Donald Trump

About

Donald Trump born June 14, 1946 (age 69), is an American entrepreneur, TV personality and author most well-known for his celebrity billionaire status, as portrayed in the hit NBC reality show The Apprentice. In addition to his signature role as the founder, chairman, CEO and president of the Trump Organization, the businessman is often regarded as a controversial figure in public due to his outspoken manner of speech that has led to many controversies, especially following the election of President Barack Obama in 2008.

Online History

The Birther Movement

In March 2011, while exploring to make a bid for the Republican nomination for the 2012 presidential election, Trump began looking into the validity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate^[2], stating that the “Certification of Live Birth” the White House released did not bear a signature of authenticity.^[5] He continued to question President Obama’s birth certificate throughout 2012, tweeting^[3] on August 6th, 2012 that the produced certificate was a fraud.

An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that <a href="https://twitter.com/barackobama">barackobama</a>'s birth certificate is a fraud.</p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012

On October 22nd, 2012, Trump asserted he would be making a “very big” revelation about the president within two days.^[6] On the 24th, Trump released a video (shown below, left) stating he would donate $5 million dollars to the charity of the President’s choice if he provided his college applications and records as well as his passport records by October 31st to the billionaire’s satisfaction. Many news sources including CBS News^[7], Business Insider^[8] and the Huffington Post^[9] claimed the announcement fell flat of his Twitter hype.

2012 Presidential Election Reaction

Following the 2012 United States Presidential Election, Trump published several angry tweets about Barack Obama’s election for a second term as President of the United States.

“Wow” Chain Tweets

On February 25th, 2013, Trump published a tweet promoting his reality television show The Apprentice. Immediately after, Twitter user Mark Gurman tweeted a link to Trump’s tweet with the word “Wow.” After Arizona student Erik Schmidt tweeted a link to Gurman’s tweet with the word “Wow,” a trend was created in which Twitter users began tweeting links to other tweets prefaced with “Wow.” On February 28th, the Twitter worm was traced back by the tech news blog The Verge.^[1]

2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign

On June 16th, 2015, Trump formally announced his bid for the Republican primaries in the upcoming 2016 U.S. presidential election at the Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City. During his 45-minute long announcement speech, the longest of any major party candidates to date, Trump made several pledges in a wide range of policy areas to “restore the American Dream” and become “the greatest ‘jobs’ president God ever created” under his trademarked campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” including plans for an overhaul of the fiscally troubled Social Security program, re-negotiation of the U.S. trade agreements, opposition against the federally sponsored Common Core State Standards Initiative in education and completion of the U.S.-Mexican border fence.

Trump’s announcement was immediately picked up by virtually all major news outlets, including both traditional and online publications, generating the highest volume of Google search queries for any of the presidential candidates to date. In the weeks following his announcement, at least two public opinion polls were conducted by the Suffolk University and Fox News, with the former survey indicating Trump as the second most popular Republican candidate among likely voters in New Hampshire’s primary for the Republican nomination and the latter poll similarly placing Trump in second place among Republican-registered voters nationwide.

Anti-Mexican Remarks

During the announcement of his presidential campaign in June 2015, Trump made several remarks addressing the issue of illegal immigration across the U.S. southern borders (quoted below), which instantly prompted a flurry of criticisms and accusations of generalizing the Mexican population from various news media outlets and Hispanics on social media.

“When Mexico sends its people they’re not sending the best,” said Trump. “They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, I assume, are good people, but I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”

Senator Lindsey Graham’s Phone Number

On July 21st, 2015, Donald Trump launched a tirade against Republican senator Lindsey Graham while giving a speech at a campaign rally event in South Carolina, shortly after the circulation of headlines^[25] that his rival primary candidate called him a “jackass” on the previous day. During his speech^[26], Trump shot back at the South Carolina senator by calling him a “lightweight” and an “idiot," while making a disparaging comparison to another Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry.

“He doesn’t seem like a very bright guy. He actually probably seems to me not as bright as Rick Perry. I think Rick Perry probably is smarter than Lindsey Graham."

Trump then wrapped up his diatribe by reading out the private phone number belonging to Lindsey Graham and encouraging his supporters to “try it.”

Trump’s Phone Number Leak

On August 3rd, 2015, Gawker^[24] leaked a mobile phone number belonging to Donald Trump in an article titled “Call Donald Trump’s Cell Phone and Ask Him About His Important Ideas.” Prefaced with a note about Trump’s disclosure of Republican senator Lindsey Graham’s phone number at a campaign rally in July, the publication called on its readers to ask him questions by dialing the listed number:

You can reach Donald Trump at 917-756-8000. He has some pressing questions to answer. Does he still think Mexicans are out to rape you? Speaking of rape, does he think it’s possible to rape your own wife? Just how much did he exaggerate his net worth to hit the $10 billion figure? What about breast milk does he find so disgusting? Which cabinet position would he give Sarah Palin? Interesting topics, all.

Gawker’s disclosure of Donald Trump’s phone number was subsequently picked up by numerous major political news sites and blogs, including ABC News^[26], Politico^[28], MSNBC^[29] and The Hill^[30], with MSNBC confirming that the leaked phone number matches the one Trump had previously used to call the news outlet.

Race-Related Controversies

Woman Reading a Book

On November 10th, 2015, Vine user Vic Berger IV uploaded a post featuring a remixed, zoomed in video from a Trump Rally in Springfield, Illinois. The video featured clip of the televised footage where an older man asks a woman to put down the book she is reading, to which the woman reacts negatively. The video received over 16 million loops in less than one month.^[40]

Later, in an interview with Jezebel, the woman, named Johari Osayi Idusuyi, revealed that the book was Citizen by Claudia Rankine.^[41] She said that she had attended the rally out of curiosity, and that she and her (also black) friends had been asked to sit directly behind Trump by campaign officials so that they would be featured in the telecast, making Trump’s support appear more diverse than it was. Upon realizing that she was being used in this way, she read the book as an act of silent protest.

Black Lives Matter Protestor Beating

On November 21st, 2015, six attendees at a Trump presidential rally in Birmingham, Alabama, “shoved, kicked, and tackled” a Black Lives Matter protestor who had attended the rally.^[42] The next day on Fox News, Trump suggested that the violent attendees had done the right thing; “Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing,” he told the news anchors.

Anti-Muslim Remarks

After the 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks, Donald Trump made a series of anti-Muslim remarks.

Cheering Post 9/11 Muslims

On November 22nd, Trump made a speech at a rally where he called for surveillance of mosques, and claimed that he saw Muslims in Jersey City, NJ (a town with an easy view of the lower Manhattan skyline) cheering when the Twin Towers fell in the September 11th, 2001 attacks] Later, Trump reframed the remarks, saying that he had seen Muslims celebrate all over the world, and criticized a reporter he was quoting, making fun of the reporter’s physical disability.^[44]

Muslim Immigration Ban

After the 2015 San Bernardino Shooting, Trump ramped up his calls for surveillance on Muslims, calling at first for a database to be created, and then later, on December 7th, 2015, for all Muslims, including American citizens, to be barred from entering the country.^[45] During a rally on the Yorktown Air Craft Carrier meant to commemorate Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Trump called for the ban, saying it was a temporary solution meant to suffice until the government could understand the ISIS threat to America more completely. He published the proposal in its entirety on his web site:^[46]

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on. According to Pew Research, among others, there is great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population. Most recently, a poll from the Center for Security Policy released data showing “25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad” and 51% of those polled, “agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Shariah.” Shariah authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.
Mr. Trump stated, “Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.” – Donald J. Trump

Online Presence

Donald Trump’s official website was registered at Trump.com^[11] on July 9th, 1997, which features media and information regarding Trump’s real estate properties. On February 23rd, 2006, the Trump YouTube^[14] channel was created, which accumulated more than 14.1 million video views and 19,500 subscribers in the next seven years. On March 18th, 2009, Trump launched the @realDonaldTrump^[12] Twitter feed, garnering upwards of 2.08 million followers in the next four years.

Campaign Aide’s Social Media Posts

On July 31st, Business Insider ran an article titled “Top Trump adviser has a history of provocative and racial Facebook posts” detailing a history of racially charged status updates and controversial commentaries made by Sam Nunberg, a New York City attorney and one of Trump’s political advisors, via his personal Facebook account since 2007. In one of his status updates, dated August 25th, 2007, Nunberg posted a facetious remark about calling American Reverend and civil rights activist Al Sharpton’s daughter a “N***er!”

On August 2nd, two days after the publication of the article, Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s campaign manager, revealed announced Nunberg has been terminated from his position in the wake of the recent revelations. Prior to this incident, Nunberg had been previously fired from his advisory role after urging Trump to participate in an unflattering profile article for BuzzFeed in early 2014.

Reputation

Donald Trump has established himself in public as a celebrity businessman who enjoys and understands extravagant lifestyle, especially through his role on the NBC reality TV show The Apparentice, which culminated with the inclusions of his name on Forbes’ Celebrity 100 list (#17) and Gallup’s Ten Most Admired Men and Women Alive poll in 2011. Meanwhile, due to his outspoken manner in public, coupled with conspicuous display of personal wealth and staunch advocacy of conservative agendas mainly corporate deregulation, Trump has also become a frequent target of ridicule in pop culture and on the Internet.

Anti-Obama Remarks

In October 2012, American political pundit Stephen Colbert responded to Trump’s Birther accusations against Barack Obama by making a counteroffer saying he would donate $1 million to the charity of his choice if he would allow Colbert to “dip his ball in his mouth.”^[10] The same night, Obama responded on The Tonight Show^[11], joking that his feud with Trump dated back to when they were growing up together in Kenya.

Anti-Mexican Remarks

In late June 2015, the New York City-based Spanish language TV network Univision^[18] announced that the company would terminate its business relationship and broadcast contract with the Miss Universe Organization, on the grounds of what it perceived as “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants” made by the pageantry co-owner Trump during his campaign announcement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Today, the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the Company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants. At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12th or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.

The next day, Trump issued a personally-signed open letter in response to Univision’s decision via his Facebook page^[17], in which he notified the American news media company to immediately stop using Trump National Doral Miami, a Florida-based golf resort known to be frequented by Univision executives, while sarcastically congratulating the Mexican government officials for “having made such outstanding trade deals with the United States” in a postscript statement.

On June 29th, NBC^[19] released a similar statement revealing its intention to end their business relationship with Trump over his “derogatory statements” regarding immigrants.

“To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC,” the statement continued. “In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. Celebrity Apprentice is licensed from Mark Burnett’s United Artists Media Group and that relationship will continue.”

El Chapo’s Response

On July 11th, 2015, the notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera escaped from the Altiplano maximum security, leaving through a 4,000 foot tunnel dug from a nearby home to the shower in his cell.^[20] Trump, continuing his criticism of border control and Mexican government in general, responded directly and aggressively on Twitter on June 13th.

According to media accounts, a Twitter account called @ElChap0Guzman, purportedly run by one of Guzmán Loera’s sons and followed by over 470,000 people, tweeted to Trump on the evening of July 12th, before Trump made the above remarks.^[21] The tweet, now deleted, read:

Roughly translated, this means "“keep f***ing around and I’m gonna make you swallow your b**** words you f***ing whitey milk s***ter.”^[22] On July 13th, ABCNews reported that Trump had asked the FBI to investigate the threat.^[23]

Grammarly Study

On October 6th, 2015, the grammar checking website Grammarly^[33] published a blog post titled “Presidential Debate Grammar Power Rankings,” which featured an infographic comparing Facebook grammar mistakes made by supporters of various candidates in the 2016 United States presidential election. The company pooled 180 samples per candidate over a period of four months, showing that supporters of Donald Trump received the worst grammar score of any candidate.

In the coming days, several news sites reported on the study, including USA Today,^[35] The Washington Post,^[36] The Telegraph^[37] and The Daily Dot.^[38] On October 7th, an entry for the grammar study was created on Snopes,^[39] which noted that Grammarly’s findings could not be considered a scientific study, marking their claims as “unproven.”

Search Interest

External References