Here’s a look into the political journey of Donald Trump

Born in Queens, New York as the fourth child of prominent real estate developer Fred Trump and Scottish American philanthropist Marry Anne MacLeod Trump in 1946, Donald Trump is one of the world’s most renowned personalities today.

Apart from serving as the 45th President of the United States from January 2017-January 2021, Trump is a billionaire businessman and a controversial yet popular media personality. Lets have a look at his journey as a Republican and how he rose to the position of leading one of the most powerful countries in the world by scoring an upset victory over his other politically powerful opponents like Hillary Clinton.

It all began in 2011 when Trump surmised running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 elections. He made his first public appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Feb 2011 giving speeches. However his presidential ambitions were not taken seriously at the time because he announced a few months later that he wouldn’t be running and endorsed Mitt Romney.To gain publicity since he had never involved himself seriously in any political matters,in 2011 itself Trump began questioning in TV Interviews whether then-President Barack Obama was born in the US.

During this time he started his “birther” theory campaign. Throughout Obama’s presidential campaign there was extensive media coverage questioning his nationality, birthplace, religious preference etc. which was particularly promoted by conservatives and Republicans and individuals with anti black attitudes who asserted that Obama was illegible to become the President of the United States as per Article 2 of the constitution because he was not natural-born citizen of the US. In fact in March 2011, during an interview on Good Morning America, Donald Trump said he was seriously considering running for president, that he was a “little” skeptical of Obama’s citizenship.Later, Trump appeared on The View repeating several times that “I want him [Obama] to show his birth certificate.”

Trump has basically used a strategy of establishing himself as “outsider” in the realm of politics and had gathered popular support from conservatives and the right wing primarily, however his campaign was subject to much notoriety because of his constant inappropriate remarks including sexist and racist slurs in his speeches and specially on Twitter.While some criticized the upcoming politician for his ill-nature comments, his supporters commended him for his honesty.

Then in  June 2015, he announced his presidential candidacy in a speech at Trump Tower with the famous aggressively marketed and publicized pledge for his campaign  “Make America Great Again”  as he spoke out against illegal immigration and government lobbyists in his political rallies.As a part of his campaign and to honor his promised pledge he said he would cut taxes, renegotiate trade deals and create millions of jobs for American workers. One of the his most infamous issues that he focused during his campaign was to to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigration from Latin America; and to ban immigration by Muslims. His straightforwardly blunt, unapologetic style and controversial opinions gained widespread media coverage he needed. In May 2016 he defeated16 other candidates, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich.

When Trump was officially named the party’s nominee at the Republic National Convention in July 2016  he and other speakers harshly spoke against the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, blaming her for the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and for allegedly having mishandled classified State Department e-mails by using a private e-mail server by routinely referring to her as “Crooked Hillary” and repeatedly vowing to put her in jail if he were elected.

Then in the general election in November 2016 Trump and his vice presidential running mate Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, defeated  Democrat Hilary Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine as Trump effectively managed to secure votes from the red states as well as important swing states and managed to get 306 electoral votes as compared to his rival’s 232 votes. Clinton won the popular vote such as of women and minorities which some believe she had taken for granted where as on the other hand Trump had effectively capitalized upon the economic anxieties and racial prejudices of some working-class whites, particularly men.