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edelweiss eden-young edie-sedgwick edina-blond edita-ungerova edwige-faillel eileen-wells elaine-collins elaine-davis elaine-southern elena-berkova elena-maria-ricci eleonore-leipert eleonore-melzer elfi eliane-florian elisabeth-bure elisabeth-graine elisabeth-tulin elisabeth-volkmann elis-black elis-diamond elise elise-di-medici elizabeth-del-mar elizabeth-lawrence ella-botts-rice elle-devyne ellen-earl ellen-silva elle-rio elly-akira elly-arai elodie-delage elsa-bangz elsa-maroussia else-petersen ember emili-doll emily-davinci emily-evermoore emily-george emily-jewel emily-weickert emmanuelle-pareze emmanuelle-riviere emma-redd envy-mi erica-andrews erica-boyer erica-eaton erica-havens erica-idol erica-lauren erika-bella erika-cool erika-heaven erika-lockett eri-kikuchi erin-brown erna-haffner esa-marie esme-monroe esmerelda esther-studer eva-allen eva-angel eva-angelina eva-bassan eva-dionisio eva-eden eva-gross eva-kay eva-khris eva-kleber eva-lovia eva-lux eva-luxuria eva-quang eva-uettori eve-laurence evelyne-lang evelyne-manta evelyne-pomorska evie-delatosso fabiana-venturi fabiola-toledo faith-bacon faith-grant faith-stevens fallon fanny-garreau fanny-steel fany-fantasy fatima-choplin faye-runaway faye-young felicia-fox felicia-tang feline-fabre fiona-richmond flame flechero-pardo flick-shagwell flora-carosello florence-cayrol florentina-fuga flore-soller flower floyd-xxx foxy-lae franca-stoppi france-lomay france-quenie france-raygil francesca-le frances-farmer francoise francoise-blanchard frankie-leigh franziska-stommer frederique-moreau fuentes-medina-karen-jeffries gabriella gabriella-mirelba gabriella-vincze gabrielle-behar gail-force gail-palmer gail-sterling gallia gandara-arteaga-stacey-wells ganzed-herreras-jane-baker garcia-hernando-bridgette-monet garcia-saez-esther-allen gauge gene-tierney genevieve-corado georgette-neale georgette-saunders georgia-peach georgina-spelvin georgina-spelvin-serena-dolly-pop geraldine-martin gerda-van-den-broek ghislaine-plat gia-allemand gia-carangi gia-givanna gianna-lynn gianna-michaels gia-regency gia-rouge gigi-allens gilda-arancio gili-sky gina-carrera gina-delaney gina-gianetti gina-janssen gina-lee gina-lynn gina-martell gina-rodriguez gina-valentino ginette ginevra-hollander ginger-jay ginger-lea ginger-lee ginger-lynn ginny-may ginny-noack giovanna gisela-krauss gisela-schwarz gisele-backer giselle-monet giulietta-masina gladys-laroche gleice-kelly gloria-hatrick-mclean gloria-hope gloria-leonard gloria-swanson gloria-todd golden-jade goldie-sparxx gonzalez-benito-karen-summer gota-gobert grazia-de-giorgi greta-carlson greta-garbo greta-milos gudrun-grau guia-lauri-filzi guida-hernandez gwenda-farnel gwen-summers habas-maria-de-las-mercedes-xxx haley-paige hare-krane harley-lavey harley-raine haruka-sanada haruki-sato hasna-cosi hayley-jade hazel-young heather-deeley heather-ellis heather-fields heather-hart heather-hunter heather-joy heather-lere heather-lyn heather-manfield heather-summers heather-thomas heather-torrance heather-vandeven heather-wayne heather-young hedda-hopper heidi heidi-brooks heidi-van-horny helena-belmonte helene-shirley helene-wolf helen-madigan helen-thomas helga-konig helga-sven helga-wild hell-fire-alicia-geisha helly-mae-hellfire henessy herrin-samantha hibiki-otsuki hibiki-otsuki-xxx hillary-scott hillary-summers hina-akiyoshi hippy-chick hitomi-kitagawa hitomi-kobayashi hollie-stevens holli-woods holly holly-daze holly-hollywood holly-joy holly-page holly-ryder holly-sampson holly-woodlawn honey honey-lips honey-wilder honey-wilder-joan-victoria honey-winter honoka horny-lily horra-xxx hotaru-akane hot-motocat hot-rikki hottie-hollie hottie-hollie-xxx houston houston-uluvpunani hunter-bryce hurones-de-castroponce-xxx hyapatia-lee ida-fabry ildiko ildiko-smits illana-moor ilona-szmick ilona-von-montagh inari-vachs index.txt india ines-ridere ingrid-barlon ingrid-choray iori-kogawa irene-falcke iris-fonbona-pamela-jennings irma isabel-jewell isabella-dior isabella-grimaldi isabella-soprano isabelle-allay isabelle-brell isabelle-collin-dufresne isabelle-leman isabelle-marchall isabelle-mauchretien isabelle-torilla isa-dery isadora-duncan isadora-tiffany-lane-nikko isis-nile ismael-arroyo isobel-elsom isobel-wren ivana-sugar iveta ivete-bonfa ivette-blanche ivonne-fischer-tau ivy-wynn izrah-indica jackie-curtis jackie-dartois jackie-right jacqueline-carol jacqueline-lorians jacqueline-mars-liliane-bettencourt jacy-allen jada-fire jada-stevens jade-east jade-hsu jade-marcela jade-nichols jade-summers jade-sweet jade-wong jahn-gold jaimee-foxworth jamie-brooks jamie-james jamie-leigh jamie-summers jana-irrova jana-mrazkova jane-baker jane-darling janee-diamond jane-iwanoff jane-lindsay jane-lixx janet-jacme janet-wood janey-robbins janice-lisa-de-leeuw janine-lindemulder jan-kay-taylor-sandra january-seraph japanese-garden-monaco jasmine jasmine-delatori jasmine-grey jasmine-rouge jayden-simone jaylyn-rose jayna-woods jayne-paygan jazella-moore jazmin-luna-gold jazzmine j-c-taylor jean-afrique jeanette-littledove jeanette-sinclair jean-harlow jeanie-marie-sullivan jean-jennings jeanna-fine jeanne-darville jeanne-silver jeannie-baker jeannie-pepper jean-peters jean-seberg jelena-jensen jemma-valentine jenna-haze jenna-jameson jenna-jane jenna-presley jenna-wells jennifer jennifer-blowdryer-ant-mae jennifer-haussmann jennifer-janes jennifer-jordan jennifer-jost jennifer-morante jennifer-noxt jennifer-stewart jennifer-thomas jennifer-vanbeaver jennifer-welles jennifer-west jennifer-west-melinda-sale jenny jenny-baxter jenny-feeling jenny-fields jenny-joyce jenny-poussin jenny-ryder jenny-wings jersey-jaxin jesie-st-james jesie-st-james-desiree-west jesse-capelli jesse-jane jessica-bangkok jessica-bogart jessica-darlin jessica-dee jessica-drake jessica-fiorentino jessica-gabriel jessica-jaymes jessica-kizaki jessica-laine jessica-may jessica-rizzo jessica-road jessica-stehl jessica-von-rotz jessica-wylde jessie-andrews jessie-rogers jessie-storm jessi-foster jess-west jessy-juice jessy-laurent jezebel-yum jill jill-ferari jillian-janson jill-kelly jill-munroe jill-munroe-xxx jiz-lee joana-redgrave joan-blondell joan-crawford joan-devlon joanna-angel joanna-hilden joanna-jet joanna-storm joanna-sweet joan-turner jocelyne-clairis jodie-moore jody-maxwell joelle-coeur joelle-lequement joelle-petinot joey-karson joey-karson-xxx joey-valentine johana-quandt-bunny-bleu johanna-ebertseder johnni-black johnny-rocket jo-jo-laine jordana-james jordan-green jordan-james jordanna-black jordan-nevaeh jordan-star jorge-pinilla-gonzalez jose-calvo jose-luis-garcia-rodriguez josephine-baker josephine-carrington josiane-bongura joslyn-james joy-jericho juan-godino-xxx juditha-arlou judith-fritsch judith-hamilton juicy-pearl julia-ann julia-chanel julia-dal-fuoco julia-hayes juliana-grandi julianne-james julia-paes julia-parton julia-perrin julia-power juli-ashton julia-swen julia-thomas julia-verlaine julie-bouche julie-ellis julie-meadows julie-rage julie-robbins julie-simone julie-skyhigh juliet-anderson juliet-brosini juliet-graham juliette-carelton juliette-jett julio-cesar-perez jutta-eimann kacey-jordan kagney-linn-karter kahlia kaitlyn-ashley kalena-rios kami-andrews kamila-smith kana-aono kandee-licks kandee-lopes kandi-barbour kaoru-kuroki kapri-styles kara-nox karen-boston-marlene-munroe karen-dior karen-lancaume karen-summer kari-foxx kari-klark karine-gambier karine-hornel karin-lorson karin-schubert karli-sweet karmen-kennedy karol-castro karoline-houtart karolly-mel kascha kasey-chase kasey-rodgers kasha-bella kassi-nova kat kate-asabuki kate-frost kate-jones kate-mundt kathia-nobili kathleen-gentry kathleen-white kathy-divan kathy-harcourt kathy-heart kathy-hilton kathy-kash katie-cassidy katie-cummings katie-king katie-morgan katina katja-love kat-langer katrina-isis katrina-kraven katty-thurman katy-borman katy-caro kawanna-di-prado kaycee-dean kayden-kross kayla-kupcakes kaylani-lei kaylee-rain kay-parker k-c-valentine keama-kim keanna kei-marimura kei-mizutani keira-fox keira-moon keisha keisha-grey keity-bittencourt keli-richards kelli-sparks kelli-tyler kelly-adams kelly-an kelly-blue kelly-broox kelly-deep kelly-fire kelly-hearn kelly-jean kelly-kay kelly-kline kelly-lee kelly-madison kelly-nichols kelly-royce kelly-shibari kelly-skyline kelly-stewart kelly-summer kelly-trump kendra-jade kendra-kay kendra-lust kendra-white kenzie-kyle kenzi-marie keri-windsor ketthy-divan kianna-dior kiara-edwards kiki-kakuchi kiki-vidis kiley-heart kim-alexis kimber-blake kimberly-carson kimberly-devine kimberly-franklin kimberly-kane kimberly-kummings kimberly-kupps kimberly-kyle kim-chambers kim-de-place kim-holland kimi-gee kimkim-de kim-kitaine kimmie-lee kimmy-nipples kina-kara kira-eggers kira-red kirsten-passer kirsten-price kirsty-waay kitten-natividad kitty-catherine kitty-doll kitty-fox kitty-johnson kitty-kat kitty-langdon kitty-lynxxx kitty-marie kitty-rains kitty-shayne kitty-shayne-polly kitty-yung kleio-valentien kobe-tai kokone-mizutani kora-cummings kotono-suzukaze kream kris-lara krista-lane krista-maze kristara-barrington kristarah-knight kristen-kane kristi-klenot kristi-myst kristina-blonde kristina-king kristina-klevits kristina-soderszk kristina-st-james kristine-adams kristine-heller kristin-steen krisztina-ventura krystal-de-boor krystal-steal krysti-lynn kylee-karr kylee-nash kylee-strutt kylie-brooks kylie-channel kylie-haze kylie-ireland kylie-wylde kymberlee-anne kym-wilde kyoko-aizome kyoko-hashimoto kyoko-kazama kyoko-nakajima kyoto-sun kyra-reese lachelle-marie lacy-rose lady-amanda-wyldefyre lady-cartier lady-stephanie laetitia-bisset laetitia-thomas lake-russell lana-burner lana-cox lana-wood lanny-barby lara-amour lara-roxx lara-stevens lataya-roxx latoya laura-antonelli laura-clair laura-gemser laura-lazare laura-leslie laura-levi laura-lion laura-may laura-orsolya laura-palmer laura-paouck laura-valerie laura-zanzibar laure-cottereau laure-moutoussamy lauren-black lauren-brice laurence-boutin laurence-jarry laurence-thibault lauren-montgomery lauren-phoenix laurien-dominique laurien-dominique-xxx laurien-wilde laurie-smith laurie-wallace laurine-powel-dana-lynn lauri-noel lauryl-canyon lauryn-may lavinia-silva lea-demae lea-de-mae leah-wilde lea-lexus lea-magic lea-martini leanna-bacci leanna-foxxx leanni-lei leda-simonetti lee-caroll lee-carroll leena leena-la-bianca leena-rey leigh-livingston leila-lopes leilani lemon-hanazawa lene-hefner lenora-bruce leslie leslie-glass leslie-winston lesllie-bovee letha-weapons leticia-vlasak letizia-bruni lexi-belle lexi-carrington lexi-davis lexi-lane lexi-matthews leyla-soubeyrand lezley-zen lia-fire liberty-jane liliane-gray liliane-lemieuvre lili-damita lili-marlene lilli-carati lillie-langtry lily-carter lily-gilder lily-labeau lily-rodgers lily-valentine linda-chu linda-clemens linda-dull linda-hamilton-desiree-cousteau linda-lovelace linda-reeves linda-shaw linda-shaw-lindsey-snow linda-sue-ragsdale linda-vale linda-wong linda-york linda-york-brittany-newland lindsey-springer linnea-quigley linnea-quigley-sally-webster linsey-dawn-mckenzie linzi-drew lisa-ann lisa-bright lisa-chest lisa-de-leeuw lisa-kage lisa-k-loring lisa-k-loring-leticia lisa-lake lisa-lipps lisa-melendez lisa-sparkle lisa-sue-corey li-sellgren liselotte-mann lise-pinson little-cinderella little-oral-annie livia-choice liza-dwyer liza-harper liz-eldridge liz-renay lizz-tayler lizzy-borden logan-labrent lois-ayres lois-ayres-sondra-stillman lola-cait lollipop lollipop-xxx lolo-ferrari lone-helmer long-jean-silver loni-bunny loni-evans loni-morgan loni-sanders loni-sanders-sulka-ginger loona-luxx lopez-rodriguez lopez-rodriguez-danica-rhea loray-white lorelei-lee lorelei-rand lorena-layson lorena-sanchez lori-alexia lori-blue lori-pleasure lorissa-mccomas lorrie-lovett lotta-topp lottie-hayworth-annette-haven louella-parsons louisa-lamour louise-brooks lucette-gill lucia-hyde luci-diamond lucie-bee lucie-doll lucienne-camille lucie-theodorova luci-power lucki-chatsworth lucy-levon lucy-van-dam luigina-nike luis-alberto-rodriguez-martinez luis-alberto-rodriguez-martinez-julia-perrin lulu-devine luna-corazon lupe-fuentes lupe-velez lydia-baum lydie-beggy lydie-marlene lynn-ann-newton lynn-franciss lynn-harris lynn-holmes lynn-lemay lynn-lucas lynn-monteil lynn-ray lynn-stevens lynn-stone lynnz lynx-canon lynx-canon-jody-jean-damage lynx-dyan lysa-thatcher lysa-thatcher-sonya-summers mabel-normand mackenzie-wolf macy-nihongo maddison-knox madelina-ray madison madison-parker madison-young madoka-hitomi mae-victoria mae-west magdalena-lynn maggie-randall mahela-sweet maiko-tanimoto maila-nurmi mai-lin maitland-ward mai-uehara maja-lee makayla-cox malezia malisa-longo malisa-longo-xxx mandarine mandi-wine mandy-bright mandy-malone mandy-may mandy-mistery mandy-starr mannuella-marino mao-hamasaki mao-kurata mara-manzan marcia-minor maren margareth margaret-lee margaret-moser margit-ojetz margit-rauthe margitta-hofer margo-stevens margot-mahler maria-catala maria-domingues mariah-cherry maria-loren maria-mancini maria-mercedes-garcia-martin maria-montez marianne-aubert marianne-marks marianne-wackerle marian-wilde-juliet-anderson maria-ozawa maria-rohm maria-schell maria-schneider maria-tortuga maria-tortuga-brandy-wine mari-ayukawa marica-hase marie-anne marie-christine-chireix marie-christine-covi marie-christine-guennec marie-christine-veroda marie-claude-moreau marie-dentord marie-dominique-cabannes marie-france marie-france-morel marie-lavar marie-line-chanaud marie-luise-lusewitz marie-noelly marie-pierre-barathon marie-pierre-castel marie-sharp marika-green mariko-kawana marilyn-chambers marilyne-leroy marilyn-gee marilyn-jess marilyn-martyn marilyn-monroe marilyn-rose marilyn-star marina-hedman marina-samson marina-shiina marion-aye marion-davidson marion-davies marion-schultz marion-webb mari-possa marisa-betancourt marissa-malibu marita-ekberg marita-kemper marlena marlene-myller marlene-stevens-lisa-k-loring marlene-willoughby marry-queen martine-capellaro martine-flety martine-grimaud martine-kelly martine-schultz martine-vaugirard marya-franca-fisolo-kristara-barrington maryanne-fisher maryann-price-jessica-wylde mary-ann-van-dekken mary-carey mary-hubay maryline-guillaume marylin-star marylou-bambi-tammy-barbara-scott mary-millington mary-ramunno mary-stuart mary-ure mascha-mouton masha mata-hari mateo-bravo maude-carolle maud-kennedy maureen-spring mauvais-denoir maxi-mounds maxine-tyler maya-black maya-france maya-gold maya-kawamura may-ling-su megan-leigh megan-martinez megan-pryce megan-reece mei-ling mei-matsumoto meisa-hanai melanie-hotlips melanie-rose melanie-scott melba-bruce melba-cruz melinda-russell melissa-bonsardo melissa-del-prado melissa-gilbern melissa-golden melissa-harrington melissa-hill melissa-martinez melissa-melendez melissa-monet mellanie-monroe melody-gerdon mercedes-dragon mercedes-lynn merle-michaels mesha-lynn mette-von-kohl mia-beck mia-khalifa mia-lina mia-malkova mia-peach mia-powers mia-rose mia-smiles michaell-lombardi michele-gabriel michele-grubert michele-leska michele-raven michele-rousseau michelle-aston michelle-charrier michelle-davy michelle-ferrari michelle-greco michelle-maren michelle-maylene michelle-michaels michelle-monroe michelle-thorne michelle-villers micki-lynn micky-love midori mieres-carrillo-little-oral-annie miguel-armijo-gutierrez mihiro mika-barthel mika-choix mika-tan miki-torii mikki-davidson mikki-taylor milan-hunglow mimi-miyagi mimi-morgan mina-houghe minako-komukai minami-aoyama mindy-mccready mindy-rae ming-jade ming-toy minia-malove mio-kayama miranda-stevens mireille-dargent miriam-wateau mishka miss-bunny miss-meadow miss-pomodoro missy missy-graham missy-stone missy-vega missy-warner misti-dawn misti-jane mistress-candice mistress-jacqueline misty-anderson misty-dawn misty-rain misty-regan misty-stone miyuki-son moana-pozzi moira-callen molly-manning-melinda-york mona-lisa mona-page moni monica-baal monica-marc monica-mattos monica-mayhem monica-melao monica-orsini monica-swinn monika-peta monika-sandmayr monika-unco monique-alexander monique-bruno monique-cardin monique-carrere monique-charell monique-demoan monique-gabrielle monique-la-belle monique-vita morelle-dekeigh morena-black morgane morgan-fairlane morrigan-hel mousiendi moxxie-maddron mulani-rivera muriel-montosse myriam-benzerti mysti-may nadege nadege-arnaud nadezhda-savina nadia-baumel nadia-day nadia-ford nadia-styles nadine-bronx nadine-de-rangot nadine-perles nadine-perrier nadine-proutnal nadine-roussial nadine-scant nadi-phuket nana-natsume nana-ninomiya nancee-kelly nanci-disrober nanci-suiter nancy-dare nancy-hoffman nancy-hoffman-nancy-nukee nancy-spungen nancy-suiter-sally-swift nancy-vee nao-oikawa nao-saejima nao-tachibana natacha-delyro natacha-karenoff natacha-lori natalia-wood natali-demore natalie-north natalli-diangelo natascha-throat natasha-blu natasha-nunez natasha-skyler natasha-vega nathalie-feraud nathalie-grobert nathalie-idoux nathalie-lhermite nathalie-morin nathalie-tussot nathalie-zeiger natsuki-ozawa naudia-nyce nautica-thorn neiro-suzuka nellie-gold nessa-devil nessy-grant nesty nica-noelle nicki-hunter nicky-reed nicole-bass nicole-berg nicole-bernard nicole-black nicole-clitman nicole-grey nicole-guettard nicole-london nicole-parks nicole-scott nicole-taylor nicolette-fauludi nicole-velna nicole-west nicolly-spiller nika-blond nika-mamic niki-cole niki-lee-young nikita-gross nikita-love nikita-rush nikki-benz nikki-charm nikki-delano nikki-grand nikki-kane nikki-king nikki-knight nikki-kyle nikki-randall nikki-rhodes nikki-santana nikki-shane nikki-sinn nikki-steele nikki-tyler nikki-wilde niko nina-cherry nina-deponca nina-hartley nina-heart nina-milano nina-preta nina-swiss noa-emiri noa-imai nomi noname-jane nozomi-momoi nyobi-khan oana-efria obaya-roberts olesja-derevko olga-cabaeva olga-conti olga-gebhard olga-georges-picot olga-pechova olga-petrova olga-vallejo-monika-sommer olive-dundee olivia-alize olivia-del-rio olivia-flores olivia-kennedy olivia-la-roche olivia-lua olivia-nova olivia-outre ona-z ophelia-tozzi orchidea-keresztes ordax-pelaz orsolya-blonde oya-basak paige-turner paisley-hunter pamela-bocchi pamela-courson pamela-dee pamela-jennings pamela-mann pamela-stanford pamela-stealt pamella-anderson pam-sanders pam-snyder pandora paola-albini paola-montenero paola-pasetti paola-senatore paru-silios pascale-cherill pascale-vital pascale-vouillot pat-manning pat-rhea patricia patricia-araujo patricia-bismark patricia-bouvier patricia-cat patricia-dale patricia-diamond patricia-kennedy patricia-kimberly patricia-rhomberg patricia-santos patrizia-predan patti-cakes patti-petite patti-petite-sophie-cara-lott patty-boyd patty-plenty 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Donald John Trump born June is the th and current president of the United States Before entering politics he was a businessman and television personality 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 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 bought the Miss Universe brand of beauty pageants in and sold it in He produced and hosted The Apprentice a reality television series from to As of Forbes estimated his net worth to be billion a Trump's political positions have been described as populist protectionist and nationalist He entered the presidential race as a Republican and was elected in a surprise victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton although he lost the popular vote b He became the oldest first term U S president c 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 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 package for individuals and businesses rescinding the individual health insurance mandate penalty 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 the Iran nuclear deal and the World Health Organization WHO He imposed import tariffs which triggered a trade war with China recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and withdrew U S troops from northern Syria Trump met three times with North Korea's leader Kim Jong un but talks on denuclearization broke down in Trump was slow to react to the COVID pandemic initially ignoring health recommendations from officials in his administration and then passing false information to the public about treatments blaming China and working to overturn Obamacare putting millions of newly unemployed Americans at risk of losing health coverage Trump ran for a second term shortly after becoming president A special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller found that Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged Russian interference in the 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 d Mueller also investigated Trump for obstruction of justice and his report neither indicted nor exonerated Trump on that offense After Trump solicited the investigation of a political rival by Ukraine the House of Representatives impeached him in December for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress The Senate acquitted him of both charges in February Contents Personal life Early life Family Religion Health and lifestyle Wealth Business career Real estate Branding and licensing Legal affairs and bankruptcies Side ventures Foundation Conflicts of interest Media career Books WWE The Apprentice Acting Talk shows Political career Political activities up to presidential campaign Election to the presidency Protests presidential campaign Presidency Early actions Domestic policy Immigration Foreign policy Personnel Coronavirus pandemic Lafayette Square protester removal and photo op Public profile Approval ratings Social media False statements Relationship with the press Racial views Allegations of sexual misconduct Allegations of inciting violence Popular culture Recognition Investigations Hush payments Russian interference Special counsel investigation Associates congressional investigation Impeachment Impeachment by the House of Representatives Impeachment trial in the Senate Notes References Works cited External links Personal life Early life A black and white photograph of Donald Trump as a teenager smiling and wearing a dark pseudo military uniform with various badges and a light colored stripe crossing his right shoulder New York Military Academy yearbook photo Donald John Trump was born on June at the Jamaica Hospital in the borough of Queens New York City His father was Frederick Christ Trump a Bronx born real estate developer whose parents were German immigrants His mother was Scottish born housewife Mary Anne MacLeod Trump Trump grew up in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens and attended the Kew Forest School from kindergarten through seventh grade At age he was enrolled in the New York Military Academy a private boarding school In Trump enrolled at Fordham University Two years later he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania While at Wharton he worked at the family business Elizabeth Trump Son He graduated in May with a B S in economics Profiles of Trump published in The New York Times in and erroneously reported that he had graduated first in his class at Wharton but he had never made the school's honor roll In Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Fordham University and the New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records Military deferment While in college Trump obtained four student draft deferments In he was deemed fit for military service based upon a medical examination and in July a local draft board classified him as eligible to serve In October he was medically deferred and classified Y unqualified for duty except in the case of a national emergency In he was reclassified F due to bone spurs which permanently disqualified him from service Trump said in the deferment was for a bone spur in his foot though he could not remember which foot had been afflicted Family Main article Family of Donald Trump Further information Trump family Trump is sworn in as president by Chief Justice John Roberts on January Trump wife Melania and his children Donald Jr Barron Ivanka Eric and Tiffany Parents and siblings Fred Trump started working in real estate with his mother Elizabeth when he was after his father Friedrich had died in the flu pandemic Their company E Trump Son founded in was active in the New York boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn building and selling thousands of houses barracks and apartments Fred claimed to be Swedish amid the anti German sentiment sparked by World War II Donald Trump also claimed Swedish heritage until Trump's mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born in Scotland Fred and Mary were married in and raised their family in Queens Trump grew up with three elder siblings Maryanne Fred Jr and Elizabeth and younger brother Robert Wives and children In Trump married Czech model Ivana Zelnícková They have three children Donald Jr born Ivanka born and Eric born and ten grandchildren Ivana became a naturalized United States citizen in The couple divorced in following Trump's affair with actress Marla Maples Maples and Trump married in and had one daughter Tiffany born They were divorced in and Tiffany was raised by Marla in California In Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss They have one son Barron born Melania gained U S citizenship in Religion Trump identifies as Presbyterian He went to Sunday school and was confirmed in at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica Queens In the s his parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan which belongs to the Reformed Church The pastor at Marble Norman Vincent Peale ministered to Trump's family until Peale's death in Trump has described Peale as a mentor In after Trump said he attends Marble the church publicly stated he is not an active member of the church While campaigning Trump said Nothing beats the Bible In November Trump appointed his personal pastor televangelist Paula White to the White House Office of Public Liaison Health and lifestyle Trump abstains from alcohol a reaction to his older brother Fred Trump Jr 's alcoholism and early death He says that he has never smoked cigarettes or cannabis He likes fast food and French cuisine He has said he prefers three to four hours of sleep per night He has called golfing his primary form of exercise although he usually does not walk the course He considers exercise a waste of energy because he believes the body is like a battery with a finite amount of energy which is depleted by exercise In December Harold Bornstein who had been Trump's personal physician since wrote in a letter that he would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency In May Bornstein said Trump had dictated the contents of the letter and that three Trump agents had removed his medical records in February without due authorization In January White House physician Ronny Jackson said Trump was in excellent health and that his cardiac assessment revealed no issues Several outside cardiologists commented that Trump's LDL cholesterol level of did not indicate excellent health In February after a new examination White House physician Sean Conley said Trump was in very good health overall although he was clinically obese His coronary CT calcium scan score indicates he suffers from a form of coronary artery disease common for white men of his age In June Conley issued a memorandum on Trump's physical exam saying the data indicates that the President remains healthy The memorandum said Trump's two week course of hydroxychloroquine to prevent contracting COVID was completed safely and without side effects Wealth Main article Wealth of Donald Trump See also Tax returns of Donald Trump Trump and wife Ivana in receiving line of state dinner for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in with U S president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan In Trump was listed on the initial Forbes list of wealthy individuals as having a share of his family's estimated million net worth His financial losses in the s caused him to be dropped from the list between and In its billionaires ranking Forbes estimated Trump's net worth at billion a st in the world th in the U S making him one of the richest politicians in American history and the first billionaire American president During the three years since Trump announced his presidential run in Forbes estimated his net worth declined and his ranking fell spots When he filed mandatory financial disclosure forms with the Federal Elections Commission FEC in July Trump claimed a net worth of about billion however FEC figures cannot corroborate this estimate because they only show each of his largest buildings as being worth over million yielding total assets worth more than billion and debt over million Trump said in a deposition My net worth fluctuates and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings even my own feelings Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in April that Trump using the pseudonym John Barron and claiming to be a Trump Organization official called him in to falsely assert that he owned in excess of ninety percent of the Trump family's business in an effort to secure a higher ranking on the Forbes list of wealthy Americans Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on the Forbes rankings of and Trump has often said he began his career with a small loan of one million dollars from his father and that he had to pay it back with interest In October The New York Times reported that Trump was a millionaire by age borrowed at least million from his father largely failed to reimburse him and had received million adjusted for inflation from his father's business empire over his lifetime According to the report Trump and his family committed tax fraud which a lawyer for Trump denied The tax department of New York says it is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation into it Analyses by The Economist and The Washington Post have concluded that Trump's investments underperformed the stock market Forbes estimated in October that the value of Trump's personal brand licensing business had declined by since to million Trump's tax returns from to show net losses totaling billion over the ten year period in contrast to his claims about his financial health and business abilities The New York Times reported that year after year Mr Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer and Trump's core business losses in and more than million each year were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I R S information for those years In his reported losses were million Business career Main article Business career of Donald Trump Further information Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia Real estate Distinctive façade of Trump Tower headquarters of the Trump Organization in Midtown Manhattan Trump began his career in at his father Fred's real estate development company E Trump Son which owned middle class rental housing in New York City's outer boroughs In he became president of the company and renamed it The Trump Organization Manhattan developments Trump attracted public attention in with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture the renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel adjacent to Grand Central Terminal The financing was facilitated by a million city property tax abatement arranged by Fred Trump who also joined Hyatt in guaranteeing million in bank construction financing The hotel reopened in as the Grand Hyatt Hotel and that same year Trump obtained rights to develop Trump Tower a mixed use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization and was Trump's primary residence until In Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan with a loan of million from a consortium of banks Two years later the hotel filed for bankruptcy protection and a reorganization plan was approved in In Trump lost the hotel to Citibank and investors from Singapore and Saudi Arabia who assumed million of the debt In Trump acquired a vacant story skyscraper at Wall Street After an extensive renovation the high rise was renamed the Trump Building In the early s Trump won the right to develop a acre ha tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River Struggling with debt from other ventures in Trump sold most of his interest in the project to Asian investors who were able to finance completion of the project Riverside South Palm Beach estate Main article Mar a Lago Mar a Lago in In Trump acquired the Mar a Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida Trump used a wing of the estate as a home while converting the remainder into a private club with an initiation fee and annual dues The initiation fee was until it was doubled to in January On September Trump declared Mar a Lago his primary residence Atlantic City casinos In Trump opened Harrah's at Trump Plaza hotel and casino in Atlantic City New Jersey with financing from the Holiday Corporation who also managed the operation Gambling had been legalized there in in an effort to revitalize the once popular seaside destination Soon after it opened the casino was renamed Trump Plaza but the property's poor financial results worsened tensions between Holiday and Trump who paid Holiday million in May to take sole control of the property Earlier Trump had also acquired a partially completed building in Atlantic City from the Hilton Corporation for million Upon its completion in that hotel and casino was called Trump Castle Trump's then wife Ivana managed it until The entrance of the Trump Taj Mahal a casino in Atlantic City It has motifs evocative of the Taj Mahal in India Entrance of the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City Trump acquired a third casino in Atlantic City the Taj Mahal in in a highly leveraged transaction It was financed with million in junk bonds and completed at a cost of billion opening in April The project went bankrupt the following year and the reorganization left Trump with only half his initial ownership stake and required him to pledge personal guarantees of future performance Facing enormous debt he gave up control of his money losing airline Trump Shuttle and sold his foot m mega yacht the Trump Princess which had been indefinitely docked in Atlantic City while leased to his casinos for use by wealthy gamblers In Trump founded Trump Hotels Casino Resorts THCR which assumed ownership of Trump Plaza Trump Castle and the Trump Casino in Gary Indiana THCR purchased the Taj Mahal in and underwent successive bankruptcies in and leaving Trump with only ten percent ownership He remained chairman of THCR until Golf courses Main article Donald Trump and golf A golf course In the background is the Turnberry Hotel a two story hotel with white façade and a red roof Turnberry Hotel and golf course in Ayrshire Scotland The Trump Organization began acquiring and constructing golf courses in It owned golf courses and resorts worldwide and operated another two as of December According to Trump's FEC personal financial disclosure his golf and resort revenue amounted to million From his inauguration until the end of Trump spent around one out of every five days at one of his golf clubs Branding and licensing See also List of things named after Donald Trump Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago After the Trump Organization's financial losses in the early s it refocused its business on branding and licensing the Trump name for projects owned and operated by other people and companies In the late s and early s it expanded this branding and management business to hotel towers located around the world including Chicago Las Vegas Washington D C Panama City Toronto and Vancouver There were also Trump branded buildings in Dubai Honolulu Istanbul Manila Mumbai and Indonesia The Trump name has also been licensed for various consumer products and services including foodstuffs apparel adult learning courses and home furnishings According to an analysis by The Washington Post there are more than fifty licensing or management deals involving Trump's name which have generated at least million in yearly revenue for his companies By only two consumer goods companies continued to license his name Legal affairs and bankruptcies Main articles Legal affairs of Donald Trump and List of lawsuits involving Donald Trump Fixer Roy Cohn served as Trump's lawyer and mentor in the s and s with a year relationship According to Trump they were so close that Cohn sometimes waived fees due to their friendship In Cohn helped Trump counter sue the United States government for million over its charges that Trump's properties had racial discriminatory practices in an agreement was struck for Trump's properties to change their practices It was Cohn who introduced political consultant Roger Stone to Trump who enlisted Stone's services to deal with the federal government As of April Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than state and federal legal actions according to a running tally by USA Today As of he or one of his companies had been the plaintiff in cases and the defendant in While Trump has not filed for personal bankruptcy his over leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter bankruptcy protection six times between and They continued to operate while the banks restructured debt and reduced Trump's shares in the properties During the s more than banks had lent Trump billion but in the aftermath of his corporate bankruptcies of the early s most major banks declined to lend to him with only Deutsche Bank still willing to lend money In April the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas seeking financial details from Trump's banks Deutsche Bank and Capital One and his accounting firm Mazars USA In response Trump sued the banks Mazars and committee chairman Elijah Cummings to prevent the disclosures In May DC District Court judge Amit Mehta ruled that Mazars must comply with the subpoena and judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District Court of New York ruled that the banks must also comply Trump's attorneys appealed the rulings arguing that Congress was attempting to usurp the exercise of law enforcement authority that the Constitution reserves to the executive branch Side ventures After taking over control of the Trump Organization in Trump expanded its real estate operations and ventured into other business activities The company eventually became the umbrella organization for several hundred individual business ventures and partnerships In September Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals a team in the United States Football League After the season the league folded largely due to Trump's strategy of moving games to a fall schedule where they competed with the NFL for audience and trying to force a merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust lawsuit against the organization Trump's businesses have hosted several boxing matches at the Atlantic City Convention Hall adjacent to and promoted as taking place at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City including Mike Tyson's heavyweight championship fight against Michael Spinks In and Trump lent his name to the Tour de Trump cycling stage race which was an attempt to create an American equivalent of European races such as the Tour de France or the Giro d'Italia In the late s Trump mimicked the actions of Wall Street's so called corporate raiders whose tactics had attracted wide public attention Trump began to purchase significant blocks of shares in various public companies leading some observers to think he was engaged in the practice called greenmail or feigning the intent to acquire the companies and then pressuring management to repurchase the buyer's stake at a premium The New York Times found that Trump initially made millions of dollars in such stock transactions but later lost most if not all of those gains after investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame In Trump purchased the defunct Eastern Air Lines shuttle with planes and landing rights in New York City Boston and Washington D C He financed the purchase with million from banks rebranded the operation the Trump Shuttle and operated it until Trump failed to earn a profit with the airline and sold it to USAir From to Trump owned all or part of the Miss Universe pageants including Miss USA and Miss Teen USA Due to disagreements with CBS about scheduling he took both pageants to NBC in In Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work as producer of Miss Universe After NBC and Univision dropped the pageants from their broadcasting lineups in June Trump bought NBC's share of the Miss Universe Organization and sold the entire company to the William Morris talent agency Trump University Main article Trump University In Trump co founded a company called Trump University which sold real estate training courses priced from to After New York State authorities notified the company that its use of the word university violated state law its name was changed to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in In the State of New York filed a million civil suit against Trump University the suit alleged that the company made false statements and defrauded consumers In addition two class action lawsuits were filed in federal court they named Trump personally as well as his companies Internal documents revealed that employees were instructed to use a hard sell approach and former employees said in depositions that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students Shortly after he won the presidency Trump agreed to pay a total of million to settle the three cases Foundation Main article Donald J Trump Foundation The Donald J Trump Foundation was a U S based private foundation established in for the initial purpose of giving away proceeds from the book Trump The Art of the Deal In the foundation's final years its funds mostly came from donors other than Trump who did not donate any personal funds to the charity from until The foundation gave to health care and sports related charities as well as conservative groups In The Washington Post reported that the charity had committed several potential legal and ethical violations including alleged self dealing and possible tax evasion Also in the New York State Attorney General's office said the foundation appeared to be in violation of New York laws regarding charities and ordered it to immediately cease its fundraising activities in New York Trump's team announced in late December that the Foundation would be dissolved to remove even the appearance of any conflict with his role as President In June the New York attorney general's office filed a civil suit against the foundation Trump himself and his adult children asking for million in restitution and additional penalties In December the foundation ceased operation and disbursed all its assets to other charities The following November a New York state judge ordered Trump to pay million to a group of charities for misusing the foundation's funds in part to finance his presidential campaign Conflicts of interest Tayyip Erdogan then the prime minister of Turkey attended the opening of Trump Towers Istanbul AVM in Before being inaugurated as president Trump moved his businesses into a revocable trust run by his eldest sons and a business associate According to ethics experts measures taken by Trump do not help avoid conflicts of interest as long as he continues to profit from his businesses Because Trump would have knowledge of how his administration's policies affect his businesses ethics experts recommend selling the businesses Though Trump said he would eschew new foreign deals the Trump Organization has since pursued expansions of its operations in Dubai Scotland and the Dominican Republic Multiple lawsuits have been filed alleging that Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution which forbids presidents from taking money from foreign governments due to his business interests they argue that these interests allow foreign governments to influence him Previous presidents in the modern era have either divested their holdings or put them in blind trusts and he is the first president to be sued over the emoluments clause According to The Guardian NBC News recently calculated that representatives of at least foreign governments including some facing charges of corruption or human rights abuses such as Saudi Arabia Malaysia Turkey and the Philippines seem to have spent funds at Trump properties while he has been president On October Trump mocked the Emoluments Clause as phony In Trump said he makes a lot of money with the Saudis and that they pay me millions and hundreds of millions And at a political rally Trump said about Saudi Arabia They buy apartments from me They spend million million Am I supposed to dislike them I like them very much In December Trump said in a radio interview that he had a conflict of interest in dealing with Turkey and Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan because of his Trump Towers Istanbul saying I have a little conflict of interest because I have a major major building in Istanbul and it's a tremendously successful job It's called Trump Towers two towers instead of one I've gotten to know Turkey very well Media career Main article Media career of Donald Trump Books Main article Bibliography of Donald Trump Trump's first book The Art of the Deal was on the New York Times Best Seller list for weeks According to The New Yorker The book expanded Trump's renown far beyond New York City promoting an image of himself as a successful dealmaker and tycoon Trump was credited as the book's co author with Tony Schwartz Schwartz later said he had done all the writing and this was confirmed by Howard Kaminsky who at the time the book appeared was head of its publisher Random House Trump has called The Art of the Deal his second favorite book after the Bible Two lesser memoirs were published in and WWE Trump has had a sporadic relationship with the professional wrestling promotion WWE World Wrestling Federation Entertainment since the late s He headlined the record breaking WrestleMania in and was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame in WWE co founder and former CEO Linda McMahon later worked in his administration and election campaigns The Apprentice Main article The Apprentice American TV series In Trump became the co producer and host of The Apprentice a reality show in which Trump played the role of a powerful chief executive and contestants competed for a year of employment at the Trump Organization Trump winnowed out contestants with his famous catchphrase You're fired He later co hosted The Celebrity Apprentice in which celebrities competed to win money for charities Acting Main article Donald Trump filmography Trump has made cameo appearances in eight films and television shows and performed a song as a Green Acres character with Megan Mullally at the th Primetime Emmy Awards in Talk shows Starting in the s Trump was a guest about times on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show He also had his own short form talk radio program called Trumped one to two minutes on weekdays from to In he was given a weekly unpaid guest commentator spot on Fox Friends which continued until he started his presidential candidacy in Political career Main article Political career of Donald Trump Political activities up to Trump and President Bill Clinton in June Trump's political party affiliation changed numerous times He registered as a Republican in Manhattan in switched to the Reform Party in the Democratic Party in and back to the Republican Party in In Trump placed full page advertisements in three major newspapers advocating peace in Central America accelerated nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviet Union and reduction of the federal budget deficit by making American allies pay their fair share for military defense He ruled out running for local office but not for the presidency presidential campaign Main article Donald Trump presidential campaign In Trump filed an exploratory committee to seek the nomination of the Reform Party for the presidential election A July poll matching him against likely Republican nominee George W Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven percent support Trump dropped out of the race in February presidential speculation Trump speaking at CPAC Trump speculated about running for president in the election making his first speaking appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC in February and giving speeches in early primary states In May he announced he would not run Trump's presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time Before the election The New York Times speculated that Trump accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain stature within the political world after Obama lampooned him at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in April In the superintendent of the New York Military Academy at the time Jeffrey Coverdale ordered the headmaster of the school Evan Jones to give him Trump's academic records so he could keep them secret according to Jones Coverdale confirmed that he had been asked to hand the records over to members of the school's board of trustees who were Trump's friends but he refused to and instead sealed them on campus The incident reportedly happened days after Trump demanded the release of President Barack Obama's academic records In Trump spoke at CPAC again he railed against illegal immigration bemoaned Obama's unprecedented media protection advised against harming Medicare Medicaid and Social Security and suggested the government take Iraq's oil and use the proceeds to pay a million dollars each to families of dead soldiers He spent over million that year to research a possible candidacy In October New York Republicans circulated a memo suggesting Trump should run for governor of the state in against Andrew Cuomo Trump responded that while New York had problems and its taxes were too high he was not interested in the governorship A February Quinnipiac poll had shown Trump losing to the more popular Cuomo by points in a hypothetical election According to Trump's attorney Michael Cohen in May he sent letters to the New York Military Academy and to Fordham threatening legal action if the schools ever released Trump's grades or SAT scores Fordham confirmed receipt of the letter as well as a phone call from a member of the Trump team presidential campaign Main article Donald Trump presidential campaign Republican primaries See also Republican Party presidential primaries Trump speaking behind a brown wooden podium wearing a dark blue suit and a red tie The podium sports a blue TRUMP sign Trump campaigning in Laconia New Hampshire July On June Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States at Trump Tower in Manhattan In the speech Trump discussed illegal immigration offshoring of American jobs the U S national debt and Islamic terrorism which all remained large priorities during the campaign He also announced his campaign slogan Make America Great Again Trump said his wealth would make him immune to pressure from campaign donors He declared that he was funding his own campaign but according to The Atlantic Trump's claims of self funding have always been dubious at best and actively misleading at worst Trump's campaign was initially not taken seriously by political analysts but he quickly rose to the top of opinion polls On Super Tuesday Trump received the most votes and he remained the front runner throughout the primaries By March Trump was poised to win the Republican nomination After a landslide win in Indiana on May which prompted the remaining candidates Cruz and John Kasich to suspend their presidential campaigns RNC chairman Reince Priebus declared Trump the presumptive Republican nominee General election campaign After becoming the presumptive Republican nominee Trump shifted his focus to the general election Trump began campaigning against Hillary Clinton who became the presumptive Democratic nominee on June Clinton had established a significant lead over Trump in national polls throughout most of In early July Clinton's lead narrowed in national polling averages following the FBI's re opening the investigation into her ongoing email controversy Donald Trump and his running mate for vice president Mike Pence They appear to be standing in front of a huge screen with the colors of the American flag displayed on it Trump is at left facing toward the viewer and making thumbs up gestures Pence is at right facing Trump and clapping Candidate Trump and running mate Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention July On July Trump announced his selection of Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate Four days later the two were officially nominated by the Republican Party at the Republican National Convention The list of convention speakers and attendees included former presidential nominee Bob Dole but the other prior nominees did not attend On September Trump and Clinton faced off in their first presidential debate which was held at Hofstra University in Hempstead New York The second presidential debate was held at Washington University in St Louis Missouri The final presidential debate was held on October at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Trump's refusal to say whether he would accept the result of the election regardless of the outcome drew particular attention with some saying it undermined democracy Political positions Main article Political positions of Donald Trump Trump's campaign platform emphasized renegotiating U S China relations and free trade agreements such as NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership strongly enforcing immigration laws and building a new wall along the U S Mexico border His other campaign positions included pursuing energy independence while opposing climate change regulations such as the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement modernizing and expediting services for veterans repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act abolishing Common Core education standards investing in infrastructure simplifying the tax code while reducing taxes for all economic classes and imposing tariffs on imports by companies that offshore jobs During the campaign he also advocated a largely non interventionist approach to foreign policy while increasing military spending extreme vetting or banning immigrants from Muslim majority countries to pre empt domestic Islamic terrorism and aggressive military action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant During the campaign Trump repeatedly called NATO obsolete His political positions have been described as populist and some of his views cross party lines For example his economic campaign plan calls for deregulation and large reductions in income taxes consistent with Republican Party policies along with significant infrastructure investment usually considered a Democratic Party policy Trump has supported or leaned toward varying political positions over time Politico has described his positions as eclectic improvisational and often contradictory while NBC News counted distinct shifts on major issues during his campaign Campaign rhetoric In his campaign Trump said he disdained political correctness he also said the media had intentionally misinterpreted his words and he made other claims of adverse media bias In part due to his fame and due to his willingness to say things other candidates would not and because a candidate who is gaining ground automatically provides a compelling news story Trump received an unprecedented amount of free media coverage during his run for the presidency which elevated his standing in the Republican primaries Fact checking organizations have denounced Trump for making a record number of false statements compared to other candidates At least four major publications Politico The Washington Post The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have pointed out lies or falsehoods in his campaign statements with the Los Angeles Times saying Never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has NPR said Trump's campaign statements were often opaque or suggestive Trump's penchant for hyperbole is believed to have roots in the New York real estate scene where Trump established his wealth and where puffery abounds Trump adopted his ghostwriter's phrase truthful hyperbole to describe his public speaking style Support from the far right According to Michael Barkun the Trump campaign was remarkable for bringing fringe ideas beliefs and organizations into the mainstream During his presidential campaign Trump was accused of pandering to white supremacists He retweeted open racists and repeatedly refused to condemn David Duke the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacists in an interview on CNN's State of the Union saying he would first need to do research because he knew nothing about Duke or white supremacists Duke himself enthusiastically supported Trump throughout the primary and election and has said he and like minded people voted for Trump because of his promises to take our country back After repeated questioning by reporters Trump said he disavowed David Duke and the KKK Trump said on MSNBC's Morning Joe I disavowed him I disavowed the KKK Do you want me to do it again for the th time I disavowed him in the past I disavow him now The alt right movement coalesced around Trump's candidacy due in part to its opposition to multiculturalism and immigration Members of the alt right enthusiastically supported Trump's campaign In August he appointed Steve Bannon the executive chairman of Breitbart News as his campaign CEO Bannon described Breitbart News as the platform for the alt right In an interview days after the election Trump condemned supporters who celebrated his victory with Nazi salutes Financial disclosures As a presidential candidate Trump disclosed details of his companies assets and revenue sources to the extent required by the FEC His report listed assets above billion and outstanding debts of at least million The form showed little change Trump has not released his tax returns contrary to the practice of every major candidate since and his promises in and to do so if he ran for office He said his tax returns were being audited in actuality audits do not prevent release of tax returns and his lawyers had advised him against releasing them Trump has told the press his tax rate is none of their business and that he tries to pay as little tax as possible In October portions of Trump's state filings for were leaked to a reporter from The New York Times They show that Trump had declared a loss of million that year which could have let him avoid taxes for up to years During the second presidential debate Trump acknowledged using the deduction but declined to provide details such as the specific years it was applied On March the first two pages of Trump's federal income tax returns were leaked to MSNBC The document states that Trump had a gross adjusted income of million and paid million in federal taxes The White House confirmed the authenticity of the documents In April the House Ways and Means Committee made a formal request to the Internal Revenue Service for Trump's personal and business tax returns from to Two deadlines to provide the returns were missed then Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin in May ultimately denied the request Committee chairman Richard Neal then subpoenaed the Treasury Department and the IRS for the returns These subpoenas were also defied in May A fall draft IRS legal memo asserted that tax returns must be provided to Congress upon request unless a president invokes executive privilege Congress need not justify the request the memo stated contradicting the administration's justification that a legislative purpose is needed to produce the tax returns Mnuchin asserted the memo actually addressed a different matter Election to the presidency Main article United States presidential election electoral vote results On November Trump received pledged electoral votes versus for Clinton The official counts were and respectively after defections on both sides Trump received nearly million fewer popular votes than Clinton which made him the fifth person to be elected president while losing the popular vote e Clinton was ahead nationwide with votes compared to Trump's votes Trump's victory was considered a stunning political upset by most observers as polls had consistently showed Hillary Clinton with a nationwide though diminishing lead as well as a favorable advantage in most of the competitive states Trump's support had been modestly underestimated throughout his campaign and many observers blamed errors in polls partially attributed to pollsters overestimating Clinton's support among well educated and nonwhite voters while underestimating Trump's support among white working class voters The polls were relatively accurate but media outlets and pundits alike showed overconfidence in a Clinton victory despite a large number of undecided voters and a favorable concentration of Trump's core constituencies in competitive states President Obama and president elect Trump on November Trump won states including Michigan Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which had been considered a blue wall of Democratic strongholds since the s Clinton won states and the District of Columbia Trump's victory marked the return of a Republican White House combined with control of both chambers of Congress citation needed Trump is the wealthiest president in U S history even after adjusting for inflation and the oldest person to take office as president He is also the first president who did not serve in the military or hold elective or appointed government office prior to being elected Of the f previous presidents had held prior elective office two had not held elective office but had served in the Cabinet and three had never held public office but had been commanding generals Protests Main article Protests against Donald Trump Women's March in Washington on January a day after Trump's inauguration Some rallies during the primary season were accompanied by protests or violence including attacks on Trump supporters and vice versa both inside and outside the venues Trump's election victory sparked protests across the United States in opposition to his policies and his inflammatory statements Trump initially tweeted that these were professional protesters incited by the media and unfair but later Love the fact that the small groups of protesters last night have passion for our great country In the weeks following Trump's inauguration massive anti Trump demonstrations took place such as the Women Marches which gathered people worldwide including in Washington alone Marches against his travel ban began across the country on January just nine days after his inauguration presidential campaign Main article Donald Trump presidential campaign Trump signaled his intention to run for a second term by filing with the FEC within a few hours of assuming the presidency This transformed his election committee into a reelection one Trump marked the official start of the campaign with a rally in Melbourne Florida on February less than a month after taking office By January Trump's reelection committee had million in hand and it had raised a total amount exceeding million by December Trump became the Republican presumptive nominee on March after securing a majority of pledged delegates Trump's re election campaign saw declining poll numbers by mid reflecting dissatisfaction with his handling of the COVID pandemic and widespread racial justice protests following the Killing of George Floyd Presidency Main article Presidency of Donald Trump For a chronological guide to this subject see Timeline of the Donald Trump presidency Early actions See also Presidential transition of Donald Trump and First days of Donald Trump's presidency Trump during his inauguration in From left Barack Obama Joe Biden Chuck Schumer Trump was inaugurated as the th president of the United States on January During his first week in office he signed six executive orders interim procedures in anticipation of repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Obamacare withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy unlocking the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline construction projects reinforcing border security and beginning the planning and design process to construct a wall along the U S border with Mexico Upon inauguration Trump delegated the management of his real estate business to his sons Eric and Don Jr His daughter Ivanka resigned from the Trump Organization and moved to Washington D C with her husband Jared Kushner She serves as an assistant to the President and he is a Senior Advisor in the White House On January Trump nominated U S Appeals Court judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat on the Supreme Court previously held by Justice Antonin Scalia until his death on February Domestic policy Economy and trade Main article Economic policy of Donald Trump See also Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of and Trump tariffs The economic expansion that began in June continued through Trump's first three years in office This ended in February when the COVID pandemic sparked a recession Throughout his presidency Trump has repeatedly and falsely characterized the economy as the best in American history at least four U S presidents have presided over better economies In December Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of which permanently cut the corporate tax rate to percent temporarily lowered personal tax brackets until increased child tax credit doubled the estate tax exemption to million and limited the state and local tax deduction to Trump speaks to automobile workers in Michigan March Trump is a skeptic of multilateral trade deals as he believes they indirectly incentivize unfair trade practices that then tend to go unpoliced He favors bilateral trade deals as they allow one party to pull out if the other party is believed to be behaving unfairly Trump favors neutral or positive balances of trade over negative balances of trade also known as a trade deficit Trump adopted his current skeptical views toward trade liberalization in the s and he sharply criticized NAFTA during the Republican primary campaign in He withdrew the U S from the Trans Pacific Partnership TPP negotiations imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and launched a trade war with China by sharply increasing tariffs on categories worth billion of Chinese goods imported into the U S On several occasions Trump has said incorrectly that these import tariffs are paid by China into the U S Treasury Despite a campaign promise to eliminate the national debt in eight years Trump as president has approved large increases in government spending as well as the tax cut As a result the American government's budget deficit has increased by almost to nearly trillion in In April the official unemployment rate shot up to due to the COVID pandemic This was an underestimation of the actual unemployment rate but still was the highest level of unemployment since Energy and climate Main article Environmental policy of the Donald Trump administration Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change Since his election Trump has made large budget cuts to programs that research renewable energy and has rolled back Obama era policies directed at curbing climate change In June Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement making the U S the only nation in the world to not ratify the agreement At the G summit Trump skipped the sessions on climate change but said afterward during a press conference that he is an environmentalist Trump has rolled back federal regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions air pollution water pollution and the usage of toxic substances One example is the Clean Power Plan He relaxed environmental standards for federal infrastructure projects while expanding permitted areas for drilling and resource extraction such as allowing drilling in the Arctic Refuge Trump also weakened protections for animals Trump's energy policies aimed to boost the production and exports of coal oil and natural gas Government size and deregulation Trump's early policies have favored rollback and dismantling of government regulations He has signed Congressional Review Act disapproval resolutions to allow Congress to repeal executive regulations the second President to sign any such resolutions after the first CRA resolution was passed in and the first President to sign more than one such resolution During his first six weeks in office he delayed suspended or reversed ninety federal regulations On January Trump signed Executive Order which directed that for every new regulation administrative agencies issue at least two existing regulations be identified for elimination Agency defenders expressed opposition to Trump's criticisms saying the bureaucracy exists to protect people against well organized well funded interest groups Health care During his campaign Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal and replace Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ACA or Obamacare Shortly after taking office he urged Congress to repeal and replace it In May of that year the House voted to repeal it His first action as president was Executive Order which increased flexibility to the maximum extent permitted by law for the Cabinet to issue waivers deferrals and exemptions for the law while attempting to give states more flexibility Executive Order was subsequently issued designed to reduce regulations imposed under Obamacare by increasing competition Trump has expressed a desire to let Obamacare fail and the Trump administration has cut the ACA enrollment period in half and drastically reduced funding for advertising and other ways to encourage enrollment The tax bill effectively repealed the ACA's individual health insurance mandate in and a budget bill Trump signed in repealed the Cadillac plan tax medical device tax and tanning tax As president Trump has falsely claimed he saved the coverage of pre existing conditions provided by ACA while his administration declined to challenge a lawsuit that would eliminate it As a candidate Trump promised to protect funding for Medicare and other social safety net programs but in January he suggested he was willing to consider cuts to such programs Social issues Main article Social policy of Donald Trump Trump favored modifying the Republican platform opposing abortion to allow for exceptions in cases of rape incest and circumstances endangering the health of the mother He has said he is committed to appointing pro life justices He says he personally supports traditional marriage but considers the nationwide legality of same sex marriage a settled issue Despite the statement by Trump and the White House saying they would keep in place a executive order from the Obama administration which created federal workplace protections for LGBT people in March the Trump administration rolled back key components of the Obama administration's workplace protections for LGBT people Trump supports a broad interpretation of the Second Amendment and says he is opposed to gun control in general although his views have shifted over time Trump opposes legalizing recreational marijuana but supports legalizing medical marijuana He favors capital punishment as well as the use of waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse methods Pardons and commutations Main article List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump In August Trump pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio who was awaiting sentencing for contempt of court in a class action lawsuit that alleged racial profiling In March he pardoned former Navy sailor Kristian Saucier who had been found guilty of taking classified photographs of a submarine In April he pardoned Scooter Libby a political aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney who had been convicted of obstruction of justice perjury and making false statements to the FBI In May he granted a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson a black boxer who had been convicted in for traveling across state lines with his white girlfriend In June he pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza who had made illegal political campaign contributions That month he also commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson a non violent drug trafficking offender following a request by celebrity Kim Kardashian In February Trump pardoned white collar criminals Michael Milken Bernard Kerik and Edward J DeBartolo Jr and commuted former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's year corruption sentence Immigration Main article Immigration policy of Donald Trump Trump's proposed immigration policies were a topic of bitter and contentious debate during the campaign He promised to build a more substantial wall on the Mexico United States border to keep out illegal immigrants and vowed Mexico would pay for it He pledged to massively deport illegal immigrants residing in the United States and criticized birthright citizenship for creating anchor babies He said deportation would focus on criminals visa overstays and security threats As president he frequently described illegal immigration as an invasion and conflated immigrants with the gang MS though research shows undocumented immigrants have a lower crime rate than native born Americans Trump has attempted to drastically escalate immigration enforcement Some of the results are harsher immigration enforcement policies against asylum seekers from Central America than any modern U S president before him and a significantly increased usage of migrant detentions and deportations This was accompanied by the Trump administration in mandating that immigration judges must complete cases a year to be evaluated as performing satisfactorily In other immigration policies Trump has from onwards deployed nearly troops to the U S Mexico border in was allowed by the Supreme Court to stop most Central American migrants from seeking U S asylum and from used the public charge rule to restrict immigrants using government benefits from getting permanent residency via green cards Trump has continually reduced the number of allowed refugees into the country when Trump took office the annual limit was in Trump set a limit of a record low for the U S refugee program Additional restrictions implemented by the Trump administration caused potentially long lasting bottlenecks in processing refugee applications resulting in fewer refugees accepted compared to the allowed limits Travel ban Main articles Executive Order and Executive Order Following the November Paris attacks Trump made a controversial proposal to ban Muslim foreigners from entering the United States until stronger vetting systems could be implemented He later reframed the proposed ban to apply to countries with a proven history of terrorism On January Trump signed Executive Order which suspended admission of refugees for days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq Iran Libya Somalia Sudan Syria and Yemen for days citing security concerns The order took effect immediately and without warning Confusion and protests caused chaos at airports Sally Yates the acting Attorney General directed Justice Department lawyers not to defend the executive order which she deemed unenforceable and unconstitutional Trump immediately dismissed her Multiple legal challenges were filed against the order and on February a federal judge in Seattle blocked its implementation nationwide On March Trump issued a revised order which excluded Iraq gave specific exemptions for permanent residents and removed priorities for Christian minorities Again federal judges in three states blocked its implementation On June the Supreme Court ruled that the ban could be enforced on visitors who lack a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States The temporary order was replaced by Presidential Proclamation on September which permanently restricts travel from the originally targeted countries except Iraq and Sudan and further bans travelers from North Korea and Chad along with certain Venezuelan officials After lower courts partially blocked the new restrictions the Supreme Court allowed the September version to go into full effect on December and ultimately upheld the travel ban in a June ruling Family separation at border Main article Trump administration family separation policy Children sitting within a wire mesh compartment Children and juveniles in a wire mesh compartment showing sleeping mats and thermal blankets on floor Children sitting within a wire mesh compartment in the Ursula detention facility in McAllen Texas June The Trump administration has separated more than migrant children from their parents at the U S Mexico border while the families attempted to enter the U S The Trump administration sharply increased the number of family separations at the border starting from the summer of before an official policy was announced in this was only publicly reported later in January In April the Trump administration announced and enacted a zero tolerance immigration policy whereby every adult illegally crossing the border would be criminally prosecuted This resulted in family separations as the migrant adults were put in criminal detention for prosecution while the migrant children were taken away as unaccompanied alien minors The children would be brought to immigration detention immigrant shelters tent camps or metal cages with the stated aim of releasing them to relatives or sponsors Administration officials described the policy as a deterrent against illegal immigration Previous administrations had no such policy of generally separating migrant families with children The policy of family separations sparked public outrage and resulted in demands from Democrats Republicans Trump allies and religious groups that the policy be rescinded Trump reacted by falsely asserting that his administration was merely following the law blaming Democrats when in fact this was his administration's policy More than children were separated as a result of the zero tolerance policy the Trump administration revealed in June Although Trump originally argued that the issue could not be solved via executive order he proceeded to sign an executive order on June mandating that migrant families be detained together unless the administration judged that doing so would harm the child On June a federal judge concluded that the Trump administration had no system in place to keep track of the separated children nor any effective measures for family communication and reunification the judge ordered for the families to be reunited and family separations stopped except in the cases where the parent s are judged unfit to take care of the child or if there is parental approval children were separated from July to June reported the Trump administration in October Even after the June federal judge order the Trump administration continued to practice family separations with more than a thousand migrant children separated Migrant detentions Main article Trump administration migrant detentions Overcrowded conditions for migrant families detained in Weslaco Texas were reported by inspectors from the federal government in June The Trump administration has taken a harsher approach than previous administrations regarding migrant detentions by allowing no exemptions for detention unlike the George W Bush and Obama administrations While the Obama administration already employed a high level of detentions and deportations for migrants the Trump administration took it to a significantly higher level In April Trump ordered an end to the catch and release policy which released illegal immigrants from detention pending a court hearing Government inspectors from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General conducted spot checks of migrant detention centers in June finding that U S Customs and Border Protection in many instances violated federal guidelines for detaining migrant children for too long before passing them to the Office of Refugee Resettlement Meanwhile Commissioner of U S Customs and Border Protection Kevin McAleenan said in March that there was a border security and a humanitarian crisis at the Mexico border with the system for handling migrants already at a breaking point due to an increase in migrants The government inspectors released further reports in May and July of migrants being detained under conditions failing federal standards They reported migrants enduring prolonged detention dangerous overcrowding poor hygiene and food standards In June and July lawyers a certified doctor and lawmakers visited the migrant detention facilities reporting a lack of supervision traumatized children and many sick migrants respectively The treatment of the detained migrants resulted in public indignation by July Also that month Trump reacted to criticism of the migrant detentions by declaring that U S Border Patrol was doing a great job and if the migrants were unhappy about the conditions of the detention facilities just tell them not to come Meanwhile Vice President Pence visited an overcrowded facility where he reacted by saying this is tough stuff and the system is overwhelmed In August the administration attempted to change the Flores Agreement that limits detention of migrant families to days the new policy allowing indefinite detention was blocked before it would go into effect federal government shutdown Main article United States federal government shutdown Trump examines border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa California On December the federal government was partially shut down after Trump declared that any funding extension must include billion in federal funds for a U S Mexico border wall to partly fulfill his campaign promise The shutdown was caused by a lapse in funding for nine federal departments affecting about one fourth of federal government activities Trump said he would not accept any bill that did not include funding for the wall and Democrats who control the House said they would not support any bill that does Senate Republicans have said they will not advance any legislation Trump would not sign In earlier negotiations with Democratic leaders Trump commented that he would be proud to shut down the government for border security The shutdown caused an estimated government employees to be furloughed while an estimated government employees worked without getting paid most of the affected workers missed two paychecks The shutdown resulted in a permanent loss of billion to the U S economy estimated the Congressional Budget Office A plurality of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown polls showed the percentage increased as the shutdown continued to around Trump's approval ratings also dropped On January the Senate and the House unanimously approved a temporary funding bill that provided no funds for the wall but would provide delayed paychecks to government workers Trump signed the bill that day ending the shutdown at days It was the longest U S government shutdown in history Since the government funding was temporary another shutdown loomed On February the Senate and the House approved a funding bill that included billion for miles of border fences in lieu of Trump's intended wall Trump signed the bill on February just hours before another shutdown would begin National emergency regarding the southern border On February after Trump received from Congress only billion for border fencing after demanding billion for the Trump wall Trump declared a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States in the hopes of getting another billion of funds for the Trump wall without congressional approval using funds for military construction drug interdiction and money from the Treasury In doing so Trump acknowledged that he didn't need to declare a national emergency but he would rather do it much faster Congress twice passed resolutions to block Trump's national emergency declarations but Trump twice vetoed them and Congress did not have enough votes override Trump's veto Trump's decision to divert other government funding to fund the wall resulted in legal challenges In July the Supreme Court allowed Trump to use billion originally meant for anti drug programs from the Department of Defense to build the Trump wall In December a federal judge stopped the Trump administration from using billion of military construction funds for the Trump wall Trump wall Main article Trump wall As a presidential candidate Trump insisted that along the southern border he would build a wall not a fence saying there is a big difference and mentioning concrete going very high In January he again floated the idea of solid concrete In the Mexico U S border had miles of primary fencing miles of secondary fencing and miles of tertiary fencing Trump's target from to was miles of wall The Trump administration set a target of miles of new or renovated barriers by December with an ultimate goal of miles of new or renovated barriers by August Even into Trump has repeatedly provided false assertions that Mexico is paying for the Trump wall although American taxpayers are footing the bill from funds being diverted from the U S Department of Defense In October the administration revealed two miles of replacement fences made of steel posts which it called the first section of Trump's 'wall' although earlier that year Border Patrol had said the project was unrelated to the Trump wall and had been long planned dating to In December and January Trump tweeted out a design of a steel fence and a picture of a fence while declaring the wall is coming In February Trump said his administration had been restricted to renovating existing barriers and we need new wall By November the Trump administration had replaced around miles of the Mexico United States barrier along the border these replacement barriers were not walls but fences made of bollards The administration in November said it had just started breaking ground to build new barriers in areas where no structure existed By May the Trump administration had replaced miles of dilapidated or outdated design barriers and constructed miles of new border barriers Foreign policy Main article Foreign policy of the Donald Trump administration Trump with Emmanuel Macron Angela Merkel Justin Trudeau and other leaders at the th G summit in France Trump King Salman of Saudi Arabia and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el Sisi at the Riyadh summit in Saudi Arabia Trump has been described as a non interventionist and an American nationalist He has repeatedly said he supports an America First foreign policy He supports increasing United States military defense spending but favors decreasing United States spending on NATO and in the Pacific region He says America should look inward stop nation building and re orient its resources toward domestic needs His foreign policy has been marked by repeated praise and support of neo nationalist and authoritarian strongmen and criticism of democratically led governments Trump has cited China's president Xi Jinping Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el Sisi Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan King Salman of Saudi Arabia Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán as examples of good leaders Trump has also praised Poland under the EU skeptic anti immigrant Law and Justice party PiS as a defender of Western civilization ISIS Syria and Afghanistan In April Trump ordered a missile strike against a Syrian airfield in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack According to investigative journalist Bob Woodward Trump had ordered his defense secretary James Mattis to assassinate Syrian president Bashar al Assad after the chemical attack but Mattis declined Trump denied doing so In April he announced missile strikes against Assad's regime following a suspected chemical attack near Damascus In December Trump declared we have won against ISIS and ordered the withdrawal of all troops from Syria contradicting Department of Defense assessments Mattis resigned the next day over disagreements in foreign policy calling this decision an abandonment of Kurd allies who had played a key role in fighting ISIS One week after his announcement Trump said he would not approve any extension of the American deployment in Syria On January national security advisor John Bolton announced America would remain in Syria until ISIS is eradicated and Turkey guarantees it will not strike America's Kurdish allies Trump actively supported the Saudi Arabian led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis and signed a billion agreement to sell arms to Saudi Arabia Trump also praised his relationship with Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman U S troop numbers in Afghanistan increased from to as of January reversing his pre election position critical of further involvement in Afghanistan U S officials said then that they aimed to force the Taliban to negotiate a political settlement in January however Trump spoke against talks with the Taliban On February the Trump administration signed a conditional peace agreement with the Taliban which calls for the withdrawal of foreign troops in months if the Taliban uphold the terms of the agreement Trump said it is time to bring U S soldiers home from Afghanistan Trump with Turkish president Erdogan in November In October after Trump spoke to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan the White House acknowledged Turkey would be carrying out a planned military offensive into northern Syria as such U S troops in northern Syria were withdrawn from the area to avoid interference with that operation The statement also passed responsibility for the area's captured ISIS fighters to Turkey In the following days Trump suggested the Kurds intentionally released ISIS prisoners in order to gain sympathy suggested they were fighting only for their own financial interests suggested some of them were worse than ISIS and termed them no angels Congress members of both parties denounced the move including Republican allies of Trump such as Senator Lindsey Graham They argued that the move betrayed the American allied Kurds and would benefit ISIS Turkey Russia Iran and Bashar al Assad's Syrian regime Trump defended the move citing the high cost of supporting the Kurds and the lack of support from the Kurds in past U S wars After the U S pullout Turkey proceeded to attack Kurdish controlled areas in northeastern Syria On October the United States House of Representatives in a rare bipartisan vote of to condemned Trump's withdrawal of U S troops from Syria for abandoning U S allies undermining the struggle against ISIS and spurring a humanitarian catastrophe In November Trump ordered U S troops to secure the oil fields in eastern Syria then said any remaining U S troops in Syria were there only for the oil and that the U S was keeping the oil Seizing oil without local government permission would be a war crime of pillage Iran See also Iran United States relations present Trump administration United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Persian Gulf crisis Demonstrations in Iran over the death of Qasem Soleimani during the U S attack on the Baghdad airport in Iraq on January Trump has described the regime in Iran as the rogue regime although he has also asserted he does not seek regime change He has repeatedly criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action JCPOA or Iran nuclear deal that was negotiated with the United States Iran and five other world powers in calling it terrible and saying the Obama administration had negotiated the agreement from desperation Following Iran's missile tests on January the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities in February Trump reportedly lobbied dozens of European officials against doing business with Iran during the May Brussels summit this likely violated the terms of the JCPOA under which the U S may not pursue any policy specifically intended to directly and adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran The Trump administration certified in July that Iran had upheld its end of the agreement On August Trump signed into law the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act CAATSA that grouped together sanctions against Iran Russia and North Korea On May Trump announced the United States' unilateral departure from the JCPOA In May strained relations between the U S and Iran escalated when Trump deployed military bombers and a carrier group to the Persian Gulf Trump hinted at war on social media provoking a response from Iran for what Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif called genocidal taunts Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman are allies in the conflict with Iran Trump approved the deployment of additional U S troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates following the attack on Saudi oil facilities which the United States has blamed on Iran On January Trump ordered a targeted U S airstrike which killed Iranian Major General and IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces commander Abu Mahdi al Muhandis as well as eight other people Trump publicly threatened to attack Iranian cultural sites or react in a disproportionate manner if Iran retaliated though such attacks by the U S would violate international law as war crimes On January Iran retaliated by launching airstrikes on Al Asad Air Base in Iraq initially the Trump administration claimed no Americans suffered injuries then Trump said injuries were not very serious but by February more than a hundred traumatic brain injuries were diagnosed in U S troops Iran issues an arrest warrant for U S political and military officials including President Trump for their role in the assassination of Qasem Soleimani Israel See also Israel United States relations Trump administration present Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Yad Vashem May Trump has supported the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December despite criticism and warnings from world leaders He subsequently opened a new U S embassy in Jerusalem in May The United Nations General Assembly condemned the move adopting a resolution that calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem In March Trump reversed decades of U S policy by recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights a move condemned by the European Union and the Arab League China See also China United States relations Trump's presidency and China United States trade war Before and during his presidency Trump has repeatedly accused China of taking unfair advantage of the U S During his presidency Trump has launched a trade war against China sanctioned Huawei for its alleged ties to Iran significantly increased visa restrictions on Chinese nationality students and scholars and classified China as a currency manipulator In the wake of the significant deterioration of relations many political observers have warned against a new cold war between China and the U S North Korea See also North Korea United States relations Trump meets Kim Jong un at the Singapore summit June In North Korea's nuclear weapons became increasingly seen as a serious threat to the United States In August Trump escalated his rhetoric warning that North Korean threats would be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen North Korea responded by releasing plans for missile tests that would land near Guam In September Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly saying the U S would totally destroy North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies Also in September Trump increased sanctions on North Korea declared that he wanted North Korea's complete denuclearization and engaged in name calling with leader Kim Jong un In March Trump immediately agreed to Kim's proposal for a meeting On June Trump and Kim met in Singapore with Kim affirming his intention to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula A second Trump Kim summit in Hanoi in February was terminated abruptly without an agreement both countries blamed each other and offered differing accounts of the negotiations On June Trump Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae in held brief talks in the Korean Demilitarized Zone marking the first time a sitting U S president had set foot on North Korean soil Trump and Kim agreed to resume negotiations Bilateral talks began in Stockholm in October but broke down after one day As of May North Korea has shown no indication that it is willing to unilaterally denuclearize Russia See also Russia United States relations Putin and Trump at the G Osaka summit June During his campaign and as president Trump has repeatedly asserted that he desires better relations with Russia He also said Russia could help the U S in its fight against ISIS According to Putin and some political experts and diplomats the U S Russian relations which were already at the lowest level since the end of the Cold War have further deteriorated since Trump took office in January As president Trump has criticized Russia about Syria Ukraine North Korea Venezuela and the Skripal poisoning but has sent mixed messages regarding Crimea He forbade U S oil companies from drilling in Russia Businesses involved in the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany have been sanctioned by the Trump administration with the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year on December Trump said the Nord Stream pipeline owned by Russia's Gazprom could turn Germany into a hostage of Russia Amidst continuing growth of China's missile forces President Trump announced on October that he was withdrawing the U S from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty due to supposed Russian non compliance a move criticized by the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev who signed the treaty in with U S President Ronald Reagan Trump has repeatedly praised Russian president Vladimir Putin criticism of Putin by Trump was uncommon As a presidential candidate Trump continually reiterated that Putin is a strong leader When Putin in August expelled over half of the staff of the American embassy in Russia in retaliation for Sanctions Act CAATSA which imposed new sanctions on Russia President Trump responded by thanking Putin saying We'll save a lot of money instead of criticizing him After Trump met Putin at the Helsinki Summit on July Trump drew bipartisan criticism for siding with Putin's denial of Russian interference in the presidential election rather than accepting the findings of the United States intelligence community Cuba See also Cuba United States relations In November the Trump administration tightened the rules on trade with Cuba and individual visits to the country undoing the Obama administration's loosening of restrictions According to an administration official the new rules were intended to hinder trade with businesses with ties to the Cuban military intelligence and security services Venezuela See also United States Venezuela relations Trump with Venezuela's opposition leader and interim president Juan Guaidó at the White House February On August Trump said he is not going to rule out a military option to confront the government of Nicolás Maduro In September Trump called for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela and said that socialism has bankrupted the oil rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty On January Maduro announced that Venezuela was breaking ties with the United States following Trump's announcement of recognizing Juan Guaidó the Venezuelan opposition leader as the interim president of Venezuela NATO Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg April As a candidate Trump questioned whether he as president would automatically extend security guarantees to NATO members and suggested he might leave NATO unless changes are made to the alliance As president he reaffirmed the U S commitment to NATO in March however he has repeatedly accused fellow NATO members of paying less than their fair share of the expenses of the alliance In January The New York Times quoted senior administration officials as saying Trump has privately suggested on multiple occasions that the United States should withdraw from NATO The next day Trump said the United States is going to be with NATO one hundred percent but repeated that the other countries have to step up and pay more Personnel Main articles Political appointments by Donald Trump and Cabinet of Donald Trump See also Formation of Donald Trump's Cabinet Cabinet meeting March The Trump administration has been characterized by high turnover particularly among White House staff By the end of Trump's first year in office percent of his original staff had resigned been fired or been reassigned As of early July percent of Trump's senior aides had left and staffers had left in the past year Both figures set a record for recent presidents more change in the first months than his four immediate predecessors saw in their first two years Notable early departures included National Security Advisor Michael Flynn after just days in office Chief of Staff Reince Priebus replaced by retired Marine general John F Kelly on July and Press Secretary Sean Spicer Close personal aides to Trump such as Steve Bannon Hope Hicks John McEntee and Keith Schiller have quit or been forced out Some like Hicks and McEntee later returned to the White House in different posts Trump has disparaged several of his former top officials as incompetent stupid or crazy Trump's cabinet nominations included U S senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions as Attorney General financier Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury retired Marine Corps general James Mattis as Secretary of Defense and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State Trump also brought on board politicians who had opposed him during the presidential campaign such as neurosurgeon Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as Ambassador to the United Nations Two of Trump's original cabinet members were gone within months Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced to resign in September due to excessive use of private charter jets and military aircraft and Trump replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo in March over disagreements on foreign policy EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned in July amidst multiple investigations into his conduct while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned five months later as he also faced multiple investigations Trump has been slow to appoint second tier officials in the executive branch saying many of the positions are unnecessary In October there were still hundreds of sub cabinet positions without a nominee By January of key positions had been filled and Trump had no nominee for Dismissal of James Comey Main article Dismissal of James Comey On May Trump dismissed FBI director James Comey He first attributed this action to recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein which criticized Comey's conduct in the investigation about Hillary Clinton's emails On May Trump said he was concerned with the ongoing Russia thing and that he had intended to fire Comey earlier regardless of DOJ advice According to a Comey memo of a private conversation on February Trump said he hoped Comey would drop the investigation into National Security Advisor Michael Flynn In March and April Trump had told Comey the ongoing suspicions formed a cloud impairing his presidency and asked him to publicly state that he was not personally under investigation He also asked intelligence chiefs Dan Coats and Michael Rogers to issue statements saying there was no evidence that his campaign colluded with Russia during the election Both refused considering this an inappropriate request although not illegal Comey eventually testified on June that while he was director the FBI investigations had not targeted Trump himself Coronavirus pandemic Main article COVID pandemic in the United States Trump signs the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law on March In December an outbreak of coronavirus disease COVID was first identified in Wuhan Hubei China spreading worldwide within weeks The first confirmed case in the United States was reported on January On January Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced a partial ban on non Americans traveling to the U S from China effective February Trump was slow to address the pandemic initially dismissing the imminent threat and ignoring calls for action from government health experts and Secretary Azar Throughout January and February he rejected persistent public health warnings from officials within his administration focusing instead on economic and political considerations of the outbreak He continued to claim that a vaccine was months away although HHS and CDC officials had repeatedly told him it would take months to develop a vaccine Trump also exaggerated the availability of testing for the virus falsely claiming anybody that wants a test can get a test despite the availability of tests being severely limited On March Trump signed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act into law which provided billion in emergency funding for federal agencies On March he announced partial travel restrictions for most of Europe effective March That same day he gave his first serious assessment of the virus horrible in a nationwide Oval Office address he also said the outbreak was a temporary moment and that there was no financial crisis On March he declared a national emergency freeing up federal resources In a March press conference Trump acknowledged for the first time the pandemic was not under control the situation was bad and that months of disruption to daily lives and a recession might occur White House Coronavirus Update Briefing May Beginning in mid March Trump held a daily press conference joined by medical experts and other administration officials sometimes disagreeing with them by promoting unproven treatments Trump was the main speaker at the briefings where he praised his own response to the pandemic frequently criticized rival presidential candidate Joe Biden and denounced members of the White House press corps On April Trump announced that the federal government would use funds from the CARES Act to pay hospitals for treatment of uninsured patients infected with the coronavirus His repeated use of the terms Chinese virus and China virus to describe COVID drew criticism from the media health experts the World Health Organization WHO and the Chinese government By early April as the pandemic worsened and amid criticism of his administration's response Trump refused to admit any mistakes in his handling the outbreak instead blaming the media Democratic state governors the previous administration China and the World Health Organization Although the allegations blaming the WHO were not substantiated at the end of May Trump announced that the United States would terminate its relationship with that organization By mid April some national news agencies began limiting live coverage of his daily press briefings with The Washington Post reporting that propagandistic and false statements from Trump alternate with newsworthy pronouncements from members of his coronavirus task force particularly coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S Fauci Meanwhile America's global reputation was damaged during the pandemic largely due to Trump's inadequate response to the crisis On April Trump signed an executive order restricting some forms of immigration to the United States In April Republican connected groups organized anti lockdown protests against the measures state governments were taking to combat the pandemic Trump encouraged the protests on Twitter He first supported then later criticized Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's plan to reopen some nonessential businesses which was a key example of Trump often reversing his stances in his communication during the COVID pandemic Trump has refused to wear a face mask at press conferences and most public events contrary to his own administration's April guidance that Americans should wear masks in public In September the Trump administration ended a million dollar early warning program PREDICT initiated by the United States Agency for International Development in dozens of epidemiologists and wildlife veterinarians working for partner organizations were laid off The program trained scientists in sixty foreign laboratories including the Wuhan lab that first identified the SARS CoV coronavirus that causes COVID to detect and respond to viruses that have the potential to cause pandemics On April USAID extended the program for six months The daily coronavirus task force briefings were winded down from late April after Trump at one of the briefings floated the idea of using bleach injections to treat COVID leading to widespread condemnation by medical professionals for the idea In early May President Trump proposed that the coronavirus task force should be phased out to accommodate another group centered on reopening the economy Amid a backlash Trump publicly said the coronavirus task force would continue on indefinitely By the end of May the coronavirus task force's meetings were sharply reduced Lafayette Square protester removal and photo op Main article Donald Trump photo op at St John's Church External video A video timeline of the crackdown on protesters before Trump's photo op on YouTube The Washington Post Trump Stands In Front of Church Holding Bible After Threatening Military Action Against Protesters on YouTube NBC President Trump walks across Lafayette Park to St John's Church on YouTube C SPAN In a Rose Garden speech on June Trump threatened that he would deploy the U S military in U S cities and states not taking the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents in reaction to mass protests and civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd While he was speaking federal law enforcement officials used batons rubber bullets pepper spray projectiles stun grenades and smoke to remove a largely peaceful crowd from Lafayette Square outside the White House The removal had been ordered by Attorney General William Barr Trump then walked to St John's Episcopal Church where the night before a small fire had been set in the basement nursery of its parish house He posed for photographs holding a Bible with Cabinet members and other officials later joining him in photos Trump who had not attended the church since his inauguration did not enter it or inspect the damage to the basement Religious leaders condemned the treatment of protesters and the photo opportunity itself Many retired military leaders and defense officials condemned Trump's proposal to use the U S military against the protesters The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark A Milley later apologized for accompanying Trump on the walk and thereby creat ing the perception of the military involved in domestic politics Public profile Approval ratings Further information Opinion polling on the Donald Trump administration Polling in suggested Trump was the most unpopular president since Harry Truman At the end of his second year his two year average Gallup approval rating was the lowest of any president since World War II As of February his Gallup rating has ranged from a low of approval to a high of His approval and disapproval ratings have been unusually stable In Gallup's end of year poll asking Americans to name the man they admire the most Trump placed second to Obama in and and tied with Obama for most admired man in Trump is the first elected president not to be named most admired in his first year in office Social media Main article Donald Trump on social media Trump's presence on social media has attracted attention worldwide since he joined Twitter in March He communicated heavily on Twitter during the election campaign and has continued to use this channel during his presidency The attention on Trump's Twitter activity has significantly increased since he was sworn in as president As of May he is in the top for most Twitter followers at more than million By the end of May Trump had written about tweets Counted through the Trump Twitter Archive these include tweets over seven years before his presidential candidacy tweets during the / years of his candidacy and transition period and tweets over the first three years of his presidency Trump has frequently used Twitter as a direct means of communication with the public sidelining the press Since early in his presidency his tweets have been considered official statements by the president of the United States employed for announcing policy or personnel changes In March Trump fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by Twitter Many of the assertions he tweeted have been proven false In May Twitter began tagging some Trump tweets with fact checking warnings and labels for violations of Twitter rules Trump responded by threatening to strongly regulate or even close down social media platforms False statements Main article Veracity of statements by Donald Trump Fact checkers from The Washington Post the Toronto Star and CNN compiled data on false or misleading claims orange background and false claims violet foreground respectively As president Trump has frequently made false statements in public speeches and remarks The misinformation has been documented by fact checkers academics and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics This behavior was similarly observed when he was a presidential candidate His falsehoods have also become a distinctive part of his political identity Trump uttered at least one false or misleading claim per day on of his first days in office according to The New York Times and total in his first days in office according to the Fact Checker political analysis column of The Washington Post By the Post's tally it took Trump days to reach false or misleading statements and another days to reach the mark For the seven weeks leading up to the midterm elections it rose to an average of thirty per day from during his first hundred days in office The Post's reported tally is as of May with the total more than double the cumulative total of and Some of Trump's falsehoods are inconsequential such as his claims of a large crowd size during his inauguration Others have had more far reaching effects such as Trump's promotion of unproven antimalarial drugs as a treatment for COVID- in a press conference and on Twitter in March The claims had consequences worldwide such as a shortage of these drugs in the United States and panic buying in Africa and South Asia The state of Florida obtained nearly a million doses for its hospitals even though most of them did not want the drug Other misinformation such as Trump's retweet of unverified videos of a far right British nationalist group in November serves a domestic political purpose promoting policies on immigration and border security As a matter of principle Trump does not apologize for his misstatements Despite the frequency of Trump's falsehoods the media have rarely referred to them as lies The word suggests an attempt to deceive hence if used could be construed as conveying an opinion as to the intent behind the statement The word is fraught with political peril and has usually been avoided out of respect for the presidential office Nevertheless in August The Washington Post declared for the first time that some of Trump's misstatements statements concerning hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal were lies Former Secretary of State for George W Bush Colin Powell who had never used the word in reference to any previous president said in June that Trump lies all the time Some view the nature and frequency of Trump's falsehoods as having profound and corrosive consequences on democracy James Pfiffner professor of policy and government at George Mason University wrote in that Trump lies differently from previous presidents because he offers egregious false statements that are demonstrably contrary to well known facts these lies are the most important of all Trump lies By calling facts into question people will be unable to properly evaluate their government with beliefs irrationally settled by political power this erodes liberal democracy wrote Pfiffner Relationship with the press Further information Presidency of Donald Trump Relationship with the news media Trump talking to the press March Throughout his career Trump has sought media attention His interactions with the press turned into what some sources called a love hate relationship Trump began promoting himself in the press in the s Fox News anchor Bret Baier and former House speaker Paul Ryan have characterized Trump as a troll who makes controversial statements to see people's heads explode In the campaign Trump benefited from a record amount of free media coverage elevating his standing in the Republican primaries New York Times writer Amy Chozick wrote in September that one of the reasons for Trump's appeal was his media dominance which enthralls the public Chozick endorsed the view that with Trump feeding something every night there is a can't miss nature for media coverage of him akin to a reality show Throughout his presidential campaign and his presidency Trump has repeatedly accused the press of intentionally misinterpreting his words and of being biased calling them fake news media and the enemy of the people After winning the election journalist Lesley Stahl recounted Trump saying he intentionally demeaned and discredited the media so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you Trump has privately and publicly mused about taking away critical reporters' White House press credentials His administration moved to revoke the press passes of two White House reporters which were restored by the courts In a member of the foreign press reported many of the same concerns as those of media in the U S expressing concern that a normalization process by reporters and media results in an inaccurate characterization of Trump The Trump White House held about a hundred formal press briefings in declining by half during and to two in In early the Trump campaign sued The New York Times The Washington Post and CNN for alleged defamation Racial views Main article Racial views of Donald Trump Trump has made numerous comments and actions that have been characterized both within the U S and abroad as racially charged or racist He has repeatedly denied he is racist asserting I am the least racist person there is anywhere in the world Many of his supporters say the way he speaks reflects his rejection of political correctness while others accept it because they share such beliefs Scholars have discussed Trump's rhetoric in the context of white supremacy Several studies and surveys have found that racist attitudes fueled Trump's political ascendance and have been more important than economic factors in determining the allegiance of Trump voters Racist and islamophobic attitudes have been shown to be a powerful indicator of support for Trump In a June Quinnipiac University poll percent of respondents believed he was racist while percent believed he was not Additionally percent said he has emboldened people who hold racist beliefs to express those beliefs publicly In he settled a Department of Justice lawsuit that alleged housing discrimination against black renters He has also been accused of racism for insisting a group of black and Latino teenagers were guilty of raping a white woman in the Central Park jogger case even after they were exonerated by DNA evidence in He has maintained his position on the matter into Trump launched his political career in as a leading proponent of birther conspiracy theories alleging that Barack Obama the first black U S president was not born in the United States In April Trump claimed credit for pressuring the White House to publish the long form birth certificate which he considered fraudulent and later saying this made him very popular In September amid pressure he acknowledged that Obama was born in the U S and falsely claimed the rumors had been started by Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign In he reportedly still expressed birther views in private According to an analysis in Political Science Quarterly Trump made explicitly racist appeals to whites during his presidential campaign In particular his campaign launch speech drew widespread criticism for claiming Mexican immigrants were bringing drugs they're bringing crime they're rapists His later comments about a Mexican American judge presiding over a civil suit regarding Trump University were also criticized as racist File President Trump Gives a Statement on the Infrastructure Discussion webm Trump answers questions from reporters about the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville Trump's comments in reaction to the Charlottesville far right rally were interpreted as implying a moral equivalence between white supremacist demonstrators and counter protesters In a January Oval Office meeting to discuss immigration legislation he reportedly referred to El Salvador Haiti Honduras and African nations as shithole countries His remarks were condemned as racist worldwide as well as by many members of Congress In July Trump tweeted that four Democratic members of Congress all four minority women three of them native born Americans should go back to the countries they came from Two days later the House of Representatives voted mostly along party lines to condemn his racist comments White nationalist publications and social media sites praised his remarks which continued over the following days Allegations of sexual misconduct Main articles Donald Trump sexual misconduct allegations and Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape At least twenty three women have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct as of October including his then wife Ivana There were allegations of rape violence being kissed and groped without consent looking under women's skirts and walking in on naked women In he denied all accusations calling them false smears and alleged there was a conspiracy against him In October two days before the second presidential debate a hot mic recording surfaced in which Trump was heard bragging about forcibly kissing and groping women saying when you're a star they let you do it you can do anything grab 'em by the pussy The incident's widespread media exposure led to Trump's first public apology during the campaign and caused outrage across the political spectrum Allegations of inciting violence Some research suggests Trump's rhetoric causes an increased incidence of hate crimes During the campaign he sometimes urged or praised physical attacks against protesters or reporters Since then some individuals or their attorneys have cited Trump's rhetoric as a defense for their hate speech or violent actions In August it was reported that a man who allegedly assaulted a minor for perceived disrespect toward the national anthem had cited Trump's rhetoric in his own defense It was also reported in August that a nationwide review conducted by ABC News had identified at least criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violence or threats of violence Of these were based around someone echoing presidential rhetoric while the other seven were someone protesting it or not having direct linkage Popular culture Main articles Donald Trump in popular culture and Donald Trump in music Trump has been the subject of comedians Flash cartoon artists and online caricature artists He has been parodied regularly on Saturday Night Live by Phil Hartman Darrell Hammond and Alec Baldwin and in South Park as Mr Garrison The Simpsons episode Bart to the Future written during his campaign for the Reform party anticipated a future Trump presidency A dedicated parody series called The President Show debuted in April on Comedy Central while another one called Our Cartoon President debuted on Showtime in February Trump's wealth and lifestyle had been a fixture of hip hop lyrics since the s as he was named in hundreds of songs most often in a positive tone Mentions of Trump turned negative and pejorative after he ran for office in Recognition Further information List of honors and awards received by Donald Trump In Trump received the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award after he helped fund two playgrounds a park and a reservoir in Israel In he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of patriotism tolerance brotherhood and diversity and in was awarded the President's Medal from the Freedoms Foundation for his support of youth programs He has been awarded five honorary doctorates but one was revoked by Robert Gordon University in after Trump called for a Muslim ban citing Trump's speech being wholly incompatible with the ethos and values of the university The remaining awards are Lehigh University's honorary doctorate of laws in Wagner College's honorary doctorate of humane letters in and Liberty University's honorary doctorates of business and law in and respectively In December Time named Trump as its Person of the Year but Trump took issue with the magazine for referring to him as the President of the Divided States of America In the same month he was named Financial Times Person of the Year and was ranked by Forbes the second most powerful person in the world after Vladimir Putin As president Trump received the Collar of The Order of Abdulaziz al Saud from Saudi Arabia in Investigations Further information Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia transition January June July December January June July December and The Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign was launched in mid during the campaign season Since he assumed the presidency Trump has been the subject of increasing Justice Department and congressional scrutiny with investigations covering his election campaign transition and inauguration actions taken during his presidency along with his private businesses personal taxes and charitable foundation The New York Times reported in May that there were open investigations of Trump including ten federal criminal investigations eight state and local investigations and eleven Congressional investigations Hush payments Main article Stormy Daniels Donald Trump scandal See also Legal affairs of Donald Trump Payments related to alleged affairs and Karen McDougal Alleged affair with Donald Trump Pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in American Media Inc AMI paid to Playboy model Karen McDougal in August and Trump's attorney Michael Cohen paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in October Both women were paid for non disclosure agreements regarding their alleged affairs with Trump between and Cohen pleaded guilty in to breaking campaign finance laws saying he had arranged both payments at the direction of Trump in order to influence the presidential election AMI admitted paying McDougal to prevent publication of stories that might damage Trump's electoral chances Trump denied the affairs and claimed he was not aware of Cohen's payment to Daniels but reimbursed him in Federal prosecutors asserted that Trump had been involved in discussions regarding non disclosure payments as early as Court documents showed that the FBI believed Trump was directly involved in the payment to Daniels based on calls he had with Cohen in October In July a federal judge disclosed that prosecutors had stated in a court filing they had closed the investigation but days later the Manhattan District Attorney subpoenaed the Trump Organization and AMI for records related to the hush payments and in August subpoenaed eight years of tax returns for Trump and the Trump Organization Russian interference Main article Russian interference in the United States elections See also Links between Trump associates and Russian officials Steele dossier and Trump Ukraine scandal In January American intelligence agencies the CIA the FBI and the NSA represented by the Director of National Intelligence jointly stated with high confidence that the Russian government interfered in the presidential election to favor the election of Trump In March FBI Director James Comey told Congress the FBI as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the presidential election That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts The connections between Trump associates and Russia have been widely reported by the press One of Trump's campaign managers Paul Manafort had worked from December until February to help pro Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych win the Ukrainian presidency Other Trump associates including former National Security Advisor Michael T Flynn and political consultant Roger Stone have been connected to Russian officials Russian agents were overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff particularly Flynn were in contact with Russian officials both before and after the November election On December Flynn talked with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that had been imposed the same day Flynn later resigned in the midst of controversy over whether he misled Pence The Washington Post reported that Trump had told Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov in May he was unconcerned about Russian interference in U S elections Trump and his allies have promoted a conspiracy theory that Ukraine rather than Russia interfered in the election which has also been promoted by Russia in an effort to frame Ukraine After the Democratic National Committee was hacked Trump firstly claimed it withheld its server from the FBI in actuality there were more than servers of which digital copies were given to the FBI secondly that CrowdStrike the company which investigated the servers was Ukraine based and Ukrainian owned in actuality CrowdStrike is U S based with the largest owners being American companies and thirdly that the server was hidden in Ukraine Members of the Trump administration have spoken out against the conspiracy theories Special counsel investigation Main articles Special Counsel investigation and Mueller Report The redacted version of the Mueller Report released by the Department of Justice on April On May former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller a former director of the FBI to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice DOJ investigating any links and or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation thus taking over the existing Crossfire Hurricane FBI investigation into the matter The special counsel also investigated whether Trump's dismissal of James Comey as FBI director constituted obstruction of justice and possible campaign ties to other national governments Trump repeatedly denied any collusion between his campaign and the Russian government Mueller also investigated the Trump campaign's possible ties to Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates Turkey Qatar Israel and China Trump sought to fire Mueller on several occasions in June December and April and close the investigation but backed down after his staff objected or after changing his mind He bemoaned the recusal of his first Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding Russia matters and believed Sessions should have stopped the investigation On March Mueller concluded his investigation and gave his report to Attorney General William Barr On March Barr sent a four page letter to Congress summarizing the principal conclusions in the report He quoted Mueller as stating while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime it also does not exonerate him Barr further wrote that he and Rosenstein did not see sufficient evidence to prove obstruction of justice Trump interpreted Mueller's report as a complete exoneration a phrase he repeated multiple times in the ensuing weeks Mueller privately complained to Barr on March that his summary did not accurately reflect what the report said and some legal analysts called the Barr letter misleading A redacted version of the report was released to the public on April The first volume found that Russia interfered to favor Trump's candidacy and hinder Clinton's Despite numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign the prevailing evidence did not establish that Trump campaign members conspired or coordinated with Russian interference The report states that Russian interference in the presidential election was illegal and occurred in sweeping and systematic fashion and it details how Trump and his campaign welcomed and encouraged foreign interference believing they would politically benefit The second volume of the Mueller Report dealt with possible obstruction of justice by Trump The report did not exonerate Trump of obstruction inasmuch as investigators were not confident of his innocence after examining his intent and actions Investigators decided they could not apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes as they could not indict a sitting president per an Office of Legal Counsel OLC opinion and would not accuse him of a crime when he cannot clear his name in court The report concluded that Congress having the authority to take action against a president for wrongdoing may apply the obstruction laws Congress subsequently launched an impeachment inquiry following the Trump Ukraine scandal albeit it ultimately did not press charges related to the Mueller investigation Associates See also Criminal charges brought in the Special Counsel investigation On August former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts of false tax filing and bank fraud Trump said he felt very badly for Manafort and praised him for resisting the pressure to make a deal with prosecutors saying Such respect for a brave man According to Rudy Giuliani Trump's personal attorney Trump had sought advice about pardoning Manafort but was counseled against it On November Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump's attempts to reach a deal with Russia to build a Trump Tower in Moscow Cohen said he had made the false statements on behalf of Trump who was identified as Individual in the court documents The five Trump associates who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in Mueller's investigation or related cases include Paul Manafort deputy campaign manager Rick Gates foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen In February Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was sentenced to over three years in jail after being convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering regarding his attempts to learn more about hacked Democratic emails during the election The sentencing judge said Stone was prosecuted for covering up for the president With Stone yet to report to jail Trump publicly declared that Stone can sleep well at night congressional investigation In March the House Judiciary Committee launched a broad investigation of Trump for possible obstruction of justice corruption and abuse of power Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler sent letters demanding documents to individuals and organizations associated with Trump's presidency business and private life saying it is very clear that the president obstructed justice Three other committee chairmen wrote the White House and State Department requesting details of Trump's communications with Putin including any efforts to conceal the content of those communications The White House refused to comply asserting that presidential communications with foreign leaders are protected and confidential Impeachment Main article Impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump See also Trump Ukraine scandal Impeachment and trial is a process under the United States Constitution whereby the legislature can remove from office a president cabinet member judge or other civil officer The House of Representatives investigates the case if the House votes to bring charges the officer is impeached There is then a trial in the Senate where a two thirds vote is required to remove the person from office Impeachment by the House of Representatives Main article Impeachment of Donald Trump Members of House of Representatives vote on two articles of impeachment H Res December During much of Trump's presidency Democrats were divided on the question of impeachment Fewer than representatives in the House supported impeachment by January after the Mueller Report was released in April and special counsel Robert Mueller testified in July this number grew to around representatives In August a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community about a July phone call between Trump and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during which Trump had pressured Zelensky to investigate CrowdStrike and Democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter adding that the White House had attempted to lock down the call records in a cover up The whistleblower further stated that the call was part of a wider pressure campaign by Giuliani and the Trump administration which may have included withholding financial aid from Ukraine in July and canceling Vice President Pence's May Ukraine trip Trump later confirmed having withheld military aid from Ukraine and offered contradicting reasons for the decision After the whistleblower complaint became known in September House speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated a formal impeachment inquiry on September The Trump administration subsequently released a memorandum of the July phone call confirming that after Zelensky mentioned purchasing American anti tank missiles Trump asked Zelensky to investigate and to discuss these matters with Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr According to the testimony of multiple administration officials and former officials the events were part of a broader effort to further Trump's personal interests by giving him an advantage in the upcoming presidential election Among several State Department employees testifying to congressional committees in October William B Taylor Jr the chargé d'affaires for Ukraine testified that soon after arriving in Ukraine in June he found that Zelensky was being subjected to pressure from a private initiative directed by Trump and led by Giuliani According to Taylor and others the goal was to coerce Zelensky into making a public commitment to investigate the company that employed Hunter Biden as well as rumors about Ukrainian involvement in the U S presidential election He said it was made clear that until Zelensky made such an announcement the administration would not release scheduled military aid for Ukraine and not invite Zelensky to the White House Zelensky denied that he felt pressured by Trump On December the House Intelligence Committee published a report authored by Democrats on the committee stating that the impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U S government solicited the interference of a foreign government Ukraine to benefit his reelection The report said Trump withheld military aid and a White House invitation in order to influence Ukraine to announce investigations into Trump's political rivals Furthermore the report described Trump was the only U S president thus far to have openly and indiscriminately defied impeachment proceedings by telling his administration officials to ignore subpoenas for documents and testimony The Republicans of the House Committees had released a draft of a countering report the previous day saying in part that the evidence does not prove any of these Democrat allegations and none of the Democrats' witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery extortion or any high crime or misdemeanor On December the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to pass two articles of impeachment abuse of power and obstruction of Congress After debate the House of Representatives impeached Trump with both articles on December Impeachment trial in the Senate Main article Impeachment trial of Donald Trump The Senate impeachment trial began on January On January the Republican Senate majority rejected amendments proposed by the Democratic minority to call witnesses and subpoena documents evidence collected during the House impeachment proceedings will be entered into the Senate record automatically unless objected to on a case by case basis For the three days January the impeachment managers for the House presented their case to the Senate They cited evidence to support charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and asserted that Trump's actions were exactly what the founding fathers had in mind when they included an impeachment process in the Constitution Responding over the next three days the Trump legal team did not deny the facts as presented in the charges but said Trump had not broken any laws or obstructed Congress They argued that the impeachment was constitutionally and legally invalid because Trump was not charged with a crime abuse of power is not an impeachable offense and Trump therefore should be acquitted immediately On January the Senate voted against allowing subpoenas to call witnesses or documents Republicans formed the majority for this vote Thus this became the first impeachment trial in U S history without witness testimony On February Trump was acquitted of both charges in a vote nearly along party lines with Republican Mitt Romney being the only senator and the only senator in U S history to cross party lines by voting to convict on one of the charges Following his acquittal Trump began identifying and removing political appointees and career officials he deemed insufficiently loyal Ivana Marie Trump née Zelnícková Czech 'z?l?i?t?kova? born February is a Czech American businesswoman and former model who was the first wife of Donald Trump They married in and divorced in They have three children together Donald Jr Ivanka and Eric Contents Early life Relationships Career Business ventures Writing Media appearances References Further reading External links Early life Ivana Zelnícková was born on February in the Moravian town of Zlín formerly known as Gottwaldov Czechoslovakia the daughter of Miloš Zelnícek and Marie Zelnícková née Francová From the age of her father nurtured and encouraged her skiing talent In the early s she attended Charles University in Prague According to Trump clarification needed she was selected as an alternate on the Czechoslovak ski team during the Winter Olympics her specialties being the downhill and slalom Czechoslovakia did not send an alpine ski team to the Winter Olympics In Petr Pomezný Secretary General of the Czechoslovak Olympic Committee said Who is this Ivana woman and why do people keep calling us about her We have searched so many times and have consulted many many people and there is no such girl in our records Relationships In Zelnícková married Austrian ski instructor Alfred Winklmayr to obtain Austrian citizenship to be able to leave Communist Czechoslovakia without defecting and being therefore unable to return to visit her parents She received her Austrian passport in March and as Ivana Winklmayr in obtained an absentee divorce from Alfred Winklmayr in Los Angeles California where he had moved to teach skiing After her then boyfriend George Jiri Staidl was killed in a car accident in Ivana moved to Canada where she lived with George Jiri Syrovatka whom she had dated since he had defected to Canada in and owned a ski boutique in Montreal For the following two years she lived in Montreal improved her English by taking night courses at McGill University and worked as a model Her modeling jobs included promoting the Summer Olympics that were being hosted in Montreal Ivana and Donald Trump in receiving line of state dinner for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in with U S president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan In this capacity Ivana was in New York City with a group of models in where she met Donald Trump Donald Trump and Ivana M Winklmayr were married in in a lavish wedding officiated by Norman Vincent Peale Donald and Ivana Trump became leading figures in New York society during the s They worked on several large projects including the renovation of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City construction of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort in Atlantic City New Jersey and the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan Ivana and Donald Trump at state dinner for King Fahd Donald and Ivana Trump had three children Donald Trump Jr born December Ivana Marie Trump better known as Ivanka Trump born October and Eric Trump born January Donald Jr learned to speak fluent Czech with the help of his maternal grandfather while daughter Ivanka has only a basic understanding of her mother's native tongue and Eric was not exposed to the language because at the time of his birth his grandparents were already comfortable enough in using English Ivana has ten grandchildren Ivana took a major role in The Trump Organization She became the Vice President of Interior Design for the company leading the signature design of Trump Tower Afterwards her then husband appointed her to head the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino as president She became a naturalized US citizen in In October Ivana Trump's year old father died suddenly from a heart attack According to The Guardian her father Miloš Zelnícek was an informer for Czechoslovakia's Státní bezpecnost StB intelligence service and relayed information from Ivana Trump including a prediction that George H W Bush would win the presidential election Ivana stood side by side with her husband Donald at the funeral in Zlín Jaroslav Jansa codename Jarda and secret collaborator to the StB also attended the funeral That Christmas when the family was on vacation in Aspen Colorado Ivana encountered Marla Maples who would later become Donald's second wife The Trumps' divorce proceedings appeared on New York tabloid newspapers' covers for eleven days in a row and Liz Smith wrote about nothing else for three months In a deposition relating to their divorce Ivana accused Donald Trump of rape and of pulling out handfuls of her hair In Harry Hurt III's book Lost Tycoon The Many Lives of Donald J Trump she confirmed that she had felt violated However in a statement provided by Donald Trump and his lawyers Ivana Trump stated that she had used the word rape but she did not want her words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense The divorce was granted in on the grounds of c ruel and inhuman treatment by Mr Trump A condition of the settlement was that Ivana wouldn't talk about their marriage without Donald Trump's permission Ivana was married to Riccardo Mazzucchelli from to She filed a million breach of contract suit against Mazzucchelli for violating the confidentiality clause in their prenuptial agreement In Mazzucchelli sued Ivana and Donald for libel In the summer of she began dating Roffredo Gaetani The relationship continued until his death in In April Ivana then married Rossano Rubicondi then The million wedding for guests was hosted by ex husband Donald Trump at his Mar a Lago estate Daughter Ivanka Trump was her maid of honor On December Ivana confirmed to the Associated Press that she filed a legal separation agreement three months previously she stated in interviews that she and her husband had an on again off again relationship In December she said she had filed for divorce from Rubicondi the couple was seen together as late as May Career Business ventures Soon after her divorce from Donald Trump in she developed lines of clothing fashion jewelry and beauty products that have been sold through television shopping channels In the Ivana branded Bentley Bay development in Miami Florida filed for bankruptcy In Trump was involved in several proposed condominium projects that ultimately failed including the never built Ivana Las Vegas In she sued the Finnish fashion company Ivana Helsinki accusing it of selling women's clothing that incorporates her name without permission Writing She has written several novels including For Love Alone Free to Love and a self help book called The Best is Yet to Come Coping with Divorce and Enjoying Life Again In June she began writing an advice column for Globe titled Ask Ivana about love and life In she bought of Croatia's second largest daily newspaper with a circulation of she used to travel with her parents from the Czech Republic to Croatia on vacation In February she launched her own lifestyle magazine titled Ivana's Living in Style In she contributed an advice column for Divorce Magazine In January Trump ended her advice column in Globe to pursue other business interests In she released an autobiography Raising Trump that covers her own upbringing and the early years of raising her children with Donald Trump Media appearances She played a cameo role in the Hollywood film The First Wives Club with the line Ladies you have to be strong and independent And remember don't get mad get everything She was the host of Oxygen Network's reality dating program Ivana Young Man which aired in In she was a boardroom advisor on The Apprentice citation needed In Trump took part in the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother finishing seventh Marla Ann Maples born October is an American actress and television personality Maples was the second wife of Donald Trump They married in and divorced in and had a daughter together named Tiffany Contents Early life Career Film television and theater Radio and music Other Philanthropy Personal life Relationships Health and wellness References External links Early life Marla Maples was born on October in Cohutta Georgia United States Her mother Ann Locklear Maples was a homemaker and model and her father Stanley Edward Maples a real estate developer county commissioner singer songwriter She was diagnosed with Lyme disease in her s Maples attended Northwest Whitfield High School in Tunnel Hill Georgia where she played basketball served as class secretary and was crowned the homecoming queen during her senior year she returned for the homecoming to crown the school's new queen After graduating from high school in Maples competed in beauty contests and pageants In she won the Miss Resaca Beach Poster Girl Contest in she was the runner up to Miss Georgia USA and in she won the Miss Hawaiian Tropic Career Film television and theater In Maples appeared as a celebrity guest at WWF WrestleMania VII serving as special guest timekeeper in the main event match between Hulk Hogan and defending WWF Champion Sgt Slaughter In that year Maples also made a special appearance in the hit television series Designing Women as herself In August Maples joined the cast of the Tony Award winning Broadway musical The Will Rogers Follies as Ziegfeld's Favorite a role originated by Cady Huffman when the show opened in May In Maples appeared alongside then husband Donald Trump in a cameo appearance in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the television series Something Wilder in Maples co hosted the and Miss Universe Pageant and the Miss USA Pageant Maples appeared in the films Maximum Overdrive Executive Decision For Richer or Poorer Happiness Richie Rich's Christmas Wish Black and White Two of Hearts Loving Annabelle A Christmas Too Many and A Nanny for Christmas citation needed In she returned to New York for Love Loss and What I Wore an off Broadway production In Maples was featured on Oprah Where Are They Now Since then she appeared in Switching Lanes directed by Thomas Mikal Ford On March Maples was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on season of Dancing with the Stars alongside her Switching Lanes co star Kim Fields She was partnered with professional dancer Tony Dovolani Maples and Dovolani were eliminated on Week of competition and finished in th place Maples also joined the women of ABC's morning talk show The View as a guest co host on March Maples is a keynote speaker with the London Speakers Bureau focusing on inspiring women wellness spirituality and motivation Maples was featured in the Summer of Peace Summit with the opportunity to discuss topics of peace and finding common ground Maples spoke at the Global Summit on Science Spirituality and Environment in India the event brought together speakers from around the world to discuss the integration of science and spirituality as well as self transformation and world transformation Maples was also a guest speaker on the Journeys of Faith podcast with Paula Faris in Radio and music Maples hosted her own talk radio show Awakening with Marla on Contact Talk Radio her guests included naturopathic doctors authors and astrologers Maples' album The Endless released in August is a musical journey of spiritual awakening and transformational energy featuring thought leaders such as the Dalai Lama Michael Beckwith and Deepak Chopra citation needed In December Maples won a Hollywood Music in Media Award for best New Age Ambient song for House of Love from that album Other In Maples starred in an advertising campaign for No Excuses jeans In she designed a line of maternity clothes sold in several major department stores In January a memoir by Maples All That Glitters Is Not Gold was announced by the ReganBooks division of HarperCollins Publishers In February a spokeswoman for the publishing company said The author and publisher by mutual consent have agreed not to publish the book Maples also makes personalized videos through the website Cameo Philanthropy Maples is committed to supporting charities and non profit organizations and is a long time vocal advocate of Kids Creating Peace an organization uniting Israeli and Palestinian children Maples is involved with AWARENYC org as an advisory board member AWARE Assisting Women through Action Resources Education is a grassroots organization dedicated to promoting awareness and generating funds in order to make meaningful improvements in the lives of women and girls in the New York City community and worldwide Maples also supports and is on the Steering Committee for The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine Personal life Relationships Maples is best known for her marriage to Donald Trump beginning with a relationship initiated while Trump was married to his first wife Ivana the two divorced in December Maples met Trump in and had a highly publicized relationship with at least one breakup Trump appeared on the front page of the New York Post eight days in a row one headline reported that according to Maples she had the best sex I've ever had with Trump The couple had one daughter Tiffany Ariana Trump born on October According to Maples the Long Island Rail Road shooting on December caused Trump to reevaluate his life and propose to her The couple married on December at New York City's Plaza Hotel in a ceremony reportedly attended by guests including Rosie O'Donnell and O J Simpson In Trump fired his bodyguard Spencer Wagner after a police officer found Maples and the bodyguard together under a lifeguard stand on a deserted beach at a m Both Maples and Trump denied that she was having an affair despite reports in the National Enquirer and other tabloids the bodyguard himself told conflicting stories about the incident Maples and Trump separated in May and divorced on June Under the terms of their prenuptial agreement and divorce settlement Maples is bound by a confidentiality agreement regarding their marriage Health and wellness Maples is an advocate of health and wellness Her daughter Tiffany Trump has described Maples making her healthy homemade chocolate in Trump Tower meanwhile her father would sneak her downstairs to the candy store to buy her Almond Joys Maples describes herself as a mostly vegan who avoids dairy eats organic and chooses Melania Trump m?'l??ni? born Melanija Knavs m?'la?nija 'kna?u?s Germanized as Melania Knauss April is a Slovenian American former model businesswoman and the current first lady of the United States as the wife of the th president of the United States Donald Trump Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto and grew up in Sevnica in the Yugoslav republic of Slovenia She worked as a fashion model through agencies in Milan and Paris and moved to New York City in Her modeling career was associated with Irene Marie Models and Trump Model Management In Knavs became a permanent resident of the United States She married Donald Trump in and obtained U S citizenship in She is the second first lady after Louisa Adams born outside the United States the first one to be a naturalized citizen and the first whose native language is not English Contents Early life Career Acquisition of U S citizenship Relationship with Donald Trump Early relationship Marriage presidential campaign RNC and plagiarism concerns Lawsuit against Daily Mail and General Trust Statement on bullying First Lady of the United States Be Best campaign Immigration Fashion Personal life Religion Health Cultural depictions References External links Early life Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto SR Slovenia then part of Yugoslavia on April Her father Viktor Knavs born March was from the nearby town of Radece and managed car and motorcycle dealerships for a state owned vehicle manufacturer Her mother Amalija née Ulcnik born July came from the village of Raka and worked as a patternmaker at the children's clothing manufacturer Jutranjka in Sevnica As a child Melania and other children of workers at the factory participated in fashion shows that featured children's clothing She has an older sister Ines who is an artist and her longtime confidant and an older half brother whom she reportedly has never met from her father's previous relationship Knavs grew up in a modest apartment in a housing block in Sevnica in the Lower Sava Valley Her father was in the League of Communists of Slovenia which espoused a policy of state atheism As was common however he had his daughters secretly baptized as Catholics When the Trumps met Pope Francis at the Vatican in Melania brought her rosary and asked the Pope to bless it When Knavs was a teenager she moved with her family to a two story house in Sevnica As a high school student she lived in a high rise apartment in Ljubljana She attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography in Ljubljana and studied architecture and design at the University of Ljubljana for one year before she dropped out Career Melania Trump at QVC Red Carpet Style Party Knavs began modeling at five years old and started doing commercial work at sixteen when she posed for the Slovenian fashion photographer Stane Jerko When she began working as a model she adapted the Slovene version of her last name Knavs to the German version Knauss At eighteen Knauss signed with a modeling agency in Milan Italy In she was named runner up in the Jana Magazine Look of the Year contest held in Ljubljana which promised its top three contestants an international modeling contract After attending the University of Ljubljana for one year Knauss modeled for fashion houses in Paris and Milan where in she met Metropolitan Models co owner Paolo Zampolli a friend of her future husband Donald Trump who was on a scouting trip in Europe Zampolli urged her to travel to the United States where he said he would like to represent her In Knauss moved to Manhattan Zampolli arranged for her to share an apartment with photographer Matthew Atanian in Zeckendorf Towers in Union Square Knauss was featured in a sexually explicit photoshoot for the January issue of Max a now defunct French men's magazine with another female model She also posed nude for the January edition of GQ magazine appearing on the cover naked but for diamond jewelry reclining on fur aboard Trump's custom fitted Boeing Asked about the photos in Donald Trump said Melania was one of the most successful models and she did many photo shoots including for covers and major magazines The Max photo was a picture taken for a European magazine prior to my knowing Melania In Europe pictures like this are very fashionable and common In Trump launched her own line of jewelry Melania Timepieces and Jewelry for sale on QVC She also marketed a Melania Skin Care Collection sold in high end department stores According to a financial filing in her businesses brought in between and in royalties that year In the two companies that manufactured her jewelry and skincare products under license said they had terminated their relationship with her On inauguration day her companies and products were listed in her official White House biography but they were quickly removed A White House spokesperson said her companies are no longer active and the First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so Acquisition of U S citizenship Knauss came to the United States from Slovenia in She resided in the U S briefly on a visitor's visa and then obtained H B work visas In she petitioned for a right to permanent residency under the EB program a program designed for people with extraordinary abilities According to information from the Migration Policy Institute only percent of people in their field would be expected to qualify The Washington Post reports that at that time Knauss's credentials included runway shows in Europe a Camel cigarette billboard ad in Times Square and in her biggest job at the time a spot in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated which featured her on the beach in a string bikini hugging a six foot inflatable whale In the analysis of Joel Gunter of the BBC Melania Trump does not appear at the time to have excelled in a niche area of modelling nor won awards or had her work written about in significant publications Gunter reports a conjecture that she may have been boosted by high profile testimonial letters said Nita Upadhye a US immigration specialist at NNU Immigration Law Testimonials form part of the application and the more high profile the reference the more weight it carries If Mrs Trump already dating Mr Trump at the time she applied secured letters from luminaries in fashion that would be significant Ms Upadhye said During the months that she campaigned with her husband prior to his successful bid for presidency Melania Trump defended his hard line on immigration practices and laws by stating that her own path and achievement of citizenship had been legal unlike those of the individuals Donald Trump was campaigning against However investigative reporting done by the Associated Press revealed that she had been paid for modeling jobs she had done before she had obtained her H B work visa and was still living in the U S using her visitor visa The Associated Press commented that Foreigners are not allowed to use a visitor visa to work for pay in the U S for American companies Doing so would violate the terms of that visa and could prohibit a foreigner from later changing his or her immigration status in the U S or bar the foreigner from the United States again without special permission to come back Melania Trump obtained her citizenship in According to media reports she sponsored her parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs who went through the immigration process using chain migration a route that the president has repeatedly criticized Relationship with Donald Trump Early relationship Kylie Bax Donald Trump Bill Clinton at that time the President of the United States and Melania Knauss future Trump at the U S Open in Flushing New York In September Knauss met real estate mogul Donald Trump at a party and the couple began dating while Trump was in the process of divorcing his second wife Marla Maples The divorce was finalized in Knauss continued her modeling career with her American magazine cover shoots including In Style Weddings New York magazine Avenue Philadelphia Style Vanity Fair and Vogue In the couple gained attention after a lewd interview with Shock jock Howard Stern on his show Knauss appeared with Trump while he campaigned for the Reform Party presidential nomination When she was asked by The New York Times what her role would be if Donald Trump were to become president she replied I would be very traditional like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy Marriage Knauss and Donald Trump became engaged in On January they married in an Anglican service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda by the Sea in Palm Beach Florida followed by a reception in the ballroom at her husband's Mar a Lago estate The marriage was her first and his third The event was attended by celebrities such as Katie Couric Matt Lauer Rudy Giuliani Heidi Klum Star Jones P Diddy Shaquille O'Neal Barbara Walters Conrad Black Regis Philbin Simon Cowell Kelly Ripa then Senator Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton At the reception Billy Joel serenaded the crowd with Just the Way You Are and supplied new lyrics to the tune of The Lady Is a Tramp The Trumps' wedding ceremony and reception were widely covered by the media She wore a dress made by John Galliano of the house of Christian Dior On March she gave birth to their son Barron William Trump She chose his middle name while her husband chose his first name presidential campaign Main article Donald Trump presidential campaign Melania gives the thumbs up at a campaign event with her husband Donald and son Barron November In November she was asked about her husband's presidential campaign and replied I encouraged him because I know what he will do and what he can do for America He loves the American people and he wants to help them She played a relatively small role in her husband's campaign which is atypical of spouses of presidential candidates In she told CNN her focus as first lady would be to help women and children She also said she would combat cyberbullying especially among children In July her official website was redirected to trump com On Twitter she stated that her site was outdated and did not accurately reflect her current business and professional interests RNC and plagiarism concerns On July she gave a speech at the Republican National Convention The speech contained a paragraph that was nearly identical to a paragraph of Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention When asked about the speech Melania said she wrote the speech herself with as little help as possible Two days later Trump staff writer Meredith McIver took responsibility and apologized for the confusion Melania was again accused of plagiarizing Michelle Obama's speeches when as part of her Be Best campaign in she gave a speech that appeared to closely echo remarks by Michelle Obama in and also distributed a written pamphlet that was nearly identical to one published by the Obama administration in Lawsuit against Daily Mail and General Trust In February she sued Daily Mail and General Trust the owner of British tabloid the Daily Mail seeking million in damages over an August article that alleged that she had worked for an escort service during her modeling days The lawsuit stated the article had ruined her unique once in a lifetime opportunity to establish multimillion dollar business relationships for a multi year term during which Plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world Her claim raised potential ethical questions with its implication that she intended to profit from being first lady On February the lawsuit was amended removing the language about her earning potential and focusing instead on emotional distress In April the parties settled the lawsuit and the Daily Mail issued a statement that said We accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we retract and withdraw them The Mail agreed to pay her million Statement on bullying Five days before the election she told a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough especially to children and teenagers It is never OK when a year old girl or boy is mocked bullied or attacked It is terrible when that happens on the playground And it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the Internet Regarding the contrast of her platform with her husband's use of Twitter during his campaign Melania said shortly after the election that she had rebuked him all the time but that he will do what he wants to do in the end First Lady of the United States Melania on Inauguration Day Donald and Melania at the Liberty Ball on Inauguration Day January She assumed the role of first lady of the United States on January She continued living in Manhattan at the Trump Tower with their son Barron until the end of his school year at Columbia Grammar Preparatory School They moved into the White House in Washington D C on June Her Secret Service code name is Muse beginning with the same letter as Trump's code name Mogul per Secret Service tradition Her staff of as of January is smaller than that of the two previous first ladies after one year of their husbands' administration She is the second foreign born woman to hold the title of first lady after Louisa Adams wife of John Quincy Adams who was born in in London to a father from Maryland and an English mother She is also the first naturalized citizen rather than birthright citizen to hold the title and the first whose native language is not English French President Macron greets Melania by kissing her hand On March she hosted her first White House event a luncheon for International Women's Day She spoke to an audience of women about her life as a female immigrant and about working towards gender equality both domestically and abroad noting the role of education as a tool against gender inequality In January The Wall Street Journal reported that during a three month period where she lived in New York in she took Air Force jet flights between New York City Florida and Washington at a cost of more than to taxpayers In comparison former first lady Michelle Obama's solo travel cost an average of about a year On March Trump scheduled a March meeting with policy executives from technology companies including Amazon Facebook Google Snap and Twitter to address online harassment and Internet safety with a particular focus on how those issues affect children Trump's office has avoided the use of the term cyberbullying and Trump has come under criticism for championing Internet civility while her husband's Internet behavior has been noted as uncivil Trump attended the roundtable event focusing on how children are affected by modern technology Trump said I am well aware that people are skeptical of me discussing this topic but that will not stop me from doing what I know is right Melania took an active role in planning the Trump administration's first state dinner on April to honor French president Emmanuel Macron With Brigitte Macron the French president's wife Trump visited a Paul Cézanne exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington the day before Melania Trump express her condolences to the family of El Paso shooting victims Jordan and Andre Anchondo on August In October Trump took a four country solo tour of Africa without her husband focusing on conservation and children and families visiting Ghana Malawi Kenya and Egypt The Trumps at the announcement of the First Lady's Be Best initiative May On November Trump issued an extraordinary public statement calling for the firing of Deputy National Security Advisor Mira Ricardel She had reportedly been privately pushing for Ricardel's ouster for weeks The next day it was announced that Ricardel would transition to a new role within the Administration It was described as unusual for a first lady to be publicly involved in White House personnel decisions During the El Paso shooting in Texas on August a lone gunman killed people and injured others Melania and President Trump visited the hospital where eight of the survivors were being cared for The president and first lady met with the families of survivors hospital staff and first responders and posed with a baby who had been orphaned when both of his parents were killed The White House had asked that the child be brought in and he was accompanied by his uncle During the State of the Union Address President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh who was seated beside Melania in the gallery She presented the medal to Limbaugh Be Best campaign On May Trump formally started the Be Best public awareness campaign which focused on well being for youth and advocated against cyberbullying and drug use The campaign was accompanied by a booklet that was promoted as having been written By First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission FTC but it was nearly identical to a document prepared in by the FTC The similarities prompted accusations of plagiarism to which her office responded by admonishing the press for reporting on the issue The fact checking site Snopes found the charge of plagiarism Mostly False saying Melania Trump did not claim she had written the pamphlet herself and she contributed an introduction to a slightly revised version of the booklet The FTC was always credited for the creation of the booklet and supported its inclusion in the first lady's 'Be Best' campaign Immigration Melania President Trump and other world leaders attend the D Day commemorations on June On June Melania referred to the Trump administration's Zero Tolerance policy at the border with Mexico where children were being separated from their parents She stated that she hates to see children separated from their families and wants there to be successful immigration reform On June she made a hastily planned trip to Texas to one of the locations at which the Trump Administration's family separation policy was being carried out She attended a roundtable with doctors medical staff social workers and other experts at Upbring New Hope Children's Shelter Fashion Vogue magazine compared Trump's wardrobe as first lady to that of Jacqueline Kennedy and Nancy Reagan noting that Trump closely works with her stylist designer Hervé Pierre preferring strongly tailored pieces in bold colors and wearing almost exclusively high end designers Personal life Religion Melania Trump with Pope Francis the Vatican May When the president and first lady visited Vatican City in May she identified as Catholic She is the first Catholic to live in the White House since President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline and is the second Catholic first lady of the United States When she visited the Vatican Pope Francis blessed her rosary beads and she placed flowers at the feet of a statue of Mary at the Vatican's children's hospital Melania and Donald Trump were married at Bethesda by the Sea Episcopal Church Their son Barron was baptized there as well Health On May she underwent an embolization which is a minimally invasive procedure that deliberately blocks a blood vessel in order to treat a benign kidney condition The procedure was reported successful and there were no reported complications Melania Trump has been portrayed many times in popular culture Contents Art Television Theatre Music videos See also References Art Bosnian sculptor Stevo Selak created a statue of Trump in Madame Tussauds in New York City unveiled a wax sculpture of her in Jim Carrey drew a portrait of Trump in On July a wooden statue carved out of a tree trunk with a chainsaw was unveiled by the Sava river in Rožno near Trump's hometown Sevnica in Slovenia The artwork was commissioned by U S artist Brad Downey who hired a local craftsman and artist Aleš Župevc aka Maxi to create the statue The statue is styled after the blue dress she wore during her husband's Donald Trump presidential inauguration in Local reception of the statue was mixed some residents praised it while others called it a disgrace and likened it to Smurfette In July the statue was torched and removed for its protection Television Trump has been parodied many times on Saturday Night Live mostly by Cecily Strong In an interview with Vanity Fair Strong stated she has heard through the grapevine Trump enjoys the parody Maya Rudolph has also impersonated her and Paris Hilton portrayed Trump when she hosted Saturday Night Live In July actress Laura Benanti played Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert satirizing her Republican National Convention speech that had accusations of plagiarism Benanti has reprised her role as Trump several times since including dressing as the Ghost of Colonialism for Halloween and for Christmas skits During the American Music Awards of Gigi Hadid impersonated Trump In Aquaria impersonated Trump during the Snatch Game challenge on the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race Plastique Tiara impersonated her in the season episode Trump The Rusical On Our Cartoon President Trump is voiced by Cody Lindquist and on The President Show she is voiced by Mila Filatova Theatre Gina Gershon portrayed Trump in the off Broadway show The Trump Family Special She previously played her in Funny or Die skits Music videos In October rapper T I released a music video with a Melania Trump lookalike dancing naked in a fake Oval Office Trump's communications director Stephanie Grisham responded Like it or not she is the first lady and this is the White House It's disrespectful and disgusting to portray her this way simply because of politics These kinds of vulgar attacks only further the divisiveness and bias in our country it needs to st Monica Samille Lewinsky born July is an American activist television personality fashion designer and former White House intern President Bill Clinton admitted to having had what he called an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House in The affair and its repercussions which included Clinton's impeachment became known later as the Clinton Lewinsky scandal As a result of the public coverage of the political scandal Lewinsky gained international celebrity status She subsequently engaged in a variety of ventures that included designing a line of handbags under her name being an advertising spokesperson for a diet plan and working as a television personality Lewinsky later decided to leave the public spotlight to pursue a master's degree in psychology in London In she returned to public view as a social activist speaking out against cyberbullying Contents Early life Scandal Life after the scandal Public re emergence References Further reading External links Early life Lewinsky was born in San Francisco California and grew up in an affluent family in Southern California in the Westside Brentwood area of Los Angeles and in Beverly Hills Her father is Bernard Lewinsky an oncologist who is the son of German Jews who escaped from Nazi Germany and moved to El Salvador and then to the United States when he was Her mother born Marcia Kay Vilensky is an author who uses the name Marcia Lewis In she wrote her only book the gossip biography The Private Lives of the Three Tenors During the Lewinsky scandal the press compared Lewis' unproven hints that she had an affair with opera star Plácido Domingo to her daughter's sexual relationship with Clinton Monica's maternal grandfather Samuel M Vilensky was a Lithuanian Jew and Monica's maternal grandmother Bronia Poleshuk was born in the British Concession of Tianjin China to a Russian Jewish family Monica's parents' acrimonious separation and divorce during and had a significant effect on her Her father later married his current wife Barbara her mother later married R Peter Straus a media executive and former director of the Voice of America under President Jimmy Carter The family attended Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and Monica attended Sinai Akiba Academy its religious school For her primary education she attended the John Thomas Dye School in Bel Air She then attended Beverly Hills High School but for her senior year transferred to and graduated from Bel Air Prep later known as Pacific Hills School in Following high school graduation Lewinsky attended Santa Monica College a two year community college and worked for the drama department at Beverly Hills High School and at a tie shop In she allegedly began a five year affair with Andy Bleiler her married former high school drama instructor In she enrolled at Lewis Clark College in Portland Oregon graduating with a bachelor's degree in psychology in With the assistance of a family connection Lewinsky got an unpaid summer White House internship in the office of White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta Lewinsky moved to Washington D C and took up the position in July She moved to a paid position in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs in December Scandal Main article Clinton Lewinsky scandal Clinton with Lewinsky in February Lewinsky's May government identification photograph Lewinsky stated that she had nine sexual encounters in the Oval Office with President Bill Clinton between November and March According to her testimony these involved fellatio and other sexual acts but not sexual intercourse Clinton had previously been confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct during his time as Governor of Arkansas Former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones filed a civil lawsuit against him alleging that he had sexually harassed her Lewinsky's name surfaced during the discovery phase of Jones' case when Jones' lawyers sought to show a pattern of behavior by Clinton which involved inappropriate sexual relationships with other government employees In April Lewinsky's superiors transferred her from the White House to the Pentagon because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton At the Pentagon she worked as an assistant to chief Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon Lewinsky told co worker Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton and Tripp began secretly recording their telephone conversations beginning in September Lewinsky left the Pentagon position in December Lewinsky submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case in January denying any physical relationship with Clinton and she attempted to persuade Tripp to lie under oath in that case Tripp gave the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr adding to his on going investigation into the Whitewater controversy Starr then broadened his investigation beyond the Arkansas land use deal to include Lewinsky Clinton and others for possible perjury and subornation of perjury in the Jones case Tripp reported the taped conversations to literary agent Lucianne Goldberg She also convinced Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her during their relationship and not to dry clean a blue dress that was stained with Clinton's semen Under oath Clinton denied having had a sexual affair sexual relations or a sexual relationship with Lewinsky News of the Clinton Lewinsky relationship broke in January On January Clinton stated I did not have sexual relations with that woman Miss Lewinsky in a nationally televised White House news conference The matter instantly occupied the news media and Lewinsky spent the next weeks hiding from public attention in her mother's residence at the Watergate complex News of Lewinsky's affair with Andy Bleiler her former high school drama instructor also came to light and he turned over to Starr various souvenirs photographs and documents that Lewinsky had sent him and his wife during the time that she was in the White House Clinton had also said There is not a sexual relationship an improper sexual relationship or any other kind of improper relationship which he defended as truthful on August because of his use of the present tense arguing it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is Starr obtained a blue dress from Lewinsky with Clinton's semen stained on it as well as testimony from her that the President had inserted a cigar into her vagina Clinton stated I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate but he denied committing perjury because according to Clinton the legal definition of oral sex was not encompassed by sex per se In addition he relied on the definition of sexual relations as proposed by the prosecution and agreed by the defense and by Judge Susan Webber Wright who was hearing the Paula Jones case Clinton claimed that certain acts were performed on him not by him and therefore he did not engage in sexual relations Lewinsky's testimony to the Starr Commission however contradicted Clinton's claim of being totally passive in their encounters Clinton and Lewinsky were both called before a grand jury he testified via closed circuit television she in person She was granted transactional immunity by the Office of the Independent Counsel in exchange for her testimony Life after the scandal The affair led to pop culture celebrity for Lewinsky as she had become the focus of a political storm Her immunity agreement restricted what she could talk about publicly but she was able to cooperate with Andrew Morton in his writing of Monica's Story her biography which included her side of the Clinton affair The book was published in March it was also excerpted as a cover story in Time magazine On March Barbara Walters interviewed Lewinsky on ABC's The program was watched by million Americans which ABC said was a record for a news show Lewinsky made about from her participation in the book and another million from international rights to the Walters interview but was still beset by high legal bills and living costs In June Ms magazine published a series of articles by writer Susan Jane Gilman sexologist Susie Bright and author host Abiola Abrams arguing from three generations of women whether Lewinsky's behavior had any meaning for feminism Also in Lewinsky declined to sign an autograph in an airport saying I'm kind of known for something that's not so great to be known for She made a cameo appearance as herself in two sketches during the May episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live a program that had lampooned her relationship with Clinton over the prior months By her own account Lewinsky had survived the intense media attention during the scandal period by knitting In September she took this interest further by beginning to sell a line of handbags bearing her name under the company name The Real Monica Inc They were sold online as well as at Henri Bendel in New York Fred Segal in California and The Cross in London Lewinsky designed the bags described by New York magazine as hippie ish reversible totes and traveled frequently to supervise their manufacture in Louisiana At the start of Lewinsky began appearing in television commercials for the diet company Jenny Craig Inc The million endorsement deal which required Lewinsky to lose or more pounds in six months gained considerable publicity at the time Lewinsky said that despite her desire to return to a more private life she needed the money to pay off legal fees and she believed in the product A Jenny Craig spokesperson said of Lewinsky She represents a busy active woman of today with a hectic lifestyle And she has had weight issues and weight struggles for a long time That represents a lot of women in America The choice of Lewinsky as a role model proved controversial for Jenny Craig and some of its private franchises switched to an older advertising campaign The company stopped running the Lewinsky ads in February concluded her campaign entirely in April and paid her only of the million contracted for her involvement Also at the start of Lewinsky moved to New York City lived in the West Village and became an A list guest in the Manhattan social scene In February she appeared on MTV's The Tom Green Show in an episode in which the host took her to his parents' home in Ottawa in search of fabric for her new handbag business Later in Lewinsky worked as a correspondent for Channel in the UK on the show Monica's Postcards reporting on U S culture and trends from a variety of locations In March Lewinsky no longer bound by the terms of her immunity agreement appeared in the HBO special Monica in Black and White part of the America Undercover series In it she answered a studio audience's questions about her life and the Clinton affair Lewinsky hosted the reality television dating program Mr Personality on Fox Television Network in where she advised young women contestants who were picking men hidden by masks Some Americans tried to organize a boycott of advertisers on the show to protest Lewinsky's capitalizing on her notoriety Nevertheless the show debuted to very high ratings and Alessandra Stanley wrote in The New York Times after years of trying to cash in on her fame by designing handbags and other self marketing schemes Ms Lewinsky has finally found a fitting niche on television The ratings however slid downward each successive week and after the show completed its initial limited run it did not reappear The same year she appeared as a guest on the programs V Graham Norton in the UK High Chaparall in Sweden and The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live in the U S After Clinton's autobiography My Life appeared in Lewinsky said in an interview with the British tabloid Daily Mail He could have made it right with the book but he hasn't He is a revisionist of history He has lied I really didn't expect him to go into detail about our relationship But if he had and he'd done it honestly I wouldn't have minded I did though at least expect him to correct the false statements he made when he was trying to protect the Presidency Instead he talked about it as though I had laid it all out there for the taking I was the buffet and he just couldn't resist the dessert This was a mutual relationship mutual on all levels right from the way it started and all the way through I don't accept that he had to completely desecrate my character By Lewinsky found that she could not escape the spotlight in the U S which made both her professional and personal life difficult She stopped selling her handbag line and moved to London to study social psychology at the London School of Economics In December Lewinsky graduated with a Master of Science degree Her thesis was titled In Search of the Impartial Juror An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre Trial Publicity For the next decade she tried to avoid publicity Lewinsky did correspond in with scholar Ken Gormley who was writing an in depth study of the Clinton scandals maintaining that Clinton had lied under oath when asked detailed and specific questions about his relationship with her In the items associated with Lewinsky that Bleiler had turned over to Starr were put up for auction by Bleiler's ex wife who had come into possession of them During her decade out of the public eye Lewinsky lived in London Los Angeles New York and Portland but due to her notoriety had trouble finding employment in the communications and marketing jobs for nonprofit organizations where she had been interviewed Public re emergence Lewinsky during her TED Talk March In May Lewinsky wrote an essay for Vanity Fair magazine titled Shame and Survival wherein she discussed her life and the scandal She continued to maintain that the relationship was mutual and wrote that while Clinton took advantage of her it was a consensual relationship She added I myself deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton Let me say it again I Myself Deeply Regret What Happened However she said it was now time to stick my head above the parapet so that I can take back my narrative and give a purpose to my past The magazine later announced her as a Vanity Fair contributor stating she would contribute to their website on an ongoing basis on the lookout for relevant topics of interest In July Lewinsky was interviewed in a three part television special for the National Geographic Channel titled The s The Last Great Decade The series looked at various events of the s including the scandal that brought Lewinsky into the national spotlight This was Lewinsky's first such interview in more than ten years In October she took a public stand against cyberbullying calling herself patient zero of online harassment Speaking at a Forbes magazine Under summit about her experiences in the aftermath of the scandal she said Having survived myself what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive too She said she was influenced by reading about the suicide of Tyler Clementi a Rutgers University freshman involving cyberbullying and joined Twitter to facilitate her efforts In March Lewinsky continued to speak out publicly against cyberbullying delivering a TED talk calling for a more compassionate Internet In June she became an ambassador and strategic advisor for anti bullying organization Bystander Revolution The same month she gave an anti cyberbullying speech at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity In September Lewinsky was interviewed by Amy Robach on Good Morning America about Bystander Revolution's Month of Action campaign for National Bullying Prevention Month Lewinsky wrote the foreword to an October book by Sue Scheff and Melissa Schorr Shame Nation The Global Epidemic of Online Hate In October Lewinsky tweeted the MeToo hashtag to indicate that she was a victim of sexual harassment and or sexual assault but did not provide details She wrote an essay in the March issue of Vanity Fair in which she did not directly explain why she used the MeToo hashtag in October She did write that looking back at her relationship with Bill Clinton although it was consensual because he was years older than her and in a position with a lot more power than she had in her opinion the relationship constituted an abuse of power on Clinton's part She added that she had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder due to the experiences involved after the relationship was disclosed In May Lewinsky was disinvited from an event hosted by Town Country when Bill Clinton accepted an invitation to the event In September Lewinsky spoke at a conference in Jerusalem Following her speech she sat for a Q A session with the host journalist Yonit Levi The first question Levi asked was whether Lewinsky thinks that Clinton owes her a private apology Lewinsky refused to answer the question and walked off the stage She later tweeted that the question was posed in a pre event meeting with Levi and Lewinsky told her that such a question was off limits A spokesman for the Israel Television News Company which hosted the conference and is Levi's employer responded that Levi had kept all the agreements she made with Lewinsky and honored her requests In she was interviewed by John Oliver on his HBO show where they discussed the importance of solving the problem of public shaming and how her situation may have been different if social media had existed at the time that the scandal broke in the late s William Jefferson Clinton né Blythe III born August is an American lawyer and politician who served as the nd president of the United States from to Prior to his presidency he served as governor of Arkansas and and as attorney general of Arkansas A member of the Democratic Party Clinton was known as a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist Third Way political philosophy He is the husband of former secretary of state former U S senator and two time candidate for president Hillary Clinton Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University University College Oxford and Yale Law School He met Hillary Rodham at Yale and married her in After graduating from law school Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as the attorney general of Arkansas serving from to He later served as governor of Arkansas As governor he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association Clinton was elected president in defeating incumbent Republican opponent George H W Bush At age he became the third youngest president in history Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform In the elections the Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in years In Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D Roosevelt to be elected to a second full term He passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program as well as financial deregulation measures During the last three years of Clinton's presidency the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus the first such surplus since In foreign policy Clinton ordered U S military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein participated in the Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli Palestinian peace process and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process In Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives becoming the second U S president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson The impeachment was based on accusations that Clinton committed perjury and obstruction of justice for the purpose of concealing his affair with Monica Lewinsky a year old White House intern He was acquitted by the Senate and completed his term in office Clinton left office with the highest end of office approval rating of any U S president since World War II and has continually received high scores in the historical rankings of U S presidents Since leaving office he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work He created the William J Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of AIDS and global warming In Clinton published his autobiography My Life In he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti and after the Haiti earthquake he teamed up with George W Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund In addition he secured the release of two American journalists imprisoned by North Korea visiting the capital Pyongyang in and negotiating their release with then North Korean leader Kim Jong il Contents Early life and career College and law school years Georgetown University Oxford Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy Law school Governor of Arkansas Democratic presidential primaries Presidency presidential campaign First term presidential election Second term Impeachment and acquittal Pardons and commutations Military and foreign affairs Somalia Rwanda Bosnia and Herzegovina Irish peace talks Iran Osama bin Laden Kosovo Iraq Vietnam China Israeli Palestinian conflict Judicial appointments Public opinion Public image Sexual misconduct allegations Post presidency present Activities until campaign presidential election After the election presidential election After the election Post presidential health concerns Wealth Honors and recognition Electoral history Authored books Recordings See also References Further reading Primary sources Popular books Scholarly studies External links Official Interviews speeches and statements Media coverage Other Early life and career Further information Early life and career of Bill Clinton Clinton's birthplace in Hope Arkansas Clinton in Hot Springs High School's yearbook Part of a series on New Democrats Barack Obama and Bill Clinton Ideology show Organizations show A coloured voting box svg Politics portal vte Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope Arkansas He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth and Virginia Dell Cassidy later Virginia Kelley His parents had married on September but this union later proved to be bigamous as Blythe was still married to his third wife Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after Bill was born leaving him in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy who owned and ran a small grocery store At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races In Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr who co owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs Arkansas with his brother and Earl T Ricks The family moved to Hot Springs in Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname it was not until Clinton turned that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half brother Roger Clinton Jr He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them In Hot Springs Clinton attended St John's Catholic Elementary School Ramble Elementary School and Hot Springs High School where he was an active student leader avid reader and musician Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section He briefly considered dedicating his life to music but as he noted in his autobiography My Life Sometime in my sixteenth year I decided I wanted to be in public life as an elected official I loved music and thought I could be very good but I knew I would never be John Coltrane or Stan Getz I was interested in medicine and thought I could be a fine doctor but I knew I would never be Michael DeBakey But I knew I could be great in public service Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class After a vigorous defense that made use of his budding rhetorical and political skills he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck it made him realize that someday he would study law Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life both occurring in that contributed to his decision to become a public figure One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F Kennedy The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr 's I Have a Dream speech on TV which impressed him enough that he later memorized it College and law school years Georgetown University Clinton ran for president of the Student Council while attending the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University With the aid of scholarships Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D C receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in In and Clinton won elections for class president From to he was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J William Fulbright While in college he became a brother of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry but he never became a Freemason He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity Oxford Upon graduating from Georgetown in Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College Oxford where he initially read for a B Phil in philosophy politics and economics but transferred to a B Litt in politics and ultimately a B Phil in politics Clinton did not expect to return for the second year because of the draft and he switched programs this type of activity was common among other Rhodes Scholars from his cohort He had received an offer to study at Yale Law School Yale University but he left early to return to the United States and did not receive a degree from Oxford During his time at Oxford Clinton befriended fellow American Rhodes Scholar Frank Aller In Aller received a draft letter that mandated deployment to the Vietnam War Aller's suicide had an influential impact on Clinton British writer and feminist Sara Maitland said of Clinton I remember Bill and Frank Aller taking me to a pub in Walton Street in the summer term of and talking to me about the Vietnam War I knew nothing about it and when Frank began to describe the napalming of civilians I began to cry Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things He also developed an interest in rugby union which he played at Oxford While Clinton was president in he received an honorary degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford specifically for being a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace having a powerful collaborator in his wife and for winning general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy During the Vietnam War Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in and While at Oxford he participated in Vietnam War protests and organized a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event in October He was planning to attend law school in the U S and knew he might lose his deferment Clinton tried unsuccessfully to obtain positions in the National Guard or Air Force and he then made arrangements to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps ROTC program at the University of Arkansas He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC National Guard or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam He further stated that because he opposed the war he would not volunteer to serve in uniform but would subject himself to the draft and would serve if selected only as a way to maintain my political viability within the system Clinton registered for the draft and received a high number meaning that those whose birthdays had been drawn as numbers to would be drafted before him making it unlikely he would be called up In fact the highest number drafted was Colonel Eugene Holmes the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform He issued a notarized statement during the presidential campaign I was informed by the draft board that it was of interest to Senator Fulbright's office that Bill Clinton a Rhodes Scholar should be admitted to the ROTC program I believe that he purposely deceived me using the possibility of joining the ROTC as a ploy to work with the draft board to delay his induction and get a new draft classification During the campaign it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in that he had been unaware of it until then Although legal Clinton's actions with respect to the draft and deciding whether to serve in the military were criticized during his first presidential campaign by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans some of whom charged that he had used Fulbright's influence to avoid military service Clinton's campaign manager James Carville successfully argued that Clinton's letter in which he declined to join the ROTC should be made public insisting that voters many of whom had also opposed the Vietnam War would understand and appreciate his position Law school After Oxford Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor J D degree in In he met his future wife Hillary Rodham in the Yale Law Library she was a class year ahead of him They began dating and were soon inseparable After only about a month Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California The couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in to take a job leading McGovern's effort there He spent considerable time in Dallas at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue where he had an office Clinton worked with future two term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk future governor of Texas Ann Richards and then unknown television director and future filmmaker Steven Spielberg Bill married Hillary on October and their only child Chelsea was born on February Governor of Arkansas Further information Electoral history of Bill Clinton After graduating from Yale Law School Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas In he ran for the House of Representatives Running in a conservative district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti Republican and anti incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal Hammerschmidt who had received percent of the vote in defeated Clinton by only a percent to percent margin In Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election Clinton was elected Newly elected Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton meets with President Jimmy Carter in fifteen years before assuming the nation's highest office In Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary At just years old he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe a farmer from Texarkana Clinton was only years old when he took office the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas Due to his youthful appearance Clinton was often called the Boy Governor He worked on educational reform and directed the maintenance of Arkansas's roads with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform However his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift detained in Fort Chaffee in Monroe Schwarzlose of Kingsland in Cleveland County polled percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D White in the general election that year As Clinton once joked he was the youngest ex governor in the nation's history Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright Lindsey and Jennings In he was elected governor a second time and kept the office for ten years Effective with the election Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years During his term he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system For senior citizens he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property tax exemption He became a leading figure among the New Democrats a group of Democrats who advocated welfare reform smaller government and other policies not supported by liberals Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council DLC the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level Clinton delivered the Democratic response to Reagan's State of the Union Address and served as chair of the National Governors Association from to bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas Governor and Mrs Clinton attend the Dinner Honoring the Nation's Governors in the White House with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan In the early s Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration The Arkansas Education Standards Committee was chaired by Clinton's wife Hillary who was also an attorney as well as the chair of the Legal Services Corporation The committee transformed Arkansas's education system Proposed reforms included more spending for schools supported by a sales tax increase better opportunities for gifted children vocational education higher teachers' salaries more course variety and compulsory teacher competency exams The reforms passed in September after Clinton called a special legislative session the longest in Arkansas history Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship He defeated four Republican candidates for governor Lowe White and Jonesboro businessmen Woody Freeman and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock Also in the s the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation which later dogged his presidential administration After extensive investigation over several years no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas According to some sources Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years but he eventually switched positions During Clinton's term Arkansas performed its first executions since the death penalty had been reinstated in As Governor he oversaw four executions one by electric chair and three by lethal injection Later Clinton was the first president to pardon a death row inmate since the federal death penalty was reinstated in Democratic presidential primaries In the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race after incumbent New York governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of multiple marital infidelities Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor initially favored but ultimately vetoed by the First Lady For the nomination Clinton endorsed Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the Democratic National Convention but his speech which was minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered Clinton presented himself both as a moderate and as a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in and Presidency Main article Presidency of Bill Clinton During his presidency Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch His policies particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of billion in billion in and billion in during the last three years of Clinton's presidency Over the years of the recorded surplus the gross national debt rose each year At the end of the fiscal year September for each of the years a surplus was recorded The U S treasury reported a gross debt of trillion in trillion in trillion in and trillion in Over the same period the Office of Management and Budget reported an end of year December gross debt of trillion in trillion in in and trillion in At the end of his presidency the Clintons moved to Chappaqua New York in order to satisfy a residency requirement for his wife to win election as a U S Senator from New York presidential campaign Further information Democratic Party presidential primaries United States presidential election and Bill Clinton presidential campaign In the first primary contest the Iowa Caucus Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa senator Tom Harkin During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls Following Super Bowl XXVI Clinton and his wife Hillary went on Minutes to rebuff the charges Their television appearance was a calculated risk but Clinton regained several delegates He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning the media viewed it as a victory News outlets labeled him The Comeback Kid for earning a firm second place finish Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead However former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South With no major Southern state remaining Clinton targeted New York which had many delegates He scored a resounding victory in New York City shedding his image as a regional candidate Having been transformed into the consensus candidate he secured the Democratic Party nomination finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California The Clintons in a White House Christmas portrait During the campaign questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner arose Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that with Hillary voters would be getting two presidents for the price of one Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U S president and he returned to his home state to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed After killing a police officer and a civilian Rector shot himself in the head leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death According to both Arkansas state law and Federal law a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter soft on crime accusations Bush's approval ratings were around percent during the Gulf War and he was described as unbeatable When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes which hurt his approval rating Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep By election time the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over percent Finally conservatives were previously united by anti communism but with the end of the Cold War the party lacked a uniting issue When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform many moderates were alienated Clinton then pointed to his moderate New Democrat record as governor of Arkansas though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton Clinton and his running mate Al Gore toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign shoring up support and pledging a new beginning On March during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov Bill Clinton of Arkansas and asked what he was going to do about AIDS to which Clinton replied I feel your pain The televised exchange led to AIDS becoming an issue in the presidential election On April then candidate Clinton met with members of ACT UP and other leading AIDS advocates to discuss his AIDS agenda and agreed to make a major AIDS policy speech to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention and to sign onto the AIDS United Action five point plan electoral vote results Clinton won the presidential election electoral votes against Republican incumbent George H W Bush electoral votes and billionaire populist Ross Perot zero electoral votes who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success Clinton's victory in the election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty four years The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter First term First inauguration of Bill Clinton January File First Inaugural January Bill Clinton ogv Video of the First inauguration of Bill Clinton First inauguration of Bill Clinton January MENU audio only version Problems playing these files See media help Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America Inaugural address January Clinton was inaugurated as the nd president of the United States on January Less than a month after taking office he signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition This action had bipartisan support and was popular with the public Two days after taking office on January the th anniversary of the U S Supreme Court decision in Roe v Wade Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush Clinton said abortion should be kept safe legal and rare a slogan that had been suggested by University of California San Diego political scientist Samuel L Popkin and first used by Clinton in December while campaigning During the eight years of the Clinton administration the U S abortion rate declined by about percent On February Clinton made his first address to the nation announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit Two days later in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress Clinton unveiled his economic plan The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class which had been high on his campaign agenda Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes based on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates On May Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation Critics contended that the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted In August Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of which passed Congress without a Republican vote It cut taxes for million low income families made tax cuts available to percent of small businesses and raised taxes on the wealthiest percent of taxpayers Additionally it mandated that the budget be balanced over a number of years through the implementation of spending restraints Clinton and Vice President Al Gore on the South Lawn August On September Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton The plan was well received in political circles but it was eventually doomed by well organized lobby opposition from conservatives the American Medical Association and the health insurance industry However Clinton biographer John F Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House Despite the Democratic majority in Congress the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration In November David Hale the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater controversy alleged that while he was governor of Arkansas Clinton pressured him to provide an illegal loan to Susan McDougal the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal A U S Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project but the Clintons themselves were never charged and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair On November Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States The law also imposed a five day waiting period on purchases until the NICS system was implemented in He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit a subsidy for low income workers In December of the same year allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in The American Spectator In the affair later known as Troopergate the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas The story mentioned a woman named Paula a reference to Paula Jones Brock later apologized to Clinton saying the article was politically motivated bad journalism and that the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives Yitzhak Rabin Clinton and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on September That month Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as Don't Ask Don't Tell which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual preferences a secret The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation The policy was developed as a compromise after Clinton's proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military met staunch opposition from prominent Congressional Republicans and Democrats including senators John McCain R AZ and Sam Nunn D GA According to David Mixner Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore who felt that the President should lift the ban even though his executive order was sure to be overridden by the Congress Some gay rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order noting that President Harry S Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future Later in his presidency in Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not out of whack The policy remained controversial and was finally repealed in removing open sexual orientation as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA December File Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA December Bill Clinton ogv Clinton's December remarks on the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement Remarks on the Signing of NAFTA December MENU audio only version Problems playing these files See media help On January Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law Throughout his first year in office Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U S Senate Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures there remained however strong disagreement within the party Opposition came chiefly from anti trade Republicans protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot The bill passed the house with votes against opposed Republicans and Democrats voting in favor Democrats Republicans and one independent against The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president The Omnibus Crime Bill which Clinton signed into law in September made many changes to U S crime and law enforcement legislation including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death such as running a large scale drug enterprise During Clinton's re election campaign he said My crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins murderers of federal law enforcement officers and nearly additional categories of violent felons It also included a subsection of assault weapons ban for a ten year period On October the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website whitehouse gov The site was followed with three more versions resulting in the final edition launched in The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web based communication According to Robert Longley Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies the U S court system and the U S military onto the Internet thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before On July Clinton issued Executive Order Federal Information Technology ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public After two years of Democratic Party control the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid term elections in for the first time in forty years A speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the December White House Conference on HIV AIDS projected that a cure for AIDS and a vaccine to prevent further infection would be developed The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic including an accelerated drug approval process He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV Clinton announced three new initiatives creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the Federal government convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention and launching a new effort by the Justice Department to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS Clinton's coat of arms granted by the Chief Herald of Ireland in The White House FBI files controversy of June arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security clearance documents Craig Livingstone head of the White House Office of Personnel Security improperly requested and received from the FBI background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals many of these were employees of former Republican administrations In March Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined there was no credible evidence of any crime Ray's report further stated there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved in seeking the files On September Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states Paul Yandura speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office said Clinton's signing DOMA was a political decision that they made at the time of a re election In defense of his actions Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a very reactionary Congress Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse and it was time to move on and get the president re elected Clinton himself said DOMA was something which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for Bush up I think it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that Others were more critical The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims historic revisionism In a July editorial The New York Times opined The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in as an election year wedge issue signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments Ultimately in United States v Windsor the U S Supreme Court struck down DOMA in June Despite DOMA Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights During his presidency Clinton issued two substantially controversial executive orders on behalf of gay rights the first lifting the ban on security clearances for LGBT federal employees and the second outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce Under Clinton's leadership federal funding for HIV AIDS research prevention and treatment more than doubled Clinton also pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays and for the private sector Employment Non Discrimination Act which buoyed by his lobbying failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in Advocacy for these issues paired with the politically unpopular nature of the gay rights movement at the time led to enthusiastic support for Clinton's election and reelection by the Human Rights Campaign Clinton came out for gay marriage in July and urged the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in He was later honored by GLAAD for his prior pro gay stances and his reversal on DOMA When I took office only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web Now even my cat has its own page Bill Clinton's announcement of Next Generation Internet initiative October The United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by the People's Republic of China PRC to influence the domestic policies of the United States before and during the Clinton administration and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself Despite the evidence the Chinese government denied all accusations As part of a initiative to curb illegal immigration Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act IIRIRA on September Appointed by Clinton the U S Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about people a year to about Ken Gormley author of The Death of American Virtue Clinton vs Starr reveals in his book that Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines in November During his visit to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation APEC forum in Manila while he was on his way to meet with a senior member of the Philippine government Clinton was saved from danger minutes before his motorcade was scheduled to drive over a bridge charged with a timed improvised explosive device IED According to officials the IED was large enough to blow up the entire presidential motorcade Details of the plot were revealed to Gormley by Lewis C Merletti former member of the presidential protection detail and Director of the Secret Service Intelligence officers intercepted a radio transmission indicating there was a wedding cake under a bridge This alerted Merletti and others as Clinton's motorcade was scheduled to drive over a major bridge in downtown Manila Once more the word wedding was the code name used by a terrorist group for a past assassination attempt Merletti wanted to reroute the motorcade but the alternate route would add forty five minutes to the drive time Clinton was very angry as he was already late for the meeting but following the advice of the secret service possibly saved his life Two other bombs had been discovered in Manila earlier in the week so the threat level that day was high Security personnel at the Manila International Airport uncovered several grenades and a timing device in a travel bag Officials also discovered a bomb near a major U S naval base The president was scheduled to visit both these locations later in the week An intense investigation took place into the events in Manila and it was discovered that the group behind the bridge bomb was a Saudi terrorist group in Afghanistan known as al Qaeda and the plot was masterminded by Osama bin Laden Until recently this thwarted assassination attempt was never made public and remained top secret Only top members of the U S intelligence community were aware of these events presidential election electoral vote results In the presidential election Clinton was re elected receiving percent of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole percent of the popular vote and Reform candidate Ross Perot percent of the popular vote Clinton received of the Electoral College votes with Dole receiving electoral votes He became the first Democratic incumbent since Lyndon B Johnson to be elected to a second term and the first Democrat since Franklin D Roosevelt to be elected president more than once Second term In the January State of the Union address Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children Senators Ted Kennedy a Democrat and Orrin Hatch a Republican teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program SCHIP the largest successful health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency That year Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act Bill Clinton negotiated the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of by the Republican Congress In October he announced he was getting hearing aids due to hearing loss attributed to his age and his time spent as a musician in his youth In he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act also known as the Gramm Leach Bliley Act which repealed the part of the Glass Steagall Act that had prohibited a bank from offering a full range of investment commercial banking and insurance services since its enactment in Impeachment and acquittal Main article Impeachment of Bill Clinton Clinton's impeachment trial in Clinton was impeached on December by the House of Representatives The House voted to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury and voted to impeach him for obstruction of justice Clinton was only the second U S president after Andrew Johnson to be impeached Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with year old White House and later Department of Defense employee Monica Lewinsky After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid term elections To hold impeachment proceedings the Republican leadership called a lame duck session in December Future president Donald Trump and Clinton shaking hands at Trump Tower June While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party line vote there was lively debate on the House floor The two charges passed in the House largely with Republican support but with a handful of Democratic votes as well were for perjury and obstruction of justice The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v Clinton Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit The obstruction charge was based on his actions to conceal his relationship with Lewinsky before and after that deposition The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term so the trial was held over until the next Congress Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams Connolly The Senate finished a twenty one day trial on February with the vote of Not Guilty Guilty on the perjury charge and Not Guilty Guilty on the obstruction of justice charge Both votes fell short of the constitutional two thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder The final vote was generally along party lines with no Democrats voting guilty and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty On January Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court that he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case Pardons and commutations Clinton controversially issued pardons and commutations on his last day in office on January Most of the controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother Hugh Rodham accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision making regarding the pardons Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Rich She was later replaced by then Republican James Comey who found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part Some of Clinton's pardons remain a point of controversy Military and foreign affairs Further information Foreign policy of the Bill Clinton administration Col Paul Fletcher USAF and Clinton speak before boarding Air Force One November Somalia The Battle of Mogadishu occurred in Somalia in During the operation two U S helicopters were shot down by rocket propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors trapping soldiers behind enemy lines This resulted in an urban battle that killed American soldiers wounded others and one was taken prisoner There were many more Somali casualties Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets a spectacle broadcast on television news programs In response U S forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground Rwanda In April genocide broke out in Rwanda Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a final solution to eliminate all Tutsis was underway long before the administration publicly used the word genocide Fearing a reprisal of the events in Somalia the previous year Clinton chose not to intervene President Clinton has referred to the failure of the U S government to intervene in the genocide as one of his main foreign policy failings saying I don't think we could have ended the violence but I think we could have cut it down And I regret it Bosnia and Herzegovina In U S and NATO aircraft bombed Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U N safe zones and pressure them into a peace accord that would end the Bosnian war Clinton deployed U S peacekeepers to Bosnia in late to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement Irish peace talks In before his presidency Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the UK government In Clinton angered London by granting a visa to Gerry Adams leader of Sinn Féin the IRA's political arm In November Clinton became the first U S president to visit Northern Ireland seeing both the divided communities of Belfast and later famously handshaking Adams months into an IRA ceasefire during the Troubles Despite unionist criticism Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London Dublin the paramilitaries and the other groups Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks which eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in Clinton plays the saxophone presented to him by Russian president Boris Yeltsin at a private dinner in Russia January Iran In February the Clinton administration agreed to pay Iran US million equivalent to million in in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in against the U S in the International Court of Justice after the shooting down of Iran Air Flight by the U S Navy guided missile cruiser Osama bin Laden Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the U S government during the presidency of Bill Clinton and continued to be until bin Laden's death in Despite claims by Mansoor Ijaz and Sudanese officials that the Sudanese government had offered to arrest and extradite bin Laden and that U S authorities rejected each offer the Commission Report stated that we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim In response to a State Department warning about bin Laden and the bombings of U S embassies in East Africa by al Qaeda which killed people including Americans Clinton ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden all of which were unsuccessful In August Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan targeting the Al Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan Kosovo Clinton greets Air Force personnel at Spangdahlem Air Base May In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Clinton authorized the use of U S Armed Forces in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in named Operation Allied Force The stated reasoning behind the intervention was to stop the ethnic cleansing and what the Clinton administration labeled genocide of Albanians by Yugoslav anti guerilla military units General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission With United Nations Security Council Resolution the bombing campaign ended on June The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region NATO announced its soldiers all survived combat though two died in an Apache helicopter crash Journalists in the popular press criticized genocide statements by the Clinton administration as false and greatly exaggerated Prior to the bombing campaign on March common estimates showed that the number of civilians killed in the over year long conflict in Kosovo had approximately been of which were primarily Albanians but also Serbs and that there was no evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing In a post war inquiry the Organization for Security and Co operation in Europe noted the patterns of the expulsions and the vast increase in lootings killings rape kidnappings and pillage once the NATO air war began on March In the U N supervised Supreme Court of Kosovo ruled that genocide the intent to destroy a people did not take place but recognized a systematic campaign of terror including murders rapes arsons and severe maltreatments with the intention being the forceful departure of the Albanian population The term ethnic cleansing was used as an alternative to genocide to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement though critics charge there is little difference Slobodan Miloševic the president of Yugoslavia at the time of the atrocities was eventually brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the war He died in before the completion of the trial Iraq In Clinton's State of the Union Address he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical biological and nuclear weapons Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade and much of his nation's wealth not on providing for the Iraqi people but on developing nuclear chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly remarkable job finding and destroying more of Iraq's arsenal than was destroyed during the entire gulf war Now Saddam Hussein wants to stop them from completing their mission I know I speak for everyone in this chamber Republicans and Democrats when I say to Saddam Hussein You cannot defy the will of the world and when I say to him You have used weapons of mass destruction before we are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again File Video Recording of Photo Opportunity at Camp David NARA ogv Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak President Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at Camp David July Seeking to weaken Hussein's grip on power Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of into law on October which instituted a policy of regime change against Iraq though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces The administration then launched a four day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox lasting from December to At the end of this operation Clinton announced that So long as Saddam remains in power he will remain a threat to his people his region and the world With our allies we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors American and British aircraft in the Iraq no fly zones attacked hostile Iraqi air defenses times in and times in Vietnam Clinton's November visit to Vietnam was the first by a U S president since the end of the Vietnam War On October Clinton signed into law the U S China Relations Act of which granted permanent normal trade relations PNTR trade status to People's Republic of China The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform Clinton also oversaw a boom of the U S economy Under Clinton the United States had a projected federal budget surplus for the first time since China See also Chinagate Clinton and Chinese president Jiang Zemin holding a joint press conference at the White House October Relations were damaged for a time by the U S bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May President Clinton later apologized for the bombing stating it was accidental The U S China Relations Act of granted China permanent normal trade relations NTR status previously called most favoured nation MFN when China becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization WTO ending annual review and approval of NTR The Act was signed into law on October by Clinton President Clinton in pushed Congress to approve the U S China trade agreement and China's accession to the WTO saying that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests Economically this agreement is the equivalent of a one way street It requires China to open its markets with a fifth of the world's population potentially the biggest markets in the world to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways said Clinton U S manufacturing jobs have decreased by almost five million since Since the entry of China into the WTO in the decline in manufacturing jobs has accelerated Israeli Palestinian conflict After initial successes such as the Oslo Accords of the early s which also led to the Israel Jordan peace treaty in and the Wye River Memorandum in October Clinton attempted an effort to end the Israeli Palestinian conflict He brought Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for the Camp David Summit in July which lasted days Following the failures of the peace talks Clinton said Arafat had missed the opportunity to facilitate a just and lasting peace In his autobiography Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit Following another attempt in December at Bolling Air Force Base in which the president offered the Clinton Parameters the situation broke down completely after the end of the Taba Summit and with the start of the Second Intifada Judicial appointments Main articles Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates and List of federal judges appointed by Bill Clinton Ruth Bader Ginsburg accepting her nomination to the Supreme Court from President Clinton Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg in and Stephen Breyer in Along with his two Supreme Court appointments Clinton appointed judges to the United States courts of appeals and judges to the United States district courts His judicial appointments are the second most in American history behind those of Ronald Reagan Clinton also experienced a number of judicial appointment controversies as nominees to federal judgeships did not receive a vote in the Republican controlled Senate Judiciary Committee In all percent of his nominees were confirmed Sonia Sotomayor was one of the judges who Clinton appointed to the Court of Appeals She was nominated by Clinton in to the Second Circuit Sotomayor was confirmed in following a delay of more than a year that was caused by Republican opposition Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts In his eight years in office of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and of his district court nominees were black of his court of appeals nominees and of his district court nominees were women Clinton appointed the first African American judges to the Fourth Circuit Roger Gregory and the Seventh Circuit Ann Claire Williams Clinton also appointed the nation's first openly gay or lesbian federal judge when he named Deborah Batts to the U S District Court for the Southern District of New York Batts was confirmed by the Senate in a voice vote in Public opinion Clinton's approval ratings throughout his presidential career Roper Center Throughout Clinton's first term his job approval rating fluctuated in the s and s In his second term his rating consistently ranged from the high s to the high s After his impeachment proceedings in and Clinton's rating reached its highest point According to a CBS News New York Times poll Clinton left office with an approval rating of percent which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era Clinton's average Gallup poll approval rating for his last quarter in office was the highest final quarter rating any president has received for fifty years Forty seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters As he was leaving office a CNN USA Today Gallup poll revealed that percent of Americans said they would miss him percent thought he would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life percent thought he would be remembered more for his involvement in personal scandal than for his accomplishments and percent answered No to the question Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy The same percentage said he would be remembered as either outstanding or above average as a president while percent said he would be remembered as below average or poor ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as You can't trust him he's got weak morals and ethics and he's done a heck of a good job Public opinion of Bill Clinton Gallup In May a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor George W Bush found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned Gallup polls in and showed that Clinton was regarded by percent of Americans as the greatest president in U S history In percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of American voters regarded Clinton as the best president since World War II making him the third most popular among postwar presidents behind John F Kennedy and Ronald Reagan The same poll showed that just of American voters regarded Clinton as the worst president since World War II A poll by The Washington Post asked scholars of the American Political Science Association to rank all the U S presidents in order of greatness According to their findings Clinton ranked eighth overall with a rating of percent Public image Main article Public image of Bill Clinton Clinton addressing the British parliament on November As the first baby boomer president Clinton was the first chief executive since Calvin Coolidge who was not alive during World War II Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward stated that Clinton's innovative use of sound bite ready dialogue personal charisma and public perception oriented campaigning were a major factor in his high public approval ratings When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show he was described by some religious conservatives as the MTV president Opponents sometimes referred to him as Slick Willie a nickname which was first applied to him in by Pine Bluff Commercial journalist Paul Greenberg Greenberg believed that Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of previous Arkansas Governors such as Winthrop Rockefeller Dale Bumpers and David Pryor The claim Slick Willie would last throughout his presidency Standing at a height of ft in m Clinton is tied with four others as the fifth tallest president in the nation's history His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed Bubba especially in the South Since he has frequently been referred to as The Big Dog or Big Dog His prominent role in campaigning for President Obama during the presidential election and his widely publicized speech at the Democratic National Convention where he officially nominated Obama and criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Republican policies in detail earned him the nickname Explainer in Chief Clinton at a Democratic Get out the vote rally in Los Angeles California on November Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency In Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton the first Black president saying Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness single parent household born poor working class saxophone playing McDonald's and junk food loving boy from Arkansas Morrison noted that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments and she compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that she said blacks typically endure Many viewed this comparison as unfair and disparaging both to Clinton and to the African American community at large Clinton a Baptist has been open about his faith The state funeral of George H W Bush in December Shortly after Clinton took office Richard Mellon Scaife a conservative newspaper owner began to underwrite investigations into Clinton's past reportedly with the hope of discovering a scandal which would cost him his presidency Leading the Arkansas Project Scaife and other associates sought to find sources in Clinton's home state of Arkansas who would be able to reveal hidden misconduct of the president Clinton was a friend of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein Sexual misconduct allegations Main article Bill Clinton sexual misconduct allegations Clinton and Monica Lewinsky on February Several women have publicly accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct including rape harassment and sexual assault Additionally some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non consensual despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time because of the vast power differential between a year old intern and the president of the United States These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in in light of the MeToo movement with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair In Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in Clinton denied the allegations In April the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August In lawyers for Paula Jones released court documents that alleged a pattern of sexual harassment by Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas Robert S Bennett Clinton's main lawyer for the case called the filing a pack of lies and an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States funded by Clinton's political enemies Clinton later agreed to an out of court settlement and paid Jones Bennett said the president made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit which was held at the White House Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky a denial that became the basis for an impeachment charge of perjury In Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in An independent counsel determined Willey gave false information to the FBI inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation On March Julie Hiatt Steele a friend of Willey released an affidavit accusing the former White House aide of asking her to lie to corroborate Ms Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office An attempt by Kenneth Starr to prosecute Steele for making false statements and obstructing justice ended in a mistrial and Starr declined to seek a retrial after Steele sought an investigation against the former Independent Counsel for prosecutorial misconduct Linda Tripp's grand jury testimony also differed from Willey's claims regarding inappropriate sexual advances Also in Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of although she said she did not remember the exact date To support her charge Broaddrick notes that she told multiple witnesses in she had been raped by Clinton something these witnesses also state in interviews to the press Broaddrick had earlier filed an affidavit denying any unwelcome sexual advances and later repeated the denial in a sworn deposition In a NBC interview wherein she detailed the alleged rape Broaddrick said she had denied under oath being raped only to avoid testifying about the ordeal publicly The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy beyond his impeachment in In the wake of the MeToo movement which shed light on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment especially in the workplace various commentators and Democratic political leaders as well as Lewinsky herself have revisited their view that the Lewinsky affair was consensual and instead characterized it as an abuse of power or harassment in light of the power differential between a president and a year old intern In Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning During the Congressional elections no Democratic candidate for office asked Clinton to campaign with him or her a change that The New York Times attributed to the revised understanding of the Lewinsky scandal Post presidency present Main article Post presidency of Bill Clinton Clinton greets a Hurricane Katrina evacuee September In the background second from the right is then Senator Barack Obama Bill Clinton has continued to be active in public life since leaving office in giving speeches fundraising and founding charitable organizations and has spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Convention Activities until campaign In Clinton warned that pre emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start though some dispute this In Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal The William J Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock Arkansas was dedicated in Clinton released a best selling autobiography My Life in In he released Giving How Each of Us Can Change the World which also became a New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews Former president George H W Bush and Clinton in the White House Library January In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami U N secretary general Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort After Hurricane Katrina Clinton joined with fellow former president George H W Bush to establish the Bush Clinton Tsunami Fund in January and the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year As part of the tsunami effort these two ex presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre game show and traveled to the affected areas They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in April Based on his philanthropic worldview Clinton created the William J Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative CHAI which strives to combat that disease and has worked with the Australian government toward that end The Clinton Global Initiative CGI begun by the Clinton Foundation in attempts to address world problems such as global public health poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict In Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugared drinks in schools Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in to improve cooperation among those cities and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative The foundation has received donations from a number of governments all over the world including Asia and the Middle East In Foundation director Inder Singh announced deals to reduce the price of anti malaria drugs by percent in developing nations Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition on alternative energy which was voted down In the early s Clinton took flights on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet in connection with Clinton Foundation work Years later Epstein was convicted on sex trafficking charges Clinton's office released a statement in saying President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago or those with which he has been recently charged in New York In and President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane one to Europe one to Asia and two to Africa which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation Staff supporters of the Foundation and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade presidential election Clinton speaking at the Democratic National Convention During the Democratic presidential primary campaign Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife Hillary Through speaking engagements and fundraisers he was able to raise million toward her campaign Some worried that as an ex president he was too active on the trail too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama and alienating his supporters at home and abroad Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary which Obama won Later in the primaries there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs especially in Pennsylvania Considering Bill's remarks many thought he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election Fears were allayed August when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the Democratic National Convention saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is ready to lead After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt After the election Clinton with then President Barack Obama and Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett in July Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York City on September In Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong il Kim issued a pardon Since then Clinton has been assigned a number of other diplomatic missions He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in following a series of hurricanes which caused billion in damages Clinton organized a conference with the Inter American Development Bank where a new industrial park was discussed in an effort to build back better In response to the Haiti earthquake U S president Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery Funds began pouring into Haiti which led to funding becoming available for Caracol Industrial Park in a part of the country unaffected by the earthquake While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE A a large apparel subcontractor to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage In the summer of the South Korean company signed a contract at the U S State Department ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant In Clinton announced support of and delivered the keynote address for the inauguration of NTR Ireland's first environmental foundation At the Democratic National Convention Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama presidential election Clinton campaigning at an election rally for his wife Hillary who was running for President of the United States Clinton speaking at the Democratic National Convention During the presidential election Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary including a campaign stop in Wilmington North Carolina In a series of tweets then President elect Donald Trump criticized his ability to get people out to vote After the election On September Clinton partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter George H W Bush George W Bush and Barack Obama to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities Post presidential health concerns In September Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery In March he again underwent surgery this time for a partially collapsed lung On February he was rushed to NewYork Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan after complaining of chest pains and he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart After this procedure Clinton adopted the plant based whole foods vegan diet which had been recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn Wealth The Clintons incurred several million dollars in legal bills during his presidency which were paid off four years after he left office Bill and Hillary Clinton have each earned millions of dollars from book publishing In Forbes reported Bill and Hillary Clinton made about million in the years from January to December mostly from paid speeches business consulting and book writing Also in CNN reported the Clintons combined to receive more than million in paid speeches from until spring In May The Hill reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than million in speaking fees since the start of and that Hillary Clinton also made million or more from her book Hard Choices during the same time period In July The Wall Street Journal reported that at the end of the Clintons were worth between million and million and that in the last year they were required to disclose the information the Clintons made between and million mostly from speaking fees earned by the former president Clinton earned more than million from paid speeches between and In June ABC News and The Washington Post reported that Bill Clinton has made more than million giving paid speeches since leaving public office and in The New York Times reported that the Clintons' income tax returns show they made million in the eight years from January to December including almost million from his speaking and book writing Bill Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year since leaving office in mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe he often earned to per speech Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin paid Bill Clinton for a speech in Moscow Hillary Clinton said she and Bill came out of the White House financially broke and in debt especially due to large legal fees incurred during their years in the White House We had no money when we got there and we struggled to you know piece together the resources for mortgages for houses for Chelsea's education She added Bill has worked really hard we had to pay off all our debts he had to make double the money because of obviously taxes and then pay off the debts and get us houses and take care of family members Honors and recognition Main article List of honors and awards received by Bill Clinton Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees including Doctorate of Law degrees and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees He is an honorary fellow of University College Oxford which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar although he did not complete his studies there Schools have been named for Clinton and statues have been built to pay him homage U S states where he has been honored include Missouri Arkansas Kentucky and New York He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock Arkansas in his honor on December He has been honored in various other ways in countries that include the Czech Republic Papua New Guinea Germany and Kosovo The Republic of Kosovo in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue Clinton was selected as Time's Man of the Year in and again in along with Ken Starr From a poll conducted of the American people in December Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the th century He was honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children a J William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding a TED Prize named for the confluence of technology entertainment and design and was named as an Honorary GLAAD Media Award recipient for his work as an advocate for the LGBT community In President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Clinton with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Cross for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January Clinton declared at the ceremony that in the United States of America I really don't believe former American presidents need awards anymore but I am very honored by this one I love Haiti and I believe in its promise U S president Barack Obama awarded Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November Secretary of Defense Cohen presents President Clinton the DoD Medal for Distinguished Public Service Bil Clinton statue in Ballybunion erected to commemorate his golfing visit Bill Clinton statue in Pristina the capital of Kosovo Electoral history Year Office District Democratic Republican Other Arkansas rd congressional district Arkansas Bill Clinton John Paul Hammerschmidt Arkansas Attorney General Arkansas Bill Clinton Unopposed Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Lynn Lowe Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Frank White Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Frank White Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Woody Freeman Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Frank White Governor of Arkansas Arkansas Bill Clinton Sheffield Nelson President of the United States United States of America Bill Clinton George H W Bush Ross Perot I President of the United States United States of America Bill Clinton Bob Dole Ross Perot Reform Authored books Putting People First How We Can All Change America New York Three Rivers Press September ISBN Between Hope and History New York Times Books ISBN My Life st ed New York Vintage Books ISBN Giving How Each of Us Can Change the World st ed New York Knopf ISBN Back to Work book st ed New York Knopf ISBN The President Is Missing st ed Knopf ISBN Recordings Bill Clinton is one of the narrators on a recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf on Pentatone together with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren Sofia Villani Scicolone Dame Grand Cross OMRI Italian so'fi?a vil'la?ni ?iko'lo?ne born September known professionally as Sophia Loren Italian 'l??ren English l?'r?n is an Italian actress Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant Loren began her film career at age in She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade until her five picture contract with Paramount in launched her international career Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion Houseboat and It Started in Naples Loren's performance as Cesira in the movie Two Women directed by Vittorio De Sica earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress making her the first actor or actress to win an Oscar for a foreign language performance She holds the record for having earned six David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress Two Women Yesterday Today and Tomorrow Marriage Italian Style for which she was nominated for a second Oscar Sunflower The Voyage and A Special Day After starting a family in the early s Loren chose to make rarer film appearances Most recently she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men and Nine For Nine she received the Satellite Award for Best Cast together with the ensemble cast She has also won a Grammy Award five special Golden Globes including the Cecil B DeMille Award a BAFTA Award a Laurel Award the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Honorary Academy Award in In she received the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievements one of many such awards In Loren was named by the American Film Institute the st greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema She is currently the only living actress and the highest ranked living person on the list Contents Early life Pageantry In film as Sofia Scicolone and as Sofia Lazzaro as Sophia Loren International fame Later career Lawsuits Personal life Affair with Cary Grant Marriage and family Filmography Box office rating Books Selected discography Singles Albums Compilations Russian National Orchestra References External links Early life Sofia Villani Scicolone was born on September in the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome Italy the daughter of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone a construction engineer of noble descent Loren wrote in her autobiography that she is entitled to call herself the Marchioness of Licata Scicolone Murillo Loren's father Riccardo Scicolone refused to marry Villani leaving the piano teacher and aspiring actress without financial support Loren met with her father three times at age five age seventeen and in at his deathbed citing that she forgave him but had never forgotten his abandonment of her mother Loren's parents had another child together her sister Maria in Loren has two younger paternal half brothers Giuliano and Giuseppe Romilda Sofia and Maria lived with Loren's grandmother in Pozzuoli near Naples During the Second World War the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies During one raid as Loren ran to the shelter she was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the chin After that the family moved to Naples where they were taken in by distant relatives After the war Loren and her family returned to Pozzuoli Loren's grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their living room selling homemade cherry liquor Romilda Villani played the piano Maria sang and Loren waited on tables and washed dishes The place was popular with the American GIs stationed nearby citation needed Pageantry Loren age as Sofia Lazzaro during the Miss Italia beauty pageant At age Loren as Sofia Lazzaro entered the Miss Italia beauty pageant and was assigned as Candidate being one to the four sharing contestants representing the Lazio region She was selected as one of the last three finalists and won the title of Miss Elegance while Liliana Cardinale won the title of Miss Cinema and Anna Maria Bugliari won the grand title of Miss Italia She returned in as president of the jury for the st edition of the pageant In Loren crowned the st Miss Italia pageant winner In film as Sofia Scicolone and as Sofia Lazzaro At age as Sofia Lazzaro she enrolled in the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia the national film school of Italy and appeared as an uncredited extra in Mervyn LeRoy's film Quo Vadis when she was years old That same year she appeared in the Italian film Era lui se se in which she played an odalisque and was credited as Sofia Lazzaro In the early part of the decade she played bit parts and had minor roles in several films including La Favorita as Sophia Loren Carlo Ponti changed her name and public image to appeal to a wider audience as Sophia Loren being a twist on the name of the Swedish actress Märta Torén and suggested by Goffredo Lombardo Her first starring role was in Aida for which she received critical acclaim After playing the lead role in Two Nights with Cleopatra her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples directed by Vittorio De Sica Too Bad She's Bad also released in and La Bella Mugnaia became the first of many films in which Loren co starred with Marcello Mastroianni Over the next three years she acted in many films including Scandal in Sorrento Lucky to Be a Woman Boy on a Dolphin Legend of the Lost and The Pride and the Passion International fame Loren in It Started in Naples in which she sang Tu Vun Fr L'Americano Sophia Loren's Chinese theatre prints and signature Loren became an international film star following her five picture contract with Paramount Pictures in Among her films at this time were Desire Under the Elms with Anthony Perkins based upon the Eugene O'Neill play Houseboat a romantic comedy co starring Cary Grant and George Cukor's Heller in Pink Tights in which she appeared as a blonde for the first time In she starred in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women a stark gritty story of a mother who is trying to protect her year old daughter in war torn Italy The two end up gang raped inside a church as they travel back to their home city following cessation of bombings there Originally cast as the daughter Loren fought against type and was eventually cast as the mother actress Eleonora Brown would portray the daughter Loren's performance earned her many awards including the Cannes Film Festival's best performance prize and an Academy Award for Best Actress the first major Academy Award for a non English language performance or to an Italian actress She won international awards for Two Women The film was extremely well received by critics and a huge commercial success Though proud of this accomplishment Loren did not show up to this award citing fear of fainting at the award ceremony Nevertheless Cary Grant telephoned her in Rome the next day to inform her of the Oscar award citation needed During the s Loren was one of the most popular actresses in the world and continued to make films in the United States and Europe starring with prominent leading men In her career reached its pinnacle when she received million to appear in The Fall of the Roman Empire In she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in Marriage Italian Style Drawing of Loren by Nicholas Volpe after she won an Oscar for Two Women Among Loren's best known films of this period are Samuel Bronston's epic production of El Cid with Charlton Heston The Millionairess with Peter Sellers It Started in Naples with Clark Gable Vittorio De Sica's triptych Yesterday Today and Tomorrow with Marcello Mastroianni Peter Ustinov's Lady L with Paul Newman the classic Arabesque with Gregory Peck and Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong with Marlon Brando Loren received four Golden Globe Awards between and as World Film Favorite Female Loren appeared in fewer movies after becoming a mother During the next decade most of her roles were in Italian features During the s she was paired with Richard Burton in the last De Sica directed film The Voyage and a remake of the film Brief Encounter The film had its premiere on US television on November as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series on NBC In she starred in The Cassandra Crossing It fared extremely well internationally and was a respectable box office success in US market She co starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola's A Special Day This movie was nominated for international awards such as two Oscars best actor in leading role best foreign picture It won a Golden Globe Award and a César Award for best foreign movie Loren's performance was awarded with a David di Donatello Award the seventh in her career The movie was extremely well received by American reviewers and became a box office hit Following this success Loren starred in an American thriller Brass Target This movie received mixed reviews although it was moderately successful in the United States and internationally In she won her fourth Golden Globe for world film favorite Other movies of this decade were Academy award nominee Sunflower which was a critical success and Arthur Hiller's Man of La Mancha which was a critical and commercial failure despite being nominated for several awards including two Golden Globes O'Toole and James Coco were nominated for two NBR awards in addition the NBR listed Man of La Mancha in its best ten pictures of list In after the international success of the biography Sophia Loren Living and Loving Her Own Story by A Hotchner Loren portrayed herself and her mother in a made for television biopic adaptation of her autobiography Sophia Loren Her Own Story Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari each portrayed the younger Loren In she became the first female celebrity to launch her own perfume 'Sophia' and a brand of eyewear soon followed In while in Italy she made headlines after serving an day prison sentence on tax evasion charges a fact that failed to hamper her popularity or career In fact Bill Moore then employed at Pickle Packers International advertising department sent her a pink pickle shaped trophy for being the prettiest lady in the prettiest pickle In the supreme court of Italy cleared her of the charges She acted infrequently during the s and in turned down the role of Alexis Carrington in the television series Dynasty Although she was set to star in episodes of CBS's Falcon Crest in as Angela Channing's half sister Francesca Gioberti negotiations fell through at the last moment and the role went to Gina Lollobrigida instead Loren preferred devoting more time to raising her sons Loren has recorded more than two dozen songs throughout her career including a best selling album of comedic songs with Peter Sellers reportedly she had to fend off his romantic advances Partly owing to Sellers's infatuation with Loren he split with his first wife Anne Howe Loren has made it clear to numerous biographers that Sellers's affections were reciprocated only platonically This collaboration was covered in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers where actress Sonia Aquino portrayed Loren The song Where Do You Go To My Lovely by Peter Sarstedt was said to have been inspired by Loren Later career Loren in In Loren received the Academy Honorary Award for her contributions to world cinema and was declared one of the world cinema's treasures In she received the Golden Globe Cecil B DeMille Award She presented Federico Fellini with his honorary Oscar in April In Loren stated on Larry King Live that Fellini had planned to direct her in a film shortly before his death in Throughout the s and s Loren was selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business including cookbooks eyewear jewelry and perfume She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Robert Altman's film Ready to Wear co starring Julia Roberts In a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs California Walk of Stars was dedicated to her In Grumpier Old Men Loren played a femme fatale opposite Walter Matthau Jack Lemmon and Ann Margret The film was a box office success and became Loren's biggest US hit in years At the th Moscow International Film Festival in she was awarded an Honorable Prize for contribution to cinema In the American Film Institute named Loren among the greatest female stars of Golden Age of Hollywood cinema In Loren received a Special Grand Prix of the Americas Award at the Montreal World Film Festival for her body of work She filmed two projects in Canada during this time the independent film Between Strangers directed by her son Edoardo and co starring Mira Sorvino and the television miniseries Lives of the Saints In after five years off the set and years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film Loren starred in Rob Marshall's film version of Nine based on the Broadway musical that tells the story of a director whose midlife crisis causes him to struggle to complete his latest film he is forced to balance the influences of numerous formative women in his life including his deceased mother Loren was Marshall's first and only choice for the role The film also stars Daniel Day Lewis Penélope Cruz Kate Hudson Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman As a part of the cast she received her first nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award In Loren played her own mother in a two part Italian television miniseries about her early life directed by Vittorio Sindoni with Margareth Madc as Loren entitled La Mia Casa C Piena di Specchi My House Is Full of Mirrors it based on the memoir by her sister Maria In July Loren made her film comeback in an Italian adaptation of Jean Cocteau's play The Human Voice La Voce Umana which charts the breakdown of a woman who is left by her lover with her younger son Edoardo Ponti as director Filming took under a month during July in various locations in Italy including Rome and Naples It was Loren's first significant feature film since Nine Loren received a star on November at Almeria Walk of Fame due to her work on Bianco rosso e She received the Almería Tierra de Cine award Lawsuits In September Loren filed a lawsuit against adult websites for posting altered nude photos of her on the internet Personal life Loren in Loren is a Roman Catholic Her primary residence has been in Geneva Switzerland since late She also owns homes in Naples and Rome Loren is an ardent fan of the football club S S C Napoli In May when the team was third in Serie B she then aged told the Gazzetta dello Sport that she would do a striptease if the team won Loren posed for the Pirelli Calendar Affair with Cary Grant Loren and Cary Grant co starred in Houseboat Grant's wife Betsy Drake wrote the original script and Grant originally intended that she would star with him After he began an affair with Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion Grant arranged for Loren to take Drake's place with a rewritten script for which Drake did not receive credit The affair ended in bitterness before The Pride and the Passion's filming ended causing problems on the Houseboat set Grant hoped to resume the relationship but Loren agreed to marry Carlo Ponti instead Marriage and family Loren first met Ponti in when she was and he was Though Ponti had been long separated from his first wife Giuliana he was not legally divorced when Loren married him by proxy two male lawyers stood in for them in Mexico on September The couple had their marriage annulled in to escape bigamy charges but continued to live together In they became French citizens after their application was approved by then French President Georges Pompidou Ponti then obtained a divorce from Giuliana in France allowing him to marry Loren on April They had two children Carlo Ponti Jr born on December and Edoardo Ponti born on January Loren's daughters in law are Sasha Alexander and Andrea Meszaros Loren has four grandchildren Loren remained married to Carlo Ponti until his death on January from pulmonary complications In Loren's sister Maria married the youngest son of Benito Mussolini Romano with whom she had two daughters Alessandra a national conservative Italian politician and Elisabetta Filmography Year Title Role Notes I Am the Capataz Secretary of the Dictator Barbablu's Six Wives Girl kidnapped Tototarzan A tarzanide Il voto A commoner at the Piedigrotta festival Hearts at Sea Extra Uncredited Brief Rapture A girl in the boardinghouse Owner of the Vapor Ballerinetta Milan Billionaire Extra Uncredited Magician for Force The bride Quo Vadis Lygia's slave Uncredited Era lui se se It Was Him Yes Yes Odalisque As Sofia Lazzaro Anna Night club assistant Uncredited And Arrived the Accordatore Amica di Giulietta I Dream of Zorro Conchita As Sofia Scicolone La Favorita Leonora The Country of the Campanelli Bonbon Pilgrim of Love Giulietta Beppina Delli Colli We Find Ourselves in the Gallery Marisa Two Nights with Cleopatra Cleopatra Nisca Girls Marked Danger Elvira Good Folk's Sunday Ines Aida Aida Woman of the Red Sea Barbara Lama Neapolitan Carousel Sisina A Slice of Life gazzara Segment La macchina fotografica A Day in Court Anna The Anatomy of Love The girl Poverty and Nobility Gemma The Gold of Naples Sofia Segment Pizze a Credito Attila Honoria Too Bad She's Bad Lina Stroppiani The Sign of Venus Agnese Tirabassi The Miller's Beautiful Wife Carmela The River Girl Nives Mongolini Scandal in Sorrento Donna Sofia Lucky to Be a Woman Antonietta Fallari Boy on a Dolphin Phaedra The Pride and the Passion Juana Legend of the Lost Dita Desire Under the Elms Anna Cabot The Key Stella The Black Orchid Rose Bianco Volpi Cup for Best Actress Houseboat Cinzia Zaccardi That Kind of Woman Kay Heller in Pink Tights Angela Rossini It Started in Naples Lucia Curio Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy The Millionairess Epifania Parerga A Breath of Scandal Princess Olympia Two Women Cesira Academy Award for Best Actress BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress Bambi Award for Best Actress International Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award David di Donatello for Best Actress Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Sant Jordi Award for Best Performance in a Foreign Film El Cid Ximena Madame Sans Gene a k a Madame Catherine Hubscher known as Madame Sans Gene Boccaccio ' Zoe Segment La Riffa The Prisoners of Altona with Maximillian Schell Robert Wagner and Frederic March Filmed in Tirrenia Italy Five Miles to Midnight Lisa Macklin Yesterday Today and Tomorrow Adelina Sbaratti Anna Molteni Mara David di Donatello for Best Actress Nominated Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress The Fall of the Roman Empire Lucilla Marriage Italian Style Filumena Marturano David di Donatello for Best Actress Moscow International Film Festival Award for Best Actress Golden Laurel Awards for Best Actress nd Place Nominated Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Motion Picture Musical or Comedy Nominated Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress Operation Crossbow Nora Lady L Lady Louise Lendale Lady L Judith Judith Arabesque Yasmin Azir A Countess from Hong Kong Natasha More Than a Miracle Isabella Candeloro Nominated Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress Ghosts Italian Style Maria Lojacono Sunflower Giovanna David di Donatello for Best Actress Nominated Fotogramas de Plata Best Foreign Performer Lady Liberty Maddalena Ciarrapico The Priest's Wife Valeria Billi Man of La Mancha Aldonza Dulcinea The Sin Hermana Germana The Voyage Adriana de Mauro David di Donatello for Best Actress San Sebastian International Film Festival Best Actress Verdict Teresa Leoni Brief Encounter Anna Jesson Television film Hallmark hall of fame Sex Pot la pupa del gangster Get Rita Pupa known by several titles 'Sex Pot' 'La Pupa del Gangster' 'Get Rita' The Cassandra Crossing Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain A Special Day Antoinette David di Donatello for Best Actress Globo d'Oro Award for Best Actress Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress Blood Feud Titina Paterno Brass Target Mara cameo role Angela Angela Kincaid Firepower Adele Tasca Sophia Loren Her Own Story Herself Romilda Villani her mother After the Fall of New York Cameo appearance Aurora Aurora Television film Courage Marianna Miraldo Television film The Fortunate Pilgrim Lucia Television miniseries Running Away Cesira Television miniseries remake of Two Women Saturday Sunday and Monday Rosa Priore Premiered during the Chicago Film Festival Pret r Porter Isabella de la Fontaine National Board of Review Award for Best Cast Nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress Motion Picture Grumpier Old Men Maria Sophia Coletta Ragetti Soleil fr Maman Levy Francesca e Nunziata Francesca Montorsi Television miniseries Between Strangers Olivia Too Much Romance It's Time for Stuffed Peppers Maria Lives of the Saints Teresa Innocente Television miniseries Nine Mamma Satellite Award for Best Cast Motion Picture Nominated Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Nominated Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated Washington D C Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble My House Is Full of Mirrors Romilda Villani Television miniseries Cars Mama Topolino Voice in non English speaking countries La Voce Umana One woman film role Short film presented at the Tribeca Film Festival Sophia Loren Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival Herself Documentary taped at the TCM Classic Film Festival The Life Ahead Madame Rose Upcoming film Box office rating In The Motion Picture Herald both British and American exhibitors voted for Loren within the Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll most popular actress rd most popular star in UK nd most popular actress nd most popular star in UK rd most popular actress th most popular star in UK most popular actress in UK th most popular star in America th most popular star in UK th most popular star in America Books Loren Sophia Yesterday Today Tomorrow My Life Atria Books ISBN Loren Sophia Sophia Loren's Recipes and Memories Gt Pub Corp ISBN Selected discography Singles Mambo Bacan from La Fille du Fleuve Nyves RCA rpm Che m'e'mparato a fr I wanna a guy RCA A V rpm S'agapn Paola Orlandi Adoro te RCA A V rpm Bing Bang Bong from Houseboat Almost in Your Arms Philips PB rpm Goodness Gracious Me Grandpa's Grave with Peter Sellers Parlophone R rpm Zoo be Zoo be Zoo Bangers And Mash with Peter Sellers Parlophone R rpm Albums Houseboat Philips BBL With George Duning and Cary Grant Escandalos Imperiales Heliodor With Maurice Chevalier Peter and Sophia Parlophone PCSM LP with Peter Sellers Poesie di Salvatore Di Giacomo CAM LP Man Of La Mancha United Artists Records LP with Peter O'Toole James Coco Mitch Leigh Joe Darion Compilations Le canzoni di Sophia Loren CGD xCD Secrets Of Rome it Traditional Line CD ?? ???a? ??t? ??? ?? ???e ???p? ?? ?a?d? ?a? ?? ?e?f??? it ??f??? CD Russian National Orchestra Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf Jean Pascal Beintus Wolf Tracks Mikhail Gorbachev Bill Clinton Sophia Loren Russian National Orchestra Kent Nagano PENTATONE PTC Prokofiev Pedro y el lobo Jean Pascal Beintus Las Huellas del Lobo Antonio Banderas Sophia Loren Russian National Orchestra Kent Nagano PENTATONE PTC Paramount Pictures Corporation also known simply as Paramount is an American film studio and subsidiary of ViacomCBS It is the fifth oldest film studio in the world the second oldest film studio in the United States and the sole member of the Big Five film studios still located in the city limits of Los Angeles In film producer Adolph Zukor put actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo In Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only The company's headquarters and studios are located at Melrose Avenue Hollywood California United States Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association MPA Contents History Famous Players Film Company Famous Players Lasky Publix Balaban and Katz Loew's competition and wonder theaters s and Receivership United States v Paramount Pictures Inc Split and after The DuMont Network Early Gulf Western era CIC formation and high concept era Continual success Paramount Communications Dolgen Lansing and old Viacom era present Paramount today CBS Viacom split DreamWorks acquisition History since CBS Viacom merger Investments DreamWorks Pictures CBS library Units Divisions Joint ventures Former divisions subsidiaries and joint ventures Other interests Logo Studio tours Film library Highest grossing films Controversy See also Notes References Further reading External links History Famous Players Film Company Main article Famous Players Film Company Paramount is the fifth oldest surviving film studio in the world after the French studios Gaumont Film Company and Pathé followed by the Nordisk Film company and Universal Studios It is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the founding date of the Famous Players Film Company Hungarian born founder Adolph Zukor who had been an early investor in nickelodeons saw that movies appealed mainly to working class immigrants With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature length films that would appeal to the middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time leading to the slogan Famous Players in Famous Plays By mid Famous Players had completed five films and Zukor was on his way to success Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth which starred Sarah Bernhardt That same year another aspiring producer Jesse L Lasky opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother in law Samuel Goldfish later known as Samuel Goldwyn The Lasky company hired as their first employee a stage director with virtually no film experience Cecil B DeMille who would find a suitable site in Hollywood near Los Angeles for his first feature film The Squaw Man Paramount Pictures' first logo based on a design by its founder William Wadsworth Hodkinson used from to Starting in both Lasky and Famous Players released their films through a start up company Paramount Pictures Corporation organized early that year by a Utah theatre owner W W Hodkinson who had bought and merged several smaller firms Hodkinson and actor director producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of a series of Jack London movies Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor until this time films were sold on a statewide or regional basis which had proved costly to film producers Also Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation Famous Players Lasky Main article Famous Players Lasky File Spanish Paramount logo Distribuida Pela Paramount circa ogv The logo with Portuguese captions Distribuida Pela Paramount In Zukor maneuvered a three way merger of his Famous Players the Lasky Company and Paramount Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount and merged the three companies into one The new company Lasky and Zukor founded Famous Players Lasky Corporation grew quickly with Lasky and his partners Goldwyn and DeMille running the production side Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution and Zukor making great plans With only the exhibitor owned First National as a rival Famous Players Lasky and its Paramount Pictures soon dominated the business Lasky's original studio a k a The Barn as it appeared in the mid s The Taft building built in is visible in the background Because Zukor believed in stars he signed and developed many of the leading early stars including Mary Pickford Marguerite Clark Pauline Frederick Douglas Fairbanks Gloria Swanson Rudolph Valentino and Wallace Reid With so many important players Paramount was able to introduce block booking which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the s and s but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor Through the teens and twenties he built the Publix Theatres Corporation a chain of nearly screens ran two production studios in Astoria New York now the Kaufman Astoria Studios and Hollywood California and became an early investor in radio taking a interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in selling it within a few years this would not be the last time Paramount and CBS crossed paths In Zukor hired independent producer B P Schulberg an unerring eye for new talent to run the new West Coast operations They purchased the Robert Brunton Studios a acre facility at Marathon Street for US million In Famous Players Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation Three years later because of the importance of the Publix Theatres it became Paramount Publix Corporation In Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps animated cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios in New York City The Fleischers veterans in the animation industry were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from to Paramount was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as talkies and in released their first musical Innocents of Paris Richard A Whiting and Leo Robin composed the score for the film Maurice Chevalier starred and sung the most famous song from the film Louise Publix Balaban and Katz Loew's competition and wonder theaters Detail of Publix Theatre logo on what is now Indiana Repertory Theatre By acquiring the successful Balaban Katz chain in Zukor gained the services of Barney Balaban who would eventually become Paramount's president in his brother A J Balaban who would eventually supervise all stage production nationwide and produce talkie shorts and their partner Sam Katz who would run the Paramount Publix theatre chain in New York City from the thirty five story Paramount Theatre Building on Times Square Balaban and Katz had developed the Wonder Theater concept first publicized around in Chicago The Chicago Theater was created as a very ornate theater and advertised as a wonder theater When Publix acquired Balaban they embarked on a project to expand the wonder theaters and starting building in New York in While Balaban and Public were dominant in Chicago Loew's was the big player in New York and did not want the Publix theaters to overshadow theirs The two companies brokered a non competition deal for New York and Chicago and Loew's took over the New York area projects developing five wonder theaters Publix continued Balaban's wonder theater development in its home area s and Receivership Eventually Zukor shed most of his early partners the Frohman brothers Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by while Lasky hung on until when blamed for the near collapse of Paramount in the Depression years he too was tossed out Zukor's over expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases led the company into receivership in A bank mandated reorganization team led by John Hertz and Otto Kahn kept the company intact and miraculously Zukor was kept on In Paramount Publix went bankrupt In June John E Otterson and in Barney Balaban became president and Zukor was bumped up to chairman of the board In this role Zukor reorganized the company as Paramount Pictures Inc and was able to successfully bring the studio out of bankruptcy As always Paramount films continued to emphasize stars in the s there were Gloria Swanson Wallace Reid Rudolph Valentino Florence Vidor Thomas Meighan Pola Negri Bebe Daniels Antonio Moreno Richard Dix Esther Ralston Emil Jannings George Bancroft Betty Compson Clara Bow Adolphe Menjou and Charles Buddy Rogers By the late s and the early s talkies brought in a range of powerful draws Richard Arlen Nancy Carroll Maurice Chevalier Gary Cooper Marlene Dietrich Charles Ruggles Ruth Chatterton William Powell Mae West Sylvia Sidney Bing Crosby Claudette Colbert the Marx Brothers W C Fields Fredric March Jack Oakie Jeanette MacDonald whose first two films were shot at Paramount's Astoria New York studio Carole Lombard George Raft Miriam Hopkins Cary Grant and Stuart Erwin among them In this period Paramount can truly be described as a movie factory turning out sixty to seventy pictures a year Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along In Mae West would also add greatly to Paramount's success with her suggestive movies She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel However the sex appeal West gave in these movies would also lead to the enforcement of the Production Code as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it was not enforced Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful One Fleischer series Screen Songs featured live action music stars under contract to Paramount hosting sing alongs of popular songs The animation studio would rebound with Popeye and in polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films as well as the fact that Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount which renamed the operation Famous Studios That incarnation of the animation studio continued cartoon production until but has been historically dismissed as having largely failed to maintain the artistic acclaim the Fleischer brothers achieved under their management United States v Paramount Pictures Inc In Paramount agreed to a government instituted consent decree block booking and pre selling the practice of collecting up front money for films not yet in production would end Immediately Paramount cut back on production from films to a more modest annually in the war years Still with more new stars like Bob Hope Alan Ladd Veronica Lake Paulette Goddard and Betty Hutton and with war time attendance at astronomical numbers Paramount and the other integrated studio theatre combines made more money than ever At this the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios Paramount also had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters This led to the Supreme Court decision United States v Paramount Pictures Inc holding that movie studios could not also own movie theater chains This decision broke up Adolph Zukor's creation with the theater chain being split into a new company United Paramount Theaters and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system Split and after With the separation of production and exhibition forced by the U S Supreme Court Paramount Pictures Inc was split in two Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company with the screen theater chain handed to the new United Paramount Theaters on December Leonard Goldenson who had headed the chain since remained as the new company's president The Balaban and Katz theatre division was spun off with UPT its trademark eventually became the property of the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation The Foundation has recently acquired ownership of the Famous Players Trademark Cash rich and controlling prime downtown real estate Goldenson began looking for investments Barred from film making by prior antitrust rulings he acquired the struggling ABC television network in February leading it first to financial health and eventually in the mid s to first place in the national Nielsen ratings before selling out to Capital Cities in Capital Cities would eventually sell out in turn to The Walt Disney Company in United Paramount Theaters was renamed ABC Theaters in and was sold to businessman Henry Plitt in The movie theater chain was renamed Plitt Theaters In Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Plitt In later years Paramount's TV division would develop a strong relationship with ABC providing many hit series to the network The DuMont Network Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television launching experimental stations in in Los Angeles and Chicago The Los Angeles station eventually became KTLA the first commercial station on the West Coast The Chicago station got a commercial license as WBKB in but was sold to UPT along with Balaban Katz in and was eventually resold to CBS as WBBM TV In Paramount bought a stake in television manufacturer DuMont Laboratories Through this stake it became a minority owner of the DuMont Television Network Also Paramount launched its own network Paramount Television Network in through its television unit Television Productions Inc Paramount management planned to acquire additional owned and operated stations O Os the company applied to the FCC for additional stations in San Francisco Detroit and Boston The FCC however denied Paramount's applications A few years earlier the federal regulator had placed a five station cap on all television networks no network was allowed to own more than five VHF television stations Paramount was hampered by its minority stake in the DuMont Television Network Although both DuMont and Paramount executives stated that the companies were separate the FCC ruled that Paramount's partial ownership of DuMont meant that DuMont and Paramount were in theory branches of the same company Since DuMont owned three television stations and Paramount owned two the federal agency ruled neither network could acquire additional television stations The FCC requested that Paramount relinquish its stake in DuMont but Paramount refused According to television historian William Boddy Paramount's checkered antitrust history helped convince the FCC that Paramount controlled DuMont Both DuMont and Paramount Television Network suffered as a result with neither company able to acquire five O Os Meanwhile CBS ABC and NBC had each acquired the maximum of five stations by the mid s When ABC accepted a merger offer from UPT in DuMont quickly realized that ABC now had more resources than it could possibly hope to match It quickly reached an agreement in principle to merge with ABC However Paramount vetoed the offer due to antitrust concerns For all intents and purposes this was the end of DuMont though it lingered on until In Paramount bought a stake in International Telemeter an experimental pay TV service which operated with a coin inserted into a box The service began operating in Palm Springs California on November but due to pressure from the FCC the service ended on May With the loss of the theater chain Paramount Pictures went into a decline cutting studio backed production releasing its contract players and making production deals with independents By the mid s all the great names were gone only Cecil B DeMille associated with Paramount since kept making pictures in the grand old style Despite Paramount's losses DeMille would however give the studio some relief and create his most successful film at Paramount a remake of his film The Ten Commandments DeMille died in Like some other studios Paramount saw little value in its film library and sold of its pre films to MCA Inc EMKA Ltd known today as Universal Television in February Early Gulf Western era By the early s Paramount's future was doubtful The high risk movie business was wobbly the theater chain was long gone investments in DuMont and in early pay television came to nothing and the Golden Age of Hollywood had just ended even the flagship Paramount building in Times Square was sold to raise cash as was KTLA sold to Gene Autry in for a then phenomenal million Their only remaining successful property at that point was Dot Records which Paramount had acquired in and even its profits started declining by the middle of the s Founding father Adolph Zukor born in was still chairman emeritus he referred to chairman Barney Balaban born as the boy Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times and in a sinking Paramount was sold to Charles Bluhdorn's industrial conglomerate Gulf Western Industries Corporation Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio installing a virtually unknown producer named Robert Evans as head of production Despite some rough times Evans held the job for eight years restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple Rosemary's Baby Love Story The Godfather Chinatown and Days of the Condor Gulf Western Industries also bought the neighboring Desilu television studio once the lot of RKO Pictures from Lucille Ball in Using some of Desilu's established shows such as Star Trek Mission Impossible and Mannix as a foot in the door at the networks the newly reincorporated Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half hour situation comedies In Paramount formed Films Distributing Corp to distribute sensitive film product including Sin With a Stranger which was one of the first films to receive an X rating in the United States when the MPAA introduced their new rating system CIC formation and high concept era In Paramount teamed with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation a new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States Metro Goldwyn Mayer would become a partner in the mid s Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video now Paramount Home Entertainment and CIC Video respectively Robert Evans abandoned his position as head of production in his successor Richard Sylbert proved to be too literary and too tasteful for Gulf Western's Bluhdorn By a new television trained team was in place headed by Barry Diller and his Killer Dillers as they were called by admirers or Dillettes as they were called by detractors These associates made up of Michael Eisner Jeffrey Katzenberg Dawn Steel and Don Simpson would each go on and head up major movie studios of their own later in their careers The Paramount specialty was now simpler High concept pictures such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease hit big hit hard and hit fast all over the world and Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest standing ideas to the board Paramount Television Service a fourth commercial network Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network HTN including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in Paramount sold HTN to Madison Square Garden in But Diller believed strongly in the concept and so took his fourth network idea with him when he moved to th Century Fox in where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor Rupert Murdoch was a more interested listener However the television division would be playing catch up for over a decade after Diller's departure in before launching its own television network UPN in Lasting eleven years before being merged with The WB network to become The CW in UPN would feature many of the shows it originally produced for other networks and would take numerous gambles on series such as Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Enterprise that would have otherwise either gone direct to cable or become first run syndication to independent stations across the country as Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek The Next Generation were Paramount Pictures was not connected to either Paramount Records s or ABC Paramount Records until it purchased the rights to use the name but not the latter's catalog in the late s The Paramount name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re issues from the Dot Records catalog which Paramount had acquired in By Dot had become an all country label and in Paramount sold all of its record holdings to ABC Records which in turn was sold to MCA now Universal Music Group in Continual success Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the s and s generating hits like Airplane American Gigolo Ordinary People An Officer and a Gentleman Flashdance Terms of Endearment Footloose Pretty in Pink Top Gun Crocodile Dundee Fatal Attraction Ghost the Friday the th slasher series as well as teaming up with Lucasfilm to create the Indiana Jones franchise Other examples are the Star Trek film series and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy like Trading Places Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial there were occasional less commercial but more artistic and intellectual efforts like I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can Atlantic City Reds Witness Children of a Lesser God and The Accused During this period responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Frank Mancuso Sr and Ned Tanen to Stanley R Jaffe and Sherry Lansing More so than most Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spin offs while sometimes commercially successful there have been few compelling films of the kind that once made Paramount the industry leader On August Paramount Studios caught fire Two or three sound stages and four outdoor sets were destroyed When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly his successor Martin Davis dumped all of G W's industrial mining and sugar growing subsidiaries and refocused the company renaming it Paramount Communications in With the influx of cash from the sale of G W's industrial properties in the mid s Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment's theme park operations renaming them Paramount Parks These parks included Paramount's Great America Paramount Canada's Wonderland Paramount's Carowinds Paramount's Kings Dominion and Paramount's Kings Island In Sumner Redstone's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made a bid for a merger with Paramount Communications this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller's QVC But Viacom prevailed ultimately paying billion for the Paramount holdings Viacom and Paramount had planned to merge as early as Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper When Paramount moved to its present home in it was in the heart of the film community Since then former next door neighbor RKO closed up shop in Paramount ultimately absorbed their former lot Warner Bros whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in as a home for KTLA moved to Burbank in Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in then moved again to Culver City in and the Pickford Fairbanks Goldwyn United Artists lot after a lively history has been turned into a post production and music scoring facility for Warners known simply as The Lot For a time the semi industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline but has now come back The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors and its studio tour is a popular attraction Paramount Communications Paramount Communications Inc Paramount Communications Inc logo png Former type Conglomerate Industry Entertainment industry mass media Fate Sold and merged into Viacom Predecessor Gulf Western Successor Viacom now remnants operating as ViacomCBS owned by National Amusements Founded years ago Founder Adolph Zukor William Wadsworth Hodkinson Jesse Louis Lasky Edit this on Wikidata Defunct July years ago Headquarters New York New York United States Key people Charles Bluhdorn Martin S Davis Subsidiaries Madison Square Garden New Jersey Zinc Paramount Pictures Paramount Television Simon and Schuster Website www paramount com In Gulf and Western began a restructuring process that would transform the corporation from a bloated conglomerate consisting of subsidiaries from unrelated industries to a more focused entertainment and publishing company The idea was to aid financial markets in measuring the company's success which in turn would help place better value on its shares Though its Paramount division did very well in recent years Gulf and Western's success as a whole was translating poorly with investors This process eventually led Davis to divest many of the company's subsidiaries Its sugar plantations in Florida and the Dominican Republic were sold in the consumer and industrial products branch was sold off that same year In Davis renamed the company Paramount Communications Incorporated after its primary asset Paramount Pictures In addition to the Paramount film television home video and music publishing divisions the company continued to own the Madison Square Garden properties which also included MSG Network a stake in USA Networks the other was owned by MCA Universal Studios and Simon Schuster Prentice Hall Pocket Books Allyn Bacon Cineamerica a joint venture with Warner Communications and Canadian cinema chain Famous Players Theatres That same year the company launched a billion hostile bid to acquire Time Inc in an attempt to end a stock swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications which also renamed itself after a film studio it owned upon selling off its non entertainment assets The original name of Warner Communications was Kinney National Company This caused Time to raise its bid for Warner to billion in cash and stock Gulf and Western responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time Warner merger The court ruled twice in favor of Time forcing Gulf and Western to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit and allowing the formation of Time Warner Paramount used cash acquired from the sale of Gulf and Western's non entertainment properties to take over the TVX Broadcast Group chain of television stations which at that point consisted mainly of large market stations which TVX had bought from Taft Broadcasting plus two mid market stations which TVX owned prior to the Taft purchase and the KECO Entertainment chain of theme parks from Taft successor Great American Broadcasting Both of these companies had their names changed to reflect new ownership TVX became known as the Paramount Stations Group while KECO was renamed to Paramount Parks Paramount Television launched Wilshire Court Productions in conjunction with USA Networks before the latter was renamed NBCUniversal Cable in Wilshire Court Productions named for a side street in Los Angeles produced television films that aired on the USA Networks and later for other networks USA Networks launched a second channel the Sci Fi Channel now known as Syfy in As its name implied it focused on films and television series within the science fiction genre Much of the initial programming was owned either by Paramount or Universal Paramount bought one more television station in Cox Enterprises' WKBD TV in Detroit Michigan at the time an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company Dolgen Lansing and old Viacom era On July Paramount Communications Inc was sold to Viacom following the purchase of of Paramount's shares for billion At the time Paramount's holdings included Paramount Pictures Madison Square Garden the New York Rangers the New York Knicks and the Simon Schuster publishing house The deal had been planned as early as when the company was still known as Gulf and Western Though Davis was named a member of the board of National Amusements which controlled Viacom he ceased to manage the company Under Viacom the Paramount Stations Group continued to build with more station acquisitions eventually leading to Viacom's acquisition of its former parent the CBS network in Around the same time Viacom bought out Spelling Entertainment incorporating its library into that of Paramount itself Viacom split into two companies in one retaining the Viacom name which continues to own Paramount Pictures while another was named CBS Corporation which now controls Paramount Television Group which was renamed CBS Paramount Television now known as CBS Television Studios and worldwide distribution unit is now CBS Television Distribution and CBS Studios International in Simon Schuster except for Prentice Hall and other educational units which Viacom sold to Pearson PLC in and what's left of the original Paramount Stations Group now known as CBS Television Stations National Amusements retains majority control of the two Together these two companies own many of the former media assets of Gulf and Western and its Paramount successor today Meanwhile the Madison Square Garden properties including the Knicks and Rangers were sold to Cablevision not long after the Viacom takeover Cablevision owned the MSG properties until when they were spun off as their own company CBS retained ownership of the Paramount Parks chain for a few months after becoming part of the new CBS Corporation but sold the parks to Cedar Fair in the summer of and thus National Amusements got out of the theme park ownership business entirely Over the next few years Cedar Fair purged references to Viacom owned properties from the former Paramount Parks a task completed in Viacom also sold its stake in the USA Networks to Universal in and the channels came under the ownership of Universal's successor NBCUniversal which still retained those holdings as of late July During this time period Paramount Pictures went under the guidance of Jonathan Dolgen chairman and Sherry Lansing president During their administration over Paramount the studio had an extremely successful period of films with two of Paramount's ten highest grossing films being produced during this period The most successful of these films Titanic a joint partnership with th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment became the highest grossing film up to that time grossing over billion worldwide Also during this time three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture Titanic Braveheart and Forrest Gump Paramount's most important property however was Star Trek Studio executives had begun to call it the franchise in the s due to its reliable revenue and other studios envied its untouchable and unduplicatable success By Star Trek TV shows movies books videotapes and licensing provided so much of the studio's profit that it is not possible to spend any reasonable amount of time at Paramount and not be aware of its presence filming for Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Deep Space Nine required up to nine of the largest of the studio's sound stages In Viacom and Chris Craft Industries' United Television launched United Paramount Network UPN with Star Trek Voyager as its flagship series fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for a Paramount network from years earlier In Viacom bought out United Television's interests and handed responsibility for the start up network to the newly acquired CBS unit which Viacom bought in an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS as well During this period the studio acquired some TV stations to support the UPN network as well acquiring and merging in the assets of Republic Pictures Spelling Television and Viacom Television almost doubling the size of the studio's TV library The TV division produced the dominant prime time show for the decade in Frasier as well as such long running hits as NCIS and Becker and the dominant prime time magazine show Entertainment Tonight Paramount also gained the ownership rights to the Rysher library after Viacom acquired the rights from Cox Enterprises During this period Paramount and its related subsidiaries and affiliates operating under the name Viacom Entertainment Group also included the fourth largest group of theme parks in the United States and Canada which in addition to traditional rides and attractions launched numerous successful location based entertainment units including a long running Star Trek attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton Famous Music the company's celebrated music publishing arm almost doubled in size and developed artists including Pink Bush Green Day as well as catalog favorites including Duke Ellington and Henry Mancini The Paramount Viacom licensing group under the leadership of Tom McGrath created the Cheers franchise bars and restaurants and a chain of restaurants borrowing from the studio's Academy Award winning film Forrest Gump The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company Through the combined efforts of Famous Music and the studio over ten Broadway musicals were created including Irving Berlin's White Christmas Footloose Saturday Night Fever Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard among others The Company's international arm United International Pictures UIP was the dominant distributor internationally for ten straight years representing Paramount Universal and MGM Simon and Schuster became part of the Viacom Entertainment Group emerging as the US' dominant trade book publisher In Paramount along with Buena Vista Distribution th Century Fox Columbia TriStar Pictures Entertainment MGM UA Entertainment Universal Studios DreamWorks Pictures Artisan Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment and Warner Bros formed the Digital Cinema Initiatives Operating under a waiver from the antitrust law the studios combined under the leadership of Paramount Chief Operating Officer Tom McGrath to develop technical standards for the eventual introduction of digital film projection replacing the now year old film technology DCI was created to establish and document voluntary specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance reliability and quality control McGrath also headed up Paramount's initiative for the creation and launch of the Blu ray Disc present Paramount today Paramount Pictures' studio lot in Hollywood Melrose Gate entrance CBS Viacom split Reflecting in part the troubles of the broadcasting business in Viacom wrote off over billion from its radio acquisitions and early that year announced that it would split itself in two The split was completed in January With the announcement of the split of Viacom Dolgen and Lansing were replaced by former television executives Brad Grey and Gail Berman The Viacom Inc board split the company into CBS Corporation and a separate company under the Viacom name The board scheduled the division for the first quarter of Under the plan CBS Corp would comprise CBS and UPN networks Viacom Television Stations Group Infinity Broadcasting Viacom Outdoor Paramount Television KingWorld Showtime Simon and Schuster Paramount Parks and CBS News The revamped Viacom would include MTV VH Nickelodeon BET and several other cable networks as well as the Paramount movie studio Paramount's home entertainment unit continues to distribute the Paramount TV library through CBS DVD as both Viacom and CBS Corporation are controlled by Sumner Redstone's National Amusements In CBS stopped using the Paramount name in its series and changed the name of the production arm to CBS Television Studios eliminating the Paramount name from television to distance itself from the latter DreamWorks acquisition On December the Paramount Motion Pictures Group announced that it had purchased DreamWorks SKG which was co founded by former Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg in a deal worth billion The announcement was made by Brad Grey chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures who noted that enhancing Paramount's pipeline of pictures is a key strategic objective in restoring Paramount's stature as a leader in filmed entertainment The agreement does not include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc the most profitable part of the company that went public the previous year History since Grey also broke up the famous United International Pictures UIP international distribution company with countries being taken over by Pararmount or Universal by December with the joint venture continuing in markets In Australia Brazil France Ireland Mexico New Zealand and the U K Paramount took over UIP While in Austria Belgium Germany Italy the Netherlands Russia Spain and Switzerland Universal took over and Paramount would build its own distribution operations there In and Paramount may sub distribute films via Universal's countries and vice versa Paramount's international distribution unit would be headquartered in Los Angeles and have a European hub In Italy Paramount distributed through Universal With Universal indicated that it was pulling out of the UIP Korea and started its own operation there in November Paramount agreed to have CJ Entertainment distribute there UIP president and chief operating officer Andrew Cripps was hired as Paramount Pictures International head Paramount Pictures International distributed films that made the billion mark in July the fifth studio that year to do so and it its first year On October DreamWorks executives announced that they were leaving Paramount and relaunching an independent DreamWorks The DreamWorks trademarks remained with DreamWorks Animation when that company was spun off before the Paramount purchase and DreamWorks Animation transferred the license to the name to the new company DreamWorks films acquired by Paramount but still distributed internationally by Universal are included in Paramount's market share Grey also launched a Digital Entertainment division to take advantage of emerging digital distribution technologies This led to Paramount becoming the second movie studio to sign a deal with Apple Inc to sell its films through the iTunes Store Also in Paramount sold another one of its heritage units Famous Music to Sony ATV Music Publishing best known for publishing many songs by The Beatles and for being co owned by Michael Jackson ending a nearly eight decade run as a division of Paramount being the studio's music publishing arm since the period when the entire company went by the name Famous Players In early Paramount partnered with Los Angeles based developer FanRocket to make short scenes taken from its film library available to users on Facebook The application called VooZoo allows users to send movie clips to other Facebook users and to post clips on their profile pages Paramount engineered a similar deal with Makena Technologies to allow users of vMTV and There com to view and send movie clips In March Paramount founded Insurge Pictures an independent distributor of micro budget films The distributor planned ten movies with budgets of each The first release was The Devil Inside a movie with a budget of about US million In March following waning box office returns Paramount shuttered Insurge Pictures and moved its operations to the main studio In July in the wake of critical and box office success of the animated feature Rango and the departure of DreamWorks Animation upon completion of their distribution contract in Paramount announced the formation of a new division devoted to the creation of animated productions It marks Paramount's return to having its own animated division for the first time since when Paramount Cartoon Studios shut down it was formerly Famous Studios until In December Walt Disney Studios via its parent company's purchase of Lucasfilm a year earlier gained Paramount's remaining distribution and marketing rights to future Indiana Jones films Paramount will permanently retain the distribution rights to the first four films and will receive financial participation from any additional films In February Viacom CEO and newly appointed chairman Philippe Dauman announced that the conglomerate is in talks to find an investor to purchase a minority stake in Paramount Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari are reportedly opposed with the deal On July Wanda Group was in talks to acquire a stake of Paramount The talks with Wanda were dropped On January Shanghai Film Group Corp and Huahua Media said they would finance at least of all Paramount Pictures movies over a three year period Shanghai Film Group and Huahua Media in the deal would help distribute and market Paramount's features in China At the time the Wall Street Journal wrote that nearly every major Hollywood studio has a co financing deal with a Chinese company On March Jim Gianopulos was named as a chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures replacing Brad Grey On July Paramount Players was formed by the studio with the hiring of Brian Robbins founder of AwesomenessTV Tollin Robbins Productions and Varsity Pictures as the division's president The division was expected to produce films based on the Viacom Media Networks properties including MTV Nickelodeon BET and Comedy Central On June Paramount Pictures signed a deal with th Century Fox for distribution of its films in Italy which took effect on September Prior to the deal Paramount's films in Italy were distributed by Universal Pictures On December it was reported that Paramount sold the international distribution rights of Annihilation to Netflix Netflix subsequently bought the worldwide rights to The Cloverfield Paradox for million On November Paramount signed a multi picture film deal with Netflix as part of Viacom's growth strategy making Paramount the first major film studio to do so A sequel to Awesomeness Films' To All the Boys I've Loved Before is currently in development at the studio for Netflix In April Paramount posted its first quarterly profit since Bob Bakish CEO of parent Viacom said in a statement that turnaround efforts have firmly taken hold as the studio improved margins and returned to profitability This month's outstanding box office performance of A Quiet Place the first film produced and released under the new team at Paramount is a clear sign of our progress CBS Viacom merger On September National Amusements sent a letter to both CBS Corporation and Viacom encouraging the two companies to merge back into one company On December the deal was called off On May CNBC reported that CBS and Viacom would explore merger discussions in mid June Reports say that CBS and Viacom reportedly set August as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine the two media companies CBS announced to acquire Viacom as part of the re merger for up to billion On August the two companies agreed to merge back into one entity which named ViacomCBS and the deal was closed on December In December ViacomCBS agreed to purchase a stake in Miramax that was owned by beIN Media Group with Paramount gaining the distribution of the studio's film library as well as its future releases Also Paramount will produce television series based on Miramax's IPs The deal officially closed on April Investments DreamWorks Pictures In Paramount became the parent of DreamWorks Pictures Soros Strategic Partners and Dune Entertainment II soon afterwards acquired controlling interest in live action films released through DreamWorks with the release of Just Like Heaven on September The remaining live action films released until March remained under direct Paramount control However Paramount still owns distribution and other ancillary rights to Soros and Dune films On February Viacom repurchased Soros' controlling stake in DreamWorks' library of films released before for around million Even as DreamWorks switched distribution of live action films not part of existing franchises to Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and later Universal Pictures Paramount continues to own the films released before the merger and the films that Paramount themselves distributed including sequel rights such as that of Little Fockers distributed by Paramount and DreamWorks It was a sequel to two existing DreamWorks films Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers Paramount only owned the international distribution rights to Little Fockers whereas Universal Pictures handled domestic distribution Paramount also owned distribution rights to the DreamWorks Animation library of films made before and their previous distribution deal with future DWA titles expired at the end of with Rise of the Guardians th Century Fox took over distribution for post titles beginning with The Croods and ending with Captain Underpants The First Epic Movie Universal Pictures subsequently took over distribution for DreamWorks Animation's films beginning with How to Train Your Dragon The Hidden World due to NBCUniversal's acquisition of the company in though Paramount's rights to the DWA library would've expired years after each film's initial theatrical release date However in July DreamWorks Animation purchased Paramount's distribution rights to the pre library with th Century Fox distributing the library until January which Universal then assumed ownership of distribution rights Another asset of the former DreamWorks owned by Paramount is the pre DreamWorks Television library which is currently distributed by Paramount's sister company CBS Television Distribution it includes Spin City High Incident Freaks and Geeks Undeclared and On the Lot CBS library Independent company Hollywood Classics represents Paramount with the theatrical distribution of all the films produced by the various motion picture divisions of CBS over the years as a result of the Viacom CBS merger Paramount has outright video distribution to the aforementioned CBS library with some exceptions less demanded content is usually released manufactured on demand by CBS themselves or licensed to Visual Entertainment Inc Until the video rights to My Fair Lady were with original theatrical distributor Warner Bros under license from CBS the video license to that film has now reverted to Paramount Units Divisions Paramount Pictures Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Licensing Inc Paramount Digital Entertainment Paramount Pictures International Paramount Studio Group physical studio and post production The Studios at Paramount production facilities lot Paramount on Location production support facilities throughout North America including New York Vancouver and Atlanta Worldwide Technical Operations archives restoration and preservation programs the mastering and distribution fulfillment services on lot post production facilities management Paramount Parks Resorts licensing and design for parks and resorts Paramount Animation present Paramount Players June ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks branded labels MTV Films Nickelodeon Movies Comedy Central Films BET Films Paramount Television Studios formerly Paramount Television revived in March Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing Distribution Joint ventures Miramax co owned with beIN Media Group United International Pictures co owned with Comcast's Universal Pictures Rede Telecine Former divisions subsidiaries and joint ventures Paramount Television original now CBS Television Studios Big Ticket Television semi in name only since currently produces Judge Judy and Hot Bench Spelling Television in name only since Viacom Productions folded into PNT in Wilshire Court Productions shut down in Paramount Domestic Television now CBS Television Distribution Folded Viacom Enterprises in and Rysher Entertainment and Worldvision Enterprises in RTV News Inc producer of Real TV and Maximum Exposure United Paramount Network UPN formerly a joint venture with United Television now part of the CBS WarnerMedia joint venture The CW Television Network Paramount Stations Group now CBS Television Stations USA Networks also including the Sci Fi Channel Paramount owned a stake starting in owner with Universal Studios from until when Paramount Viacom sold their stake to Universal now part of NBCUniversal Paramount International Television now CBS Studios International Paramount Famous Productions direct to video division Paramount Parks Purchased by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company in Paramount Classics Paramount Vantage DW Studios LLC also DW Pictures defunct holding film library and rights principal officers left to recreate DreamWorks as an independent company DW Funding LLC DreamWorks live action library pre DW Funding LLC sold to Soros Strategic Partners and Dune Entertainment II and purchased back in Paramount Theatres Limited Founded in the United Kingdom with the opening of a cinema in Manchester Several Paramount Theatres had opened or had been acquired in the United Kingdom during the s before being sold to The Rank Organization becoming part of the Odeon Cinemas chain in Epix owner with Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Lionsgate from until when Paramount Viacom and Lionsgate sold their stakes to MGM Insurge Pictures micro budget film division March Republic Pictures Other interests In March Paramount licensed their name and logo to a luxury hotel investment group which subsequently named the company Paramount Hotels and Resorts The investors plan to build hotels throughout the world based on the themes of Hollywood and the California lifestyle Among the features are private screening rooms and the Paramount library available in the hotel rooms On April Paramount Hotels and Dubai based DAMAC Properties announced the building of the first resort DAMAC Towers by Paramount Logo Artist Dario Campanile poses with a picture Paramount commissioned him in to paint for its th anniversary The company later used the painting as a basis for its new logo That logo was introduced as a prototype in the film The Golden Child the film Critical Condition was the first to feature the finalized version of the logo 's South Park Bigger Longer Uncut was the first to use an enhanced version of the logo which was last used on 's Crossroads For its th anniversary Paramount adopted the logo shown here In it was used in tandem with the current one This picture shows the modification of the logo which includes Viacom's revised byline introduced in The first movie to use the revised Viacom byline was Iron Man The distinctively pyramidal Paramount mountain has been the company's logo since its inception and is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo In the sound era the logo was accompanied by a fanfare called Paramount on Parade after the film of the same name released in The words to the fanfare originally sung in the film were Proud of the crowd that will never be loud it's Paramount on Parade Legend has it that the mountain is based on a doodle made by W W Hodkinson during a meeting with Adolph Zukor It is said to be based on the memories of his childhood in Utah Some claim that Utah's Ben Lomond is the mountain Hodkinson doodled and that Peru's Artesonraju is the mountain in the live action logo while others claim that the Italian side of Monviso inspired the logo Some editions of the logo bear a striking resemblance to the Pfeifferhorn another Wasatch Range peak and to the Matterhorn on the border between Switzerland and Italy Mount Huntington in Alaska also bears a striking resemblance The motion picture logo has gone through many changes over the years The logo began as a somewhat indistinct charcoal rendering of the mountain ringed with superimposed stars The logo originally had twenty four stars as a tribute to the then current system of contracts for actors since Paramount had twenty four stars signed at the time In the logo was redesigned as a matte painting created by Jan Domela A newer more realistic looking logo debuted in for Paramount films made in D It was reworked in early to mid for Paramount films made in widescreen process VistaVision The text VistaVision Motion Picture High Fidelity was often imposed over the Paramount logo briefly before dissolving into the title sequence In early the text A Paramount Picture Release was shortened to Paramount and the byline A Gulf Western Company appeared on the bottom The logo was given yet another modification in with the number of stars being reduced to and the Paramount text and Gulf Western byline appearing in different fonts In September the logo was simplified in a shade of blue adopting the modified design of the print logo which was in use for many decades afterward A version of the print logo had been in use by Paramount Television since The studio launched an entirely new logo in December with computer generated imagery of a lake and stars This version of the Paramount logo was designed by Dario Campanile and animated by Apogee Inc for this logo the stars would move across the screen into the arc shape instead of it being superimposed over the mountain as it was before A redone version of this logo debuted with South Park Bigger Longer Uncut released on June In March an updated logo was introduced in which shooting stars would fall from a night sky to form the arc while the Paramount logo would fly into place between them An enhanced version of this logo debuted with Iron Man released on May The south col area of Mount Everest became the primary basis The music is accompanied by Paramount on Parade This logo continued to be featured on DVD and Blu ray releases with the first incarnation of Viacom byline until March ending with Instant Family citation needed On December an updated logo was introduced with animation done by Devastudios Inc The new logo includes a surrounding mountain range and the sun shining in the background Michael Giacchino composed the logo's new fanfare Studio tours This section has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This section contains content that is written like an advertisement January This section needs additional citations for verification January Paramount Studios offers tours of their studios including a Studio Tour a VIP Tour and an After Dark Tour The hour Studio Tour offers a behind the scenes look at the current operations of the studio Most of the buildings on the tour are named for historical Paramount executives or the artists that worked at Paramount over the years Many of the stars' dressing rooms have been converted into working offices The stages where Samson and Delilah Sunset Blvd White Christmas Rear Window Sabrina Breakfast at Tiffany's and many other classic films were shot are still in use today The studio's backlot set New York Street features numerous blocks of façades that depict a number of New York locales Washington Square where some scenes in The Heiress starring Olivia de Havilland were shot Brooklyn Financial District and others The hour VIP tour takes you to additional areas not covered by the standard tour and includes meetings with archivists and tradesman The After Dark Tour involves a tour of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Film library Main articles List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films List of Paramount Pictures films and List of Paramount Pictures films A few years after the ruling of the United States v Paramount Pictures Inc case in Music Corporation of America MCA approached Paramount offering million for sound feature films released prior to December with payment to be spread over a period of several years Paramount saw this as a bargain since the fleeting movie studio saw very little value in its library of old films at the time To address any antitrust concerns MCA set up EMKA Ltd as a dummy corporation to sell these films to television EMKA's Universal Television's library includes the five Paramount Marx Brothers films most of the Bob Hope Bing Crosby Road to pictures and other classics such as Trouble in Paradise Shanghai Express She Done Him Wrong Sullivan's Travels The Palm Beach Story For Whom the Bell Tolls Double Imdemnity The Lost Weekend and The Heiress The studio has produced many critically acclaimed films such as Titanic Footloose Breakfast at Tiffany's Braveheart Ghost The Truman Show Mean Girls Psycho Rocketman Ferris Bueller's Day Off The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Days of Thunder Rosemary's Baby Nebraska Sunset Boulevard Forrest Gump Super Coming to America World War Z Babel The Conversation The Fighter Interstellar Team America Terms of Endearment The Wolf of Wall Street and A Quiet Place as well as commercially successful franchises and or properties such as the Godfather films Star Trek Mission Impossible SpongeBob SquarePants the Grease films Sonic the Hedgehog the Top Gun films The Italian Job the Transformers films the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films the Tomb Raider films the Friday the th films the Cloverfield films the G I Joe films the Beverly Hills Cop films the Terminator films the Pet Sematary films the Without a Paddle films Jackass the Odd Couple films South Park the Crocodile Dundee films the Charolette's Web films the Wayne's World films Beavis Butthead Jimmy Neutron the War of the Worlds films the Naked Gun films the Anchorman films Dora the Explorer the Addams Family films Rugrats the Zoolander films Con Flux the Ring films the Bad News Bears films The Wild Thornberrys and the Paranormal Activity films as well as the first four films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe the Indiana Jones films and various DreamWorks Animation properties such as Shrek the Madagascar sequels the first two Kung Fu Panda films and the first How to Train Your Dragon before both studios were respectively acquired by Disney via Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm and Universal Studios Highest grossing films Highest grossing films in North America Rank Title Year Box office gross Titanic ‡ Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Transformers Dark of the Moon Forrest Gump ‡ Shrek the Third Transformers Iron Man Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Iron Man Star Trek Raiders of the Lost Ark ‡ Transformers Age of Extinction Shrek Forever After Beverly Hills Cop War of the Worlds Star Trek Into Darkness Mission Impossible Fallout Ghost How to Train Your Dragon Madagascar Europe's Most Wanted Kung Fu Panda Mission Impossible Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Monsters vs Aliens World War Z Highest grossing films worldwide Rank Title Year Box office gross Titanic ‡ Transformers Dark of the Moon Transformers Age of Extinction Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Shrek the Third Mission Impossible Fallout Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Shrek Forever After Madagascar Europe's Most Wanted Transformers Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Mission Impossible Rogue Nation Forrest Gump ‡ Interstellar Kung Fu Panda Kung Fu Panda Iron Man Madagascar Escape Africa Transformers The Last Knight War of the Worlds Iron Man Puss in Boots Mission Impossible World War Z Ghost ‡ Includes theatrical reissue s Controversy On July Paramount was targeted by the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Latino Media Council which have both claimed that the studio has the worst track record of hiring Latino and Hispanic talent both in front of and behind the camera the last Paramount film directed by a Spanish director was Rings in In response to the controversy Paramount released the statement We recently met with NHMC in a good faith effort to see how we could partner as we further drive Paramount's culture of diversity inclusion and belonging Under our new leadership team we continue to make progress including ensuring representation in front of and behind the camera in upcoming films such as Dora the Explorer Instant Family Bumblebee and Limited Partners and welcome the opportunity to build and strengthen relationships with the Latino creative community further The NHMC protested at the Paramount Pictures lot on August More than protesters attended while chanting Latinos excluded time to be included NHMC president and CEO Alex Nogales vowed to continue the boycott until the studio signed a memorandum of understanding On October the NHMC protested at the Paramount film lot for the second time in two months with protesters attending The leaders delivered a petition signed by people and addressed it to Jim Gianopulos officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L A is the largest city in California With an estimated population of nearly four million people it is the second most populous city in the United States after New York City and the third most populous city in North America after Mexico City and New York City Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate ethnic diversity Hollywood entertainment industry and its sprawling metropolis Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean with mountains as high as feet m and deserts The city which covers about square miles km is the seat of Los Angeles County the most populous county in the United States The Los Angeles metropolitan area MSA is home to million people making it the second largest metropolitan area in the nation after New York Greater Los Angeles includes metro Los Angeles as well as the Inland Empire and Ventura County It is the second most populous U S combined statistical area also after New York with a estimate of million people Home to the Chumash and Tongva Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in The city was founded on September by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve It became a part of Mexico in following the Mexican War of Independence In at the end of the Mexican American War Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and thus became part of the United States Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April five months before California achieved statehood The discovery of oil in the s brought rapid growth to the city The city was further expanded with the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in which delivers water from Eastern California Los Angeles has a diverse economy and hosts businesses in a broad range of professional and cultural fields It also has the busiest container port in the Americas A global city it has been ranked th in the Global Cities Index and th in the Global Economic Power Index The Los Angeles metropolitan area also has a gross metropolitan product of trillion as of making it the third largest city by GDP in the world after the Tokyo and New York City metropolitan areas Los Angeles hosted the and Summer Olympics and will host the Summer Olympics Contents History Pre colonial history Spanish rule Mexican rule to present Geography Topography Vegetation Geology Cityscape Climate Environmental issues Demographics Race and ethnicity Religion Economy Cannabis Culture Movies and the performing arts Museums and galleries Sports Government Federal and state representation Crime Education Colleges and universities Schools and libraries Media Transportation Freeways Transit systems Airports Seaports Homelessness Notable people Twin towns and sister cities See also Notes References Further reading General Architecture and urban theory Race relations LGBT Environment Art and literature External links History Main article History of Los Angeles See also Timeline of Los Angeles and Los Angeles in the s Pre colonial history The Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Tongva Gabrielenos and Chumash tribes A Gabrieleno settlement in the area was called iyáang? written Yang na by the Spanish meaning poison oak place Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America Gaspar de Portolr and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí reached the present site of Los Angeles on August Spanish rule In Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel the first mission in the area On September a group of forty four settlers known as Los Pobladores founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Ángeles 'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels' b The present day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States Two thirds of the Mexican or New Spain settlers were mestizo or mulatto a mixture of African indigenous and European ancestry The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades but by the population had increased to about residents Today the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street the oldest part of Los Angeles Mexican rule New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in and the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico During Mexican rule Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital to present Advertisement from the Los Angeles Evening Herald of March stressing the clarity of the view in the Angeles Mesa tract Downtown Los Angeles is in the distance in the center Mt Baldy can be seen on the horizon and there appears to be a brush fire at the left Mexican rule ended during the Mexican American War Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in and the Santa Fe Railroad in Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in and by the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer accounting for about one quarter of the world's petroleum output By the population had grown to more than putting pressure on the city's water supply The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in under the supervision of William Mulholland assured the continued growth of the city Because of clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders many adjacent cities and communities felt compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States On September the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones The new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type where industrial uses were prohibited The proscriptions included barns lumber yards and any industrial land use employing machine powered equipment These laws were enforced against industrial properties after the fact These prohibitions were in addition to existing activities that were already regulated as nuisances These included explosives warehousing gas works oil drilling slaughterhouses and tanneries Los Angeles City Council also designated seven industrial zones within the city However between and Los Angeles City Council created various exceptions to the broad proscriptions that applied to these three residential zones and as a consequence some industrial uses emerged within them There are two differences from the Residence District Ordinance and later zoning laws in the United States First the laws did not establish a comprehensive zoning map as the New York City Zoning Ordinance did Second the residential zones did not distinguish types of housing it treated apartments hotels and detached single family housing equally Hill Street looking north from th Street c Notable sites include Central Park today's Pershing Square the trees lower left Hotel Portsmouth lower right and the Hill Street tunnel at end of street In Hollywood merged into Los Angeles with movie companies already operating in the city at the time By more than percent of the world's film industry was concentrated in LA The money generated by the industry kept the city insulated from much of the economic loss suffered by the rest of the country during the Great Depression By the population surpassed one million In the city hosted the Summer Olympics During World War II Los Angeles was a major center of wartime manufacturing such as shipbuilding and aircraft Calship built hundreds of Liberty Ships and Victory Ships on Terminal Island and the Los Angeles area was the headquarters of six of the country's major aircraft manufacturers Douglas Aircraft Company Hughes Aircraft Lockheed North American Aviation Northrop Corporation and Vultee During the war more aircraft were produced in one year than in all the pre war years since the Wright brothers flew the first airplane in combined Manufacturing in Los Angeles skyrocketed and as William S Knudsen of the National Defense Advisory Commission put it We won because we smothered the enemy in an avalanche of production the like of which he had never seen nor dreamed possible George Patton during a welcome home parade in Los Angeles June Following the end of World War II Los Angeles grew more rapidly than ever sprawling into the San Fernando Valley The expansion of the Interstate Highway System during the s and s helped propel suburban growth and signaled the demise of the city's electrified rail system once the world's largest Previous to the s Los Angeles' name had multiple pronunciations but the soft G pronunciation is universal today Some early movies or video shows it pronounced with a hard G l??s 'cng?l?s Sam Yorty was one of the last public figures who still used the hard G pronunciation The s saw race relations boil over into the Watts riots of which resulted in deaths and over injuries In Los Angeles became the birthplace of the Internet as the first ARPANET transmission was sent from the University of California Los Angeles UCLA to SRI in Menlo Park In Tom Bradley was elected as the city's first African American mayor serving for five terms until retiring in Other events in the city during the s included the Symbionese Liberation Army's South Central standoff in the Hillside Stranglers murder cases in Daryl Gates becoming Los Angeles Police Department's th and as outspoken as his predecessor Edward Davis police chief in and also in the th Academy Awards ceremony at the city's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Jimmy Carter's first ever presidential visit and in the decade ending with the th anniversary of the Academy Awards st ever ceremony also at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion President Carter's second visit to the city and the City Council's and Bradley's respective passing and signing of the city's first homosexual rights bill In the city hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time Despite being boycotted by Communist countries the Olympics became more financially successful than any previous and the second Olympics to turn a profit until then the other according to an analysis of contemporary newspaper reports being the Summer Olympics also held in Los Angeles Racial tensions erupted on April with the acquittal by a Simi Valley jury of four Los Angeles Police Department LAPD officers captured on videotape beating Rodney King culminating in large scale riots In the Northridge earthquake shook the city causing billion in damage and deaths The century ended with the Rampart scandal one of the most extensive documented cases of police misconduct in American history In Mayor James Hahn led the campaign against secession resulting in voters defeating efforts by the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood to secede from the city Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games making Los Angeles the third city to host the Olympics three times Geography See also Los Angeles Basin San Fernando Valley Greater Los Angeles Area and Los Angeles County California Topography Night photograph of South Bay Los Angeles County with the Pacific Ocean to the left dark region Palos Verdes next to the right few lights San Pedro in the center foreground and Terminal Island in the right foreground bright region The city of Los Angeles covers a total area of square miles km comprising square miles km of land and square miles km of water The city extends for miles km north south and for miles km east west The perimeter of the city is miles km Los Angeles is both flat and hilly The highest point in the city proper is Mount Lukens at ft m located at the northeastern end of the San Fernando Valley The eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains stretches from Downtown to the Pacific Ocean and separates the Los Angeles Basin from the San Fernando Valley Other hilly parts of Los Angeles include the Mt Washington area north of Downtown eastern parts such as Boyle Heights the Crenshaw district around the Baldwin Hills and the San Pedro district Surrounding the city are much higher mountains Immediately to the north lie the San Gabriel Mountains which is a popular recreation area for Angelenos Its high point is Mount San Antonio locally known as Mount Baldy which reaches feet m Further afield the highest point in the Greater Los Angeles area is San Gorgonio Mountain with a height of feet m The Los Angeles River which is largely seasonal is the primary drainage channel It was straightened and lined in miles km of concrete by the Army Corps of Engineers to act as a flood control channel The river begins in the Canoga Park district of the city flows east from the San Fernando Valley along the north edge of the Santa Monica Mountains and turns south through the city center flowing to its mouth in the Port of Long Beach at the Pacific Ocean The smaller Ballona Creek flows into the Santa Monica Bay at Playa del Rey Vegetation Oldest palm tree in Los Angeles Los Angeles is rich in native plant species partly because of its diversity of habitats including beaches wetlands and mountains The most prevalent plant communities are coastal sage scrub chaparral shrubland and riparian woodland Native plants include the California poppy matilija poppy toyon Ceanothus Chamise Coast Live Oak sycamore willow and Giant Wildrye Many of these native species such as the Los Angeles sunflower have become so rare as to be considered endangered Although it is not native to the area the official tree of Los Angeles is the Coral Tree Erythrina caffra and the official flower of Los Angeles is the Bird of Paradise Strelitzia reginae Mexican Fan Palms Canary Island Palms Queen Palms Date Palms and California Fan Palms are common in the Los Angeles area although only the last is native Geology Los Angeles is subject to earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire The geologic instability has produced numerous faults which cause approximately earthquakes annually in Southern California though most of them are too small to be felt The strike slip San Andreas Fault system is at the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate and is vulnerable to the big one a potentially large and damaging event after the San Francisco earthquake in The Los Angeles basin and metropolitan area are also at risk from blind thrust earthquakes Major earthquakes that have hit the Los Angeles area include the Long Beach San Fernando Whittier Narrows and the Northridge events All but a few are of low intensity and are not felt The USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California Parts of the city are also vulnerable to tsunamis harbor areas were damaged by waves from Aleutian Islands earthquake in Valdivia earthquake in Alaska earthquake in Chile earthquake in and Japan earthquake in Cityscape Main article List of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles Panorama of the urban sprawl of Los Angeles in as viewed from Griffith Observatory Left to right Los Feliz Echo Park Downtown and Hollywood The city is divided into many different districts and neighborhoods some of which were incorporated cities that merged with Los Angeles These neighborhoods were developed piecemeal and are well defined enough that the city has signage marking nearly all of them Overview The city's street patterns generally follow a grid plan with uniform block lengths and occasional roads that cut across blocks However this is complicated by rugged terrain which has necessitated having different grids for each of the valleys that Los Angeles covers Major streets are designed to move large volumes of traffic through many parts of the city many of which are extremely long Sepulveda Boulevard is miles km long while Foothill Boulevard is over miles km long reaching as far east as San Bernardino Drivers in Los Angeles suffer from one of the worst rush hour periods in the world according to an annual traffic index by navigation system maker TomTom LA drivers spend an additional hours in traffic each year During the peak rush hour there is congestion according to the index Los Angeles is often characterized by the presence of low rise buildings Outside of a few centers such as Downtown Warner Center Century City Koreatown Miracle Mile Hollywood and Westwood skyscrapers and high rise buildings are not common The few skyscrapers built outside of those areas often stand out above the rest of the surrounding landscape Most construction is done in separate units rather than wall to wall That being said Downtown Los Angeles itself has many buildings over stories with fourteen over stories and two over stories the tallest of which is the Wilshire Grand Center Also Los Angeles is increasingly becoming a city of apartments rather than single family dwellings especially in the dense inner city and Westside neighborhoods Landmarks See also List of sites of interest in the Los Angeles area and National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles California Important landmarks in Los Angeles include the Hollywood Sign Walt Disney Concert Hall Capitol Records Building the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Angels Flight Grauman's Chinese Theatre Dolby Theatre Griffith Observatory Getty Center Getty Villa Stahl House the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum L A Live the Los Angeles County Museum of Art the Venice Canal Historic District and boardwalk Theme Building Bradbury Building U S Bank Tower Wilshire Grand Center Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles City Hall Hollywood Bowl Battleship USS Iowa Watts Towers Staples Center Dodger Stadium and Olvera Street Climate Main article Climate of Los Angeles MacArthur Park in Westlake Los Angeles Downtown Climate chart explanation J F M A M J J A S O N D Average max and min temperatures in F Precipitation totals in inches Source Metric conversion Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate Köppen Csb on the coast and most of downtown Csa near the metropolitan region to the west and receives just enough annual precipitation to avoid semi arid climate BSh making the myth that the city has been built in a desert not be completely incorrect Daytime temperatures are generally temperate all year round In winter they average around F C giving it a tropical feel although it is a few degrees too cool to be a true tropical climate on average due to cool night temperatures Los Angeles has plenty of sunshine throughout the year with an average of only days with measurable precipitation annually Temperatures in the coastal basin exceed F C on a dozen or so days in the year from one day a month in April May June and November to three days a month in July August October and to five days in September Temperatures in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys are considerably warmer Temperatures are subject to substantial daily swings in inland areas the difference between the average daily low and the average daily high is over F C The average annual temperature of the sea is F C from F C in January to F C in August Hours of sunshine total more than per year from an average of hours of sunshine per day in December to an average of in July A very clear evening view of Mount Lee and the Hollywood Sign from the Griffith Observatory lawn one day after a rain The Los Angeles area is also subject to phenomena typical of a microclimate causing extreme variations in temperature in close physical proximity to each other For example the average July maximum temperature at the Santa Monica Pier is F C whereas it is F C in Canoga Park miles km away The city like much of the southern California coast is subject to a late spring early summer weather phenomenon called June Gloom This involves overcast or foggy skies in the morning that yield to sun by early afternoon Downtown Los Angeles averages in mm of precipitation annually mainly occurring between November and March generally in the form of moderate rain showers but sometimes as heavy rainfall during winter storms Rainfall is usually higher in the hills and coastal slopes of the mountains because of orographic uplift Summer days are usually rainless Rarely an incursion of moist air from the south or east can bring brief thunderstorms in late summer especially to the mountains The coast gets slightly less rainfall while the inland and mountain areas get considerably more Years of average rainfall are rare The usual pattern is year to year variability with a short string of dry years of in mm rainfall followed by one or two wet years with more than in mm Wet years are usually associated with warm water El Nino conditions in the Pacific dry years with cooler water La Nina episodes A series of rainy days can bring floods to the lowlands and mudslides to the hills especially after wildfires have denuded the slopes Both freezing temperatures and snowfall are extremely rare in the city basin and along the coast with the last occurrence of a F C reading at the downtown station being January freezing temperatures occur nearly every year in valley locations while the mountains within city limits typically receive snowfall every winter The greatest snowfall recorded in downtown Los Angeles was inches cm on January While the most recent snowfall occurred in February the first snowfall since At the official downtown station the highest recorded temperature is F C on September while the lowest is F C on January During autumn and winter Santa Ana winds sometimes bring much warmer and drier conditions to Los Angeles and raise wildfire risk vte Climate data for Los Angeles USC Downtown normals extremes present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high F C Mean maximum F C Average high F C Daily mean F C Average low F C Mean minimum F C Record low F C Average rainfall inches mm Average rainy days in Mean monthly sunshine hours Percent possible sunshine Source NOAA sun vte Climate data for Los Angeles LAX normals extremes present Climate data for Los Angeles Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley Hottest and coldest wettest and driest averages for a month F inch Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Hottest Coldest Wettest Driest Environmental issues Further information Pollution in California Los Angeles Air Pollution The city is often covered in smog as in this December image External audio Fighting Smog in Los Angeles Distillations Podcast Science History Institute A Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáang? written Yang na by the Spanish which has been translated as poison oak place Yang na has also been translated as the valley of smoke Owing to geography heavy reliance on automobiles and the Los Angeles Long Beach port complex Los Angeles suffers from air pollution in the form of smog The Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley are susceptible to atmospheric inversion which holds in the exhausts from road vehicles airplanes locomotives shipping manufacturing and other sources The percentage of small particle pollution the kind that penetrates into the lungs coming from vehicles in the city can get as high as percent The smog season lasts from approximately May to October While other large cities rely on rain to clear smog Los Angeles gets only inches mm of rain each year pollution accumulates over many consecutive days Issues of air quality in Los Angeles and other major cities led to the passage of early national environmental legislation including the Clean Air Act When the act was passed California was unable to create a State Implementation Plan that would enable it to meet the new air quality standards largely because of the level of pollution in Los Angeles generated by older vehicles More recently the state of California has led the nation in working to limit pollution by mandating low emission vehicles Smog is expected to continue to drop in the coming years because of aggressive steps to reduce it which include electric and hybrid cars improvements in mass transit and other measures The number of Stage smog alerts in Los Angeles has declined from over per year in the s to almost zero in the new millennium Despite improvement the and annual reports of the American Lung Association ranked the city as the most polluted in the country with short term particle pollution and year round particle pollution In the city was ranked the second most polluted and again had the highest year round particulate pollution The city met its goal of providing percent of the city's power from renewable sources in The American Lung Association's survey ranks the metro area as having the nation's worst smog and fourth in both short term and year round pollution amounts Los Angeles is also home to the nation's largest urban oil field There are more than active oil wells within feet of homes churches schools and hospitals in the city a situation about which the EPA has voiced serious concerns Demographics Main articles Demographics of Los Angeles and African American neighborhoods in Los Angeles City compared to State U S Historical population Census Pop ± Est U S Decennial Census The United States Census reported Los Angeles had a population of The population density was people per square mile km The age distribution was people under people from to people from to people from to and people who were or older The median age was years For every females there were males For every females age and over there were males There were housing units up from during at an average density of households per square mile km of which were owner occupied and were occupied by renters The homeowner vacancy rate was the rental vacancy rate was people of the population lived in owner occupied housing units and people lived in rental housing units Percentage of households with incomes above k across LA County census tracts According to the United States Census Los Angeles had a median household income of with of the population living below the federal poverty line Race and ethnicity Racial composition Non Hispanic White Black or African American Hispanic or Latino Asian Map of racial distribution in Los Angeles U S Census Each dot is people White Black Asian Hispanic or Other yellow According to the Census the racial makeup of Los Angeles included Whites African Americans Native Americans Asians Pacific Islanders from other races and from two or more races Hispanics or Latinos of any race were persons Los Angeles is home to people from more than countries speaking different identified languages Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown Historic Filipinotown Koreatown Little Armenia Little Ethiopia Tehrangeles Little Tokyo Little Bangladesh and Thai Town provide examples of the polyglot character of Los Angeles Non Hispanic whites were of the population in compared to in The majority of the Non Hispanic white population is living in areas along the Pacific coast as well as in neighborhoods near and on the Santa Monica Mountains from the Pacific Palisades to Los Feliz Mexican ancestry make up the largest ethnic group of Hispanics at of the city's population followed by those of Salvadoran and Guatemalan heritage The Hispanic population has a long established Mexican American and Central American community and is spread well nigh throughout the entire city of Los Angeles and its metropolitan area It is most heavily concentrated in regions around Downtown as East Los Angeles Northeast Los Angeles and Westlake Furthermore a vast majority of residents in neighborhoods in eastern South Los Angeles towards Downey are of Hispanic origin The largest Asian ethnic groups are Filipinos and Koreans which have their own established ethnic enclaves Koreatown in the Wilshire Center and Historic Filipinotown Chinese people which make up of Los Angeles's population reside mostly outside of Los Angeles city limits and rather in the San Gabriel Valley of eastern Los Angeles County but make a sizable presence in the city notably in Chinatown Chinatown and Thaitown are also home to many Thais and Cambodians which make up and of Los Angeles's population respectively The Japanese comprise of LA's population and have an established Little Tokyo in the city's downtown and another significant community of Japanese Americans is in the Sawtelle district of West Los Angeles Vietnamese make up of Los Angeles's population Indians make up of the city's population The Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to a large population of Armenians Assyrians and Iranians many of whom live in enclaves like Little Armenia and Tehrangeles African Americans have been the predominant ethnic group in South Los Angeles which has emerged as the largest African American community in the western United States since the s The neighborhoods of South Los Angeles with highest concentration of African Americans include Crenshaw Baldwin Hills Leimert Park Hyde Park Gramercy Park Manchester Square and Watts Apart from South Los Angeles neighborhoods in the Central region of Los Angeles as Mid City and Mid Wilshire have a moderate concentration of African Americans as well Religion The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the mother cathedral for the Los Angeles archdiocese According to a study by the Pew Research Center Christianity is the most prevalently practiced religion in Los Angeles Perhaps owing to the fact of its founding by Franciscan friars of Roman Catholicism the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles leads the largest archdiocese in the country Cardinal Roger Mahony oversaw construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels which opened in September in Downtown Los Angeles Construction of the cathedral marked a coming of age of the city's Catholic heavily Latino community There are numerous Catholic churches and parishes throughout Los Angeles In the once common but ultimately lapsed custom of conducting a procession and Mass in honor of Nuestra Senora de los Ángeles in commemoration of the founding of the City of Los Angeles in was revived by the Queen of Angels Foundation and its founder Mark Albert with the support and approbation of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as well as several civic leaders The recently revived custom is a continuation of the original processions and Masses that commenced on the first anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles in and continued for nearly a century thereafter With Jews in the metropolitan area in city proper the region has the second largest population of Jews in the United States Many of Los Angeles's Jews now live on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley though Boyle Heights once had a large Jewish population prior to World War II due to restrictive housing covenants Major Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods include Hancock Park Pico Robertson and Valley Village while Jewish Israelis are well represented in the Encino and Tarzana neighborhoods and Persian Jews in Beverly Hills Many varieties of Judaism are represented in the greater Los Angeles area including Reform Conservative Orthodox and Reconstructionist The Breed Street Shul in East Los Angeles built in was the largest synagogue west of Chicago in its early decades it is no longer in daily use as a synagogue and is being converted to a museum and community center The Kabbalah Centre also has a presence in the city The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel was founded in Los Angeles by Aimee Semple McPherson in and remains headquartered there to this day For many years the church convened at Angelus Temple which when built was one of the largest churches in the country Los Angeles has had a rich and influential Protestant tradition The first Protestant service in Los Angeles was a Methodist meeting held in a private home in and the oldest Protestant church still operating First Congregational Church was founded in In the early s the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles published the founding documents of the Christian Fundamentalist movement and the Azusa Street Revival launched Pentecostalism The Metropolitan Community Church also had its origins in the Los Angeles area Important churches in the city include First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood Bel Air Presbyterian Church First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles West Angeles Church of God in Christ Second Baptist Church Crenshaw Christian Center McCarty Memorial Christian Church and First Congregational Church The Los Angeles California Temple the second largest temple operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is on Santa Monica Boulevard in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles Dedicated in it was the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints built in California and it was the largest in the world when completed The Hollywood region of Los Angeles also has several significant headquarters churches and the Celebrity Center of Scientology citation needed Because of Los Angeles's large multi ethnic population a wide variety of faiths are practiced including Buddhism Hinduism Islam Zoroastrianism Sikhism Bahá'í various Eastern Orthodox churches Sufism Shintoism Taoism Confucianism Chinese folk religion and countless others Immigrants from Asia for example have formed a number of significant Buddhist congregations making the city home to the greatest variety of Buddhists in the world The first Buddhist joss house was founded in the city in Atheism and other secular beliefs are also common as the city is the largest in the Western U S Unchurched Belt Economy See also Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and Los Angeles County California Economy Employment by industry in Los Angeles County Kaiser Sunset Hospital in Los Angeles Kaiser Permanente was the largest non government employer in Los Angeles County in The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade entertainment television motion pictures video games music recording and production aerospace technology petroleum fashion apparel and tourism citation needed Other significant industries include finance telecommunications law healthcare and transportation In the Global Financial Centres Index Los Angeles was ranked as having the th most competitive financial center in the world and sixth most competitive in United States after New York City San Francisco Chicago Boston and Washington D C One of the five major film studios Paramount Pictures is within the city limits its location being part of the so called Thirty Mile Zone of entertainment headquarters in Southern California Los Angeles is the largest manufacturing center in the United States The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the busiest port in the United States by some measures and the fifth busiest port in the world vital to trade within the Pacific Rim The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of trillion as of making it the third largest economic metropolitan area in the world after Tokyo and New York Los Angeles has been classified an alpha world city according to a study by a group at Loughborough University As of Los Angeles is home to three Fortune companies AECOM CBRE Group and Reliance Steel Aluminum Co Largest Non Government Employers in Los Angeles County August Rank Employer Employees Kaiser Permanente University of Southern California Northrop Grumman Corp Providence Health and Services Southern California Target Corp Ralphs Food Less Kroger Co Division Cedars Sinai Medical Center Walt Disney Co Allied Universal NBC Universal Cannabis Further information Cannabis in California The Department of Cannabis Regulation enforces cannabis legislation after the legalization of the sale and distribution of cannabis in Companies must be licensed by the local agency to grow test or sell cannabis Each jurisdiction cities and counties may license none or only some of these activities Local governments may not prohibit adults from growing using or transporting marijuana for personal use As of October more than existing cannabis businesses both retailers and their suppliers have been granted approval to operate in what is considered the nation's largest market The city has also developed a social equity program to help communities disproportionately affected by the criminalization of marijuana Culture Main article Arts and culture of Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles is often billed as the Creative Capital of the World because one in every six of its residents works in a creative industry and there are more artists writers filmmakers actors dancers and musicians living and working in Los Angeles than any other city at any other time in history Movies and the performing arts The city's Hollywood neighborhood has become recognized as the center of the motion picture industry and the Los Angeles area is also associated as being the center of the television industry The city is home to the major film studios as well as major record labels Los Angeles plays host to the annual Academy Awards the Primetime Emmy Awards the Grammy Awards as well as many other entertainment industry awards shows Los Angeles is the site of the USC School of Cinematic Arts the oldest film school in the United States The Dolby Theatre venue for the Academy Awards The performing arts play a major role in Los Angeles's cultural identity According to the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation there are more than annual theatrical productions and openings every week The Los Angeles Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation with more than million visitors per year The Walt Disney Concert Hall centerpiece of the Music Center is home to the prestigious Los Angeles Philharmonic Notable organizations such as Center Theatre Group the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Opera are also resident companies of the Music Center Talent is locally cultivated at premier institutions such as the Colburn School and the USC Thornton School of Music Museums and galleries See also Los Angeles City Museums There are museums and art galleries in Los Angeles County more museums per capita than any other city in the U S Some of the notable museums are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art the largest art museum in the Western United States the Getty Center part of the J Paul Getty Trust the world's wealthiest art institution the Petersen Automotive Museum the Huntington Library the Natural History Museum the Battleship Iowa and the Museum of Contemporary Art A significant number of art galleries are on Gallery Row and tens of thousands attend the monthly Downtown Art Walk there Sports See also Sports in Los Angeles and History of the National Football League in Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The city of Los Angeles and its metropolitan area are the home of eleven top level professional sports teams several of which play in neighboring communities but use Los Angeles in their name These teams include the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball MLB the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League NFL the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association NBA the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League NHL the Los Angeles Galaxy and Los Angeles Football Club of Major League Soccer MLS and the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association WNBA Other notable sports teams include the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans in the National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA both of which are Division I teams in the Pac Conference Dodger Stadium Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States but hosted no NFL team between and At one time the Los Angeles area hosted two NFL teams the Rams and the Raiders Both left the city in with the Rams moving to St Louis and the Raiders moving back to their original home of Oakland After seasons in St Louis on January the NFL announced the Rams would be moving back to Los Angeles for the NFL season SoFi Stadium in Inglewood California is under construction and will be completed by the season Prior to the Rams played their home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from to and the Raiders played their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum from to The San Diego Chargers announced on January they would relocate to Los Angeles and become the Los Angeles Chargers beginning in the NFL season and played at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson California for three seasons prior to the completion of SoFi Stadium Staples Center is a sports arena home to the Los Angeles Lakers Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Sparks Los Angeles has twice hosted the Summer Olympic Games in and in and will host the games for a third time in Los Angeles will be the third city after London and and Paris and to host the Olympic Games three times When the tenth Olympic Games were hosted in the former th Street was renamed Olympic Blvd Super Bowls I and VII were also held in the city as well as multiple FIFA World Cup games at the Rose Bowl in including the final Los Angeles also hosted the Deaflympics in and Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles boasts a number of sports venues including Dodger Stadium the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Banc of California Stadium and the Staples Center The Forum SoFi Stadium Dignity Health Sports Park and the Rose Bowl are also in adjacent cities The Los Angeles Wildcats XFL are tenants of Dignity Health Sports Park Los Angeles is one of six North American cities to have won championships in all five of its major leagues MLB NFL NHL NBA and MLS having completed the feat with the Kings' Stanley Cup title Government Main article Government of Los Angeles See also Government of Los Angeles County The Tom Bradley Room making up the whole interior of L A City Hall's th floor Los Angeles is a charter city as opposed to a general law city The current charter was adopted on June and has been amended many times The elected government consists of the Los Angeles City Council and the mayor of Los Angeles which operate under a mayor council government as well as the city attorney not to be confused with the district attorney a county office and controller The mayor is Eric Garcetti There are city council districts The city has many departments and appointed officers including the Los Angeles Police Department LAPD the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners the Los Angeles Fire Department LAFD the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles HACLA the Los Angeles Department of Transportation LADOT and the Los Angeles Public Library LAPL The charter of the City of Los Angeles ratified by voters in created a system of advisory neighborhood councils that would represent the diversity of stakeholders defined as those who live work or own property in the neighborhood The neighborhood councils are relatively autonomous and spontaneous in that they identify their own boundaries establish their own bylaws and elect their own officers There are about neighborhood councils Residents of Los Angeles elect supervisors for the st nd rd and th supervisorial districts Federal and state representation In the California State Assembly Los Angeles is split between fourteen districts In the California State Senate the city is split between eight districts In the United States House of Representatives it is split among ten congressional districts Crime See also Crime in Los Angeles and List of criminal gangs in Los Angeles The LAPD on May Day in front of the new Caltrans District Headquarters In the city of Los Angeles recorded murders Los Angeles experienced a significant decline in crime in the s and late s and reached a year low in with homicides This is a rate of per population a major decrease from when a homicide rate of per was reported This included officer involved shootings One shooting led to the death of a SWAT team member Randal Simmons the first in LAPD's history Los Angeles in the year of totaled murders a decrease of percent from the previous year Police speculate the drop resulted from a number of factors including young people spending more time online In it was revealed that the LAPD had been under reporting crime for eight years making the crime rate in the city appear much lower than it really is The Dragna crime family and the Cohen crime family dominated organized crime in the city during the Prohibition era and reached its peak during the s and s with the battle of Sunset Strip as part of the American Mafia but has gradually declined since then with the rise of various black and Hispanic gangs in the late s and early s According to the Los Angeles Police Department the city is home to gang members organized into gangs Among them are the Crips and Bloods which are both African American street gangs that originated in the South Los Angeles region Latino street gangs such as the Surenos a Mexican American street gang and Mara Salvatrucha which has mainly members of Salvadoran descent all originated in Los Angeles This has led to the city being referred to as the Gang Capital of America Education Colleges and universities Second branch of the California State Normal School in downtown Los Angeles opened its doors in Cal State LA There are three public universities within the city limits California State University Los Angeles CSULA California State University Northridge CSUN and University of California Los Angeles UCLA Private colleges in the city include American Film Institute Conservatory Alliant International University American Academy of Dramatic Arts Los Angeles Campus American Jewish University Abraham Lincoln University The American Musical and Dramatic Academy Los Angeles campus Antioch University's Los Angeles campus Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science Columbia College Hollywood Emerson College Los Angeles Campus Emperor's College Fashion Institute of Design Merchandising's Los Angeles campus FIDM Los Angeles Film School Loyola Marymount University LMU is also the parent university of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles Marymount College Mount St Mary's College National University of California Occidental College Oxy Otis College of Art and Design Otis Southern California Institute of Architecture SCI Arc Southwestern Law School University of Southern California USC Woodbury University The community college system consists of nine campuses governed by the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District East Los Angeles College ELAC Los Angeles City College LACC Los Angeles Harbor College Los Angeles Mission College Los Angeles Pierce College Los Angeles Valley College LAVC Los Angeles Southwest College Los Angeles Trade Technical College West Los Angeles College There are numerous additional colleges and universities outside the city limits in the Greater Los Angeles area including the Claremont Colleges consortium which includes the most selective liberal arts colleges in the U S and the California Institute of Technology Caltech one of the top STEM focused research institutions in the world The Los Angeles Central Library is in Downtown Los Angeles Schools and libraries See also Los Angeles County California Colleges and universities and List of high schools in Los Angeles County California Los Angeles Unified School District serves almost all of the city of Los Angeles as well as several surrounding communities with a student population around After Proposition was approved in urban school districts had considerable trouble with funding LAUSD has become known for its underfunded overcrowded and poorly maintained campuses although its Magnet schools help compete with local private schools Several small sections of Los Angeles are in the Las Virgenes Unified School District The Los Angeles County Office of Education operates the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts The Los Angeles Public Library system operates public libraries in the city Enclaves of unincorporated areas are served by branches of the County of Los Angeles Public Library many of which are within walking distance to residents Media Main article Media in Los Angeles See also List of television shows set in Los Angeles and List of films set in Los Angeles Former Los Angeles Times headquarters in the Civic Center The Los Angeles metro area is the second largest broadcast designated market area in the U S after New York with homes of the U S which is served by a wide variety of local AM and FM radio and television stations Los Angeles and New York City are the only two media markets to have seven VHF allocations assigned to them The Fox Plaza in Century City headquarters for th Century Fox As part of the region's aforementioned creative industry the Big Four major broadcast television networks ABC CBS FOX and NBC all have production facilities and offices throughout various areas of Los Angeles All four major broadcast television networks plus major Spanish language networks Telemundo and Univision also own and operate stations that both serve the Los Angeles market and serve as each network's West Coast flagship station ABC's KABC TV Channel CBS's KCBS TV Channel Fox's KTTV TV Channel NBC's KNBC TV Channel MyNetworkTV's KCOP TV Channel Telemundo's KVEA TV Channel and Univision's KMEX TV Channel The region also has three PBS stations as well as KCET Channel the nation's largest independent public television station KTBN Channel is the flagship station of the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network based out of Santa Ana A variety of independent television stations such as KCAL TV Channel and KTLA TV Channel also operate in the area The major daily English language newspaper in the area is the Los Angeles Times La Opinión is the city's major daily Spanish language paper The Korea Times is the city's major daily Korean language paper while The World Journal is the city and county's major Chinese newspaper The Los Angeles Sentinel is the city's major African American weekly paper boasting the largest African American readership in the Western United States Investor's Business Daily is distributed from its LA corporate offices which are headquartered in Playa del Rey There are also a number of smaller regional newspapers alternative weeklies and magazines including the Los Angeles Register Los Angeles Community News which focuses on coverage of the greater Los Angeles area Los Angeles Daily News which focuses coverage on the San Fernando Valley LA Weekly L A Record which focuses coverage on the music scene in the Greater Los Angeles Area Los Angeles Magazine the Los Angeles Business Journal the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal industry paper The Hollywood Reporter Variety both entertainment industry papers and Los Angeles Downtown News In addition to the major papers numerous local periodicals serve immigrant communities in their native languages including Armenian English Korean Persian Russian Chinese Japanese Hebrew and Arabic Many cities adjacent to Los Angeles also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps into certain Los Angeles neighborhoods Examples include The Daily Breeze serving the South Bay and The Long Beach Press Telegram Los Angeles arts culture and nightlife news is also covered by a number of local and national online guides like Time Out Los Angeles Thrillist Kristin's List DailyCandy Diversity News Magazine LAist and Flavorpill Transportation Main article Transportation in Los Angeles Freeways Main article Southern California freeways The Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange connecting the Century Freeway I and the Harbor Freeway I The city and the rest of the Los Angeles metropolitan area are served by an extensive network of freeways and highways The Texas Transportation Institute which publishes an annual Urban Mobility Report ranked Los Angeles road traffic as the most congested in the United States in as measured by annual delay per traveler The average traveler in Los Angeles experienced hours of traffic delay per year according to the study Los Angeles was followed by San Francisco Oakland Washington D C and Atlanta each with hours of delay Despite the congestion in the city the mean travel time for commuters in Los Angeles is shorter than other major cities including New York City Philadelphia and Chicago Los Angeles's mean travel time for work commutes in was minutes similar to those of San Francisco and Washington D C Among the major highways that connect LA to the rest of the nation include Interstate which runs south through San Diego to Tijuana in Mexico and north through Sacramento Portland and Seattle to the Canada US border Interstate the southernmost east west coast to coast Interstate Highway in the United States going to Jacksonville Florida and U S Route which heads to the California Central Coast San Francisco the Redwood Empire and the Oregon and Washington coasts Transit systems Main article Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Los Angeles Metro Rail and Metro Transitway map The LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority LA County Metro and other agencies operate an extensive system of bus lines as well as subway and light rail lines across Los Angeles County with a combined monthly ridership measured in individual boardings of million as of September The majority of this million is taken up by the city's bus system the second busiest in the country The subway and light rail combined average the remaining roughly million boardings per month LA County Metro recorded over million boardings for the calendar year including about million bus riders and about million riding on rail transit For the first quarter of there were just under million system wide boardings down from about million in and about million in In of Los Angeles commuters rode some form of public transportation According to the American Community Survey of working Los Angeles city residents made the journey to work via public transportation The city's subway system is the ninth busiest in the United States and its light rail system is the country's busiest The rail system includes the B and D subway lines as well as the A C E and L light rail lines In the E Line was extended to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica The Metro G and J lines are bus rapid transit lines with stops and frequency similar to those of light rail As of the total number of light rail stations is The city is also central to the commuter rail system Metrolink which links Los Angeles to all neighboring counties as well as many suburbs Besides the rail service provided by Metrolink and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Los Angeles is served by inter city passenger trains from Amtrak The main rail station in the city is Union Station just north of Downtown In addition the city directly contracts for local and commuter bus service through the Los Angeles Department of Transportation or LADOT Airports Main article List of airports in the Los Angeles area The Theme Building at Los Angeles Airport The main international and domestic airport serving Los Angeles is Los Angeles International Airport IATA LAX ICAO KLAX commonly referred to by its airport code LAX Other major nearby commercial airports include IATA ONT ICAO KONT Ontario International Airport owned by the city of Ontario CA serves the Inland Empire IATA BUR ICAO KBUR Hollywood Burbank Airport jointly owned by the cities of Burbank Glendale and Pasadena Formerly known as Bob Hope Airport and Burbank Airport the closest airport to Downtown Los Angeles serves the San Fernando San Gabriel and Antelope Valleys IATA LGB ICAO KLGB Long Beach Airport serves the Long Beach Harbor area IATA SNA ICAO KSNA John Wayne Airport of Orange County One of the world's busiest general aviation airports is also in Los Angeles Van Nuys Airport IATA VNY ICAO KVNY Seaports The Vincent Thomas Bridge is at Terminal Island The Port of Los Angeles is in San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood approximately miles km south of Downtown Also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT LA the port complex occupies acres km of land and water along miles km of waterfront It adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach The sea ports of the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach together make up the Los Angeles Long Beach Harbor Together both ports are the fifth busiest container port in the world with a trade volume of over million TEU's in Singly the Port of Los Angeles is the busiest container port in the United States and the largest cruise ship center on the West Coast of the United States The Port of Los Angeles's World Cruise Center served about passengers in There are also smaller non industrial harbors along Los Angeles's coastline The port includes four bridges the Vincent Thomas Bridge Henry Ford Bridge Gerald Desmond Bridge and Commodore Schuyler F Heim Bridge Passenger ferry service from San Pedro to the city of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island is provided by Catalina Express Homelessness As of January there are homeless people in the City of Los Angeles comprising roughly of the homeless population of LA County This is an increase of over the previous year with a increase in the overall homeless population of LA County The epicenter of homelessness in Los Angeles is the Skid Row neighborhood which contains homeless people one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the United States The increased homeless population in Los Angeles has been attributed largely to lack of housing affordability Almost percent of the people that became newly homeless in said their homelessness was because of economic hardship In Los Angeles black people are roughly four times more likely to experience homelessness which has been partially attributed to systemic racism Notable people Main article List of people from Los Angeles As home to Hollywood and its entertainment industry numerous singers actors celebrities and other entertainers live in various districts of Los Angeles