Donald Trump

Trump announced restrictions affecting transgender military personnel in 2017, a policy partially implemented following litigation. In 2025, he signed a broader ban, again challenged as discriminatory and blocked by lower courts before Supreme Court intervention.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

A federal jury found in 2023 that Trump had sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million; that verdict survived appeals, culminating in the Supreme Court's refusal to review it in June 2026. Another jury awarded her $83.3 million for defamation.

Attribution

Personally implicated

A New York judge found that Trump and his companies had submitted misleading asset valuations to lenders and insurers for years. In 2025, an appeals court upheld liability but overturned the enormous financial penalty as excessive.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

In May 2024, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to reimbursement of a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. In January 2025, he received an "unconditional discharge", with neither imprisonment nor a fine.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Trump and several allies were indicted in Georgia over a series of actions intended to change the result of the 2020 election. Following Fani Willis's disqualification and difficulties finding a replacement prosecutor, the charges were dropped in November 2025.

Course of the proceedings

1. Formally charged — Formal charge before the current outcome

Trump and his family developed major cryptocurrency interests, including World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP memecoin. Buyers spent approximately $148 million to qualify for a dinner with the President, with substantial participation by foreign holders; financial disclosures subsequently revealed considerable cryptocurrency income.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Trump defended the US government's acceptance of a Boeing 747-8 offered by Qatar, intended for conversion into a presidential aircraft, prompting questions about foreign gifts, modification costs, security and the aircraft's eventual ownership.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump socialised with Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, and his name appears in publicly released documents. A birthday letter attributed to Trump was the subject of disputed reporting and a multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit.

State of the evidence

Disputed

Reuters documented a broad campaign of reprisals and pressure against opponents or institutions perceived as hostile. Several high-profile prosecutions of Trump critics were dropped or dismissed, and Department of Justice oversight mechanisms were weakened.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

With Trump's backing, Elon Musk and DOGE shut down essential USAID functions, dismissed thousands of employees and contractors, and disrupted aid programmes. Former staff argued that the agency could not be dismantled without Congress.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump signed executive orders targeting Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey, among others, restricting government access, security clearances or clients' contracts because of past work, political associations or diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Four judges ruled the measures unconstitutional, and the Department of Justice abandoned its appeals in March 2026.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

The Trump administration suspended or threatened billions of dollars in university funding while demanding changes concerning antisemitism, governance, diversity, equity and inclusion policies, foreign students and "viewpoint diversity". Columbia reached a settlement exceeding $200 million; Harvard rejected several demands and initiated litigation.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order seeking to deny automatic citizenship to certain people born in the United States. In June 2026, the Supreme Court held that this deprivation violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause for the class concerned. Trump signed a narrower version in August, which was also provisionally blocked in September.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs without congressional approval. On 20 February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled by six votes to three that IEEPA did not confer that power, finding that his interpretation would encroach excessively on Congress's taxation and trade powers.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump federalised and deployed thousands of National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles during protests against immigration raids, then extended military deployments to Washington and other cities. A judge found that some activities in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act; in Washington, a Reuters investigation questioned effectiveness relative to cost.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

As part of the deportation campaign, the IRS provided ICE with approximately 47,000 taxpayers' addresses. In September 2026, a federal appeals court upheld the injunction and ruled that the mechanism violated post-Watergate federal tax confidentiality protections.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

The administration sought extensive use of the SAVE database and Social Security data to check citizenship on electoral rolls and pushed for national rules governing postal ballots. Courts blocked these measures on grounds of confidentiality, reliability or authority, while the government appealed to the Supreme Court.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Following a Trump executive order, the Office of Personnel Management asked applicants for federal jobs to explain how they would advance the President's priorities. More than 70,000 job listings included the question. On 12 September 2026, a federal judge blocked it as probably unlawfully politicising career recruitment.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

After suing the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax records, Trump dropped his lawsuit in a settlement creating a $1.776 billion public fund intended to compensate alleged victims of political persecution and providing protection against certain past tax audits of Trump and associates.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

White House financial disclosures showed that Trump had given $45,000 in cash to each of three close aides and $20,000 to Walt Nauta. Ethics experts raised questions about the prohibition on supplementing federal remuneration.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump launched military operations against Iran alongside Israel on 28 February 2026 without specific prior congressional authorisation. The conflict continued, with blockades and renewed strikes. Both chambers adopted a resolution calling for US forces to withdraw from hostilities; Trump maintained that a truce had reset the sixty-day period under the War Powers Act and subsequently notified a resumption of hostilities in July.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

During Trump's first term, the administration sought to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census; the Supreme Court rejected the stated rationale as "contrived". In September 2026, the administration proposed excluding certain categories of immigrants from the count, including people with temporary lawful status, potentially affecting representation and funding.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Following the 1989 Central Park assault, Trump purchased advertisements calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. The five convicted teenagers were exonerated in 2002. Trump refused to apologise and, in 2024, falsely claimed that they had killed someone and pleaded guilty; a federal judge allowed their defamation lawsuit to proceed in 2025.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist is the victim

Trump initiated US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement during his first term, a withdrawal reversed by Joe Biden, then ordered a further withdrawal immediately upon returning to office in January 2025. The decision attracted strong criticism for its impact on global climate cooperation.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

On the day he returned to the White House, Trump pardoned almost everyone prosecuted over the events of 6 January 2021 and commuted several sentences, including in cases involving violence.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Jack Smith charged Trump over his efforts to prevent certification of the 2020 election. Following Trump's victory in 2024, the Department of Justice dropped the case in accordance with its policy against prosecuting a sitting president. Smith's final report stated that the evidence would have been sufficient to secure a conviction had Trump not returned to office.

Trump was charged with retaining classified documents and obstruction after leaving the White House. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the indictment in 2024, ruling that the special counsel's appointment was unlawful; following Trump's re-election, the Department of Justice abandoned the appeal concerning him and subsequently the prosecution of his co-defendants.

Department of Justice leadership ordered the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped, citing, among other reasons, the prosecution's impact on his ability to cooperate with federal immigration priorities. Several senior prosecutors resigned rather than implement the order, fuelling allegations of political interference.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Trump and Elon Musk led a rapid reduction in the federal administration, involving thousands of dismissals of probationary employees and widespread offers of voluntary departure. A federal judge found that the Office of Personnel Management had unlawfully ordered approximately 25,000 dismissals, while declining to reinstate the employees following Supreme Court intervention concerning interim relief.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump dismissed several independent inspectors general without giving Congress the thirty days' notice and detailed explanation required by law. A federal judge found that he had probably violated the law but declined to reinstate them, considering reinstatement of limited value because the President could repeat the dismissals with the required notice.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump invoked a law dating from 1798, historically used during wartime, to deport Venezuelan nationals identified as members of Tren de Aragua. The Supreme Court lifted a procedural block but required advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to challenge the measure through habeas corpus, without ruling on the general legality of invoking the Act.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

The administration acknowledged mistakenly deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite an order preventing his removal to that country. The Supreme Court upheld the government's obligation to facilitate his return, producing a highly visible confrontation over compliance with court orders and due process.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

Colorado ruled Trump ineligible to appear on its presidential ballot under the Fourteenth Amendment's insurrection clause. The US Supreme Court unanimously restored his place on the ballot, holding that states could not independently enforce the provision against a federal candidate.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Trump recounted telling a leader of a NATO country that he would not protect it against Russia if it failed to meet its spending commitments and would "encourage" Moscow to do whatever it wanted, causing considerable concern among allies.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

Two members of the Trump campaign were involved in a reported verbal and physical confrontation with an Arlington National Cemetery employee who sought to enforce restrictions on photography and campaign activities in a sensitive section.

State of the evidence

Disputed

During the presidential debate, Trump repeated the allegation that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating pets. Local authorities stated that there were no credible reports supporting the story.

Attribution

Personally implicated

Two Trump Organization companies were found guilty of a tax fraud scheme involving undeclared benefits provided to executives.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Protagonist not prosecuted

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Trump did not divest his businesses into a blind trust, and his hotels received payments from foreign governments during his first term. Several lawsuits alleged violations of the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

After Trump publicly criticised the recommended sentence for Roger Stone, the Department of Justice reduced its recommendation, prompting four prosecutors to withdraw from the case. Trump subsequently commuted and then pardoned Stone and granted pardons to other allies, including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, prompting accusations of political use of clemency.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

After losing the 2020 election, Trump repeatedly made false claims of fraud, pressured election officials and Mike Pence, and encouraged his supporters to go to the Capitol on 6 January. The House impeached him for incitement of insurrection; 57 senators voted to convict, short of the required two-thirds majority.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Contrary to modern presidential practice, Trump refused to release his tax returns voluntarily. Records obtained by the press showed that he had paid $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and no federal income tax in certain years because of reported losses and deductions.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump asked Volodymyr Zelensky to announce politically advantageous investigations while military assistance approved by Congress was on hold. The House impeached him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress; the Senate acquitted him.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Recordings show Trump privately acknowledging the danger posed by coronavirus while publicly saying that he wanted to play it down to avoid panic. In April 2020, his televised speculation about injecting or internally using disinfectants prompted immediate warnings from experts and manufacturers.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Law enforcement officers used coercive measures to disperse protesters near the White House shortly before Trump crossed Lafayette Square and posed holding a Bible outside a church, triggering a major controversy over use of force and presidential image-making.

State of the evidence

Documented

Following legal action by the New York Attorney General, the Trump Foundation agreed to dissolve under court supervision. A judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to charities for misuse of funds, notably in connection with a fundraising event that politically benefited his campaign.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Trump's refusal to sign funding legislation without $5.7 billion for the border wall contributed to the longest federal government shutdown in US history, lasting 35 days. He subsequently declared a national emergency to redirect funds towards the wall despite congressional opposition.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Mueller established "sweeping and systematic" Russian interference but did not establish a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. His report described several actions by Trump directed at the investigation and did not exonerate him on obstruction.

State of the evidence

Documented

Trump withdrew US troops from north-eastern Syria ahead of a Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces that had fought Islamic State alongside Washington. Republican and Democratic lawmakers condemned the abandonment of allies and gains for Russia, Turkey and Damascus.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

A New York Times investigation based on extensive tax documentation estimated that Trump had received the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars from his father and described valuation and transfer strategies intended to reduce estate and gift taxes, contradicting his account of having built his fortune almost entirely on his own.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Students and the New York Attorney General accused Trump University of deceptive practices. In 2016, Trump agreed to settle the litigation for $25 million; the settlement became final in 2018.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Negotiations over the Trump Tower Moscow property project continued further into the 2016 campaign than initially acknowledged publicly. Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the project's timetable.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Two sources present at, or informed about, a White House meeting reported that Trump had described Haiti and African countries as "shithole countries", triggering international condemnation, including from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Attribution

Personally implicated

The policy of systematically prosecuting unlawful entry led to the separation of at least 5,500 children from their parents. Following national and international outrage, Trump signed an executive order ending systematic separation, and a federal judge ordered thousands of families to be reunited.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

In Helsinki, Trump appeared to give credence to Vladimir Putin's denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election, contrary to the findings of his own intelligence agencies, prompting bipartisan criticism.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

The administration's response to Hurricane Maria attracted strong criticism. In 2018, Trump rejected the official death toll of nearly 3,000 and accused Democrats, without evidence, of inflating the figure, although it came from an independent study commissioned by Puerto Rico.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA despite the IAEA regularly certifying compliance at the time and reinstated sanctions. Iran subsequently began exceeding certain limits of the agreement from 2019, and the deal became defunct.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Political responsibility

A recording made in 2005 and released in 2016 captures Trump making obscene remarks and describing non-consensual sexual touching. Several women subsequently or independently alleged non-consensual sexual conduct; some allegations were introduced as contextual evidence in the Carroll trial.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump placed his son-in-law Jared Kushner and subsequently his daughter Ivanka Trump at the centre of the White House administration, prompting accusations of nepotism and questions about their private interests.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Directly implicated

Following violence in Charlottesville between white supremacists and counter-protesters, including the death of Heather Heyer, Trump was strongly criticised for attributing blame to "both sides" and referring to "very fine people" among those present at the rally, while subsequently explicitly condemning neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump became one of the leading promoters of the baseless theory that Barack Obama might not have been born in the United States. In September 2016, he finally acknowledged that Obama had been born in the United States, while falsely claiming that the Clinton campaign had started the controversy.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Personally implicated

During the 2015 campaign, Trump defended an unsupported claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey had celebrated the 9/11 attacks. While attacking a journalist who had challenged his interpretation of an earlier article, he performed an imitation widely perceived as mocking the journalist's physical disability.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated

Trump-affiliated casino companies underwent several court-supervised restructurings, and Trump acknowledged using renegotiation or challenges to supplier invoices as a business tactic. Trump Plaza was eventually lost in bankruptcy proceedings in 2009.

State of the evidence

Established

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Testifying before Congress about tribal gambling, Trump, then a major casino operator, criticised the regulatory framework for Native American casinos and made remarks concerning the identity and appearance of certain people claiming Native American ancestry. The remarks were condemned as racially offensive and commercially self-interested.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

In 1973, the US Department of Justice sued Donald Trump, his father and their company, alleging discriminatory practices against Black rental applicants. A 1975 consent decree required non-discrimination measures and advertising.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility