Every controversial statement produced another round of debate.
Trump remained at the center of the conversation.
And eventually, he won the Republican nomination.
The 2016 Election
The 2016 presidential campaign became one of the most extraordinary elections in modern American history.
Trump faced Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The contest was intensely polarized.
Trump presented himself as an outsider determined to disrupt Washington.
Clinton emphasized her experience and argued that Trump was unprepared for the presidency.
The campaign included controversies, investigations, leaked communications, fierce debates, and enormous media attention.
Trump’s political opponents believed he could not win.
But on Election Day, he secured victories in enough states to win the Electoral College.
He became the 45th president of the United States.
The result shocked many observers.
It also demonstrated the strength of a political coalition that had been underestimated by much of the political establishment.
Trump’s victory represented something larger than one candidate winning an election.
It showed that a political outsider with no previous government experience could use celebrity, media attention, populist messaging, and voter dissatisfaction to reach the highest office in the country.
The Trump Presidency
Trump entered the White House in January 2017.
His administration pursued policies involving immigration, taxation, deregulation, trade, energy, the judiciary, and foreign affairs.
One of his most important accomplishments was the appointment of three Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
Those appointments significantly changed the ideological balance of the Supreme Court.
His administration also enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced corporate and individual tax rates.
On immigration, Trump’s administration pursued stricter enforcement and attempted to significantly alter border policy.
His administration also implemented controversial restrictions on entry into the United States from several countries, policies that became the subject of extensive legal and political battles.
Trump’s foreign policy was similarly unconventional.
He challenged longstanding assumptions about international alliances and repeatedly pressured NATO allies to increase defense spending.
