Media interactions, statements, and social media
After Iran fired missiles at U.S. forces on July 28, Trump told Fox News that Iran was 'going to get a beating' and ordered a 'heavy wave' of strikes on dozens of Iranian military targets — reigniting a war he started in early 2026 and again waged with no new authorization from Congress.
U.S. forces struck five Iranian targets on Trump's order, Iran's Revolutionary Guard hit U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain in response, and Trump posted that 'the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist' if it doesn't yield — collapsing the Islamabad memorandum he had announced weeks earlier.
Trump killed Iran's counter-proposal to end the 10-week war he started, dismissing it in all-caps as 'TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE' — sending Brent crude over $100, the U.S. pump price to $4.52, and the Strait of Hormuz back into a deadlock with no diplomatic path forward.
Three U.S. Navy destroyers came under sustained Iranian missile, drone and small-boat attack while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. retaliated with strikes on Iranian military sites, then Trump publicly dismissed the exchange as 'just a love tap' while threatening to hit Iran 'a lot harder, and a lot more violently' if it does not sign a deal.
Judge Melissa DuBose ordered an ethics review of the Trump administration after DHS issued a press release branding her a 'Biden activist judge' for releasing a man whose homicide warrant ICE had ordered the Justice Department to hide from her court.
On the eve of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's first Vatican meeting with Pope Leo XIV, Trump publicly attacked the American-born pope as 'endangering' Catholics and falsely claimed Leo wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The attacks extend a year-long campaign by Trump to discredit the first U.S.-born pope, who has emerged as one of the most prominent religious critics of the Iran war.
After launching a military operation in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, Trump paused it within 24 hours and threatened on Truth Social that 'the bombing starts' at 'a much higher level' if Iran doesn't accept his peace terms.
On June 22, 2025, Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer — the first operational use of GBU-57 bunker-busters and the largest B-2 strike in US history — to attack Iran's Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. He did not seek congressional authorization. He notified Republican leadership before the strikes and Democratic leadership only after. He then claimed on Truth Social that Iran's nuclear program had been 'completely and totally obliterated.' His own Defense Intelligence Agency concluded within days that the strikes had set the program back only a few months.
Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025. On May 8, the conclave elected Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost — the first U.S. pope in history — who took the name Leo XIV. Within weeks, Trump began the year-long campaign of public attacks on the new pope that would still be ongoing in May 2026.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic's editor to a Signal group where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was sharing the targets, weapons, and timing of imminent U.S. strikes on Yemen — and Trump's first instinct was to defend everyone involved.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to Washington to sign a U.S.-Ukraine critical minerals agreement. Instead, an Oval Office press appearance descended into a shouting match with Trump and Vice President JD Vance accusing him of ingratitude, of 'gambling with World War III,' and of disrespecting them on television. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz then walked into a side room and told Zelensky to leave. The deal was scrapped, the joint press conference was canceled, and the visiting head of a wartime democracy was sent home without lunch.
Nine days before the election, Trump held a closing-message rally at Madison Square Garden featuring a procession of surrogates and a warm-up comedian who called Puerto Rico 'a floating island of garbage' and made racist jokes about Black people, Latinos, and Jews. Trump did not disavow it. He won anyway.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in their only general election debate on ABC, in a contentious exchange where Harris put Trump on the defensive and Trump repeated debunked claims about immigrants eating pets.
Recordings from journalist Bob Woodward's interviews revealed that President Trump privately acknowledged COVID-19 was deadly and airborne as early as February 2020, even as he publicly downplayed the virus for months.
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.
During a White House coronavirus briefing, President Trump mused publicly about whether injecting disinfectant or using ultraviolet light inside the body could treat COVID-19, prompting immediate alarm from medical professionals.
As COVID-19 spread rapidly across the United States, President Trump repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus, comparing it to the common flu and predicting it would soon disappear.
After Trump falsely tweeted that Alabama would be hit by Hurricane Dorian, displayed a NOAA forecast map crudely altered with a black Sharpie to support his claim, and refused to retract the error, the Commerce Department forced career meteorologists at NOAA to issue an unsigned statement disavowing the Birmingham National Weather Service's accurate forecast — a textbook case of political pressure overriding scientific judgment in a public-safety agency.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report documented a 'sweeping and systematic' Russian interference operation that the Trump campaign 'expected to benefit from,' identified ten separate episodes in which Trump may have obstructed justice, and explicitly stated it did 'not exonerate' him. Attorney General William Barr spent the morning of its release publicly mischaracterizing it before Congress and the public could read it.
On June 12, 2018, Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to meet a North Korean leader, posing for handshake photos with Kim Jong Un in front of equal-status U.S. and DPRK flags at Singapore's Capella Hotel. In exchange for a vague joint statement that committed North Korea to nothing it had not already promised in 1992 and 1994, Trump unilaterally suspended joint U.S.–South Korean military exercises without telling Seoul, then went home and told a rally crowd that he and Kim 'fell in love.'
During a visit to hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico, Trump tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd of disaster survivors in a widely criticized display, while downplaying the death toll and praising his administration's response to a catastrophe that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
At a rally in Florida, Trump referenced a nonexistent terrorist attack 'last night in Sweden,' baffling the Swedish government and drawing international ridicule. He later claimed he was referring to a Fox News segment.
Just 29 days into his presidency, Trump tweeted that major news outlets are 'the enemy of the American People' — echoing language used by Stalin and Mao to justify suppressing dissent.
Less than a month into his presidency, Trump held a combative, rambling 77-minute press conference in which he attacked reporters, coined the term 'very fake news,' falsely claimed the largest Electoral College win since Reagan, and insisted his scandal-plagued administration was running like a 'fine-tuned machine.'
On his first full day in office, Trump sent his press secretary to falsely claim the inauguration had the 'largest audience ever,' and counselor Kellyanne Conway defended the lies as 'alternative facts.'
In the weeks following the Access Hollywood tape, more than a dozen women came forward publicly to accuse Trump of unwanted kissing, groping, and sexual assault, directly contradicting his claim that the tape was mere 'locker room talk.'
The Washington Post published a 2005 recording in which Trump bragged about kissing and groping women without consent, saying 'when you're a star, they let you do it,' triggering the most severe crisis of his campaign.
After Gold Star father Khizr Khan delivered a powerful DNC speech challenging Trump's proposed Muslim ban, Trump attacked the Khan family, suggesting Khan's wife was not 'allowed' to speak and questioning their motives.
At a campaign rally in Iowa, Trump boasted that his supporters were so loyal he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City and not lose voters, a remark that became one of the most quoted lines of the 2016 campaign.
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.
During the first Republican primary debate, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly confronted Trump about his history of calling women 'fat pigs' and 'slobs,' prompting a prolonged feud in which Trump appeared to suggest Kelly was menstruating.
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.
Donald Trump descended a golden escalator at Trump Tower in Manhattan to announce his candidacy for president, delivering a speech in which he called Mexican immigrants 'rapists' and promised to build a border wall.
President Obama used his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner to deliver a pointed, comedic takedown of Donald Trump, who sat stone-faced in the audience as the room laughed.
Donald Trump embraced and amplified the false conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States, using it to build a political following and establish himself as a leading figure on the populist right.
Donald Trump was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his role as producer of The Apprentice, cementing his crossover status as an entertainment celebrity.
During a visit to the set of 'Days of Our Lives,' a hot microphone captured Donald Trump making vulgar and predatory remarks about women to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, a recording that would surface eleven years later during the 2016 campaign.
NBC debuted 'The Apprentice,' a reality television show starring Donald Trump, which drew over 20 million viewers and transformed Trump from a regional real estate figure into a national brand and household name.
The Trump divorce from Ivana became the biggest tabloid story in New York, fueled by revelations of Trump's affair with Marla Maples and a public confrontation in Aspen, consuming months of front-page coverage.
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.
