Presidency (2017–present)

Early actions

Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States on January 20, 2017. During his first week in office, he signed six executive orders: interim procedures in anticipation of repealing the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, unlocking the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline construction projects, reinforcing border security, and beginning the planning and design process to construct a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Upon inauguration, Trump delegated the management of his real estate business to his sons Eric and Donald Jr. His daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner became Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President, respectively.

Domestic policy

Economy and trade

The period of economic expansion that began in June 2009 continued until February 2020, when the COVID-19 recession began. Throughout his presidency, Trump mischaracterized the economy as the best in American history.

In December 2017, Trump signed tax legislation that permanently cut the corporate tax rate to 21 percent, lowered personal income tax rates until 2025, increased child tax credits, doubled the estate tax exemption to $11.2 million, and limited the state and local tax deduction to $10,000.

Trump is a skeptic of multilateral trade agreements, believing they incentivize unfair commercial practices, favoring bilateral trade agreements, as they allow one party to withdraw if the other party is believed to be behaving unfairly. Trump adopted his current skepticism of trade liberalization in the 1980s, and sharply criticized NAFTA during the Republican primary campaign in 2015. He withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, and launched a trade war with China by sharply increasing tariffs on 818 categories (worth $50 billion) of Chinese goods imported into the U.S. On several occasions, Trump has said incorrectly that these import tariffs are paid by China into the U.S. Treasury. Although Trump pledged during his 2016 campaign to significantly reduce the U.S.'s large trade deficits, the U.S. trade deficit reached its highest level in 12 years under his administration.

Despite a campaign promise to eliminate the national debt in eight years, Trump as president has approved large increases in government spending, as well as the 2017 tax cut. As a result, the American government's budget deficit has increased by almost 50%, to nearly $1 trillion in 2019. In 2016, the year before Trump took office, the U.S. national debt was around $19 trillion; by mid-2020, it had increased to $26 trillion under the Trump administration.

In April 2020, the official unemployment rate rose to 14.7% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an underestimation of the actual unemployment rate, but still was the highest level of unemployment since 1939.

Analysis published by The Wall Street Journal in October 2020 found the trade war Trump initiated in early 2018 did not achieve the primary objective of reviving American manufacturing, nor did it result in the reshoring of factory production.

Energy and climate

Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change. He made large budget cuts to programs that research renewable energy and rolled back Obama-era policies directed at curbing climate change. In June 2017, Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, making the U.S. the only nation in the world to not ratify the agreement. At the 2019 G7 summit, Trump skipped the sessions on climate change but said afterward during a press conference that he is an environmentalist.

Trump has rolled back federal regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water pollution, and the usage of toxic substances. One example is the Clean Power Plan. He relaxed environmental standards for federal infrastructure projects, while expanding permitted areas for drilling and resource extraction, such as allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Trump also weakened protections for animals. Trump's energy policies aimed to boost the production and exports of coal, oil, and natural gas.

Deregulation

During his presidency, Trump has dismantled many federal regulations on health, labor, and the environment, among other topics. Trump signed 15 Congressional Review Act resolutions repealing federal regulations, becoming the second president to sign a CRA resolution, and the first president to sign more than one CRA resolution. During his first six weeks in office, he delayed, suspended or reversed ninety federal regulations.

On January 30, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13771, which directed that for every new regulation administrative agencies issue "at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination". Agency defenders expressed opposition to Trump's criticisms, saying the bureaucracy exists to protect people against well-organized, well-funded interest groups.

Health care

During his campaign, Trump vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and shortly after taking office, Trump urged Congress to do so. In May 2017, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed legislation to repeal the ACA in a party-line vote, but repeal proposals were narrowly voted down in the Senate after three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing it.

Trump scaled back the implementation of the ACA through Executive Orders 13765 and 13813. Trump has expressed a desire to "let Obamacare fail"; his administration cut the ACA enrollment period in half and drastically reduced funding for advertising and other ways to encourage enrollment. The 2017 tax bill signed by Trump effectively repealed the ACA's individual health insurance mandate in 2019, and a budget bill Trump signed in 2019 repealed the Cadillac plan tax, medical device tax, and tanning tax. As president, Trump has falsely claimed he saved the coverage of pre-existing conditions provided by the ACA; in fact, the Trump administration has joined a lawsuit seeking to strike down the entire ACA, including protections for those with pre-existing conditions. If successful, the lawsuit would eliminate health insurance coverage for up to 23 million Americans. As a 2016 candidate, Trump promised to protect funding for Medicare and other social safety-net programs, but in January 2020 he suggested he was willing to consider cuts to such programs.

Social issues

Trump favored modifying the 2016 Republican platform opposing abortion, to allow for exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and circumstances endangering the health of the mother. He has said he is committed to appointing "pro-life" justices, pledging in 2016 to appoint justices who would "automatically" overturn Roe v. Wade. He says he personally supports "traditional marriage" but considers the nationwide legality of same-sex marriage a "settled" issue. Despite the statement by Trump and the White House saying they would keep in place a 2014 executive order from the Obama administration which created federal workplace protections for LGBT people, in March 2017, the Trump administration rolled back key components of the Obama administration's workplace protections for LGBT people.

Trump says he is opposed to gun control in general, although his views have shifted over time. After several mass shootings during his term, Trump initially said he would propose legislation to curtail gun violence, but abandoned the idea in November 2019. The Trump administration has taken an anti-marijuana position, revoking Obama-era policies that provided protections for states that legalized marijuana. Trump favors capital punishment; under Trump, the first federal execution in 17 years took place. Five more federal prisoners were executed, making the total number of federal executions under Trump higher than all of his predecessors combined going back to 1963. In 2016, Trump said he supported the use of waterboarding and "a hell of a lot worse" methods but later apparently recanted, at least partially, his support for torture due to the opposition of Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Pardons and commutations

In 2017, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff who was convicted of contempt of court for disobeying a court order to halt the racial profiling of Latinos. In March 2018, he pardoned former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier, who was convicted of taking classified photographs of a submarine. In April 2018, Trump pardoned Scooter Libby, a political aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby had been convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to the FBI. In June 2018 he pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who had made illegal political campaign contributions. That month he also commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a non-violent drug trafficking offender, following a request by celebrity Kim Kardashian. In February 2020, Trump pardoned white-collar criminals Michael Milken, Bernard Kerik, and Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., and commuted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's 14-year corruption sentence. In July 2020, Trump commuted the 40-month sentence for his friend and adviser Roger Stone, who had been soon due to report to prison for covering up for Trump during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.

Lafayette Square protester removal and photo op

External video
A video timeline of the crackdown on protesters before Trump's photo op on YouTube (The Washington Post) (12:12)
Trump Stands In Front of Church Holding Bible After Threatening Military Action Against Protesters on YouTube (NBC) (2:40)
President Trump walks across Lafayette Park to St. John's Church on YouTube (C-SPAN) (7:46)

On June 1, 2020, federal law enforcement officials used batons, rubber bullets, pepper spray projectiles, stun grenades, and smoke to remove a largely peaceful crowd of protesters from Lafayette Square, outside the White House. The removal had been ordered by Attorney General William Barr. Trump then walked to St. John's Episcopal Church. He posed for photographs holding a Bible, with Cabinet members and other officials later joining him in photos.

Religious leaders condemned the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself. Many retired military leaders and defense officials condemned Trump's proposal to use the U.S. military against the protesters. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley, later apologized for accompanying Trump on the walk and thereby "creating the perception of the military involved in domestic politics".

Immigration

Trump's proposed immigration policies were a topic of bitter and contentious debate during the campaign. He promised to build a more substantial wall on the Mexico–United States border to keep out illegal immigrants and vowed Mexico would pay for it. He pledged to massively deport illegal immigrants residing in the United States, and criticized birthright citizenship for creating "anchor babies". As president, he frequently described illegal immigration as an "invasion" and conflated immigrants with the gang MS-13, though research shows undocumented immigrants have a lower crime rate than native-born Americans.

Trump has attempted to drastically escalate immigration enforcement. Some of the results are harsher immigration enforcement policies against asylum seekers from Central America than any modern U.S. president. This was accompanied by the Trump administration's mandating in 2018 that immigration judges must complete 700 cases a year to be evaluated as performing satisfactorily. Although Trump pledged to deport "millions of illegal aliens," that did not occur. Under Trump, migrant apprehensions at the U.S.–Mexico border rose to their highest level in 12 years, but deportations remained below the record highs of fiscal years 2012–2014.

From 2018 onwards, Trump deployed nearly 6,000 troops to the U.S.–Mexico border, in 2019 was allowed by the Supreme Court to stop most Central American migrants from seeking U.S. asylum, and from 2020 used the public charge rule to restrict immigrants using government benefits from getting permanent residency via green cards. Trump has reduced the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. to record lows. When Trump took office, the annual limit was 110,000; Trump set a limit of 18,000 in the 2020 fiscal year and 15,000 in the 2021 fiscal year. Additional restrictions implemented by the Trump administration caused (potentially long-lasting) bottlenecks in processing refugee applications, resulting in fewer refugees accepted compared to the allowed limits.

Travel ban

Following the 2015 San Bernardino attack, Trump made a controversial proposal to ban Muslim foreigners from entering the United States until stronger vetting systems could be implemented. He later reframed the proposed ban to apply to countries with a "proven history of terrorism".

On January 27, 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13769, which suspended admission of refugees for 120 days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days, citing security concerns. The order took effect immediately and without warning. Confusion and protests caused chaos at airports. Sally Yates, the acting Attorney General, directed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order, which she deemed unenforceable and unconstitutional; Trump immediately dismissed her. Multiple legal challenges were filed against the order, and a federal judge blocked its implementation nationwide. On March 6, Trump issued a revised order, which excluded Iraq, gave specific exemptions for permanent residents, and removed priorities for Christian minorities. Again federal judges in three states blocked its implementation. In a decision in June 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the ban could be enforced on visitors who lack a "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States".

The temporary order was replaced by Presidential Proclamation 9645 on September 24, 2017, which permanently restricts travel from the originally targeted countries except Iraq and Sudan, and further bans travelers from North Korea and Chad, along with certain Venezuelan officials. After lower courts partially blocked the new restrictions, the Supreme Court allowed the September version to go into full effect on December 4, 2017, and ultimately upheld the travel ban in a June 2019 ruling.

Family separation at border

The Trump administration has separated more than 5,400 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.–Mexico border while the families attempted to enter the U.S. The Trump administration sharply increased the number of family separations at the border starting from the summer of 2017, before an official policy was announced in 2018; this was not reported publicly until January 2019.

In April 2018, the Trump administration announced a "zero tolerance" policy whereby every adult suspected of illegal entry would be criminally prosecuted. This resulted in family separations, as the migrant adults were put in criminal detention for prosecution, while their children were taken away as unaccompanied alien minors. The children would be brought to immigration detention, immigrant shelters, tent camps, or metal cages, with the stated aim of releasing them to relatives or sponsors. Administration officials described the policy as a way to deter illegal immigration.

The policy of family separations had no precedent in previous administrations and sparked public outrage, with Democrats, Republicans, Trump allies, and religious groups demanding that the policy be rescinded. Trump falsely asserted that his administration was merely following the law, blaming Democrats, when in fact this was his administration's policy. More than 2,300 children were separated as a result of the "zero tolerance policy", the Trump administration revealed in June 2018.

Although Trump originally argued that the issue could not be solved via executive order, he proceeded to sign an executive order on June 20, 2018, mandating that migrant families be detained together, unless the administration judged that doing so would harm the child. On June 26, 2018, a federal judge concluded that the Trump administration had "no system in place to keep track of" the separated children, nor any effective measures for family communication and reunification; the judge ordered for the families to be reunited, and family separations stopped, except in the cases where the parent(s) are judged unfit to take care of the child, or if there is parental approval.

In 2019, the Trump administration reported that 4,370 children were separated from July 2017 to June 2018. Even after the June 2018 federal court order, the Trump administration continued to practice family separations, with more than a thousand migrant children separated.

Migrant detentions

While the Obama administration detained and deported migrants at high rates, the Trump administration took it to a significantly higher level.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General inspections of migrant detention centers in 2018 and 2019 found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "in many instances" violated federal guidelines for detaining migrant children for too long before passing them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and that migrants were detained for prolonged periods under dangerous conditions failing federal standards, enduring dangerous overcrowding and poor hygiene and food. CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said in 2019 that there was a "border security and a humanitarian crisis" and that the immigration system was at a "breaking point".

The treatment of the detained migrants resulted in a public outcry by July 2019. That month, Trump reacted to criticism of the migrant detentions by saying if the migrants were unhappy about the conditions of the detention facilities, "just tell them not to come."

In August 2019, the administration attempted to change the 1997 Flores Agreement that limits detention of migrant families to 20 days; the new policy allowing indefinite detention was blocked before it would go into effect.

2018–2019 federal government shutdown

On December 22, 2018, the federal government was partially shut down after Trump declared that any funding extension must include $5.6 billion in federal funds for a U.S.–Mexico border wall to partly fulfill his campaign promise. The shutdown was caused by a lapse in funding for nine federal departments, affecting about one-fourth of federal government activities. Trump said he would not accept any bill that did not include funding for the wall, and Democrats, who control the House, said they would not support any bill that does. Senate Republicans have said they will not advance any legislation Trump would not sign. In earlier negotiations with Democratic leaders, Trump commented that he would be "proud to shut down the government for border security".

As a result of the shutdown, about 380,000 government employees were furloughed and 420,000 government employees worked without pay. According to a CBO estimate, the shutdown resulted in a permanent loss of $3 billion to the U.S. economy. About half of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown, and Trump's approval ratings dropped.

On January 25, 2019, Congress unanimously approved a temporary funding bill that provided no funds for the wall but would provide delayed paychecks to government workers. Trump signed the bill that day, ending the shutdown at 35 days. It was the longest U.S. government shutdown in history.

Since the government funding was temporary, another shutdown loomed. On February 14, 2019, Congress approved a funding bill that included $1.375 billion for 55 miles of border fences, in lieu of Trump's intended wall. Trump signed the bill the next day.

National emergency regarding the southern border

On February 15, 2019, after Trump received from Congress only $1.375 billion for border fencing after demanding $5.7 billion for the Trump wall, he declared a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States, in hopes of getting another $6.7 billion without congressional approval, using funds for military construction, drug interdiction, and money from the Treasury. In doing so, Trump acknowledged that he "didn't need to" declare a national emergency, but he "would rather do it much faster".

Congress twice passed resolutions to block Trump's national emergency declarations, but Trump vetoed both and there were not enough votes in Congress for a veto override. Trump's decision to divert other government funding to fund the wall resulted in legal challenges. In July 2019, the Supreme Court allowed Trump to use $2.5 billion (originally meant for anti-drug programs) from the Department of Defense to build the Trump wall. In December 2019, a federal judge stopped the Trump administration from using $3.6 billion of military construction funds for the Trump wall.

Trump wall

As a presidential candidate, Trump promised to construct a wall along the U.S.–Mexico border to prevent migration. In 2017, the border had 654 miles of primary fencing, 37 miles of secondary fencing and 14 miles of tertiary fencing. Trump's target, from 2015 to 2017, was 1,000 miles of wall. The Trump administration set a target of 450 miles of new or renovated barriers by December 2020, with an ultimate goal of 509 miles of new or renovated barriers by August 2021. Even into 2020, Trump has repeatedly provided false assertions that Mexico is paying for the Trump wall, although American taxpayers are footing the bill from funds being diverted from the U.S. Department of Defense.

In October 2018, the administration revealed two miles of replacement fences made of steel posts, which it called the first section of Trump's 'wall', although earlier that year Border Patrol had said the project was unrelated to the Trump wall and had been long planned (dating to 2009). In December 2018 and January 2019, Trump tweeted out a design of a steel fence, and a picture of a fence, while declaring "the wall is coming."

By November 2019, the Trump administration had replaced around 78 miles of the Mexico–United States barrier along the border; these replacement barriers were not walls, but fences made of bollards. The administration in November 2019 said it had "just started breaking ground" to build new barriers in areas where no structure existed. By May 2020, the Trump administration had replaced 172 miles of dilapidated or outdated design barriers, and constructed 15 miles of new border barriers.

Foreign policy

Trump describes himself as a "nationalist" and his foreign policy as "America First". He has espoused isolationist, non-interventionist, and protectionist views.

His foreign policy has been marked by repeated praise and support of neo-nationalist and authoritarian strongmen and criticism of democratic governments. Trump has cited Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Turkey's Tayyip Erdoğan, Russia's Vladimir Putin, King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, Italy's Giuseppe Conte, India's Narendra Modi, Hungary's Viktor Orbán, and Poland's Andrzej Duda as examples of good leaders.

As a candidate, Trump questioned the need for NATO; as president, he repeatedly and publicly criticized NATO and the U.S.'s NATO allies, and has privately suggested on multiple occasions that the United States should withdraw from NATO. Hallmarks of foreign relations during Trump's tenure include unpredictability and uncertainty, a lack of a consistent foreign policy, and strained and sometimes antagonistic relationships with the U.S.'s European allies.

Syria

Trump ordered missile strikes in April 2017 and in April 2018 against the Assad regime in Syria, in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun and Douma chemical attacks, respectively.

In December 2018, Trump declared "we have won against ISIS," contradicting Department of Defense assessments, and ordered the withdrawal of all troops from Syria. Mattis resigned the next day in opposition to Trump's foreign policy, calling his decision an abandonment of the U.S.'s Kurdish allies who played a key role in fighting ISIS. One week after his announcement, Trump said he would not approve any extension of the American deployment in Syria. In January 2019, national security advisor John Bolton announced America would remain in Syria until ISIS is eradicated and Turkey guarantees it will not strike the Kurds.

In October 2019, after Trump spoke to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the White House acknowledged Turkey would carry out a military offensive into northern Syria, and U.S. troops in northern Syria were withdrawn from the area. The statement also passed responsibility for the area's captured ISIS fighters to Turkey. As a result, Turkey launched an invasion, attacking and displacing American-allied Kurds in the area. Later that month, the U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare bipartisan vote of 354 to 60, condemned Trump's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, for "abandoning U.S. allies, undermining the struggle against ISIS, and spurring a humanitarian catastrophe".

Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Trump actively supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis and signed a $110 billion agreement to sell arms to Saudi Arabia.

Afghanistan

U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan increased from 8,500 to 14,000, as of January 2017update, reversing his pre-election position critical of further involvement in Afghanistan. On February 29, 2020, the Trump administration signed a conditional peace agreement with the Taliban, which calls for the withdrawal of foreign troops in 14 months if the Taliban uphold the terms of the agreement.

Iran

Trump has described the regime in Iran as "the rogue regime", although he has also asserted he does not seek regime change.

Trump repeatedly criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear deal negotiated with the United States, Iran, and five other world powers in 2015. In May 2018, Trump announced the U.S.' unilateral departure from the JCPOA. After withdrawing from the agreement, the Trump administration moved forward with a policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran via economic sanctions, but without support of other parties to the deal. The Trump State Department had certified Iran's compliance with the deal in July 2017, but Iran began breaching its terms in May 2020, and by September the IAEA reported the country had ten times the amount of enriched uranium allowed under the deal. During the summer of 2020 the United States attempted to "snap back" pre-deal sanctions by asserting to the UN Security Council that it remained a participant in the deal, but only the Dominican Republic voted with the United States on the proposal.

Following Iranian missile tests in January 2017, the Trump administration sanctioned 25 Iranian individuals and entities. In August 2017, Trump signed legislation imposing additional sanctions against Iran, Russia, and North Korea.

In May 2017, strained relations between the U.S. and Iran escalated when Trump deployed military bombers and a carrier group to the Persian Gulf. Trump hinted at war on social media, provoking a response from Iran for what Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif called "genocidal taunts". Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman are allies in the conflict with Iran. Trump approved the deployment of additional U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates following the attack on Saudi oil facilities which the United States has blamed on Iran.

On January 2, 2020, Trump ordered a U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian general and Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and eight other people. Trump publicly threatened to attack Iranian cultural sites, or react "in a disproportionate manner" if Iran retaliated; though such attacks by the U.S. would violate international law as war crimes. Several days later, Iran retaliated with airstrikes against Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. Initially the Trump administration claimed no Americans suffered injuries and Trump said injuries were not "very serious", but by February 2020, more than a hundred traumatic brain injuries were diagnosed in U.S. troops.

Israel

Trump supported the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Under Trump, the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017, and opened an embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the move. In March 2019, Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, a move condemned by the European Union and the Arab League.

China

Before and during his presidency, Trump has repeatedly accused China of taking unfair advantage of the U.S. During his presidency, Trump has launched a trade war against China, sanctioned Huawei for its alleged ties to Iran, significantly increased visa restrictions on Chinese students and scholars, and classified China as a "currency manipulator". Trump has also juxtaposed verbal attacks on China with praise of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, which has been attributed to trade war negotiations with the leader. After initially praising China for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he began a campaign of criticism over its response starting in March.

Trump said he resisted punishing China for its human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in the northwestern Xinjiang region for fear of jeopardizing trade negotiations. In July 2020, the Trump administration imposed sanctions and visa restrictions against senior Chinese officials, including Xinjiang Party Committee Secretary Chen Quanguo, a member of Communist Party's powerful Politburo, who expanded mass detention camps holding more than a million members of the country's Uyghur Muslim minority.

North Korea

In 2017, North Korea's nuclear weapons were increasingly seen as a serious threat. In August 2017, Trump escalated his rhetoric, warning that North Korean threats would be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen". North Korea responded by releasing plans for missile tests that would land near Guam. In a September 2017 speech at the UN General Assembly, Trump said the U.S. would "totally destroy North Korea" if "forced" to defend itself or its allies. Also in September 2017, Trump increased sanctions on North Korea, declared that he wanted North Korea's "complete denuclearization", and engaged in name-calling with leader Kim Jong-un. After this period of tension in 2017, however, Trump and Kim exchanged at least 27 letters (described by Trump as "love letters"), in which the two men describe a warm personal friendship.

In March 2018, Trump immediately agreed to Kim's proposal for a meeting. In June 2018, Trump and Kim met in Singapore. Kim affirmed his intent "to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but a second Trump–Kim summit in Hanoi in February 2019 terminated abruptly without an agreement. Both countries blamed each other and offered differing accounts of the negotiations. In June 2019, Trump, Kim, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held brief talks in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, marking the first time a sitting U.S. president had set foot in North Korea. Trump and Kim agreed to resume negotiations. Bilateral talks in October 2019 were unsuccessful.

Russia

During his campaign and as president, Trump has repeatedly asserted that he desires better relations with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin and some political experts and diplomats, the U.S.–Russian relations, which were already at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War, have further deteriorated since Trump took office in January 2017.

Trump has criticized Russia about the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, and the Skripal poisoning, but remained silent on the Navalny poisoning, and sent mixed messages regarding Crimea.

Trump announced in October 2018 that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing alleged Russian non-compliance. In 2017, Trump signed the legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia; in 2018, however, the Trump administration lifted other U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia after its 2014 annexation of Crimea. As a presidential candidate, Trump described Putin as a strong leader. After he met Putin at the Helsinki Summit in July 2018, Trump drew bipartisan criticism for siding with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, rather than accepting the findings of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Trump has repeatedly praised, and rarely criticized, Putin.

Personnel

The Trump administration has been characterized by high turnover, particularly among White House staff. By the end of Trump's first year in office, 34 percent of his original staff had resigned, been fired, or been reassigned. As of early July 2018update, 61 percent of Trump's senior aides had left and 141 staffers had left in the past year. Both figures set a record for recent presidents – more change in the first 13 months than his four immediate predecessors saw in their first two years. Notable early departures included National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (after just 25 days in office), and Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Close personal aides to Trump including Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, John McEntee, and Keith Schiller have quit or been forced out. Some, like Hicks and McEntee, later returned to the White House in different posts. Trump has disparaged several of his former top officials as incompetent, stupid, or crazy.

Trump has had four White House chiefs of staff, marginalizing or pushing out several. Reince Priebus was replaced after seven months by retired Marine general John F. Kelly. Kelly resigned in December 2018 after a tumultuous tenure in which his influence waned, and Trump subsequently disparaged him. Kelly was succeeded by Mick Mulvaney as acting chief of staff; he was replaced in March 2020 by Mark Meadows.

Trump's Cabinet nominations included U.S. senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, financier Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury, retired Marine Corps general James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Trump also brought on board politicians who had opposed him during the presidential campaign, such as neurosurgeon Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United Nations.

Two of Trump's 15 original Cabinet members were gone within 15 months: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September 2017 due to excessive use of private charter jets and military aircraft, and Trump replaced Tillerson as Secretary of State with Mike Pompeo in March 2018 over disagreements on foreign policy. In 2018, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned amid multiple investigations into their conduct.

Trump has been slow to appoint second-tier officials in the executive branch, saying many of the positions are unnecessary. In October 2017, there were still hundreds of sub-cabinet positions without a nominee. By January 8, 2019, of 706 key positions, 433 had been filled (61%) and Trump had no nominee for 264 (37%).

Dismissal of James Comey

On May 9, 2017, Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey. He first attributed this action to recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, which criticized Comey's conduct in the investigation about Hillary Clinton's emails. A few days later, Trump said he was concerned with the ongoing "Russia thing" and that he had intended to fire Comey earlier, regardless of DOJ advice.

According to a Comey memo of a private conversation on February 14, 2017, Trump said he "hoped" Comey would drop the investigation into National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. In March and April, Trump had told Comey the ongoing suspicions formed a "cloud" impairing his presidency, and asked him to publicly state that he was not personally under investigation. He also asked intelligence chiefs Dan Coats and Michael Rogers to issue statements saying there was no evidence that his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Both refused, considering this an inappropriate request, although not illegal. Comey eventually testified on June 8 that, while he was director, the FBI investigations had not targeted Trump himself.

Impeachment

Impeachment by the House of Representatives

During much of Trump's presidency, Democrats were divided on the question of impeachment. Fewer than 20 representatives in the House supported impeachment by January 2019; after the Mueller Report was released in April and special counsel Robert Mueller testified in July, this number grew to around 140 representatives.

In August 2019, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community about a July 25 phone call between Trump and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump had pressured Zelensky to investigate CrowdStrike and Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, adding that the White House had attempted to cover-up the incident. The whistleblower further stated that the call was part of a wider pressure campaign by Trump's personal attorney Giuliani and the Trump administration which may have included withholding financial aid from Ukraine in July 2019 and canceling Vice President Pence's May 2019 Ukraine trip. Trump later confirmed having withheld military aid from Ukraine and offered contradictory reasons for the decision.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry on September 24, 2019. The Trump administration subsequently released a memorandum of the July 25 phone call, confirming that after Zelensky mentioned purchasing American anti-tank missiles, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate and to discuss these matters with Giuliani and Attorney General Barr. The testimony of multiple administration officials and former officials confirmed that this was part of a broader effort to further Trump's personal interests by giving him an advantage in the upcoming presidential election. In October 2019, William B. Taylor Jr., the chargé d'affaires for Ukraine, testified before congressional committees that soon after arriving in Ukraine in June 2019, he found that Zelensky was being subjected to pressure directed by Trump and led by Giuliani. According to Taylor and others, the goal was to coerce Zelensky into making a public commitment to investigate the company that employed Hunter Biden, as well as rumors about Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He said it was made clear that until Zelensky made such an announcement, the administration would not release scheduled military aid for Ukraine and not invite Zelensky to the White House. Zelensky denied that he felt pressured by Trump.

In December 2019, the House Intelligence Committee published a report authored by Democrats on the committee, stating that "the impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents ... solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection." The report said Trump had withheld military aid and a White House invitation to pressure Ukraine to announce investigations into Trump's political rivals. Furthermore, the report stated that Trump "openly and indiscriminately" defied impeachment proceedings by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas.:8,208 House Republicans released a draft of a countering report the previous day, saying that the evidence "does not prove any of these Democrat allegations."

On December 13, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to pass two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. After debate, the House of Representatives impeached Trump with both articles on December 18.

Impeachment trial in the Senate

The Senate impeachment trial began on January 16, 2020. On January 22, the Republican Senate majority rejected amendments proposed by the Democratic minority to call witnesses and subpoena documents; evidence collected during the House impeachment proceedings was entered into the Senate record.

For three days, January 22–24, the impeachment managers for the House presented their case to the Senate. They cited evidence to support charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and asserted that Trump's actions were exactly what the founding fathers had in mind when they created the Constitution's impeachment process.

Responding over the next three days, the Trump legal team did not deny the facts as presented in the charges but said Trump had not broken any laws or obstructed Congress. They argued that the impeachment was "constitutionally and legally invalid" because Trump was not charged with a crime and that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense.

On January 31, the Senate voted against allowing subpoenas for witnesses or documents; 51 Republicans formed the majority for this vote. Thus, this became the first impeachment trial in U.S. history without witness testimony. On February 5, Trump was acquitted of both charges in a vote nearly along party lines, with Republican Mitt Romney voting to convict on one of the charges, "abuse of power".

Following his acquittal, Trump began removing impeachment witnesses and political appointees and career officials he deemed insufficiently loyal.

COVID-19 pandemic

In December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan, China; the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread worldwide within weeks. The first confirmed case in the United States was reported on January 20, 2020. The outbreak was officially declared a public health emergency by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar on January 31, 2020.

Trump's public discussions of the risks of COVID-19 were at odds with his private understanding. In February 2020, Trump publicly implied that the flu was more dangerous than COVID-19 and asserted that the outbreak in the U.S. was "very much under control" and would soon be over, yet he told Bob Woodward at the time that COVID-19 was "deadly", "more deadly than even your strenuous flus", and "tricky" to handle due to its airborne transmission. In March 2020, Trump privately told Woodward, "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." Trump's comments to Woodward were made public in September 2020. A Cornell University study concluded that Trump was the "likely the largest driver" of COVID-19 misinformation in the first five months of 2020.

Initial response

Trump was slow to address the spread of the disease, initially dismissing the imminent threat and ignoring persistent public health warnings and calls for action from health officials within his administration and Secretary Azar. Instead, throughout January and February he focused on economic and political considerations of the outbreak. By mid-March, most global financial markets had severely contracted in response to the emerging pandemic. Trump continued to claim that a vaccine was months away, although HHS and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials had repeatedly told him that vaccine development would take 12–18 months. Trump also falsely claimed that "anybody that wants a test can get a test," despite the availability of tests being severely limited.

On March 6, Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law, which provided $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the spread of COVID-19 as a pandemic, and Trump announced partial travel restrictions for most of Europe, effective March 13. That same day, he gave his first serious assessment of the virus in a nationwide Oval Office address, calling the outbreak "horrible" but "a temporary moment" and saying there was no financial crisis. On March 13, he declared a national emergency, freeing up federal resources.

On April 22, Trump signed an executive order restricting some forms of immigration to the United States. In late spring and early summer, with infections and death counts continuing to rise, he adopted a strategy of blaming the states for the growing pandemic, rather than accepting that his initial assessments of the course of the pandemic were overly-optimistic or his failure to provide presidential leadership.

White House Coronavirus Task Force

Trump established the White House Coronavirus Task Force on January 29, 2020. Beginning in mid-March, Trump held a daily task force press conference, joined by medical experts and other administration officials, sometimes disagreeing with them by promoting unproven treatments. Trump was the main speaker at the briefings, where he praised his own response to the pandemic, frequently criticized rival presidential candidate Joe Biden, and denounced members of the White House press corps. On March 16, he acknowledged for the first time that the pandemic was not under control and that months of disruption to daily lives and a recession might occur. His repeated use of the terms "Chinese virus" and "China virus" to describe COVID-19 drew criticism from health experts.

By early April, as the pandemic worsened and amid criticism of his administration's response, Trump refused to admit any mistakes in his handling of the outbreak, instead blaming the media, Democratic state governors, the previous administration, China, and the WHO. By mid-April 2020, some national news agencies began limiting live coverage of his daily press briefings, with The Washington Post reporting that "propagandistic and false statements from Trump alternate with newsworthy pronouncements from members of his White House Coronavirus Task Force, particularly coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci." The daily coronavirus task force briefings ended in late April, after a briefing at which Trump suggested the dangerous idea of ingesting bleach or injecting a disinfectant to treat COVID-19; the comment was widely condemned by medical professionals.

In early May, Trump proposed that the coronavirus task force should be phased out, to accommodate another group centered on reopening the economy. Amid a backlash, Trump publicly said the task force would "indefinitely" continue. By the end of May, the coronavirus task force's meetings were sharply reduced.

Pandemic response program terminated

In September 2019, the Trump administration terminated USAID's PREDICT program, a $200 million epidemiological research program initiated in 2009 to provide early warning of pandemics abroad. The program trained scientists in sixty foreign laboratories to detect and respond to viruses that have the potential to cause pandemics. One such laboratory was the Wuhan lab that first identified the virus that causes COVID-19. After revival in April 2020, the program was given two 6-month extensions to help fight COVID-19 in the U.S. and other countries.

World Health Organization

Prior to the pandemic, Trump criticized the WHO and other international bodies, which he asserted were taking advantage of U.S. aid. His administration's proposed 2021 federal budget, released in February, proposed reducing WHO funding by more than half. In May and April, Trump accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus" and alleged without evidence that the organization was under Chinese control and had enabled the Chinese government's concealment of the origins of the pandemic. He then announced that he was withdrawing funding for the organization. Trump's criticisms and actions regarding the WHO were seen as attempts to distract attention from his own mishandling of the pandemic. In July 2020, Trump announced the formal withdrawal of the United States from the WHO effective July 2021. The decision was widely condemned by health and government officials as "short-sighted", "senseless", and "dangerous".

Controversy over face masks as strategy for pandemic mitigation

Trump has refused to wear a face mask at most public events, contrary to his own administration's April 2020 guidance that Americans should wear masks in public. and despite nearly unanimous consensus by the medical community that masks are important to preventing the spread of the virus. By June, Trump had said masks were a "double-edged sword"; ridiculed Biden for wearing masks; continually emphasized that mask-wearing was optional; and suggested that wearing a mask is a political statement against him personally. Trump's contradictory example to medical recommendations weakened national efforts to mitigate the pandemic.

Testing

In June and July Trump said several times that the U.S. would have fewer cases of coronavirus if it did less testing, that having a large number of reported cases "makes us look bad". The CDC guideline was that any person exposed to the virus should be "quickly identified and tested" even if they are not showing symptoms, because asymptomatic people can still spread the virus. In August 2020, however, the CDC quietly lowered its recommendation for testing, advising that people who have been exposed to the virus, but are not showing symptoms, "do not necessarily need a test". The change in guidelines was made by HHS political appointees under Trump administration pressure, against the wishes of CDC scientists. The following day, the testing guideline was changed back to its original recommendation, stressing that anyone who has been in contact with an infected person should be tested.

Pressure to abandon pandemic shutdown mandates early

In April 2020, Republican-connected groups organized anti-lockdown protests against the measures state governments were taking to combat the pandemic; Trump encouraged the protests on Twitter, even though the targeted states did not meet the Trump administration's own guidelines for reopening. He first supported, then later criticized, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's plan to reopen some nonessential businesses, which was a key example of Trump often reversing his stances in his communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the spring he increasingly pushed for ending the restrictions as a way to reverse the damage to the country's economy.

Despite record numbers of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. from mid-June onward and an increasing percentage of positive test results, Trump continued to mostly downplay the pandemic, including his false claim in early July 2020 that 99% of COVID-19 cases are "totally harmless". He also began insisting that all states should open schools to in-person education in the fall despite a July spike in reported cases.

Political pressure on health agencies

Trump repeatedly pressured federal health agencies to take particular actions that he favored, such as approving unproven treatments or speeding up the approval of vaccines. Trump administration political appointees at HHS sought to control CDC communications to the public that undermined Trump's claims that the pandemic was under control. CDC resisted many of the changes, but increasingly allowed HHS personnel to review articles and suggest changes before publication. Trump alleged without evidence that FDA scientists were part of a "deep state" opposing him, and delaying approval of vaccines and treatments to hurt him politically.

Hospitalization with COVID-19

On October 2, 2020, Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that day and treated with the antiviral drug remdesevir, the steroid dexamethasone, and the unapproved experimental antibody REGN-COV2. He was discharged on October 5. White House physician Sean Conley announced on October 12 that Trump has tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days.

Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 presidential campaign

By July 2020, Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic became a major issue for the 2020 presidential election. Democratic challenger Joe Biden sought to make the election a referendum on Trump's performance on the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy. Polls indicated voters blamed Trump for his pandemic response and disbelieved his rhetoric concerning the virus, with an Ipsos/ABC News poll indicating 65% of Americans disapproving of his pandemic response. In the final months of the campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed that the U.S. was "rounding the turn" in managing the pandemic, despite increasing numbers of reported cases and deaths. A few days before the November 3 election, the United States reported more than 100,000 cases in a single day for the first time.

Investigations

The Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign was launched in mid-2016 during the campaign season. Since he assumed the presidency, Trump has been the subject of increasing Justice Department and congressional scrutiny, with investigations covering his election campaign, transition and inauguration, actions taken during his presidency, along with his private businesses, personal taxes, and charitable foundation. There are 30 open investigations of Trump, including ten federal criminal investigations, eight state and local investigations, and twelve Congressional investigations. A book by Jeffrey Toobin, published in 2020, summarizes evidence against Trump as if he were on trial before a jury.

Hush payments

American Media, Inc. (AMI) paid $150,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal in August 2016, and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in October 2016. Both women were paid for non-disclosure agreements regarding their alleged affairs with Trump between 2006 and 2007. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to breaking campaign finance laws, saying he had arranged both payments at the direction of Trump in order to influence the presidential election. AMI admitted paying McDougal to prevent publication of stories that might damage Trump's electoral chances. Trump denied the affairs, and claimed he was not aware of Cohen's payment to Daniels, but reimbursed him in 2017. Federal prosecutors asserted that Trump had been involved in discussions regarding non-disclosure payments as early as 2014. Court documents showed that the FBI believed Trump was directly involved in the payment to Daniels, based on calls he had with Cohen in October 2016. Federal prosecutors closed the investigation, but days later the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed the Trump Organization and AMI for records related to the hush payments and in August subpoenaed eight years of tax returns for Trump and the Trump Organization.

Russian election interference

In January 2017, American intelligence agencies – the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA, represented by the Director of National Intelligence – jointly stated with "high confidence" that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election to favor the election of Trump. In March 2017, FBI Director James Comey told Congress "the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts."

The connections between Trump associates and Russia have been widely reported by the press. One of Trump's campaign managers, Paul Manafort, had worked from December 2004 until February 2010 to help pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych win the Ukrainian presidency. Other Trump associates, including former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn and political consultant Roger Stone, have been connected to Russian officials. Russian agents were overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump. Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff, particularly Flynn, were in contact with Russian officials both before and after the November election. On December 29, 2016, Flynn talked with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that had been imposed the same day; Flynn later resigned in the midst of controversy over whether he misled Pence. Trump had told Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov in May 2017 he was unconcerned about Russian interference in U.S. elections.

Trump and his allies have promoted a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the 2016 election – which has also been promoted by Russia to frame Ukraine. After the Democratic National Committee was hacked, Trump firstly claimed it withheld "its server" from the FBI (in actuality there were more than 140 servers, of which digital copies were given to the FBI); secondly that CrowdStrike, the company which investigated the servers, was Ukraine-based and Ukrainian-owned (in actuality, CrowdStrike is U.S.-based, with the largest owners being American companies); and thirdly that "the server" was hidden in Ukraine. Members of the Trump administration have spoken out against the conspiracy theories.

On November 2, 2020, newly released passages from the Mueller report regarding Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections indicated that "federal prosecutors could not establish that the hacked emails amounted to campaign contributions benefitting Trump's election chances" and that publication of those emails are likely protected by the First Amendment.

2017 FBI counterintelligence inquiry

After Trump fired FBI director James Comey in May 2017, the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump's personal and business dealings with Russia. Within days of its opening, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein curtailed the inquiry, giving the bureau the impression that the incipient Mueller investigation would pursue it, though Rosenstein instructed Mueller not to, effectively ending the inquiry.

Special counsel investigation

On May 17, 2017, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI, to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) investigating "any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation", thus taking over the existing "Crossfire Hurricane" FBI investigation into the matter. The special counsel also investigated whether Trump's dismissal of James Comey as FBI director constituted obstruction of justice, and possible campaign ties to other national governments. Trump repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Russian government. Mueller also investigated the Trump campaign's possible ties to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Israel, and China.

Trump sought to fire Mueller on several occasions – in June 2017, December 2017, and April 2018 – and close the investigation but backed down after his staff objected or after changing his mind. He bemoaned the recusal of his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding Russia matters, and believed Sessions should have stopped the investigation.

On March 22, 2019, Mueller concluded his investigation and gave his report to Attorney General William Barr. On March 24, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress summarizing the "principal conclusions" in the report. He quoted Mueller as stating "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr further wrote that he and Rosenstein did not see sufficient evidence to prove obstruction of justice. Trump interpreted Mueller's report as a "complete exoneration", a phrase he repeated multiple times in the ensuing weeks. Mueller privately complained to Barr on March 27 that his summary did not accurately reflect what the report said, and some legal analysts called the Barr letter misleading.

A redacted version of the report was released to the public on April 18, 2019. The first volume found that Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and hinder Clinton's. Despite "numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign", the prevailing evidence "did not establish" that Trump campaign members conspired or coordinated with Russian interference. The report states that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was illegal and occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", and it details how Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged foreign interference believing they would politically benefit.

The second volume of the Mueller report dealt with possible obstruction of justice by Trump. The report did not exonerate Trump of obstruction inasmuch as investigators were not confident of his innocence after examining his intent and actions. Investigators decided they could not "apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes" as an Office of Legal Counsel opinion stated that a sitting president could not be indicted, and investigators would not accuse him of a crime when he cannot clear his name in court. The report concluded that Congress, having the authority to take action against a president for wrongdoing, "may apply the obstruction laws". Congress subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry following the Trump–Ukraine scandal, albeit it ultimately did not press charges related to the Mueller investigation.

Associates

In August 2018, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts of false tax filing and bank fraud. Trump said he felt very badly for Manafort and praised him for resisting the pressure to make a deal with prosecutors. According to Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney, Trump had sought advice about pardoning Manafort but was counseled against it.

In November 2018, Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's 2016 attempts to reach a deal with Russia to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen said he had made the false statements on behalf of Trump, who was identified as "Individual-1" in the court documents.

The five Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in Mueller's investigation or related cases include Paul Manafort, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen.

In February 2020, Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was sentenced to over three years in jail, after being convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering regarding his attempts to learn more about hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 election. The sentencing judge said Stone "was prosecuted for covering up for the president".

2019 congressional investigation

In March 2019, the House Judiciary Committee launched a broad investigation of Trump for possible obstruction of justice, corruption, and abuse of power. Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler sent letters demanding documents to 81 individuals and organizations associated with Trump's presidency, business, and private life, saying it is "very clear that the president obstructed justice". Three other committee chairmen wrote the White House and State Department requesting details of Trump's communications with Putin, including any efforts to conceal the content of those communications. The White House refused to comply, asserting that presidential communications with foreign leaders are protected and confidential.

Judiciary

Trump has appointed more than 200 federal judges who were confirmed by the Senate. Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have rapidly confirmed Trump's judicial appointees, usually against unified Democratic opposition. Trump's appointments have shifted the federal judiciary to the right. Trump's judicial appointments have been overwhelmingly white men, and are younger on average than appointees by Trump's predecessors. Many are affiliated with the Federalist Society.

Trump has made three nominations to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Gorsuch was confirmed in 2017 in a mostly party-line vote of 54–45, after Republicans invoked the "nuclear option" (a historic change to Senate rules removing the 60-vote threshold for advancing Supreme Court nominations) to defeat a Democratic filibuster. Trump's predecessor Obama had nominated Merrick Garland in 2016 to fill the vacancy, left by the death of Antonin Scalia, but Senate Republicans under McConnell refused to consider the nomination in the last year of Obama's presidency, angering Democrats. Trump nominated Kavanaugh in 2018 to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy; the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh in a mostly party-line vote of 50–48, after a bitter confirmation battle centered on Christine Blasey Ford's allegation that Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her when they were teenagers, which Kavanaugh denied. In 2020, weeks before the elections, Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. On October 26, 2020, the Senate voted 52–48 to confirm her nomination.

As president, Trump has disparaged courts and judges whom he disagrees with, often in personal terms, and has questioned the judiciary's constitutional authority. Trump's attacks on the courts have drawn rebukes from observers, including sitting federal judges, who are concerned with the effect of Trump's statements on the judicial independence and public confidence in the judiciary.

2020 presidential election

Trump signaled his intention to run for a second term by filing with the FEC within a few hours of assuming the presidency. This transformed his 2016 election committee into a 2020 reelection one. Trump marked the official start of the campaign with a rally in Melbourne, Florida, on February 18, 2017, less than a month after taking office. In his first two years in office, Trump's reelection committee reported raising $67.5 million, allowing him to begin 2019 with $19.3 million cash on hand. From the beginning of 2019 through July 2020, the Trump campaign and Republican Party raised $1.1 billion, but spent $800 million of that amount, evaporating their formerly large cash advantage over the Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden. The campaign's cash crunch forced a scale-back in advertising spending.

Starting in spring 2020, Trump began to sow doubts about the election, repeatedly warning that the election would be "rigged" and claiming without evidence that the expected widespread use of mail balloting would produce "massive election fraud". In what The New York Times called an "extraordinary breach of presidential decorum", on July 30 Trump raised the idea of delaying the election. When in August the House of Representatives voted for a $25 billion grant to the U.S. Postal Service for the expected surge in mail voting, Trump blocked funding, saying he wanted to prevent any increase in voting by mail. Trump became the Republican nominee on August 24, 2020. He repeatedly refused to say whether he would accept the results of the election and commit to a peaceful transition of power if he lost.

Trump campaign advertisements focused on crime, claiming that cities would descend into lawlessness if his opponent, Biden, won the presidency. Trump repeatedly misrepresented Biden's positions during the campaign. Trump's campaign message shifted to racist rhetoric in an attempt to reclaim voters lost from his base.

The results of the election held on November 3 were unclear for several days. On November 7, major news organizations projected Biden as the winner. As of November 27, Biden leads Trump in the national vote count 80.0M (51.0%) to 73.9M (47.1%). Biden is projected to win the electoral college 306 to 232. The election was characterized by election officials as the "most secure" in U.S. history.

At 2:00 the morning after the election, with the results still unclear, Trump prematurely declared victory. In response to the networks projecting Biden the winner days later, Trump said, "this election is far from over" and alleged election fraud without providing evidence. He said he would continue legal challenges in key states, but most of them have been dismissed by the courts. His legal team led by Rudy Giuliani made numerous false and unsubstantiated assertions revolving around an international communist conspiracy, rigged voting machines and polling place fraud to claim the election had been stolen from Trump.f He blocked government officials from cooperating in the presidential transition of Joe Biden.

According to Julie Pace of the Associated Press Trump's dissemination of misinformation regarding the election was aimed at causing confusion and inducing discontent among his supporters. According to Trump's allies, the legal challenges and repeated attacks on election integrity were meant to ensure the continued fealty of Trump supporters, instead of a legitimate attempt to change the election result. Trump's allegations of widespread voting fraud were refuted by judges, state election officials, and his own administration's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). After CISA director Chris Krebs contradicted Trump's voting fraud allegations, Trump fired him on November 17.

With his post-election legal challenges to the election of Biden failing, Trump withdrew from public activities and drew criticism that, given the surge in the pandemic, his retreat was being perceived as irresponsible sulking.

On November 23, 2020, the administrator of the General Services Administration declared Biden to be the apparent winner of the election, allowing the disbursement of transition resources to his team.