Trump was born and raised in Queens, a borough of New York City, and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School. He took charge of his family's real-estate business in 1971, renamed it The Trump Organization, and expanded its operations from Queens and Brooklyn into Manhattan. The company built or renovated skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. He owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015 and produced and hosted The Apprentice, a reality television show, from 2003 to 2015. As of 2019, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $3.1 billion.[a]
Trump entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and defeated 16 other candidates in the primaries. His political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, and nationalist. Despite not being favored in most forecasts, he was elected over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, although he lost the popular vote. He became the oldest first-term U.S. president,[b] and the first without prior military or government service. His election and policies have sparked numerous protests. Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-checkers, and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics. Many of his comments and actions have also been characterized as racially charged or racist.
During his presidency, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, citing security concerns; after legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld the policy's third revision. He enacted a tax-cut packagefor individuals and businesses, rescinding the individual health insurance mandate. He appointed Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. In foreign policy, Trump has pursued an America First agenda, withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Iran nuclear deal, eventually increasing tensions with the country. He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, imposed import tariffs triggering a trade war with China, and attempted negotiations with North Korea toward its denuclearization.
A special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller found that Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged Russian foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election under the belief that it would be politically advantageous, but did not find sufficient evidence to press charges of criminal conspiracy or coordination with Russia. Mueller also investigated Trump for obstruction of justice, and his report neither indicted nor exonerated Trump on that count. A 2019 House impeachment inquiry found that Trump solicited foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Ukraine to help his re-election bidand then obstructed the inquiry itself. The House impeached Trump on December 18, 2019, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted him of both charges on February 5, 2020.
Donald Trump 2020 Campaign Buys Prime YouTube Ad Space for Election Day
The re-election campaign of president Donald Trump has reportedly purchased prominent ad space on the YouTube homepage at a key time during the 2020 election.
Masthead ads—placed at the top of the front page—will be shown to the platform's billions of users in the days leading up to the November 3 vote, Bloomberg reported. Financial details of the deal remain unknown, but the publication said the ads are expected to run nationwide.
Bloomberg to Pay People $2,500 a Month to Praise Him on Social Media Feeds
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YouTube, which is owned by Google, has more than two billion users and claims to reach more U.S. citizens in the 18-35 demographic than any TV network.
Masthead advertising typically lasts for a day, and was previously seized by President Barack Obama's campaign in 2012 and Hillary Clinton during her failed battle for the White House back in 2016.
In June last year, NPR reported the Trump campaign had purchased the prime masthead space to be shown around the time of the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami, and noted the spot could have cost up to $1 million for the time that it was visible to the video platform's viewers.
Last April, Trump's 2020 manager Brad Parscale said in an interview with "America This Week" that fresh ad campaign spending could top $1 billion, with about half of that on digital. YouTube masthead ads shun a targeted approach in favor of a wider public splash.
Google and the Trump campaign have been contacted for comment. A Google spokesperson told Bloomberg such political ads are common for the website.
"In the past, campaigns, PACs, and other political groups have run various types of ads leading up to Election Day," the spokesperson said. "All advertisers follow the same process and are welcome to purchase the masthead space as long as their ads comply with our policies."
Digital advertising—and the money used to fund it—will no doubt play a significant role in the strategies of all leading candidates. Statistics published by Google indicate Trump's efforts are currently only overshadowed by the lavish spending of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has used the reach of internet influencers to spread memes about his campaign.
Fresh from a poor debate performance this week, it surfaced via The Wall Street Journal that Bloomberg will pay people to praise him to their social media followers and phone contacts.
Google updated its advertising policy in November last year, limiting election audience targeting to a selection of broad categories: age, gender, and general location.
It said in a blog post: "Political advertisers can, of course, continue to do contextual targeting, such as serving ads to people reading or watching a story about, say, the economy. This will align our approach to election ads with long-established practices in media such as TV, radio, and print, and result in election ads being more widely seen and available for public discussion."
The changes came as political ads, powerful in the right hands because they allow talking points to be targeted at specific demographics, became a focus of debate in the U.S., with Facebook doubling down on the stance that such messaging wouldn't be subject to fact checking.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsy seized the moment by choosing to block paid political advertising from his platform—even if that hasn't stopped politicians from using their accounts to share their views (and edited videos). Broadly, Facebook spun its policy as a pro-transparency move.
"We don't think decisions about political ads should be made by private companies," said Rob Leathern, the social network's director of product management, in a January blog.
"In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies. We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public."
Like Google's transparency report, Facebook offers an Ad Library tool that is able to track all advertising from the U.S. political candidates, including their spend, reach and funding.