US Polls 2020: America under 4 years of unconventional leadership - Trump's profile

Donald J Trump, the flamboyant US President, is an unconventional leader by all standards with his tenure in White House marked with impulsive foreign policy decisions, off the cuff remarks, fiery rhetoric, racial tension and economic slowdown in America and numerous alleged scandals.

Donald Trump is the 45th and current president of the United States. Trump announced his presidential campaign in 2015 with his slogan "Make America Great Again." He defeated Hillary Clinton to become president, without ever holding political office previously.

He assumed office on January 20, 2017, and filed to run for re-election on the same day. He crossed the delegate threshold necessary to win the Republican nomination--1,276 delegates--on March 17, 2020. He was formally nominated at the Republican National Convention on August 24, 2020.

Donald Trump was born in New York City in 1946. He attended Fordham University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, according to the White House website. After that, he started working for his father's business and eventually founded the Trump Organization, which is comprised of 500 companies involving resorts, hotels, residential properties and more.

In the 1980s, he invested in the casino business in Atlantic City. Trump launched the reality TV show "The Apprentice" in 2004. It ran for 15 seasons.

He does not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, linking his abstinence to the loss of his older brother, who struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43, according to Kyodo News. He instead loves fast food and prefers to drink Diet Coke.

Trump married his first wife, Ivana, in 1977 and the couple had three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. They divorced in 1992 and the following year, his new wife, Marla Maples, gave birth to their daughter Tiffany. Trump has been married to Melania Knauss since 2005. They have a son together named Barron.

Trump is known for using social media, especially Twitter, to issue directives, to rants about political leaders, world leaders and occasionally his administration officials. New York Times reported that Trump has fully integrated Twitter into the very fabric of his administration, reshaping the nature of the presidency and presidential power.

In 2019, he announced increased tariffs on USD 300 billion worth of Chinese goods, using a tweet to deepen tensions between the two countries. And in March that year, Trump cast aside more than 50 years of American policy, tweeting his recognition of Israel's sovereignty in the Golan Heights.

In December last year, Trump became the third US President in history to be impeached by the House of Representatives when it brought accusations that he abused the power of his office to boost his own chances of re-election. He was acquitted at a subsequent trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In his re-election bid, President Trump has been focusing on his stewardship of the economy, promising a rapid coronavirus vaccine, and employing tough rhetoric on immigration and social unrest.

According to Trump's campaign website, his administration's policies generated 6 million new jobs, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in 50 years and wages grew. He also boasts about GDP growth."There are more than a million more job openings than unemployed persons in the US," the website says.

As the President of the US, Trump is facing the most dangerous crisis of this century as coronavirus spreads and the country's economy is witnessing a slowdown.

Trump administration handling of coronavirus pandemic has become the flashpoint in his race against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The former vice president has focused his campaign against Trump on the administration's failure to combat the crisis.

The US is the worst COVID-19 impacted country in the world with its death toll exceeding over 2.3 lakh. Trump was also tested positive for COVID-19 and this impacted his campaign as he was downplaying the impact of the pandemic since its inception.

Trump's foreign policy has remained controversial and unconventional. In the four years, he withdrew from the Paris Accord, Iran nuclear deal, and rescinded Cuba deal.

Trump has also witnessed a few successes on the foreign front. Last month, the UAE, Bahrain becomes the third and fourth Arab country after Egypt and Jordan to have a Peace Treaty with Israel that was brokered by the US.

Trump had announced his intention not only to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians but also to resolve the century-long conflict between the Jews and the Arabs.

Trump last week also announced about a deal between Israel and Sudan in a televised three-way conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the president of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.In February, the US and Taliban signed Afghan peace deal paving way for intra-Afghan negotiations between the terrorist group and the Afghan government to restore peace in the war-torn country. On September 12, the much-awaited intra-Afghan talks between the Taliban and the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation opened in Doha, Qatar. Though the violence continues and even appears to be escalating, experts still believe as talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government will bear fruits.

Trump administration has also given special emphasis on the US relations with India. It is visible by the fact that just days before the elections, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mark T Esper arrived in India for 2+2 talks.

Though US relations with few countries have strengthened, faultlines deepen with other countries like China and Iran. Trump administration pulled out of the famous Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed multiple sanctions on Iran. Against that backdrop of heightened tensions, Trump authorised a drone strike that killed Iran's top military leader, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, as he arrived in Baghdad. The killing of Soleimani brought the two nations on the brink of war.

China has emerged as an important issue of the 2020 US elections. Donald Trump's aggressive approach to China has helped create a trade war more virulent than any seen in decades. He has also blamed China for spreading the coronavirus around the world.

Trump's first major trade actions against China came in January 2018, when he slapped tariffs on washing machines and solar panels, according to Channel News Asia. The US-China trade war entered its first reciprocal phase between April and December 2018, as Washington and Beijing began a series of tit-for-tat exchanges.

A detente came in December when both countries agreed to suspend new tariffs and begin talks. This respite was not to last. In May 2019, after Xi backtracked on the newly negotiated agreement, Trump raised US tariffs to 25 per cent on US$200 billion of Chinese goods.

On the domestic front, the United States under Trump has been facing protests over one or the other issue. At the beginning of his administration, people hit the streets after the president imposed a travel ban on Muslims countries and pushed ahead with his plans to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.

The violent protests have rocked the American cities after the killing of a black man George Floyd in police custody in May.

In cities across the United States, tens of thousands of people have swarmed the streets to express their outrage and sorrow during the day. That has descended into nights of unrest, with reports of shootings, looting and vandalism in some cities.

Trump had his share of scandals too that has surely impacted his campaign so far.

Most recent is Trump's niece Mary Trump's book in which she has made some shocking claims about the US leader, calling him a "narcissist", a university cheat, a bully and someone who once complimented his niece's breasts.

White House has rejected the claims made in the tell-all memoir.

President Trump's longtime lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, has alleged in a new book that Trump made "overt and covert attempts to get Russia to interfere in the 2016 election" and that the future commander in chief was also well aware of Cohen's hush-money payoff to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during that campaign.

Cohen laid out an alarming portrait of the constellation of characters orbiting around Trump, likening the arrangement to the mafia and calling himself "one of Trump's bad guys." He describes the president, meanwhile, as "a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man."White House has attacked Cohen's credibility, saying he is a disgraced felon and disbarred lawyer, who lied to Congress, Washington Post reported.

At least 24 women have accused the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, of inappropriate sexual behaviour in multiple incidents spanning the last 30 years.

Americans will vote today to elect their next president, either giving Trump another four years or handing over the keys to the White House to Biden.

(ANI)

Also Read: US presidential election 2020: Donald Trump or Joe Biden? Americans to decide today