The US presidential elections confirmed the second presidential term for the Republican Donald Trump (Trump), who led significantly against his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
After a very strong electoral campaign between the two candidates, America elected Trump as the 47th President of the country, once again guaranteeing him the safe seat of the White House after 2016 where he was elected as the 45th President of the USA – widow.
But who is Donald Trump?
Trump has played an important role in the history of America, not only as a politician, but also as a businessman.
Donald John Trump was born in Queens, New York, on June 14, 1946. His father, Fred Trump, was a successful businessman in the real estate market.
Trump was educated at the New York Military Academy and the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1971, Donald Trump took over his father’s real estate company, renaming it the Trump Organization. The business soon expanded to include hotels, resorts, residential and commercial buildings, casinos and golf courses. The first of his many books was The Art of the Deal, published in 1987. In 2004, he launched the reality television show The Apprentice.
In 2005, Donald Trump married Melania Knauss, a marriage from which their son, Barron, was born. Trump also has four grown children from previous marriages: Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany.
During the 2016 primaries, Trump managed to win the Republican nomination and in the general election he defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by winning the majority of Electoral College votes. His campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again”.
Despite having no prior political experience, Trump used unconventional methods to communicate his priorities. Most notably, he used the social media platform Twitter as a primary mechanism for direct communication with the American public, other politicians, and the press corps.
As president, he signed a major tax reform bill into law and oversaw a reduction in federal regulations. His protectionist trade policies included tariffs on aluminum, steel and other foreign products. The Trump administration also renegotiated trade deals with Mexico, Canada, China, Japan and South Korea. Other domestic priorities included Supreme Court and federal judiciary appointments, increased military budgets, aggressive border and immigration enforcement, criminal justice reform, and lowering prescription drug prices.
In foreign policy, the Trump administration moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered normalization agreements between Israel and a number of countries. In 2018, President Trump attended a summit with Kim Jong Un, marking the first time a sitting president met with a North Korean leader.
In 2018, there was a partial government shutdown after Trump disagreed with Congress on funding for a border wall between the United States and Mexico. The funding malfunction lasted thirty-five days before it was resolved.
In 2019, a federal whistleblower filed a complaint that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who had served on the board of Bursima Holdings, a company that natural gas in Ukraine. Later that year, the House of Representatives impeached President Trump on charges of obstruction of Congress and abuse of power. In 2020, the Senate acquitted Trump on both articles of impeachment.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States on January 20, 2020. The remainder of Trump’s presidency was consumed by the coronavirus pandemic. Critics argued that Trump’s response to the pandemic was delayed and did not encourage enough public health practices to reduce the spread of the virus. However, the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” program helped the private sector develop two approved vaccines. However, by the time Trump left office, more than 400,000 Americans had died from COVID-19.
