Trump served his
first term as the 45th President of the United States, winning the
2016 presidential election against
Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton. He was
inaugurated on January 20, 2017. While in office, Trump cut back spending to major welfare programs, enacted
tariffs, withdrew from the
Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and signed the
USMCA, a successor agreement to
NAFTA, grew the
national debt through
spending increases and tax cuts for the rich, and enacted a unilateral
foreign policy based in
offensive realism. He
appointed Neil Gorsuch,
Brett Kavanaugh, and
Amy Coney Barrett to the
Supreme Court of the United States. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress until Democrats won a majority in the
House of Representatives in the
2018 elections. Democrats took control of the
Senate after the
2020 elections. Trump was involved in many controversies related to his policies, conduct, and
false or misleading statements, including an
investigation into the
Trump campaign's alleged coordination with the Russian government during the 2016 election, the
House of Representatives impeaching him in December 2019 for
abuse of power and
obstruction of
Congress after he
solicited Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden (he was
acquitted by the Senate in February 2020), his
family separation policy for migrants apprehended at the
U.S.–Mexico border, limitations on the number of immigrants permitted from certain countries (many of which were Muslim-majority), demand for the federal funding of the
Mexico–United States border wall that resulted in
the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history,
withdrawal from the
Iran nuclear deal,
withdrawal from the
Paris Accords, attempts to repeal the
Affordable Care Act (ACA), and loosening of the enforcement of numerous
environmental regulations. His
re-election loss to Biden came amidst a series of international crises, including the
COVID-19 pandemic and
resulting recession, and
protests and riots following the police
murder of George Floyd. In the aftermath of the election, Trump repeatedly made
false claims that widespread
electoral fraud had occurred and that only he had legitimately won the election. Although most resulting lawsuits were either dismissed or ruled against by numerous courts, Trump nonetheless
conspired with his
campaign team to
submit documents in several states (all of which had been won by Biden) which
falsely claimed to be legitimate electoral votes for President Trump and Vice President
Mike Pence. After the submission of these documents, the Trump campaign intended that the
presiding officer of the United States Senate, either
President of the Senate Pence or
President pro tempore Chuck Grassley, would claim to have the unilateral power to reject
electors during the
January 6, 2021 vote counting session; the presiding officer would reject all electors from the several states in which the Trump campaign had submitted false documents, leaving 232 votes for Trump and 222 votes for Biden, thereby
overturning the election results in favour of Trump. The plans for January 6 failed to come to fruition after Pence refused to follow the campaign's proposals. Trump nevertheless urged his supporters on January 6, 2021, to march to the
Capitol while the joint session of Congress was assembled there to count electoral votes and formalize Biden's victory, leading to
hundreds storming the building and interrupting the electoral vote count; making him the only federal officeholder in American history to be impeached twice. The Senate would later
acquit him for the second time on February 13, 2021, after he had already left office. Once Biden was
inaugurated on January 20, 2021, the Republican Party would lose control of the presidency in addition to falling short of a majority in the House and Senate. == Venue ==