Relationship With The News Media
Early into his presidency, Trump developed a highly contentious relationship with the news media, repeatedly referring to them as the “fake news media” and “the enemy of the people.” As a candidate, Trump had refused press credentials for offending publications but said he would not do so if elected. Trump both privately and publicly mused about taking away critical reporters’ White House press credentials. At the same time, the Trump White House gave temporary press passes to far-right pro-Trump fringe outlets, such as InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit, which are known for publishing hoaxes and conspiracy theories.
On his first day in office, Trump falsely accused journalists of understating the size of the crowd at his inauguration and called the news media “among the most dishonest human beings on earth.” Trump’s claims were notably defended by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who claimed the inauguration crowd had been the biggest in history, a claim disproven by photographs. Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway then defended Spicer when asked about the falsehood, saying it was an “alternative fact,” not a falsehood.
The Trump Justice Department obtained by court order the 2017 phone logs or email metadata of reporters from CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and Politico as part of investigations into leaks of classified information.
Government Size And Regulations
The administration imposed far fewer financial penalties against banks and major companies accused of wrong-doing relative to the Obama administration.
In the first six weeks of his tenure, Trump suspended or in a few cases, revoked more than 90 regulations. In early 2017, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to slash two existing regulations for every new one . A September 2017 Bloomberg BNA review found that due to unclear wording in the order and the large proportion of regulations it exempts, the order had had little effect since it was signed. The Trump OMB released an analysis in February 2018 indicating the economic benefits of regulations significantly outweigh the economic costs. The administration ordered one-third of government advisory committees for federal agencies eliminated, except for committees that evaluate consumer product safety or committees that approve research grants.
Trump ordered a four-month government-wide hiring freeze of the civilian work force at the start of his term. He said he did not intend to fill many of the governmental positions that were still vacant, as he considered them unnecessary there were nearly 2,000 vacant government positions.
The administration ended the requirement that nonprofits, including political advocacy groups who collect so-called dark money, disclose the names of large donors to the IRS the Senate voted to overturn the administration’s rule change.
Endorsements By Donald Trump
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This page is updated each month with endorsements made by President Donald Trump .
During Trump’s presidency from 2017 to 2021, Ballotpedia tracked 305 endorsements. After Trump left office, Ballotpedia tracked 32 additional endorsements for a total of 337 endorsements. This page was last updated September 3, 2021.
According to a January 2021 survey by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers, 45% of Republicans said they would be more likely to support a candidate endorsed by Trump. Among independents and Democrats, this figure decreased to 16% and 7%, respectively. Northeastern Professor David Lazer said, “You would clearly want Trumps recommendation if youre a Republican running for office. It would help in the primaries, but hurt in a general election.”
Endorsements include official statements, appearances at campaign rallies, and direct participation in campaign ads and materials. Endorsements issued prior to a special election where the candidate is also running in a regularly scheduled election on the same day are counted as endorsements in both races. Battleground primary endorsements are listed in the appropriate general election or special election section, in addition to the battleground primary section.
This page organizes Trump’s endorsements into three groups:
- General endorsements: Trump’s endorsements in regularly scheduled elections, both before and after primaries.
Also Check: Why Trump Is A Bad President
How Biden Won: Ramping Up The Base And Expanding Margins In The Suburbs
It brings the number of states Biden flipped from Trump’s 2016 column to five, including Arizona, which last voted Democratic in a presidential race when it backed Clinton in 1996.
Biden also flipped Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, three key northern industrial states that ultimately delivered the White House to Trump four years ago. Biden also won a single electoral vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which last voted Democratic for former President Barack Obama in 2008.
Electors from each state and the District of Columbia are expected to vote on Dec. 14. The new Congress will then count the votes and certify Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, two weeks before the inauguration.
But Georgia’s political activity is far from over. The state will hold two runoff elections on Jan. 5 for both its U.S. Senate seats, which are currently held by Republicans.
White Nationalists And White Supremacists
From the outset of his campaign, Trump was endorsed by various white nationalist and white supremacist movements and leaders. On February 24, 2016, David Duke, a former Ku Klux KlanGrand Dragon, expressed vocal support for Trump’s campaign on his radio show. Shortly thereafter in an interview with Jake Tapper, Trump repeatedly claimed to be ignorant of Duke and his support. Republican presidential rivals were quick to respond on his wavering, and Senator Marco Rubio stated the Duke endorsement made Trump un-electable. Others questioned his professed ignorance of Duke by pointing out that in 2000, Trump called him a “Klansman”. Trump later blamed the incident on a poor earpiece he was given by CNN. Later the same day Trump stated that he had previously disavowed Duke in a tweet posted with a video on his Twitter account. On March 3, 2016, Trump stated: “David Duke is a bad person, who I disavowed on numerous occasions over the years. I disavowed him. I disavowed the KKK.”
On July 22, 2016 , Duke announced that he will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana. He commented, “I’m overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I’ve championed for years.” A spokesperson for the Trump campaign said Trump “has disavowed David Duke and will continue to do so.”
Read Also: Is Trump A Great President
Beliefs And Policies Of Candidates
Hillary Clinton focused her candidacy on several themes, including raising middle class incomes, expanding women’s rights, instituting campaign finance reform, and improving the Affordable Care Act. In March 2016, she laid out a detailed economic plan basing her economic philosophy on inclusive capitalism, which proposed a “clawback” that rescinds tax cuts and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas with provision of incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders as well as increasing collective bargaining rights and placing an “exit tax” on companies that move their headquarters out of the U.S. in order to pay a lower tax rate overseas. Clinton promoted equal pay for equal work to address current alleged shortfalls in how much women are paid to do the same jobs men do, promoted explicitly focus on family issues and support of universal preschool, expressed support for the right to same-sex marriage, and proposed allowing undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship stating that it “s at its heart a family issue.”
And That Leads To What Might Be The Biggest Story Of The Election Democrats’ Cratering With Blue
Ohio and Iowa went by huge margins for Trump – almost 10 points in Iowa and 9 in Ohio. Trump won Wisconsin and Pennsylvania , leads in Michigan , and lost by less than 2 points in Minnesota.
Those last three states went for Democrats in six straight presidential elections. They were crucial to the Democratic Blue Wall, and Trump took a sledgehammer to it.
We heard the voices of Obama-Trump white, working class voters in our stories online and on the air, but they never registered in big enough numbers in public or private, non-partisan, Republican or Democratic polling before the election to show that a Trump win was apparent. Take a look at the vote shifts among the white, working class in some key states:
THOSE WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE IN INDUSTRIAL NORTH
MINNESOTA2012: 53% of electorate, 52-46 Obama2016: 44% of electorate, 55-38 Trump
WISCONSIN2012: 58% of electorate, 51-47 Obama2016: 55% of electorate, 56-40 Trump
IOWA2012: 57% of electorate, 52-46 Obama2016: 57% of electorate, 54-40 Trump
MICHIGAN2012: 54% of electorate, 56-43 Obama2016: 58% of electorate, 49-45 Trump
OHIO2012: 60% of electorate, 53-46 Obama2016: 56% of electorate, 51-45 Trump
PENNSYLVANIA2012: 52% of electorate, 57-42 Obama2016: 52% of electorate, 52-45 Trump
Read Also: Will Trump Get Reelected In 2020
Uncertainty Over Accepting The Election Results
Trump repeatedly suggested that the election is “rigged” against him, and in the final debate he cast doubt on whether he would accept the results of the election should he lose, saying “I’ll keep you in suspense”. His comment touched off a media and political uproar, in which he was accused of “threatening to upend a fundamental pillar of American democracy” and “rais the prospect that millions of his supporters may not accept the results on Nov. 8 if he loses”.Rick Hasen of University of California, Irvine School of Law, an election-law expert, described Trump’s comments as “appalling and unprecedented” and feared there could be “violence in the streets from his supporters if Trump loses.” The next day Trump said, “Of course, I would accept a clear election result, but I would also reserve my right to contest or file a legal challenge in the case of a questionable result.” He also stated that he would “totally” accept the election results “if I win.”
Involvement Of Other Countries
On December 9, 2016, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an assessment to lawmakers in the US Senate, stating that a Russian entity hacked the DNC and John Podesta‘s emails to assist Donald Trump. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed. President Barack Obama ordered a “full review” into such possible intervention. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper in early January 2017 testified before a Senate committee that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking, and included disinformation and the dissemination of fake news, often promoted on social media. Facebook revealed that during the 2016 United States presidential election, Russian company funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin, had purchased advertisements on the website for US$100,000, 25% of which were geographically targeted to the U.S.
President-elect Trump originally called the report fabricated. said the Russian government was not the source of the documents. Days later, Trump said he could be convinced of the Russian hacking “if there is a unified presentation of evidence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies.”
Read Also: What Is The Latest Trump Approval Rating
Election Campaign 2016 Candidate Participation Timeline
Candidate announcement and, if applicable, withdrawal dates are as follows:
