Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign

Background Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign is his fourth, following a brief one in 2000 for the Reform Party's nomination, and two as the Republican Party's candidate, in 2016 and, subsequently, 2020. As president, Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Democratic nominee Joe Biden. He and his allies in seven key states denied the results. They allegedly went on to devise a plot to create and submit fraudulent certificates of ascertainment falsely asserting that Trump had won the electoral college vote in those states. In the event that the plot failed to "work out," Trump would plan another presidential run in 2024. On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent the true election results from being certified. The former President was thereafter impeached for incitement of insurrection, but was acquitted. The Biden administration succeeding Trump's oversaw the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, a spike in inflation lasting from 2021 to 2023, a surge in crossings at the border with Mexico, and the outbreak of two major wars in Ukraine and in Gaza. While the President began his term with an approval rating well above 50%, it had dropped to just 43% by September 2021, according to Gallup, following the "chaotic" U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and a gradual rise in inflation from 1.7% in February to 5.4%. His popularity never recovered, and by June 2022, inflation had risen to 9.1%, a 40-year high. Besides worsening inflation, Biden was met by a strong public perception that the border was uncontrolled. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Biden aided Ukraine, When the Gaza war broke out in November 2023, the President strongly supported Israel. These three issues: global uncertainty, inflation, and the migrant crisis, would be the focal points of the future Trump campaign. By July 2022, amid the public hearings of the House Select Committee on the January6 Attack, Trump was reportedly considering making an early announcement of his 2024 candidacy. A contemporary Intelligencer interview with Trump affirmed that he had already made up his mind. Following the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, many of his allies urged that he initiate his campaign even sooner, perhaps prior to that year's midterm elections. Announcement Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president on November15, 2022, in an hour-long address from Mar-a-Lago. It came one week after the midterm elections. The campaign would be based in Mar-a-Lago, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Reporting for Axios, Zachary Basu noted that at the time of the announcement, Trump was the "underdog" and "at the weakest moment of his political career". His candidacy was met with a mixed response from both Democrats and Republicans. He was perceived by many as a weak, beatable candidate, owing to his loss in 2020 and the failure of an expected Republican "red wave" in the 2022 midterms to materialize. This led several Republican officials to oppose his campaign, and several Democrats to welcome it. The conservative New York Post mocked Trump's announcement by relegating it to page 26 and noting it on the cover with a banner reading "Florida Man Makes Announcement". On the other hand, Trump-aligned Republicans embraced the campaign, and many Democrats deemed it a threat to American democracy. Trump was the first one-term president to campaign for a second non-consecutive term since Herbert Hoover (1929–1933), who, after losing in 1932, made unsuccessful runs in 1936 and 1940. Fundraising At its inception, Trump's campaign had over $100 million in funding. Its primary vehicle for fundraising was Save America, a leadership political action committee (PAC), joined by the MAGA PAC and Super PAC. However, his legal expenses from his court cases would absorb much of that funding. In fact, from January 2021 to March 2024, he spent more than $100 million in legal fees from campaign accounts. At the start of March 2024, Trump's campaign and Trump-aligned Super PACs had half as much cash on hand as Biden's campaign and Biden-aligned Super PACs. However, Trump's fundraising eventually took a turn for the better, with the former President raising more money than his opponent in April, and beating Biden's total fundraising for the first time. Things again turned sour for Trump's campaign after Biden withdrew from the race. The new Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, brought in $200 million during the first week of her presidential campaign. In July, Trump's campaign and assorted committees reporting taking in $138.7 million compared to Harris and Democratic committees' $310 million. All in all, throughout their campaigns (specifically, since January 2023), the Trump committee raised $388 million, while that Biden–Harris raised nearly $1 billion. According to OpenSecrets, Trump's greatest donors were hedge fund manager Ken Griffin (who donated $100 million), pro-Israel activist Miriam Adelson ($132 million), railroad magnate Timothy Mellon ($197 million), and, most notably, businessman Elon Musk ($277 million{{Efn|While estimates of Musk's campaign donations widely vary, all major sources put them above $250 million. He promoted $59.99 "God Bless the U.S.A." Bibles, $399 sneakers, $99 "Victory47" cologne, and $99 Trump-branded NFT digital trading cards for his personal, non-campaign accounts. Many campaign funds were also funneled into Trump-owned businesses, in particular his Mar-a-Lago resort and the Trump National Doral Miami. Eligibility '', the U.S. Supreme Court that established Trump's eligibility Trump's eligibility to run for president was challenged. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Section 3, prohibits current and former federal, state and military officials who have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" from holding office again, which was pertinent in Trump's case considering his role in inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol. By 2023, the non-profit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and other advocacy groups and individuals were planning state-by-state efforts to keep Trump off state ballots. Court cases sprung up in multiple states. In December 2023, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, Trump was ineligible from holding office and that his name must be removed from the Colorado Republican primary ballot. This decision was the first of its kind in American history. Later that month, Maine's Secretary of State followed suit and banned Trump from Maine's Republican primary ballot. In March 2024, following an appeal from Trump's campaign, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned Colorado's Supreme Court ruling, saying that states do not have the authority to disqualify Trump or other candidates from federal elections under the Fourteenth Amendment's insurrection clause. ==Agenda and strategy==

Agenda Donald Trump's formal campaign manifesto was Agenda 47. It took the form of a series of videos on his official website outlining his proposals one by one. Seeing that the series was cut short in December 2023, Agenda 47 was primarily targeted to Republican voters during the 2024 primary season. His website's homepage contained a list of 20 campaign proposals. It planned for massive overhauls to American government, steering it in an uncompromisingly conservative path and relegating much authority to the executive branch. As such, Project 2025 was condemned for unconstitutionally encouraging authoritarianism and moving to turn Trump into a dictator. Trump's campaign officials repeatedly distanced themselves from the plan, stressing that all outside efforts influencing a future presidential transition were "unofficial". Besides The Heritage Foundation, other think-tanks and policy groups aligned with Trump included the Center for Renewing America, the America First Policy Institute, and America First Legal. Trump's preeminent public policy advisers were Steve Bannon, David Bernhardt, Kellyanne Conway, Richard Grenell, Tom Homan, Sean Hannity, Kevin Hassett, Brandon Judd, Keith Kellogg, Larry Kudlow, Robert Lighthizer, Stephen Miller, Stephen Moore, John Ratcliffe, Russell Vought, and Matt Whitaker, though none of them were formally part of the campaign itself. Vince Haley was officially responsible for overseeing the team developing the campaign's policy proposals. According to Patrick Ruffini, the former President stood to capitalize off of a gradual political phenomenon: that "the ties that once bound low-income and nonwhite voters to the Democratic Party ... were breaking". To drive up turnout, Trump's campaign ran an unconventional ground game. He targeted irregular voters through community building, rather than traditional methods: door knocks, big party machinery, and paid media. Organizations such as Libre and Turning Point USA, besides driving forward an ideological agenda, assembled low propensity voters who felt alienated by the government and cultivated in them a sense of belonging to Trump's cause. As activist Tony Gavito explained, "Mobilizing people to turn out and cast a ballot is not nearly as powerful as organizing people to adopt an identity, commit to a cause, and join a collective effort to push for change". Beyond his base, it served to persuade remaining undecided voters; with extreme rhetoric, they would have a "compelling reason to vote". Trump's extreme statements also played into his populist strategy of airing the public's grievances against the political status quo—that he was saying what no other politician dared to say. The campaign team utilized Stanley George to lead outreach efforts targeting the Indian-American community, particularly focusing on immigration policies favoring Indian professionals and students. Marketing Writing for Tilted Chair, Kara Villarreal asserts that "Trump didn’t just run a political campaign; he launched a full-scale marketing movement". The former President's messaging was simple, straightforward, and emotional, which analysts found engaged well with his "consumers"—voters. He appealed to their discontent over the economy, immigration, and national pride. One of the means he used to achieve this was mantras he would repeat during rallies, such as, "Are you better off now or four years ago?”, and, "I will fix it." Trump also relied on identity politics by creating an "us versus them" narrative. This, according to analysts, united his supporters and kept them motivated. On advertising, Trump's campaign faced a massive financial disadvantage. He, like Harris, concentrated ad funding on the seven swing states. However, unlike his opponent, his funding was more localized, focusing more on individual voters than geographical groups. Trump targeted specific swing voters, or "streaming persuadables," while his opponent simply spent on the states at large. many of whom belonged to the manosphere. he came across as approachable. They "humanize[d]" him. Artificial intelligence of the candidate embracing a cat and duck, adding credibility to his Springfield pet-eating hoax Trump and his allies extensively used artificial intelligence. In June 2024, Trump remarked that AI was "really powerful stuff," suggesting that he would deliver a speech written entirely by AI: "[My staffer] goes click click click, and like 15 seconds later he shows me my speech, written so beautifully, I said, ‘I’m gonna use this sucker'". As with the Harris campaign, Trump's team shared many deepfakes on social media. Trump's campaign also used AI software to enhance efficiency. This included automating repetitive tasks and creating targeted advertisements. One such software, Campaign Nucleus, received more than $2.2 million in funding from his associates. == Political positions ==

Abortion Trump struck a middle ground and often vacillated on abortion. This was done in an attempt to put the issue to rest, having greatly cost Republicans in the 2022 midterms in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overruled that June. He generally called for abortion's legal status to be left up to the individual states. then leaned in favor of it, and then pledged to veto any federal abortion ban. When asked on how he would vote on Florida's abortion referendum, he equivocated. Trump labelled Florida governor Ron DeSantis' six-week abortion ban as "terrible", On the other hand, he stated that he would allow Republican-controlled states to monitor women's pregnancies. Contemporary commentators remarked that Trump's stance on abortion pleased neither progressives nor conservatives, In April 2024, he reiterated that he was "proudly responsible" for reversing Roe v. Wade. Economy and trade Trump's economic agenda featured protective tariffs, lower taxation, and reduced regulations. He sought an economic nationalist system, with the income tax largely, if not completely, replaced by tariffs to defend local manufacturing. Protectionism had been a priority in his first presidency. In 2024, he vowed to enact even higher tariffs, including a 10% to 20% universal baseline tariff, 60% on China, between 25% and 100% on Mexico, and 100% on all cars made outside the U.S. Analysts noted that the proposed tariffs were especially targeted against China, seeing that, among other things, he proposed a four-year plan to phase out Chinese imports of essential goods. Overall, Trump's protectionist program intended to transform the U.S. into a self-sufficient economy. as well as a trade war. One of Trump's key pledges was extending and expanding his 2017 tax cuts. These would further slash all individual and corporate tax rates, which he argued would stimulate America's energy industry and reduce inflation. Companies that made their products in the U.S. would see a reduced corporate rate from 21% to 15%. Furthermore, he intended to cut back on regulations he believed stifle job creation. A 50% reduction in energy prices was also in order. By October 2024, Reuters reported that Trump was "rolling out a new tax-cut proposal about once a week in an unusual rush in the final stretch of the campaign to sway voters". These included making car loan interest fully tax deductible. The former President notably suggested an end to income tax on Social Security benefits, and "No [federal] Tax On Tips". In light of the post-COVID inflation surge, Trump campaigned on ending the "inflation nightmare". However, as was the case with Harris' economic proposals, economists criticized his plan for potentially leading to an increase in inflation, along with adding around $15 trillion to the national debt. Trump also planned to devalue the U.S. dollar to cheapen American exports. On April 26, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump allies plan on greatly limiting the independence of the Federal Reserve should Trump win the election. Of particular note were plans to allow the president to directly set interest rates, remove Chair Jerome Powell before his term expires in 2026, and subject the Fed to oversight from the OMB. Trump stated in a press conference in August 2024 at Mar-a-Lago that he "[feels] the president should have at least [a] say in there" with respect to Federal Reserve interest rate decisions. In June 2024, 16 Nobel Prize in Economics laureates signed an open letter arguing that Trump's fiscal and trade policies coupled with efforts to limit the Federal Reserve's independence would reignite an inflation surge in the United States. Education Trump campaigned on expanding federal management of education, although with exceptions. On the one hand, he pledged to terminate the Department of Education. On the other, he suggested giving funding preference to certain schools and universities. Schools with a mask or vaccine mandate, for instance, would not be federally funded. In late 2023, Trump proposed an "American Academy," a free online university open to all Americans that would counter private institutions that "[turn] our students into Communists and terrorists". This would be funded through a tax on the endowments of private universities. Energy and environment Trump's energy proposals heavily favored fossil fuel production and consumption, with little, if any, regard for environmentalism. He encapsulated them under the mantra "drill, baby, drill", or "drill, drill, drill". Overall, Trump aimed to transform the U.S. into an energy independent country with the lowest electricity and energy costs of any country in the world. This aim was well-suited to deal with the spike in gasoline prices caused by war in Ukraine. He promised to increase oil drilling on public lands and offer tax breaks to fossil fuel producers. Regarding global climate efforts, Trump proposed leaving the Paris Agreement, and drafted orders to withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Trump's disproportionate preference of fossil fuels is influenced by his denial of global warming. He did not officially state how he would tackle global warming if elected. Foreign policy Trump's proposed foreign policy was isolationist (a label he denied), which he branded as "America First". In September 2024, Trump said that America's allies "treat us actually worse than our so-called enemies". Trump promised to "fundamentally reevaluate" NATO's purpose and mission. and if they met the alliance's target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. On the Russo-Ukrainian War, Trump vowed that even before he is inaugurated, and suggested the 2022 invasion could have been prevented by Ukraine giving up parts of its own country to Russia. Trump brought in more pro-Israel policies than any president before. He presented himself as a stronger defender of Israel, and was seen as less sympathetic to Palestine than Biden or Harris. He vowed to continue supporting Israel in the Gaza war, and said that Israel must "finish the problem". Trump was expected to continue arming Israel, likely with "no strings attached" for humanitarian concerns. He promised to ban Gaza residents from entering the US. Trump suggested sending armed forces into Mexico to battle drug cartels. In campaign speeches, Trump stated that he would centralize government power under his authority, replace career federal civil service employees with political loyalists, and use the military for domestic law enforcement and the deportation of immigrants. Trump called to bring independent agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission under direct presidential control. Trump's allies drafted an executive order requiring all independent agencies to submit actions to the White House for review. Trump called for presidential authority to 'impound' funds for Congressionally appropriated programs, a practice which was outlawed under President Richard Nixon. Trump promised to order the U.S. Justice Department to investigate political rivals and Joe Biden, and fire Attorneys General who disobeyed him. He called for jailing people whose actions he objects to, including Supreme Court critics, flag burners, and the January 6 Committee. According to The New York Times, Trump called for stripping employment protections for thousands of career civil service employees and replacing them with political loyalists if deemed an 'obstacle to his agenda' within federal agencies, the U.S. Intelligence Community, State Department, and Department of Defense. The theory rejects the notion of the separation of powers and that the government is composed of three separate branches but that Article Two of the Constitution gives the President absolute authority. The reforms have been described as a reimposition of the Jacksonian spoils system. His proposal was widely criticized as dangerous for democracy. Trump pledged to appoint Elon Musk to chair a Federal Efficiency Commission. Trump said the commission would audit the entire federal government and propose "dramatic reforms". Musk also officially announced that he would accept the appointment if Trump was elected. Trump vowed to achieve his long-held goal of drastic reform by minimizing government and cutting red tape government regulations, which he says are the bureaucracies that are holding back American prosperity. He suggested shutting down multiple departments for "bureaucratic waste". However, by the end of the election season, he ruled out altering the Affordable Care Act, going as far as to claim that he "never even thought about such a thing". Trump also insisted that he would keep Medicare and Social Security intact. In March 2024, after alluding to cutting "entitlements," which was avidly denounced by the Biden campaign, he clarified that this did not include Medicare or Social Security. Ultimately, Trump did not commit to reforming welfare programs. He also pledged to make in-vitro fertilization free of charge. Immigration The New York Times reported that Trump planned a mass deportation of illegal immigrants: "an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration", including "preparing to round up undocumented people already in the U.S. on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled", and that it "amounts to an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history". To achieve the goal of deporting millions per year, Trump has stated his intent to expand a form of deportation that does not require due process hearings which would be accomplished by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, and invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 to allow the military to apprehend migrants. During rallies, Trump blurred the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, and has promised to deport both. Trump stated he will deport between 15 and 20 million people, although the estimated number of undocumented immigrants is only 11 million. This was estimated by the American Immigration Council to cost at least $315 billion, or $967.9 billion over a decade, and by the Brookings Institution and Peterson Institute for International Economics to result in a decrease in employment for American-born workers". Trump promised to reinstate his ban on entry to individuals from certain Muslim-majority nations. Calling out crime and homelessness in Democratic-run cities was a central message of his, which often devolved into exaggerated reports of violence and disorder overrunning the country. Despite this, statistics consistently showed that violent crime had decreased since 2020. Trump repeatedly made baseless claims of a "migrant crime wave" caused by the crisis at the Southern border. To resolve this imagined crime wave, he planned for mass deportations and more aggressive police use of force. He suggested sending the National Guard into crime-struck cities and reserving Justice Department grants to cities that adopt his preferred policing methods such as stop-and-frisk. The former President voiced support for shooting suspected shoplifters and having police carry out "one really violent day" against those committing property crimes. He pledged to expand use of the death penalty, including for drug dealers, smugglers, and migrants who kill American citizens and law enforcement officers. Regarding homelessness, he campaigned on banning urban camping and instead creating "tent cities" on inexpensive land. These would be staffed with doctors and social workers to help the homeless seek treatment. Trump and his allies have reportedly drafted executive orders to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act on the first day of his presidency to allow the military to shut down civil demonstrations against him. Trump suggested investigating MSNBC and NBC's parent corporation Comcast should he return to office, calling their news coverage of him "treason". He also stated that ABC and CBS should lose their broadcast licenses and their journalists sent to jail if they refused to name confidential sources. Transgenderism and civil rights representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik, two Trump advocates and proponents of the 2020s reaction against the LGBTQ community; Trump's policies reflected this sentiment Trump's campaign has stated its intention to reinterpret existing Civil Rights-era protections for minorities to counter "anti-white racism". According to Axios, Trump's Justice Department would "push to eliminate or upend programs in government and corporate America that are designed to counter racism that has favored whites". Trump has stated that there is a "definite anti-white feeling in the country". Trump's advisors have stated Trump will rescind Biden's Executive Orders designed to boost diversity and racial equity. Trump promised a rollback on trans rights. Trump has stated that he will ask Congress to pass a bill stating that the U.S. will only recognize two genders as determined at birth, and has promised to crackdown on gender-affirming care. Trump has stated that hospitals and health care providers that provide transitional hormones or surgery will no longer qualify for federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid funding. Trump has stated he will push to prohibit hormonal and surgical intervention for minors in all 50 states. ==Rhetoric==

Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric received immense media coverage. According to myriad journalists and scholars, and even—to an extent—Trump's own team, His rhetoric was noted to degenerate as the campaign progressed. For instance, in a November 2023 rally, Trump said, "[W]e pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Two days before the election, he told rallygoers, "[T]o get me somebody would have to shoot through the fake news [reporters]. And I don't mind that so much". In deploying such vitriolic language, Trump aimed to energize his base as well as undecided voters, in order to maximize turnout. According to a New York Times computer analysis, since the initiation of Trump's political career in 2015, his speeches had grown "darker, harsher, longer, angrier, less focused, more profane and increasingly fixated on the past". Trump often mumbled words; he once confused "double entendre" for "double standard," referred to Assyrians as "Azurasians", His speech teemed with hyperbole and superlatives. as Trump attacked Biden for being "the worst president in U.S. history", and spoke of himself as "the greatest president" in U.S history. Vulgarities were also a hallmark of the former President's rhetoric. Attacks dated June 2023, in which he condemns the U.S. Justice Department for supposedly targeting him, and vows to go after political opponentsTrump's campaign deployed dehumanizing, violent attacks against his political opponents. His election rival, Harris, was a prime target. In a July 2024 interview, he said that she had claimed Indian heritage "until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as Black". Oftentimes, Trump intentionally mispronounced her name as "Ka-MA-la", or "Kamabla", and called her "low IQ", Another enemy, according to him, was the media. He called Facebook "an enemy of the people", and complained that the media was "so damn bad". Moreover, Trump attacked the witnesses, judges, juries, and families of individuals involved in his criminal trials. In the aftermath of his prosecution in New York, he called Judge Juan Merchan, "a devil" and urged his supporters to "go after" Letitia James, the attorney who filed the suit. In May 2024, Trump's campaign posted an advertisement which showed hypothetical newspaper headlines in the event of a Trump victory. Under one headline titled "What's next for America?" was a subtitle that read, "German industrial strength significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich". Some of Trump's statements were perceived as an open embrace of authoritarianism. In a December 2023 interview with Sean Hannity, the former President said he would only be a dictator on "day one" of his presidency and not after. His campaign aides later stated that he was merely attempting to "trigger the left" and media establishment. Trump also stated that, in order to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, the U.S. Constitution had to be terminated. Several Republicans, including Ted Cruz, denounced this remark. Trump publicly praised several authoritarian leaders during his campaign such as Viktor Orbán: "There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic". Ideology Scholars and commentators contended that Trump's rhetoric stemmed from populism. A common theme in his rallies was the struggle between "us"—the majority, or his supporters—and "them"—the elites, or his political enemies. Frequent targets of his attacks were illegal immigrants, transgender people, and the elites, made in an attempt to create an outgroup to stir up fear and moral panic among his supporters. The University of California, Berkeley ties this strategy to "authoritarian populism". It elaborates, "[The] sense of fear and antagonism [promoted] leads people to accept authoritarian measures to protect themselves and their in-group". Alongside martyrdom, a common motif was retribution. He framed the election as "the final battle", and his presidential campaign as a "righteous crusade" against "atheists, globalists and the Marxists". Furthermore, Trump's populism blended with nationalism, as his calls for retribution against illegal immigrants and globalist elites were enmeshed with calls to defend the American identity. A core feature of the former President's populist rhetoric was his defiance of norms of political speech. This was captured through vulgar insults against opponents and violent diction. According to Lilie Chouliaraki and Kathryn Claire Higgins of the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, Trump spoke with "an irreverent, improvised and unencumbered brashness that suggests that he is saying out loud what everyone else is too afraid to say". The aforementioned populist overtones bore parallels to authoritarian leaders. The former President's rhetoric was unprecedentedly vitriolic and extreme to the point that some scholars and journalists labelled it as fascist, comparable to that of Juan Perón, Christian nationalism also defined Trump's rhetoric. In his rallies, he alleged that Christianity was being besieged and Christians were facing persecution by Democrats, and that he would guard it and reclaim its rightful role in U.S. society. The former President and his allies appealed to Christians' grievances by calling out "woke indoctrination" in schools, trans rights initiatives, and even the crisis at the Southern border. To this extent, their partisan conservative messaging and Christian messaging were indistinguishable. The conservative pastor Guillermo Maldonado said of the election, "You know, we’re now in spiritual warfare … It’s beyond warfare between the left and the right. It’s between good and evil. There’s a big fight right now that is affecting our country and we need to take back our country". They found that he created an alternate reality: an America in which 15 million illegal immigrants, not 5 million, had entered the country under Biden, and in which inflation had gone up to 50%, not 9%. Trump repeatedly embraced conspiracies such as QAnon. Vance himself admitted, "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do". fostering loyalty to the point that he could not be held accountable for his actions. This method paralleled the firehose of falsehood propaganda tactic. Another method was the big lie, defined as disinformation "so grand that it is difficult to believe that someone would have the gall to make [it] up". From as early as 2020, he incessantly claimed that that year's election was rigged, so much so that it developed into a big lie. This narrative would be repeated throughout the campaign. He, and his allies, spoke of "election integrity" not just to motivate the Republican base, but to cast doubt on the U.S. electoral process, with the ultimate aim of enfeebling democracy. In reality, voter fraud is extremely rare. Trump vilified mail-in voting and early voting, two alleged culprits of voter fraud, even as Republicans were advising supporters to use those voting methods in the coming election. When Trump was struck with criminal prosecutions, another big lie ensued—that he was completely innocent. Some commentators described the former President's attribution of his "defeats" to a "rigged" system as a "heads I win, tails you cheated" strategy. Fearmongering }} Trump's campaign heavily relied on fearmongering. He inflated the economic, crime, and immigration-related state of the U.S. to paint an image of a nation in ruins, a "failed" "Third World" country, in his words. On crime, commentators viewed Trump's version of the U.S. as "dystopian". Trump made apocalyptic prophecies predicting imminent doom should he lose the election, including the break out of World War Three. citing baseless accounts of their proclivity for crime. Besides illegal immigrants, Trump used transgender people as scapegoats. He attempted to incite a moral panic over their interference in politics and society, falsely warning that children in schools were being forced into gender reassignment surgery, and that trans women were unfairly infiltrating in women's sports. == Struggle for the Republican nomination ==

Primaries nomination: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie (left to right, top row first) As of late November 2022, Quinnipiac reported that 34% of Americans expressed approval of Donald Trump's candidacy, including just 62% of Republicans. Some two months after its inception, only 30 out of 271 congressional Republicans had endorsed him. Trump was challenged in the primaries by Nikki Haley (February 14, 2023, to March 6, 2024), Vivek Ramaswamy (February 21, 2023, to January 15, 2024), Asa Hutchinson (April 6, 2023, to January 16, 2024), and Ron DeSantis (May 24, 2023, to January 21, 2024). Other challengers, who withdrew before the primaries, were Perry Johnson (March 2, 2023, to October 20, 2023), Larry Elder (April 20, 2023, to October 26, 2023), Tim Scott (May 19, 2023, to November 12, 2023), Mike Pence (June 5, 2023, to October 28, 2023), Chris Christie (June 6, 2023, to January 10, 2024), Doug Burgum (June 7, 2023, to December 4, 2023), Francis Suarez (June 14, 2023, to August 29, 2023), and Will Hurd (June 22, 2023, to October 9, 2023). From August 23 to January 10, 2024, there were five debates among the candidates in the campaign for the Republican Party's nomination for president. Trump was absent from all of them, and was not planning to attend the debates scheduled for January 18 and 21, 2024. On January 16, when she and Ron DeSantis were the last challengers left, Nikki Haley announced she would not attend the January 18 debate unless Donald Trump took part in it. ABC News canceled that debate, and CNN canceled the January 21 one. By mid-January 2024, Politico reported that a majority of congressional Republicans had come out in favor of Trump. After winning the primaries in Washington, D.C. (March 3) and Vermont (March 5), Haley suspended her presidential campaign the day after Super Tuesday. National primary polling showed Trump leading by 50 points over other candidates during the Republican primaries. After he won a landslide victory in the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, Trump was generally described as being the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for president. On March 12, 2024, Trump officially became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Support and opposition to Trump's nomination fight: Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump Jr., Dana White, Mike Johnson, Elon Musk, Kid Rock, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Vivek Ramaswamy (left to right) Although initially hesitant to back the former President's campaign, Many of his primary opponents came to endorse him. Trump's criminal prosecutions and first assassination attempt continued to unite the Republican Party's support for the former President. Besides Republican officials, many podcasters and social media influencers stood behind Trump. Other prominent endorsements included Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, Kanye West, Buzz Aldrin, Mel Gibson, Hulk Hogan, and Amber Rose. Sarah Palin was the only former Republican president, vice president or nominee to back Trump. Notable Republican politicians who either opposed or declined to announce their support publicly include former president George W. Bush, former vice presidents Mike Pence, and Dick Cheney, former House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan, as well as former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Some of Trump's 2016 and 2024 primary opponents such as Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson, and Will Hurd also declined to endorse or openly opposed the campaign. Republican organizations such as 43 Alumni for America, Haley Voters for Harris, and The Lincoln Project all endorsed Harris. Half of the members of Trump's cabinet did not support his run for president. Vice-presidential choice , Trump's running mate in 2024 Mike Pence served as Trump's vice president from 2017 to 2021, as well as his running mate in 2020. However, the pair had a dramatic falling out on January 6, 2021, when Pence refused to follow Trump's orders to deny the certification of the 2020 election results. The President thereafter tweeted that Pence "didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution". As early as March 2021, Bloomberg News reported that Trump had largely ruled out sharing a ticket with Pence in 2024. At least sixteen names were raised as possible candidates for the position.{{Collapsible list • {{cite news |last1=Isenstadt |first1=Alex |last2=McGraw |first2=Meridith |date=January 21, 2024 |title=The veepstakes heats up as Trump pulls away • • By June, the Trump campaign had reportedly delivered vetting paperwork to Burgum, Carson, Cotton, Donalds, Rubio, Scott, Stefanik, and Vance. Ultimately, JD Vance was chosen to be Trump's running mate. Media analysts deduced this pick to an attempt to court Midwestern and white working-class voters. At 39, he also provided a counterbalance to Trump, 78 years old at the time. Vance's conservative stances, such as his isolationism and prior opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest, established the campaign's full commitment to Trumpism. Vance was the first Ohioan to appear on a major party presidential ticket since John Bricker in 1944, and the first veteran since John McCain in 2008. He was also the first millennial and veteran of the Iraq war (and the wider war on terror) on a presidential ticket. Republican National Convention On July 15, 2024, Trump and Vance were officially named the Republican candidates for president and vice president in Republican National Convention at Milwaukee. Trump formally accepted the party's nomination in a 90-minute address on the convention's final night, just two days after his assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. == History of the campaign ==

Rallies of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada Donald Trump's campaign events were often described as "freewheeling", like a "rock show". These statements played into his attempts to project himself as a martyr. A few months later, Facebook and Instagram followed suit. In October 2021, Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, was founding, to counter the social bans imposed on him. He would primarily use it to spread messages. It is alt-tech. Dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes In November 2022, Kanye West, then a candidate for the 2024 election, dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, alongside white nationalist Nick Fuentes. West had recently posted a series of antisemitic statements on social media. Trump, on his part, claimed that this meeting was unexpected. Republican candidates Asa Hutchinson and Mike Pence openly rebuked Fuentes' presence in Trump's campaign, and Mitch McConnell went as far as to suggest that he would not win the election because of the dinner. By October 2023, West had suspended his campaign. He endorsed Trump. First campaign appearances , in January 2024 On January28, 2023, Trump held his first campaign events in South Carolina and New Hampshire. Indictments In March 2023, he was indicted for 34 felony counts of fraud stemming from his role in falsifying business records concerning hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, done in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election. This marked his first indictment of four. His second came in June, when a federal grand jury indicted the former President for improperly retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and destroying evidence related to the government probe. In August, Trump was indicted for his illegal attempts to remain in power following the 2020 election. This resulted in a mugshot being taken of him, which was widely circulated on the internet and raised his campaign over $7 million within two days of its release. Finally, later in August, the federal government and Georgia separately indicted him for criminal conspiracy and fraud vis-à-vis his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump denied wrongdoing in all four cases. March 2024–November 2024 At the Libertarian National Convention Trump spoke at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention in May, becoming the first president to address a third party convention in modern U.S. history. He urged the Libertarian Party to nominate him lest they "keep getting [their] 3% every four years". In an attempt to court the crowd, the former President vowed to appoint a Libertarian to his cabinet and commute Ross Ulbricht's prison sentence. However, his speech was blanketed with jeers; one attendee even held up a sign that read "No wannabe dictators!" Biden did not attend the convention. Felony conviction In May 2024, Trump was convicted of felonies regarding the Stormy Daniels case. This made him the first former U.S. president ever to be convicted of a crime. After the election, he was given an "unconditional discharge," shielding him from punishment or incarceration. Debate with Joe Biden On June 27, 2024, the first of two debates in the election season took place, with Trump up against Joe Biden in the initial rematch. The debate was defined by Biden's "disastrous" performance, as he rambled incoherently and repeatedly lost his train of thought. This exacerbated already-existing concerns about the President's fitness to serve. With Trump comfortably proclaimed the winner of the debate—an Ipsos/FiveThirtyEight poll found that 60% of respondents thought that Trump won, compared with only 21% for his opponent—the former President's lead in national polls expanded, and Democratic officials began calling for Biden to drop out of the race. Nevertheless, some commentators pointed out that Biden's poor performance merely overshadowed Trump's persistent lying throughout the debate. Trump v. United States In the legal case Trump v. United States, Trump argued that the Constitution allows for absolute immunity for all presidential actions—even those criminal—unless the Senate successfully votes to impeach. His argument was rejected by most political commentators and two lower courts. In a unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the court stated that if Trump's theory of constitutional authority were accepted, it would "collapse our system of separated powers" and put a president above the law. Attempted assassinations In the span of three months, Trump faced two assassination attempts. On July 13, 2024, during a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, he was shot and wounded in the upper right ear. He was escorted out of the venue by U.S. Secret Service. The Secret Service swiftly killed the identified shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. In addition, Crooks also shot three other spectators, including 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed instantly. The assassination attempt was memorialized in a series of photographs by Evan Vucci. These depict Trump being escorted off the podium, with blood coating his cheek, his fist raised defiantly, and an American flag fluttering in the background. Vucci's photographs became a symbol of the campaign. Commentators stated that the attempted assassination helped project Trump as a martyr, with Zachary Basu of Axios writing that it "turbocharge[d] the persecution narrative Trump has placed at the center of his campaign". The secret service agent walking the course before Trump's golf party arrived at the hole and saw a rifle barrel protruding from the bushes which opened fire in that direction. The perpetrator, Ryan Wesley Routh, fled the scene but was quickly apprehended. Routh was eventually charged with attempted first-degree murder and terrorism. Musk, Kennedy, and Gabbard's endorsements at a Trump rally in August 2024, shortly after endorsing him July and August 2024 saw three of the most high profile endorsements of the Trump campaign. Just after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, tech magnate Elon Musk vowed to support the former President. He would become the campaign's biggest donor.''' In August 2024, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent presidential campaign and endorsed Trump. On the campaign trail, Kennedy's trademark message was "Make America Healthy Again." He and Trump pledged to resolve the chronic disease epidemic by targeting big pharmaceutical companies, ultraprocessed foods, and certain chemical additives to foods. Former Representative Tulsi Gabbard soon followed suit. Having previously contested the Democratic nomination in 2020, she switched allegiance to the Republican Party, citing the Biden administration's foreign policy failures and "abuse of power". Biden's withdrawal lambasting Democrats for launching a "coup" to depose Joe Biden following his withdrawal from the election On July 21, 2024, following his poor debate performance, Biden ultimately withdrew from the race. He immediately endorsed Kamala Harris to replace him in his place as the party's presidential nominee. On August 5, she officially became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz was chosen to be her running mate. Trump criticized Biden's withdrawal and Harris' subsequent accession without a competitive nominating process, calling it a "coup". He and his allies would point out that Harris "got zero votes [in the primaries]". Biden's withdrawal reportedly caused problems within Trump's campaign. In fact, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan of The New York Times characterized the ensuing situation as the campaign's "worst three weeks". This reflected in national polling. By late August, with Harris as a presidential nominee, polls had her beating Trump by multiple points, giving the Democratic Party back their lead they had lost under Biden. Arlington National Cemetery incident During an August 2024 visit at Arlington National Cemetery, Trump's entourage brought in a photographer and videographer to Section 60, to capture promotional content for his campaign. However, such content is not permitted in Section 60. When a cemetery official attempted to stop them, two campaign staffers, Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, pushed and verbally abused him. Later in August, Trump's campaign released a TikTok video of Trump's Section 60 visit, as well as photos of the former President standing next to graves while smiling and giving a thumbs up. Facing criticism, the campaign denied all wrongdoing. In fact, family members accompanying Trump during the visit had accepted to be "respectfully captured". Vance criticized the media and Democratic party for "[making] a scandal out of something where there really is none", adding that "[Harris] wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up … She can go to hell." Harris had not yet commented on the incident. The U.S. Army issued a statement rebuking the Trump campaign, followed by a similar one from the Defense Department, the Green Beret Foundation, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and VoteVets.org. Foreign interference event in Phoenix, Arizona, in June 2024 China, Iran, and Russia all interfered with Trump's campaign and the broader presidential election with their general aim being to spread disinformation and propaganda and, ultimately, foment distrust in the electoral process and discredit American democracy. Networks of fake social media accounts and websites were deployed. These networks, described by The New York Times as "sophisticated," were state-run and targeted at particular voter demographics. China, through its Spamouflauge influence operation, promoted fabricated content related to divisive political issues, such as that of pro-Palestine protesters. but its interference in the election did not necessarily favor any particular candidate. Iran attempted to tip the race in Biden and Harris' favor, even though they too were targeted in disinformation campaigns. Russia disseminated Trump-aligned content, such as a video purporting to show voter fraud in Georgia, to aid the former President's effort. Analysts noted his campaign had taken a softer stance on helping Ukraine in its war with Russia relative to Harris'. He had previously been reluctant to attend another debate unless hosted by Fox News, but eventually relented in August. During the debate, Trump made several "extreme" false claims. The Washington Post found Trump made four times as many false or misleading statements than Harris. Subsequent polling overwhelmingly concluded that Trump lost, with Reuters, for instance, finding that only 24% of respondents thought that he won, as opposed to 53% for Harris. Even Fox News writer Doug Schoen considered Harris the "clear winner". Trump's brazenly false statements, constant dwelling on the past, such as his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, and overall irascible and uncomfortable demeanor, were the preeminent cited reasons for his loss. Nonetheless, the debate's impact on the race was questionable. Polling numbers for both candidates did not change much following the debate, with Harris acquiring a minor gain. "Kamala is for they/them" advertisement In late September 2024, Trump's campaign launched a 30-second advertisement excoriating Harris for supporting taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners. It features footage of her saying so in a 2019 interview. Notably, it concludes with the narrator declaring, "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you". This was one of several Trump ads painting his opponent as an out-of-touch radical and playing on Americans' general skepticism over transgender rights. It, and its variations, aired over 30,000 times. In retrospect, many commentators considered it one of the most effective ads of the election season. Appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience In October 2024, Trump appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), the most popular podcast in the U.S. The interview covered a wide range of issues, political: the 2020 election, Kim Jong Un, and apolitical: aliens, The Apprentice, et cetera. Trump had already committed much time to podcasts, including Theo Von's and Logan Paul's—to a greater extent than Harris. The JRE appearance helped him appeal to young male voters. Within a day, it had amassed 27 million views on YouTube, more than the opening game of the World Series. Madison Square Garden rally Trump held his last major campaign event at Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, one week before the election. Among its featured speakers were comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who prominently called Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage," suggested that Harris had worked as a prostitute, and stated that he and one of his black friends had "carved watermelons" together, as well as Trump's friend David Rem, who referred to Harris as "the Antichrist". The rally was noted for its vicious rhetoric; Democrats tied it to a Nazi rally held at the same venue in 1939. The New York Times labelled Trump's rally as a "Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism". Hinchcliffe's comments, particularly the "floating island of garbage" remark, proved especially controversial. With the stunt, Trump "troll[ed]" her and "cosplay[ed] as a minimum wage worker". On the other hand, Jonathan Cohn in a New Republic podcast considered it "almost too casual, it’s a bit insulting". A few days later, Trump, dressed in a bright orange vest, rode on a personalized garbage truck. This too served to counter a Democratic opponent's statement, namely, Biden calling Trump's supporters "garbage." He subsequently held a rally donning the vest. Final rally Trump held his final campaign rally at Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the day before the election. At this point, he and Harris were roughly even in the polls, with the gap between the two candidates produced in the aftermath of Biden's withdrawal having significantly narrowed. It was to close off nine years of political campaigning. == Polling ==

Primaries Presidential election == Aftermath ==

results of the 2024 presidential election; Trump won a majority of 312 votes Donald Trump's campaign was successful. He won the 2024 presidential election with 312 electoral votes and 49.8% of the popular vote. He carried 31 states out of 50, including all seven swing states. One of them, Nevada, had last gone to the Republican presidential candidate in 2004. Trump's victory was "decisive"; he was the first Republican since George W. Bush in 2004 to win the national popular vote (unlike his 2016 victory and his 2020 defeat), as well as the first non-incumbent Republican since George H. W. Bush in 1988 to do so. All 50 states, including Washington D.C., shifted to the Republican Party, for the first time since 1976 in which the popular vote margin in all 50 states and Washington D.C. swung in the same direction from the previous election. However, Trump's triumph was not a landslide. He only won a plurality of the popular vote, with his 49.8% total being one of the slimmest of a winning candidate in American history. on January 20, 2025, as the 47th president of the United States Trump became the second president to be reelected to a non-consecutive term, after Grover Cleveland in 1892. Aged 78 on election day, he remains the oldest candidate ever elected to the presidency. JD Vance became the first Ohio native to be elected to the vice presidency since Charles Dawes in 1924 and the first veteran since Al Gore in 1992. Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2025 as the 47th president of the United States, and Vance, as the 50th vice president of the United States. ==See also==