Trump White House Timeline

At a press conference, candidate Trump openly urged Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's missing emails. That same day, Russian operatives did target Clinton's emails, linking Trump's plea to a hostile foreign cyberattack on a U.S. election. This brazen request drew outrage as an invitation for foreign interference.

The Washington Post released a 2005 recording of Trump boasting in vulgar terms about grabbing women without consent. The 'grab 'em by the pussy' tape, which Trump dismissed as 'locker room talk,' sparked bipartisan condemnation and led many GOP officials to rescind endorsements. It also emboldened more women to come forward with allegations of past sexual misconduct by Trump.

In the days after the Access Hollywood tape, numerous women publicly accused Trump of groping or kissing them without consent. Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks told The New York Times that Trump had forcibly touched or kissed them, accounts they had shared with others years before. By mid-October, at least 11 women had come forward with similar stories, which Trump vehemently denied. The surge of accusations and Trump's dismissive responses (calling the women 'liars') became a major campaign controversy.

Following his election, Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle three lawsuits alleging fraud by Trump University. The plaintiffs – students of Trump's real estate 'seminars' – had been misled by bogus claims and high-pressure sales tactics. Trump's sudden settlement (after vowing never to settle) meant restitution for about 6,000 victims of the sham university. Critics noted that a president-elect paying millions for fraud claims was unprecedented.

Trump signed Executive Order 13769, banning entry from seven Muslim-majority countries and suspending refugee admissions. The order, issued with no warning, caused chaos at airports as even valid visa-holders and U.S. permanent residents were detained or turned away. Nationwide protests erupted, and by the next day federal courts intervened to block the ban's enforcement. Trump begrudgingly issued revised bans after judges struck down the original as unconstitutional discrimination.

National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was forced to resign after just 24 days when it emerged he had lied about secret talks with the Russian ambassador. Flynn had discussed lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia before Trump took office, and the Justice Department warned he was vulnerable to Kremlin blackmail. His ouster – and later guilty plea for lying to the FBI – made Flynn the first of many Trump aides to depart amid scandal.

Trump fired James Comey while Comey was leading an FBI probe into Russian election interference and possible Trump-campaign links. The president even admitted on TV he had the 'Russia thing' in mind when dismissing Comey. The ouster was 'shockingly similar to Watergate' in the eyes of many, seen as an attempt to obstruct justice. In response, the Justice Department appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to independently investigate.

Ignoring scientists and U.S. allies, Trump announced America's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. This move – touted as 'America first' but widely condemned – ceded U.S. leadership in the global fight against climate change. It pleased fossil-fuel interests but alarmed environmental advocates, who called it a major blow to efforts to limit planetary warming.

A white-supremacist 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, VA exploded in violence, as neo-Nazis and KKK members clashed with counter-protesters. A neo-Nazi sympathizer murdered a peaceful protester, Heather Heyer, with his car. Trump's responses drew widespread outrage: he initially blamed hatred 'on many sides,' refusing to explicitly denounce the neo-Nazis. Then, on Aug 15, he infamously ad-libbed that there were 'very fine people on both sides,' seeming to equate the torch-wielding white nationalists with those protesting racism.

Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of contempt for racially profiling Latino immigrants. Arpaio's brutal tactics – from illegal round-ups to keeping inmates in 'concentration camp' conditions – were well known. Trump's unprecedented pardon (issued as Hurricane Harvey hit Texas) was decried as 'endorsing racism' and lawlessness. Civil rights groups saw it as a green light for abusive policing.

The Trump administration terminated DACA, the Obama-era program protecting nearly 800,000 'Dreamer' immigrants (brought to the U.S. as children) from deportation. The decision – which Trump's own Defense Secretary said was 'purely political' – threw those young people's lives into limbo. President Obama called the move 'cruel' and 'wrong,' condemning Trump for 'casting a shadow' over talented, law-abiding youth out of spite.

Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that delivered massive permanent cuts to corporations and the ultra-rich. Nonpartisan analysis showed the top 20% of earners would pocket about 65% of the benefits, while the bottom 80% got just 35%. By design, most middle-class tax cuts were set to expire by 2027, after which 72% of Americans would actually see higher taxes. The law was wildly unpopular on the left, seen as worsening inequality and ballooning the deficit.

In an Oval Office meeting on immigration, Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations as 'shithole countries.' 'Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?' he fumed, preferring more immigrants from (white) countries like Norway. The slur, reported by multiple aides, was met with instant international backlash and condemnation as blatant racism.

White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigned after both his ex-wives came forward with detailed allegations (and photos) of Porter's physical abuse. It emerged that senior officials, including Chief of Staff John Kelly, had known for months that Porter's background check was held up over the abuse claims. Yet the White House initially defended Porter and praised his 'integrity,' only tightening its stance when the graphic evidence became public.

Trump's Justice Department instituted a 'zero tolerance' policy at the southern border: all undocumented entrants, including asylum-seekers, were jailed and their children taken from them. Between early May and June 2018 alone, 2,342 children (some just infants) were separated from 2,206 parents under this policy. Heart-wrenching images and audio of crying toddlers in cages provoked nationwide fury and protests. Medical experts warned the trauma was causing 'severe and lasting harm' to thousands of children.

Standing alongside Russia's Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, President Trump openly sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies on the question of Russian election interference. Asked if he believed U.S. intelligence about Kremlin meddling in 2016, Trump instead gave Putin a pass: 'President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be.' His submissive performance stunned observers. Republicans and Democrats alike blasted it as 'disgraceful,' 'weak,' even 'treasonous.'

In one day, two of Trump's former top associates became felons. Longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes – including campaign finance violations for arranging hush-money payments to women (Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal) at Trump's direction. Cohen admitted the $130,000 payoff to Daniels just before Election Day 2016 was done 'in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office' – i.e. Trump. In a separate courtroom, Trump's 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud.

Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faced credible accusations of sexual assault from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and others. Ford's brave testimony about being assaulted by Kavanaugh in high school riveted the nation. Rather than withdraw Kavanaugh, Trump attacked the accusers – even mocking Dr. Ford at a rally – and Senate Republicans forced through the confirmation. On October 6, Kavanaugh was confirmed by one of the narrowest margins ever (50–48) amid mass protests.

Trump presided over the longest shutdown in U.S. history (35 days), inflicting pain on 800,000 federal workers, because Congress refused to fund his border wall. From December 22, 2018 until late January, agencies from the TSA to the FBI were hobbled. Trump himself boasted he would be 'proud' to shut down the government to get his way. Ultimately he relented with nothing to show.

After failing to get Congress to fund his border wall, Trump declared a national emergency to grab money for it. This blatant end-run around Congress's power of the purse was denounced as an unconstitutional abuse. Both the House and Senate voted to overturn the 'emergency,' though Trump's veto and a deferential Supreme Court kept it in place. Ultimately, Trump diverted billions from military projects to wall construction.

Special Counsel Mueller's redacted report was released, confirming Russia's 'sweeping and systematic' interference in 2016 to help Trump and detailing ample evidence that Trump tried to obstruct justice. Mueller found 10 specific instances where Trump's actions met the criteria for obstruction – but Mueller refrained from charging a sitting president. In truth, Mueller pointedly did not exonerate Trump of obstruction, and over 1,000 former federal prosecutors noted Trump's conduct would have led to indictment if he were anyone else.

Trump launched a racist tirade at four Democratic congresswomen of color (known as 'The Squad'). He tweeted that these elected Americans should 'go back' to the 'totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.' The fact that three of the four women were U.S.-born (and all are citizens) underscored the naked bigotry. The House even passed a rare resolution rebuking Trump's racist remarks. Rather than apologize, Trump doubled down, whipping up 'Send her back!' chants at rallies.

In a now-infamous phone call, Trump pressed Ukraine's president to 'do us a favor' and investigate Joe Biden – Trump's potential 2020 rival – and Biden's son. Trump withheld $391 million in congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine while pushing for these political investigations. A CIA whistleblower's complaint sparked a House inquiry. This explosive scandal led directly to Trump's first impeachment in December 2019 on charges of abusing power and obstructing Congress.

Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned on July 12, 2019, after public outcry over his role years earlier in a sweetheart plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein, the serial sex offender who socialized with Trump. As a U.S. Attorney in 2008, Acosta inexplicably let Epstein escape serious federal charges for molesting dozens of underage girls. When Epstein was re-arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, Acosta's past deal drew intense scrutiny. The episode refocused attention on Trump's own past friendship with Epstein.

Against military advice, Trump ordered a sudden pullout of U.S. troops in northern Syria, abandoning America's Kurdish allies who had led the fight against ISIS. Within days, Turkey invaded Kurdish areas, killing civilians and displacing tens of thousands. Even Trump loyalists blasted the move as a grave mistake. The House condemned Trump's decision in a 354–60 bipartisan vote. Pentagon officials said the 'damage to U.S. credibility was incalculable.'

In a brazen conflict of interest, Trump announced the next G7 summit would be hosted at his own Doral golf resort in Florida – a venue from which Trump stood to personally profit. The backlash was immediate: government ethics watchdogs and even some Republicans objected to such blatant self-dealing. Facing outrage, Trump backpedaled within days and canceled the Doral plan. Nevertheless, the incident underscored ongoing concerns that Trump was using the presidency to enrich himself.

As a novel coronavirus spread globally, Trump publicly minimized the threat, even as he privately knew it was 'deadly.' In February he told the public the virus was 'very much under control' and compared it to the flu, all while he admitted to journalist Bob Woodward that COVID was 'more deadly than even your strenuous flus'. Perhaps most infamously, on April 23 he mused on live TV about injecting disinfectant. By year's end, over 350,000 Americans were dead of COVID. Public health officials said tens of thousands of those lives could have been saved with earlier action.

Amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd's murder, Trump ordered a shocking show of force in Washington, D.C. On June 1, federal officers violently cleared peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square outside the White House – using tear gas, smoke, and rubber bullets – all to enable Trump's photo-op at a church. Moments prior, Trump had threatened to deploy the U.S. military against American citizens, calling the protesters 'terrorists.'

As protests continued in various cities, Trump sent federal paramilitary-style agents into places like Portland, Oregon – without local consent. Dressed in unmarked fatigues, these agents grabbed protesters off the street into unmarked vans, in scenes one would expect in an authoritarian regime. Oregon's governor and Portland's mayor decried the excessive force and unlawful detentions. It later emerged that federal agencies compiled intelligence dossiers on protesters and journalists.

With COVID fueling a surge in mail-in voting, Trump repeatedly and baselessly attacked mail ballots as fraudulent. He also installed a loyalist megadonor, Louis DeJoy, as Postmaster General, who implemented sweeping cuts to USPS services – removing high-speed sorting machines and mailboxes – in the midst of the election mail season. Trump openly admitted he opposed USPS funding because 'they need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.'

Bob Woodward's tapes from earlier in the year surfaced, confirming Trump knowingly lied to the public about COVID-19. 'I wanted to always play it down,' Trump told Woodward in March, even as he privately acknowledged the virus's deadliness. The revelation that the president had deceived Americans about a dire public health threat – for fear of 'panic' or stock market harm – fueled even more outrage as the U.S. death toll surpassed 200,000 that month.

In early October, Trump himself contracted COVID-19 after a Rose Garden event turned into a superspreader gathering (dozens of attendees caught the virus). Trump had insisted on holding large rallies with minimal masking, flouting his own officials' guidelines. Even after being hospitalized, Trump downplayed the virus – telling Americans 'don't be afraid of COVID' – and soon returned to hosting crowded rallies. At least 130 Secret Service agents fell ill from exposure in Trump's orbit.

After losing the Nov 3 election by 7 million votes, Trump refused to concede and launched an all-out assault on the legitimacy of the results. He falsely claimed massive voter fraud, pushed absurd conspiracy theories, and pressured local GOP officials to overturn certified results. Trump's legal team filed – and lost – over 60 lawsuits. On Jan 2, 2021, he infamously called Georgia's secretary of state, urging him to 'find 11,780 votes.' He invited throngs to D.C. on Jan 6, 2021, tweeting 'Be there, will be wild!'

In the years following his first term, Trump never conceded his 2020 loss and kept alive the myth of a 'stolen' election. The House January 6th Committee's 2022 investigation laid bare Trump's plot to overturn the election – revealing that numerous aides told him outright that his fraud claims were false. Despite this, Trump announced a 2024 comeback campaign and continued to embrace insurrectionists – vowing to pardon many Jan 6 rioters if re-elected.

As the 2024 GOP primaries loomed, Trump became the first former U.S. president ever indicted. In 2023, he was criminally charged in four separate cases: (1) New York indictment for falsifying business records related to hush-money payments; (2) federal indictment for mishandling classified documents (over 300 secret papers found at Mar-a-Lago); (3) federal indictment for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election; and (4) Georgia state indictment under RICO for criminal conspiracy to steal Georgia's 2020 electoral votes.

Trump's 2024 stump speeches went even further than in 2016. He openly endorsed fringe QAnon conspiracy themes, played a song by the jailed Jan 6 choir at rallies, and amplified white nationalist accounts on social media. He floated truly authoritarian ideas: calling for executing drug dealers via quick trials, using the military against U.S. cities, and purging tens of thousands of civil servants. Trump vowed 'retribution' against his enemies – saying 'I am your retribution' to cheering crowds.

Election Day 2024 was tense and closely monitored. Despite concerns about voter suppression and scattered intimidation at polls, turnout was high. Trump won narrow victories in key swing states, clinching an Electoral College win even as he lost the popular vote for a third time. While no massive fraud materialized, Trump's Attorney General aggressively investigated vague claims of 'irregularities' in Democratic areas, in what critics called an abuse of DOJ to harass political foes.

Trump was inaugurated again, and in his address he struck a defiant tone, vowing to 'totally obliterate the Deep State.' On Day 1, Trump reinstated the 'Mexico City Policy' (global gag rule), cutting off U.S. funding to any international health groups that even counseled about abortion. He also re-issued a version of his Travel Ban, again restricting entry from several Muslim-majority countries and halting refugee admissions. Trump further withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization.

Backed by a compliant Republican Congress, Trump began implementing the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 blueprint at a furious pace. Mass deportation raids increased dramatically – ICE conducted sprawling roundups in immigrant communities, at times using tactical teams. Reports quickly surfaced of mistreatment of detainees and even U.S. citizen children getting caught in the dragnet. Trump's DOJ announced it would no longer consider 'family separation' off-limits. Trump also moved to end birthright citizenship via executive order.

With social conservatives empowered, the Trump administration swiftly acted on anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion promises. Trump signed a law creating a nationwide 15-week abortion ban, and his HHS issued regulations allowing states to ban medication abortion by invoking the Comstock Act of 1873. Concurrently, Trump's DOE and DOJ withdrew protections for transgender students and signaled support for states' bans on gender-affirming care. The White House created a new office for 'Religious Liberty' to roll back LGBTQ nondiscrimination rules.

Trump began purging the federal bureaucracy. He reclassified tens of thousands of civil servants as at-will employees (reviving 'Schedule F'), then fired scores of officials viewed as 'disloyal.' At DOJ, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced investigations into several of Trump's political rivals, including the Bidens. The Department also opened probes into the prosecutors who had charged Trump in 2023, and into certain members of the Jan 6 Committee. Civil libertarians decried this as turning the Justice Department into Trump's personal law firm to punish enemies.

In foreign affairs, Trump quickly upended traditional U.S. stances. He moved to terminate military aid to Ukraine, arguing 'Europe and Biden started that war, not our problem.' This drastic reversal prompted bipartisan outcry that Trump was handing Putin a victory. Trump announced the U.S. would re-enter talks with Russia on 'spheres of influence' in Eastern Europe. Trump also hosted Hungary's illiberal leader Viktor Orbán as the first foreign visit, praising Orbán's hardline anti-immigrant policies and media crackdown.

Trump's EPA, now led by a former coal lobbyist, moved to gut dozens of climate and pollution regulations. They rolled back fuel efficiency standards, scrapped limits on power plant emissions, and opened more public lands for oil drilling. In May, the administration formally repudiated the U.S. commitment to 'net zero' by 2050, calling it 'a hoax by the woke left.' Environmental advocates have labeled Trump's second-term climate approach 'planetary sabotage.' Climate scientists warn Trump's policies 'likely added at least 0.1°C to long-term global temperatures.'