Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign
ran a successful campaign for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He formally announced his campaign on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City, initially battling for the Republican Party's nomination. On May 26, 2016, he became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. Trump was officially nominated on July 19 at the Republican National Convention. He chose Mike Pence, the sitting governor of Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate. On November 8, Trump and Pence were elected president and vice president of the United States.
Trump's populist positions in opposition to illegal immigration and various trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, earned him support especially among voters who were male, white, blue-collar, working class, and those without college degrees. Many voters in the Rust Belt, who gave Trump the electoral votes needed to win the presidency, switched from supporting Bernie Sanders to Trump after Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination.
Many of Trump's remarks were controversial and helped his campaign garner extensive coverage by the mainstream media, trending topics, and social media. Trump's campaign rallies attracted large crowds as well as public controversy. Some of the events were marked by incidents of violence between Trump supporters and protesters, mistreatment of journalists, and disruption by a large group of protesters who effectively shut down a major rally in Chicago. Trump himself was accused of inciting violence at his rallies.
Trump's disdain for political correctness was a staple theme of his campaign and proved popular among his supporters. Many, including some mainstream commentators and some prominent Republicans, viewed him as appealing to racism, a charge that Trump repeatedly denied. Trump's most polarizing and widely reported proposals were about issues of immigration and border security, especially his proposed deportation of all illegal immigrants, the proposed construction of a substantial wall on the Mexico–United States border at Mexico's expense, his characterizations of many illegal Mexican immigrants as "criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.", and a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S. After considerable backlash, he later modified the "Trump travel ban" to apply to people originating from countries which he described as having a history of terrorism against the United States or its allies. This was also criticized for excluding countries which the U.S. has significant financial ties with, such as Saudi Arabia.
Opposition to Trump grew during his campaign among both Republicans and Democrats. Although some prominent Republican leaders declined to endorse Trump after he won the Republican nomination, many Republican congress-members showed support for Trump and his policy positions despite major personal or political conflicts with him. Some such supporters of Trump's campaign were accused, by both conservatives and liberals, of prioritizing party loyalty and avoiding alienation of Trump supporters to ensure re-election, thereby refraining from condemning Trump's actions.
On January 6, 2017, the United States government's intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government interfered in the United States elections against the campaign of Clinton and in support of Trump. As president, Trump repeatedly rejected the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence agencies.
Background
Since the 1988 presidential election, Trump was discussed as a potential candidate for president in nearly every election. In October 1999, Trump declared himself a potential candidate for the Reform Party's presidential nomination, but withdrew on February 14, 2000. In 2004, Trump said that he identified as a Democrat. Trump rejoined the Republican Party in September 2009, chose no party affiliation in December 2011, and again rejoined the GOP in April 2012.At the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said he is "pro-life" and "against gun control". He also spoke before Tea Party supporters.
Early polls for the 2012 election had Trump among the leading candidates. In December 2011, Trump placed sixth in the "ten most admired men and women living of 2011" telephone survey conducted jointly by USA Today and Gallup. However, Trump announced in May 2011 that after what he termed "several months unofficially campaigning", he would not be a candidate for the office.
In 2013, Trump was a featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference. In May 2013, it was reported that Trump had spent 1 million dollars on researching a presidential run in 2016. In October 2013, some New York Republicans, including Joseph Borelli and Carl Paladino, suggested Trump should instead run for governor of the state in 2014. John Gauger, a former employee of Liberty University, told The Wall Street Journal in January 2019 that Trump's "fixer" Michael Cohen hired him to manipulate the Drudge Report and CNBC online polls in favor of Trump in 2014 and 2015. In February 2015, Trump did not renew his television contract for The Apprentice, which raised speculation of his candidacy for President of the United States in 2016. According to an April 7, 2015, memo released by WikiLeaks, Hillary Clinton's campaign instructed the Democratic National Committee to focus on "Pied Piper candidates" Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Ben Carson.
Announcement
Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015, with a campaign rally and a speech at Trump Tower in New York City. In the moments before his announcement, he came down a golden escalator at Trump Tower, which has since become a metonym for Trump's announcement. In his speech, Trump drew attention to domestic issues, such as illegal immigration, offshoring of American jobs, the U.S. national debt, and Islamic terrorism. The campaign slogan was announced as "Make America Great Again". Trump declared that he would self-fund his presidential campaign, and would refuse any money from donors and lobbyists. The British gambling company Ladbrokes offered 150/1 odds of Trump winning the presidency. The campaign hired a casting company to supply paid actors to attend the event.Following the announcement, most of the media's attention focused on Trump's comment on illegal immigration: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with . They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." The comment was interpreted and reported in various ways. Trump's statement was controversial and led several businesses and organizations—including NBC, Macy's, Univision, and NASCAR—to cut ties with Trump. Reactions from other presidential candidates were mixed, with some Republican candidates disagreeing with the tone of Trump's remarks yet supporting the core idea that illegal immigration is an important campaign issue, while other Republican candidates, along with the leading Democratic candidates, condemned Trump's remarks and his policy stances as offensive or inflammatory.
After the public backlash, Trump stood by his comments, citing news articles to back his claims. Trump said that he intended his comments to be aimed solely at the government of Mexico, specifically for using the insecure border as a means of transferring criminals into the United States and said he did not intend his comments to refer to immigrants themselves.
Early campaign
Following his June 2015 announcement, Trump traveled to several early primary states, including Iowa and New Hampshire, to campaign ahead of the 2016 Republican primaries. By early July 2015, Trump was campaigning in the West, giving rallies and speeches in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. On July 23, he visited the Mexican border and planned to meet with border guards. The meeting did not take place due to the intervention of the labor union of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection guards.In July, the Federal Election Commission released details of Trump's wealth and financial holdings, which he had submitted to them when he became a Republican presidential candidate. The report showed assets above $1.4 billion and outstanding debts of at least $265 million. Shortly afterwards, Trump's campaign released a statement stating that his net worth is over $10 billion, although Forbes estimated it to be $4.5 billion. On August 6, 2015, the first Republican primary debate took place on Fox News. During the debate, Trump refused to rule out a third-party candidacy. Eventually, in September 2015, Trump signed a pledge promising his allegiance to the Republican Party.
On August 21, 2015, the Federal Election Commission released a list of filings from super PACs backing candidates in the 2016 presidential race, which revealed Trump to be the only major presidential candidate among the Republican candidates who appeared not to have a super PAC supporting his candidacy. Two months later, the Make America Great Again PAC, which had collected $1.74 million and spent around $500,000 on polling, consulting, and other activities, was shut down after The Washington Post revealed multiple connections to the Trump campaign.
Border wall and illegal immigration
In his announcement speech, Trump promised that he would build "a great, great wall" on the United States–Mexico border, and emphasized that proposal throughout his campaign, further stating that the construction of the wall would be paid for by Mexico. Trump proposed a broader crackdown on illegal immigration, and, in a July6 statement, claimed that the Mexican government was "forcing their most unwanted people into the United States"—"in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc." In his first town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire on August 19, 2015, Trump stated: "Day1 of my presidency, they're getting out and getting out fast." Trump's Republican rival Jeb Bush stated that "Trump is wrong on this" and "to make these extraordinarily kind of ugly comments is not reflective of the Republican Party". While Trump acknowledged that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus asked him to tone down his rhetoric on immigration reform, he stated that his conversations with the Republican National Committee on the matter were also "congratulatory".At a July 2015 rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump was welcomed by the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, turning over the lectern for part of his speech to a supporter whose child was killed in Los Angeles in 2008 by a Mexican-born gang member. The brother of Kate Steinle, who was murdered in San Francisco by an illegal immigrant, criticized Trump for politicizing his sister's death, while a viral video related to her death produced by a Trump supporter independent of the campaign gave Trump an advantage during the primaries.
Univision announced it would no longer carry broadcasts of the Miss USA Pageant. In response, Trump indicated the matter would be handled by legal action, and followed through by filing a $500 million lawsuit against Univision. The complaint asserted that Univision was attempting to suppress Trump's First Amendment rights by putting pressure on his business ventures. NBC announced it would not air the Miss Universe or Miss USA pageant. Afterwards, the multinational media company Grupo Televisa severed ties with Trump, as did Ora TV, a television network partly owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
Macy's announced it would phase out its Trump-branded merchandise. Serta, a mattress manufacturer, also decided to drop their business relationship with Trump. NASCAR ended its sponsorship with Trump by announcing it would not hold its post-season awards banquet at the Trump National Doral Miami.
Among the American public, reactions to Trump's border-wall proposal were polarized by party, with a large majority of Republicans supporting the proposal and a large majority of Democrats against it; overall, a September 2015 poll showed 48 percent of U.S. adults supporting Trump's proposal, while a March 2016 poll showed 34 percent of U.S. adults supporting it.