Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 – Ballotpedia
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The candidate positions on this page were current as of the 2016 election.
Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. He was the 2016 Republican nominee for president of the United States. He declared his candidacy on June 16, 2015, and officially received the nomination of the Republican Party on July 19, 2016, at the Republican National Convention.
A New York-based real estate developer, author, chairman of The Trump Organization, and former executive producer of The Apprentice a reality television show in which he also starredTrump had never before sought or held elected public office prior to his 2016 run, though he flirted with political bids off and on between the late 1980s and 2015. He became more active in national politics in 2011 when he began publicly questioning whether Barack Obama was a natural citizen. That same year, Trump indicated some interest in seeking the Republican nomination for president but ultimately declined to run.
Trumps candidacy for the Republican nomination in 2016 was initially seen as something of a long shot, but the New York businessmans outsider status, mastery of the media, and no-holds-barred campaign style propelled him to the front of the field. Trump racked up victories in key early states, and by May the race had dwindled from more than a dozen candidates to three: Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Ohio Governor John Kasich. After a critical victory in Indiana on May 3, Cruz and Kasich dropped out, leaving Trump unchallenged for the nomination. When the dust settled, 13.3 million primary voters had backed Trump, a new record in the history of Republican primaries.
The featured page on Trump is History of Donald Trump's political donations.
Donald Trump donated $175,860 more to Democrats than Republicans from 1989 to 2010, but in 2011 his giving to Democrats significantly decreased. From 2011 to 2015, Republicans received $630,150 in donations from Trump, while Democrats received just $8,500. What caused Trumps decision to abandon the Democratic Party in 2011 and throw his full support behind Republicans is unclear. It could have been his desire to be taken seriously in the political world and gain influence within the Republican Party in preparation for a future presidential run, as New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns suggested in their outline of Trumps effort to court members of the conservative establishment beginning in 2011.[3]
Despite his fiscal loyalty to Republicans after 2011, Trump was questioned about his political contributions to Democrats while on the campaign trail. During a June 2015 interview, Trump was asked why he donated to the Clinton Foundation and other prominent Democrats, including Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), John Kerry (Mass.), and Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), President Obama's White House chief of staff, among others. Trump replied, Look, politicians are all talk, theyre no action. They dont do the job, they dont know what theyre doing. I know them better than anybody, Howie. I deal with all of them. And, you know, I make contributions to many of them. Theyre friends, theyre this. Its smart. Its called being an intelligent person and a great business person. ... But the truth is that, you have to be able to get along withif youre gonna be a business person, even in the United States, you wanna get along with all sides because youre gonna need things from everybody. And you wanna get along with all sides, its very important.[4]
For more information about Trump's political donations, visit this page.
Trumps domestic platform focused heavily on immigration and scaling back environmental regulations. He proposed strengthening U.S. immigration laws. He pushed for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the costs of which he says the Mexican government will cover. During the Republican primaries, he called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.about 11 million peoplebut in August 2016 he suggested that those who have not committed crimes could possibly be allowed to stay if they paid back taxes. Trump advocated rescinding and reforming environmental regulations supported by the Obama administration and has called climate change a total hoax. He supported repealing the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and proposed his own healthcare reform plan.
The NRA endorsed Trump, and he voiced opposition to gun-free zones, such as in schools. On social and cultural issues, Trump vowed to nominate judges opposed to abortion and once suggested that women who have abortions should be punished. Trump also stated that while he opposes abortion, he believes there should be exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and risks to the mothers life. He said that he supports traditional marriage and argued that states should decide whether transgender people should use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity.
Trump supported cutting taxes at all levels, and his opposition to international free-trade deals was a trademark of his campaign. His tax proposals included cuts at all income levels, an end to the estate tax, and a tax deduction for childcare expenses. He called international trade deals like NAFTA and TPP a disaster and pushed for increased tariffs on imports. Trump voiced support for raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour but also said that changes to the minimum wage should happen at the state level. He was critical of financial regulatory legislation such as Dodd-Frank, which he called terrible. He called government regulations, in general, a stealth tax.
Trump promoted what he calls an America First approach to foreign affairs and national security. This approach involved potentially reassessing U.S. commitments to NATO countries, a more aggressive foreign policy in the fight against the Islamic State and in the war on terror, and increases in military spending. Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the country from nations with a history of exporting terrorism, and he advocated for what he calls extreme vetting of Muslims visiting the U.S. Trump voiced support for using enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, and he criticized the Iran deal, calling it a bad deal. Trump also called for improving U.S. relations with Russia by finding common ground in the fight against the Islamic State.
Click the tiles below to learn more about Trump's campaign operations and issues commonly raised on the campaign trail.
Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign saw a number of hirings and staff departures, beginning even before Trump announced his candidacy. The most notable of these campaign shifts came in March 2016 when Paul Manafort was hired as the campaign's convention manager. Manafort's hiring, seen in the press as a demotion for then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, began a series of disputes within the Trump campaign over who would direct the campaign's strategy and personnel decisions. In May 2016, Manafort was promoted to campaign chair and chief strategist; Lewandowski was fired from the campaign on June 20, 2016. Manafort then resigned in August 2016, two days after the Trump campaign hired Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon as campaign chief executive and promoted pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.
The following timeline details some of the highlights of Trump's staff hires and dismissals throughout the campaign. This timeline is updated whenever a notable staff change occurs. It was last updated September 29, 2016.
For more information about the Trump campaign, visit Donald Trump presidential campaign key staff and advisors, 2016 and Donald Trump presidential campaign staff tensions.
This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term Donald + Trump + 2016
Post-debate analysis overview Democratic: April 14, 2016 (CNN) March 9, 2016 (Univision) March 6, 2016 (CNN) February 11, 2016 (PBS) February 4, 2016 (MSNBC) January 17, 2016 (NBC) December 19, 2015 (ABC) November 14, 2015 (CBS) October 13, 2015 (CNN) Republican: March 10, 2016 (CNN) March 3, 2016 (FNC) February 25, 2016 (CNN) February 13, 2016 (CBS) February 6, 2016 (ABC) January 28, 2016 (FNC) January 14, 2016 (FBN) December 15, 2015 (CNN) November 10, 2015 (FBN) October 28, 2015 (CNBC) September 16, 2015 (CNN)
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Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016 - Ballotpedia
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