trump called the impeachment a continuation of the "political witch hunt" against him. On February 13, 2021, now former president Donald Trump was acquitted of incitement to insurrection. Conviction required two-thirds vote of senators present, and only 57 senators voted to convict while 43 voted to acquit.

In late 2022, Donald Trump announced his intent to run for president again. If he won, it would make him the second president in U.S. history to serve as president in two non-consecutive terms. The announcement came after the 2022 midterm elections, in which Trump was blamed for elevating candidates who parroted his claims about election fraud, which alienated key voters, and would lead to the defeat of those Republican candidates, and stall the expected gains for the Republican party.

However, Trump's campaign for a second presidential term faces an uphill battle, as he is entrenched in multiple legal battles in 2023 that may not be resolved until 2024 or later. The first such legal battle is Trump's April 2023 indictment in which he was charged with 34thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records based on the money Trump paid to conceal alleged affairs with three different women. The allegation states that the money, which was paid out by Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, and his reimbursement of his attorney. Further, the charges allege that Trump attempted to defraud and conceal another crime in the commission of the crimes.

Other potential legal troubles Trump faces include a Georgia election tampering probe, based on comments Trump made in a phone call to Georgia Secretary of stateState Brad Raffensperger, on January 2, 2021, in which Trump asked Raffensberger to "find" enough votes to overturn Trump's election loss in Georgia. A special grand jury was established to investigate the allegations, and the potential violations of Georgia's election laws. Although Trump could argue that his comments are protected under the first amendment.

Despite not being impeached for the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the U.S. Justice Department has investigations underway into Trump's actions in the 2020 election and histhe potential role he played in thisethose attacks. Some of the proposed charges in this investigation have included corruption of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and inciting or aiding an insurrection.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor and political independent, to investigate Trump's actions around the events of January 6th, and to investigate whether Trump improperly retainretained classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office in 2021. This investigation is based on the potential legality or illegality of Trump willfully removing or retaining classified material.