Civil rights implications and actions
Within hours of taking office, Trump signed dozens of executive orders targeting immigration, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, ending federal DEI programs, and declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
During the first presidential debate, when asked to condemn white supremacist groups, Trump told the far-right Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by,' a statement the group immediately adopted as a rallying cry.
The Trump administration deployed federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security to Portland, Oregon, where officers in unmarked vehicles detained protesters off the streets, provoking a constitutional crisis over federal overreach.
Federal officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to forcibly clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so President Trump could walk to St. John's Church and pose for photographs holding a Bible.
As protests over the police killing of George Floyd spread across the country, Trump tweeted 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' — a phrase with a violent, racist history — drawing widespread condemnation and a warning label from Twitter.
Trump tweeted that four Democratic congresswomen of color — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib — should 'go back' to the 'totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,' a racist trope directed at American citizens and elected officials.
The Trump administration's 'zero tolerance' immigration policy resulted in thousands of children being forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, with some families never reunited, provoking widespread outrage and comparisons to internment camps.
During a bipartisan meeting on immigration, Trump asked why the U.S. was accepting immigrants from 'shithole countries' in Africa and Haiti rather than from places like Norway, laying bare the racial animus behind his immigration agenda.
After a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned deadly when a neo-Nazi drove his car into counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, Trump said there were 'very fine people on both sides' — equating white supremacists with those protesting against them.
Just one week into his presidency, Trump signed an executive order banning entry from seven Muslim-majority countries, triggering immediate chaos at airports and a wave of federal court challenges.
Trump repeatedly claimed that federal judge Gonzalo Curiel could not fairly preside over the Trump University fraud case because of his 'Mexican heritage,' prompting Paul Ryan to call it 'the textbook definition of a racist comment.'
A pattern of violence at Trump rallies culminated in the cancellation of a major Chicago event amid clashes between supporters and protesters, as Trump repeatedly encouraged aggressive behavior from the stage.
In a written statement and at a rally in South Carolina, Trump called for a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,' drawing bipartisan condemnation and comparisons to some of the darkest chapters in American history.
At a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump physically mimicked the movements of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a congenital joint condition, while disputing Kovaleski's reporting on 9/11 celebrations.
In his presidential campaign announcement speech at Trump Tower, Donald Trump described Mexican immigrants as 'rapists' and criminals, sparking immediate backlash from Latino communities and setting the tone for his candidacy.
Trump spent an estimated $85,000 on full-page newspaper ads in four New York City dailies demanding the return of the death penalty, in response to the Central Park jogger case involving five Black and Latino teenagers who were later exonerated by DNA evidence.
Donald Trump, Fred Trump, and Trump Management signed a consent decree with the Department of Justice to settle charges of systematic racial discrimination in housing, agreeing to a set of reforms without admitting guilt.
The Department of Justice filed a civil rights suit against Trump, his father Fred, and their company for refusing to rent to Black tenants in 39 buildings across New York City.
