President Donald Trump: America first for the second time

Donald J. Trump is the new US president, winning enough Electoral College votes (270 are needed to win) to claim the 2024 election. He won the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin. He was previously president from 2017 to 2021.

Supporters regard the Republican president-elect as a savior and hero, willing to defend their values against liberals in the United States. Critics, in turn, pointed out he is a convicted criminal and followed his election campaigns with bewilderment and expressed shock over what they call his radical policies, unstatesmanlike conduct, and impulsive use of social media in and out of office.

In the campaign preceding the 2024 election, Trump had, for example, made waves with the statement that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing neighbors' cats and dogs to eat them, a claim that was proven false.

While what awaits the US and the rest of the world during Trump's second term is unpredictable, a look back at his first term and beyond could provide some insight into what's to come.

The 'stolen election,' the storm on the Capitol, and Trump's criminal charges

Trump's supporters have remained by the president's side. When Trump refused to accept that he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and claimed it was "stolen" from him, large numbers of conservatives believed him. Numerous reviews proved that claim to be untrue. Still, Trump stuck to the narrative that Democrats had committed election fraud despite all the courts where such claims were brought rejecting the accusations. 

On January 6, 2021, a group of right-wing extremists and Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington, DC, in an attempt to stop the formal certification of Biden's election win. Earlier that day, Trump had given a speech in front of thousands of supporters in which he repeated his false claims and said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." This and his persistent lies about election fraud were viewed by observers as having encouraged the violent mob to act.   

On January 13, 2021, a week before the end of his first term, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection. Ten Republican representatives voted in favor, the most pro-impeachment votes ever from a president's party and the first time a president impeached more than once. The Senate acquitted him the following month, but in 2023, Trump was indicted on four charges related to his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.

His legal team appealed the decision and the case landed at the US Supreme Court. The court decided that presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution for their official conduct. Prosecutors reindicted Trump with slightly adjusted allegations. The case is ongoing.

Trump also faced numerous other legal challenges ahead of the 2024 presidential election, including several fraud trials related to how he and his sons ran the family business and trials related to how he behaved after losing the 2020 election.

Trump was charged and convicted on 34 counts of falsification of business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Even after the trial, he maintained his innocence after being convicted by a jury. The judge in the case delayed sentencing until after the election. As president, it is unclear if Trump will be sentenced or serve any time in prison.

Trump was also charged with keeping classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida when he was no longer president. Additionally, Trump had to pay millions of dollars in damages to former journalist E. Jean Carroll after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing her in the late 1990s, then later defaming her when he made malicious statements claiming she was lying about the incident.

Supporters value Trump's focus on 'America first'

Above all, Trump voters care about his promise to put "America first." In this vein, Trump has been critical of NATO, pulled out of international organizations like the World Health Organization, and abandoned the Paris Climate Agreement. Under President Biden, the US rejoined, but Trump plans to withdraw again. His unilateral approach drew the ire of his European allies the last time he was in the White House, yet pleased many US conservatives. 

Trump supporters also welcomed his tax cuts for the wealthy.

A background in business and entertainment, not politics

The 47th US president was born on June 14, 1946, in New York City's Queens borough. Trump's paternal grandfather had immigrated to the US in the late 19th century from the German town of Kallstadt, in present-day Rhineland-Palatinate. Donald Trump attended Philadelphia's prestigious Wharton School of Business, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Economics in 1968.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he continued growing his family's real estate businesses, known as the Trump Organization, developing high-profile projects like the Midtown Manhattan Trump Tower, where he also lived before moving to Florida. Over the years, his organization operated numerous hotels, casinos, and golf courses, many of which eventually went bankrupt. 

Trump also made a name for himself as the host of the US reality television show "The Apprentice." Launched in 2004, the format featured a group of contestants competing against each other to win a one-year contract with one of Trump's businesses. After each round, Trump would dismiss one of the contestants with his catchphrase: "You're fired."

'Fake news' and hardline immigration policies

Throughout Trump's presidency, his administration maintained a prickly relationship with the press and a track record of false and misleading claims. Trump has often dismissed facts he dislikes as "fake news," convincing many of his supporters that critical media outlets were spreading lies to tarnish his reputation.

During his first term, Trump pursued hardline immigration policies and repeatedly made racist remarks. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Trump called Mexican immigrants "rapists" and "criminals." He subsequently pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border — and make Mexico foot the bill, which it never did. By the end of Trump's first term in 2021, 732 kilometers (455 miles) along the 3,145-kilometer-long border had been built, costing US taxpayers some $16 billion (€14.4 billion) at the time. 

Trump's tough stance on immigration had far-reaching consequences. Migrants from Latin America were stranded on the US border, with children separated from their parents. Footage of little children locked up in jail cells sparked outrage at home and abroad. The Trump administration, meanwhile, insisted the measures were necessary to fight the tide of illegal immigrants, stressing that those held at US detention centers were well taken care of.

First impeachment and coronavirus pandemic

On December 18, 2019, impeachment proceedings were launched against Trump for the first time, making him the third president in US history to face such a trial. The impeachment trial focused on the claim that Trump had withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure Kyiv into offering help to get Trump re-elected in 2020 in the form of investigating Joe and Hunter Biden.

The president, meanwhile, rejected all accusations. The House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. But he was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate and not removed from office.

The coronavirus pandemic also left its mark on Trump's presidency. The death rate from COVID-19 was considerably higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries. Trump downplayed the severity of the situation and prioritized his country's quick return to pre-pandemic normality and economic productivity rather than heeding the advice of medical experts and researchers. Critics say his conduct contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. In an August 2020 interview, Trump conceded people were dying — saying "it is what it is."

Three marriages, five children

In 2005, Trump married Melania Knavs, a former Slovenian model. The couple have a son, Barron Trump. Before marrying Melania, Trump was married to actress Marla Maples. She raised their daughter Tiffany alone in California.

Trump's first marriage, between 1977 and 1990 to Ivana Zelnickova, resulted in three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. 

At the 2024 Republican National Convention, Trump, contrary to his previous attacks on those on the liberal end of the political spectrum, stressed a message of unity.

"As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny," Trump said in his speech. "We rise together or we fall apart. I am running to be president for all of America."

His effort was successful. It remains to be seen whether his administration will genuinely make an effort to unite the highly polarized United States.

Edited by: Rob Mudge