January 2020 The
impeachment trial began on January 16. • January 9: First campaign rally of 2020 was held at the 8,000 seat Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. • January 14: Monster Rally in Green Bay, WI • January 28: Monster Rally in Wildwood, NJ • January 30: Monster Rally at
Drake University's
Knapp Center in Des Moines, IA • January 31: The Kansas state convention began, being the second official event of the Republican race..
February 2020 • February 1: At the Kansas state convention, the entire selection process took place, culminating with the official binding of the delegation to Trump, giving him his second state. • February 2: The
Iowa caucuses: the president received 31,464 (97.1%) of the vote. • February 10: Monster Rally at the
SNHU Arena in Manchester, NH • February 13: In the
New Hampshire primary, the president received 129,461 (85.7%) of the votes cast. • February 22: The Nevada state committee awarded all of its delegates to President Trump.
March 2020 • March 3: Super Tuesday. With over 60% of delegates selected by this date, the race for the nomination formally ended. • March 5: Facebook removed Trump campaign ads directing users to participate in an "Official 2020 Congressional District Census" on what was actually a campaign fundraising site.
April 2020 • April 23: The Trump campaign released a new app which offers rewards for sharing Trump's tweets. • Late April: Trump scolded campaign manager Brad Parscale after data from two polls, one from the Trump's own campaign and one from the Republican National Committee, showed Trump losing to Joe Biden in swing states, reported
The Washington Post and CNN. At one point, Trump said he may sue Parscale, although it is unclear whether he was joking. Both Trump and Parscale denied that Trump had shouted. Parscale did not deny a conflict, and he did not deny Trump saying he may sue. Trump told the media he does not "believe the polls".
May 2020 • May 4: CNN sent a
cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign regarding its ad, "American Comeback", which had begun running the previous evening on cable television. The ad selected words from a CNN interview and inserted them into a different context, making it a clear example of "deceptive editing",
The Washington Post explained.
June 2020 • June 8: After a CNN poll found Trump 14 percentage points behind Joe Biden, Trump on Twitter declared the poll "FAKE", saying he had "retained highly respected pollster, McLaughlin & Associates", to analyze that poll. The Republican Party's congressional campaign arm has advised Republicans to avoid employing McLaughlin & Associates after it predicted in 2014 that Republican Representative
Eric Cantor would win re-election in a Republican primary by 34 points, but
Cantor actually lost by around 10 points. Later in 2018, McLaughlin & Associates predicted that Republican Representative
Rob Woodall would win re-election by 27 points, but Woodall ended up
winning by only 0.2 points. • June 9: The Trump campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to CNN over their poll, demanding a retraction and apology. CNN refused. During June, Trump also suggested he might sue campaign manager Brad Parscale for presenting polling data showing the president trailing in several key states.
The New York Times describes this incident as a jest, rather than a serious threat, and participants in the call say Parscale responded to the threat by saying, "I love you, too." • June 10: Amid the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Trump campaign said the president would resume his campaign rallies,
the first being at
Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 19. Ticketholders must "assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19", and cannot hold the Trump campaign liable for resultant illness or injury. The rally was later pushed back by one day to June 20, out of respect for the original date falling on
Juneteenth (which was deemed insensitive due to the
Tulsa race massacre and the ongoing
George Floyd protests). • June 12: The RNC decided not to write a new platform for 2020, reusing 2016's, which denounces the "current president". • June 15: In a tweet, then-campaign manager
Brad Parscale indicated that ticket requests for the June 20 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had surpassed a million. • June 18,
Trump campaign ads threatening to list
Antifa as a
designated terrorist group used an
inverted red triangle symbol. and in the days leading up to the event, Parscale said more than 800,000 people had registered for the rally. Attendance at the rally was estimated to be just under 6,200, according to the
Tulsa Fire Department. The numbers projected by the campaign were inaccurate partially due to
TikTok users and
K-pop fans registering for the rally and not attending. Trump spent 14 minutes (around 1/8th of the length of his speech) talking about walking hesitatingly down a ramp at the
United States Military Academy, and the media coverage regarding the slowness of his descent. • June 23: President Trump holds rallies in
Phoenix and
Yuma, Arizona.
Antifa terrorism accusations }} In June 2020, Donald Trump's election campaign included an advertisement on social media saying that he would make "
Antifa" (short for
anti-fascism) a "
designated terrorist" group. The advertisement showed an
inverted red triangle as an antifa symbol.
July 2020 Celebrating
Independence Day with an address at
Mount Rushmore, Trump said he was in a battle against a "new
far-left fascism".
The New York Times characterized Trump as using the address "to mount a full-on culture war against a
straw-man version of the left that he portrayed as inciting mayhem and moving the country toward totalitarianism".
The Washington Post reported that while "amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of Trump's public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as the president has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain." On the evening of July 4, musician and entrepreneur
Kanye West announced
his campaign for the presidency.
Los Angeles Times reported that "It's unclear whether West has filed any of the necessary paperwork to formally join the race between incumbent Donald Trumpfor whom West has expressed admiration," and said this "might be part of an effort to draw Black supporters away from Biden to help Trump." Vice President Pence and White House Press Secretary
Kayleigh McEnany claimed that Joe Biden had asserted police had "become the enemy". Biden's words were taken out of context, as he had actually said the use of military-grade heavy equipment by police officers can look like "the military invading" communities and thus makes police "become the enemy" in the perception of some in the community. According to
Media Matters, Trump surrogate
Sean Hannity also misrepresented Biden's words to his radio and television audiences at least 17 times in July. On July 10, the Trump campaign postponed a rally planned for the next day in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Tim Murtaugh, the campaign's communications director citing "safety reasons because of
Tropical Storm Fay". On July 15, Trump announced that he had promoted former deputy campaign manager
Bill Stepien to campaign manager, replacing Brad Parscale. On July 19, in an interview aired on Fox News, Trump called the network's poll showing Biden leading by 8% "fake", further saying he would "have to see" if he would accept a loss in the election, citing
postal voting as a way it would be rigged against him. According to CNN, "There is no credible evidence that mail-in voting is rife with corruption," and "the concerted push by Trump to delegitimize mail-in ballots is raising alarm bells among Republican operatives, who are worried the President's demand for in-person voting will mainly serve to dampen turnout among his own supporters." During the first half of July, the campaign ran a television ad more than a thousand times targeted at women in Ohio, falsely asserting that Joe Biden proposes to "defund the police", which would increase home invasions and rapes, concluding that "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America." Trump won Ohio by eight points in 2016 but polls showed he was in a statistical tie with Biden in July. Across numerous other states, Trump ran another ad falsely accusing Biden of proposing to defund the police, with a simulated
9-1-1 call response: You have reached the 9-1-1 police emergency line. Due to the defunding of the police department, we're sorry but no one is here to take your call. If you are calling to report a rape, please press one. To report a murder, press two. To report a home invasion, press three. For all other crimes, leave your name and number and someone will get back to you. Our estimated wait time is currently five days. Goodbye. In June and July, the campaign spent over $2million on Facebook ads. One claims (with 308 variations) that "Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem. They are DESTROYING our cities and rioting." In July, television ads were aired intending to portray the violent turmoil of a future Biden presidencyutilizing images of turmoil occurring during Trump's presidency. On July 23, Trump announced the cancellation of the
Jacksonville portion of the 2020 Republican National Convention, citing rising COVID-19 numbers. On July 30, he publicly suggested delaying the election due to COVID-19, despite the authority to make such a change lying with Congress. Some of the most prominent leaders of the Republican Party rejected that such a prospect would be considered. Later the same day, Trump walked back his comments, while repeating his condemnation of postal voting. According to multiple high-ranking Republicans, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell has signaled to Republican Senate candidates that they may distance themselves from Trump if they feel it will help them salvage their own campaigns. At the end of July, the Trump campaign temporarily halted television advertising to reassess its messaging strategy. A campaign official attributed the pause to the recent change in campaign leadership, stating, "We'll be back on the air shortly, even more forcefully exposing Joe Biden as a puppet of the radical left-wing." The campaign had $146.6million budgeted for television and radio ads from Labor Day until November. Television advertising was expected to resume on August 3, with a focus on states that will vote the earliest; a new campaign ad features altered images to falsely portray Biden as "alone" and "hiding" in his basement.
August 2020 On August 5, Trump announced that he was considering hosting his GOP convention acceptance speech from the White House, saying "It would be the easiest from the standpoint of security." Fox News reported public criticism of the announcement, including from House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, and cited the
Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibits
executive-branch federal employees other than the president and vice president from engaging in partisan political activity. On August 6, it was reported that the
Commission on Presidential Debates had rejected the campaign's request to move or add a
debate to early September, before states begin early voting. The first debate is scheduled for September 29. On August 14, Trump gathered about 300 police officers who support him at
his golf club in
Bedminster, New Jersey, and asked the crowd whether "Sleepy Joe" or "Slow Joe" was a better nickname for his opponent. The former name, which Trump has frequently used, provoked a louder response. He stated that "
Putin and
Kim Jong-un and
President Xi of China, they're not sleepy. We can't have slow, sleepy people dealing with them." On August 17,
Miles Taylor, former chief of staff to former
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary
Kirstjen Nielsen, published an op-ed in
The Washington Post and featured in an ad from
Republican Voters Against Trump. In the ad, Taylor says, "What we saw [over] 2 1/2 years in that administration, was terrifying." He says that when the DHS raised national security concerns, Trump "wasn't interested in those things," and attempted to exploit the department "for his own political purposes and to fuel his own agenda," including by withholding federal wildfire aid to California because he lacked support in the state. Taylor asserts that "Years of DHS planning for a pandemic threat have been largely wasted," and concludes: "Given what I experienced ... I have to support Joe Biden for president." On August 20, Trump said in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, that "Joe Biden is a puppet of the radical left movement that seeks to destroy the American way of life. They don't want energy, they don't want guns, they don't want religion." Later that day, Trump tweeted against Biden, the Obamas and mail-in voting. The campaign also released a digital ad suggesting that Hunter Biden used his father's vice presidency to personally profit from a Chinese bank (which Hunter denied in 2019). That night, Biden accepted his party's presidential nomination at the
2020 Democratic National Convention. On August 22,
The New York Times reported that Trump would speak on all four nights (only one night being customary) of the 2020 Republican National Convention scheduled for the next week, that nearly half of the keynote speakers would be Trump family members, and that two former producers of
The Apprentice would be coordinating the event. On August 23, Trump senior adviser
Jason Miller stated that the campaign was "conserving money right now and focusing a little bit more smartly and a little more effectively on the states that are voting early," while
Politico reports that "even in most of those early-voting states, Biden has dominated Trump" regarding television ad spending. On the first night of the convention (which had less viewers than both the
2016 convention and the 2020 Democratic event), Donald TrumpJr. said his father's policies had been "like rocket fuel to the economy ... especially to the middle class," while Biden has promised to take that money back out of your pocket and keep it in
the swamp. That makes sense though, considering Joe Biden is basically the
Loch Ness Monster of the swamp. For the past half-century, he's been lurking around in there. He sticks his head up every now and then to run for president, and then he disappears and doesn't do much in between.On the second night of the Republican National Convention, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo spoke from Jerusalem (where he was on state business), prompting an investigation by House Democrats to determine whether this violated the Hatch Act, which Pompeo had instructed federal employees to obey earlier in the year. The use of the convention to perform a naturalization ceremony and reveal the
presidential pardon of
Jon Ponder also drew scrutiny for using government business to promote Trump's campaign. On the final night of the convention, Trump stated:Your vote will decide whether we protect law abiding Americans, or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens. And this election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it. On August 31, Trump asserted in an interview with
Laura Ingraham that Biden is being controlled by "People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows." When the program host said this sounded like the
promotion of a conspiracy theory, Trump elaborated that "They're people that are on the streets, they're people that are controlling the streets." He further claimed that someone "from a certain city" boarded a plane which was "almost completely loaded with thugs [around seven in total] wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that," to come to the Republican National Convention "to do big damage." Then, prompted by Ingraham to discuss how Biden's campaign was being financed, he said, "The money is coming from some very stupid rich people who have no idea that if their thing ever succeeded, which it won't, they will be thrown to the wolves like you've never seen before." In late August, the Trump campaign shared a video featuring the soundbite of Joe Biden saying: "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America." The quote was taken wholly out of context, as Biden was instead attributing this quote to "Trump and Pence", while Biden was stating that images of violence were actually that of "Donald Trump's America today". Meanwhile, White House social media director
Dan Scavino shared a fake video purportedly showing Biden sleeping during a live interview. In fact, the fake video combined two different clips: one of Biden looking down with eyes half-closed, and one of an interviewer asking activist Harry Belafonte to "wake up". The fake video also had new audio added, of snoring sounds.
September 2020 On September 2, Trump told WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, that people should vote twice—once in person and again by mail—to see if anyone stops them from committing this illegal act. When CNN asked U.S. Attorney General
Bill Barr for his input, Barr claimed he did not know whether it was illegal to vote twice. Barr also told CNN that he believed that China was the biggest active threat to U.S. election security (contradicting U.S. intelligence, which
had identified Russia) and that foreign adversaries would likely sow the system with fraudulent mail-in ballots (although he admitted he had no evidence of this). On September 3, Trump spoke in Pennsylvania. He encouraged voters to vote in person, referencing potential mail fraud or ballots going missing. He also focused on topics of the economy and public safety in light of mass protests and riots. He attacked Biden for mixed messages on fracking and for wearing a mask so much during the COVID-19 pandemic. On September 7,
The New York Times reported the campaign might be facing a cash crunch, having spent more than $800 million of the $1.1 billion raised from early 2019 through July. The
Times reported the campaign had engaged in profligate spending until the new campaign manager Bill Stepien imposed controls. The next day, Trump stated he was prepared to spend his own money if necessary. From September 8–12, the Trump campaign released a "
Support Our Troops" advertisement with a picture of silhouetted Russian
Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets and soldiers carrying at least one Russian
AK-74 assault rifle, that drew international commentary. On September 10,
The Washington Post reported that campaign manager Bill Stepien had already reduced spending on television ads. "Between Aug. 10 and Sept. 7, Biden's campaign spent about $90 million on television ads, more than four times the $18 million spent by the Trump campaign," the reporters said. On September 13, Trump held a rally in
Henderson, Nevada. Due to the pandemic, it was his first indoor rally since
the Tulsa rally in June, and it violated Nevada's prohibition against gatherings of more than 50 people. The Associated Press reported on September 14 that, although the Trump campaign had spent heavily for months, it did not seem to have hurt Biden in the polls, and the Trump campaign no longer could count on having more cash than the Biden campaign. Biden, while achieving record-breaking fundraising in August, outspent Trump by nearly double that same month. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign canceled advertising in several states, while retaining $200 million worth of reserved ads, characterizing the cancellations as strategic. Trump held a rally on September 18 in
Bemidji, Minnesota. Afterward 16
COVID-19 cases were traced to the rally and four more to a protest held just outside. On September 23, Trump was asked if he would commit to a
peaceful transition of power if he lost the 2020 election, to which he replied: "Well, we'll have to see what happens." He also said at a press briefing, "I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful — there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation." That same day, he said it was important to confirm his incoming Supreme Court nominee promptly because he believed the election outcome would be determined by the Supreme Court and he needed a majority to overcome "this scam that the Democrats are pulling." Also that day, Donald Trump Jr. asserted in social media posts that "The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father," adding, "Their plan is to add millions of fraudulent ballots that can cancel your vote and overturn the election," asking "able-bodied" people to join an election security "army" for his father. On September 23, Eric Trump shared a video on Twitter, showing Joe Biden looking away from the camera during an interview with Telemundo. Eric Trump used this to falsely claim that Biden was using a teleprompter. This was re-shared by Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller, and then Trump himself. In actuality, Biden was looking away from the camera because there was a monitor off-screen where Telemundo viewers were shown asking Biden questions. Biden was replying to one such viewer directly. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign ran video and pictorial advertisements on Facebook, YouTube, and Google, which falsely claimed that Joe Biden used a teleprompter during an April 2020 interview with James Corden. A teleprompter was seen on Biden's screen during that interview, but that was in fact Corden's teleprompter, not Biden's. The teleprompter was shared on the screens of Corden's interviewees via Zoom. The Trump campaign used the advertisement to claim that Biden "can't handle an interview", "can't handle presidency". Another deceptive advertisement ran by the Trump campaign claimed that "Joe Biden completely botches the
Pledge of Allegiance", as Biden had paraphrased the Pledge. However, Biden's words were taken out of context, as Biden was not trying to legitimately recite the Pledge; rather, he was referencing specific parts of it while he argued that he would govern as president for all states, instead of only Democratic-controlled states. Trump's support among seniors weakened significantly going into the final weeks of the campaign. On September 24 he announced he was sending $200 drug discount cards to 33 million Medicare recipients, at a cost approaching $7 billion. On September 25, Trump unveiled his "Platinum Plan for Black America", promising $500 billion in capital access, as well as "creating 3 million new jobs, and bridging historic disparities in health care and education" and making
Juneteenth a national holiday. On September 29, the candidates participated in a first debate in Cleveland. The event was characterized by Trump frequently interrupting both Biden and moderator
Chris Wallace. This prompted the debate commission to announce that microphones would be cut off at the next debate if the rules are broken by either candidate. On September 30, three cases of COVID-19 were traced to a Trump rally held in
Duluth, Minnesota. Trump unsuccessfully attempted to have the suit dismissed, citing fair use and "absolute presidential immunity". Grant asked for $300,000 in damages. The case, Grant v. Trump (1:20-cv-07103), is pending in federal court in the Southern District New York.
October 2020 On October 2, two hours after it was announced that White House senior advisor
Hope Hicks had tested positive for COVID-19, Trump tweeted that both he and First Lady
Melania Trump had tested positive as well and would immediately go into quarantine. As a result, they cancelled all in-person campaign events scheduled in the coming days, including a rally in Orlando-Sanford International Airport. Several other
White House members and associates tested positive for the virus, including Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. The Trump campaign ran Facebook advertisements featuring fake photos altered to show Joe Biden wearing an earpiece. The advertisements included captions including: "Who is in Joe's ear?", and that Biden "declined an earpiece inspection" at the debate. Asked to comment on the advertisements, the Trump campaign claimed that they were "obvious satire". On October 7, Vice President Pence participated in a debate with Senator
Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for vice president on the Biden ticket, that was held by
USA Today and moderated by
Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief of the newspaper. Trailing in polls during the month leading to the election, Trump became increasingly insistent that his political adversaries be indicted, including Biden, former president Obama and Hillary Clinton, and that documents be declassified and released, including Clinton's emails. Six weeks after the Republican convention, the Trump campaign canceled all television and radio advertising in Ohio, Iowa and New Hampshire, and substantially reduced advertising in four other states. On October 15, Biden and Trump hosted separate town hall speeches, in lieu of a second debate. , on October 27 On October 22, the candidates participated in a second and final debate in Nashville. In contrast to the first debate, the microphones of both candidates were muted at select times. Trump pressed Biden on renewed allegations that during his time as vice president, members of his family had personally profited from his position in Ukraine and China, to which Biden pointed out Trump's own scandals regarding those countries. Trump repeatedly asked why Biden had not delivered on his 2020 campaign promises during his eight years in the White House, to which Biden responded, "we had a Republican Congress." On October 26, the
Minnesota Department of Health linked 23 COVID-19 cases to three Trump rallies held in
the state in September. According to
Johns Hopkins University, the average number of new cases in Beltrami County, where Trump's rally in Bemidji was held, was 2.85 new cases a day but had risen to 14.57 new cases per day four weeks after the rally. Minnesota traced one case each to a September 18 Joe Biden rally and an event on October 1 in Becker that was attended by
Eric Trump. A campaign rally by Vice President
Mike Pence in
Hibbing in late October had "more than 650 people in attendance, exceeding Minnesota health guidelines to restrict crowds to 250 people." At least five aides to Pence, including his chief of staff
Marc Short, had tested positive only two days earlier.
National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien called Pence "an essential worker" who needed to be out campaigning.
Election Day and beyond results of the 2020 presidential election; Trump was defeated by
Joe Biden. Early on November 4, despite the fact that no clear winner of the election had been determined, Trump declared victory from the White House, stating that he "did win the election". At that point, results from states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia were unclear. Although Trump was leading in the vote count of those states at the time, experts believed that many of the still-uncounted votes—which included votes from large cities and mail-in ballots—would turn out to favor Biden. On November 5, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Trump campaign to stop vote-counting in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign had alleged that its observers were not given access to observe the vote, but during the hearing, its lawyers admitted that its observers were already present in the vote-counting room. Also that day, a state judge dismissed another lawsuit by the Trump campaign that alleged that in Georgia, late-arriving ballots were counted. The judge ruled that no evidence had been produced that the ballots were late. Meanwhile, in Michigan, a state judge dismissed the Trump's campaign's lawsuit requesting a pause in vote-counting to allow access to observers, as the judge noted that vote-counting had already finished in Michigan. That judge also noted that the official complaint did not state "why", "when, where, or by whom" an election observer was allegedly blocked from observing ballot-counting in Michigan. On November 5, the Trump Victory in Wisconsin group declared it would be "chasing our absentee ballots over in Pennsylvania" for people who had yet to vote. Also, that day, the Kenosha for Trump group sent an email urging "volunteers to make phone calls to Pennsylvania Trump supporters to return their absentee ballots". However, votes had to be postmarked by November 3 to count as legal votes in Pennsylvania, and Trump himself had described late votes as election fraud. By November 6, a growing number of Trump officials had admitted that the incumbent's loss was probable. On that day, election-calling organization
Decision Desk HQ forecast that Trump had lost the election to Biden. By November 7, news organizations
ABC News,
Associated Press,
CBS News,
CNN,
Fox News,
NBC News,
Reuters, and
the New York Times forecast that Trump had lost the election to Biden. Still, the president refused to concede. The administrator of the GSA,
Emily W. Murphy, refused to authorize transition funds until November 23. Most Senate Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, claimed that the election was still unsettled, and Attorney General William Barr authorized the Justice Department to investigate alleged "massive voter fraud," prompting Assistant AG
Richard Pilger, director of the elections crimes branch in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, to resign in protest. Reliable sources indicated that there were plans to resume full-scale campaigning in conjunction with recounts in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. On the week of November 9, Trump indicated to Kevin Cramer that "If this doesn't work out, I'll just run again
in four years." As repeated lawsuits failed throughout November, Trump admitted to Fox News on November 29 that "it's very hard to get a case to the Supreme Court." In an interview with the Associated Press published December 1, Attorney General William Barr acknowledged: "To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election." By January, Trump had lost 60 lawsuits.
Trump–Raffensperger phone call On January 2, 2021, during an hour-long conference call, Trump pressured
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change
the state's vote totals by the 11,780 votes he needed to win the state. During the call, Trump falsely suggested that Raffensperger could have committed a criminal offense. On January 11, the phone call was cited in a
new article of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives.
Alternate electors Self-declared "alternate electors" voted in protest; these votes had no legal validity. Well over 100 Republican representatives promised to contest the counting ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Experts debated whether Trump was trying to perform a
self-coup.
January 6 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, Trump spoke at a
"March to Save America" rally on
the Ellipse, where he encouraged the crowd to "fight like hell" and said he would be marching with them to the
United States Capitol, although he did not join them in the end. The rioters broke into the Senate Chamber where the electoral college ballots were being counted, causing both the House and Senate to be evacuated. Five people died from the events, while dozens more were injured, and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation opened over 170 investigations into the events. == Polling ==