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Trump’s brash and pugnacious presidency
Reuters, Washington
Businessman-turned-politician Donald Trump has promoted “America First” nationalism, withstood impeachment and a bout with Covid-19, and taken contentious stands on race and immigration during a turbulent presidency that detractors say has flouted US democratic norms.
After decades of fame first as a brash and media-savvy New York real estate developer and then as a reality TV personality, the pugnacious Trump tapped into discontent among many Americans to become a political phenomenon unique in the country’s 244 years.
Seeking re-election against now President-elect Joe Biden, Trump initially encountered fierce resistance within the Republican Party but managed to remake it in his own image and won loyalty even among some Republicans who had once denounced him.
“If I don’t sound like a typical Washington politician, it’s because I’m not a politician,” Trump told an Oct 26 rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump, 74, assumed the presidency in January 2017 after his surprise victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in November 2016.
His 2016 victory made him the first US president with no prior political or military experience as he pursued a right-wing populist approach. His presidency came at a time of deep polarization in the United States and political dysfunction in Washington.
At home, Trump curtailed legal and illegal immigration and slashed the number of people admitted as refugees and asylum seekers, secured sweeping tax cuts, moved the federal judiciary including the Supreme Court dramatically rightward and rolled back environmental regulations that he called burdensome.
Abroad, Trump helped broker deals between close US ally Israel and three Arab states, abandoned international agreements that he portrayed as unfair to the United States, alienated longtime allies and praised authoritarian foreign leaders.
He showed deference to longtime US adversary Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia used a campaign of hacking and propaganda to boost Trump’s 2016 candidacy and that Moscow again tried interfering again during the 2020 campaign to try to denigrate Biden.
Critics including senior Democrats and former members of his own administration portrayed Trump as a peril to democracy with autocratic tendencies.
Democrats accused Trump of placing himself above the law and disregarding constitutional constraints on presidential powers as he ignored congressional subpoenas, complained about a “rigged” American voting system, refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he lost to Biden, and assailed figures in the FBI and US intelligence agencies.
Critics also denounced Trump for employing falsehoods; fact-checkers listed thousands of them during his presidency. He relentlessly attacked free as “the enemy of the people” and “fake news.”
Trump became only the third US president to be impeached when the Democratic-led House of Representatives voted to charge him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over his push to gain dirt on Biden from Ukraine. The Republican-led Senate kept Trump in office by acquitting him at a trial in February.
Racial tensions simmered during Trump’s presidency. Critics accused Trump of pursuing policies built around “white grievance” in a nation with a growing non-white population.
Having succeeded the first Black US president, Barack Obama, Trump erased many parts of his Democratic predecessor’s legacy. Trump walked away from an international treaty over Iran’s nuclear program and a global accord to battle climate change, reversed environmental protections and rolled back warmer ties with Cuba.
Trump’s hardline stance toward immigration was a hallmark of his presidency. And numerous women accused Trump of sexual assault, allegations he denied.
Trump cultivated an image of a flourishing businessman and deal-maker, though he had a history of financial losses, bankruptcies and business failures. Tax documents uncovered by the New York Times in September showed Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017 - and no income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years - mostly because he reported losing much more money than he made.
But even through a parade of controversies, the passionate support of many Americans - especially white men, Christian conservatives, rural residents and people without a college education - seemed undimmed.
In 2020, he lost to Biden after nail-biting finish with a negligible margin in number of popular votes. And he hasn’t conceded yet.