Donald Trump: A big scandal - as a series in pictures

Created: 2022-06-20 15:01

By: Daniel Dillmann

Whether as a real estate agent, reality TV star or US President.

Donald Trump hardly missed an opportunity to cause outrage and scandals.

A look back.

1 / 14Provocation has been his specialty for over 40 years: Donald Trump was stirring things up long before he decided to pursue a political career.

Whether as a cold-blooded real estate agent in his hometown of New York City or, as here, as a ruthless boss on his own reality TV series The Apprentice, Trump has always made headlines.

A look back is reminiscent of the greatest moments that finally led to the election victory in 2016 and the entry into the White House.

© Imago

2 / 14It all started so harmoniously.

Donald Trump, rich heir, darling of the gossip columns and from 1986 also known as the savior of the New York ice rink, married Ivana Trump in 1977.

The former model gave birth to Donald's first three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.

But the marriage should not survive the glamorous life of the Trumps.

In 1992, Ivana Trump filed for divorce.

© imago

3 / 14Donald Trump then married the woman with whom, according to the tabloid press, he had been having an affair for a long time: Marla Maples.

The then 30-year-old actress said yes to Trump on December 20, 1993 in New York.

Shortly before, Tiffany Trump, their daughter, was born.

The marriage lasted a respectable six years.

Marla Maples would have liked to have written a book about this period.

According to Vanity Fair, however, this was prevented by the lawyers of her stepchildren Ivanka Trump and Donald Junior.

© imago

4 / 14Marriage number three followed for Donald Trump, this time with Melania Knauss.

The top model from Slovenia became famous as the face of the Camel cigarette brand campaign in the USA in 1998.

Melania met her future husband in the same year.

In 2002 she married Donald Trump, who was 24 years her senior.

In 2006, the glamor couple's son was born: Barron Trump.

Eleven years later, the family moved from Trump Tower in New York to the White House in Washington DC.

© imago stock&people

5 / 14Because Donald Trump achieved what had long been considered impossible: He won the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama campaigned for his long-time Secretary of State to be elected and warned against Trump.

It was of no use.

As usual, Obama first attended the inauguration ceremony and then received his successor in the White House – an honor Trump would refuse to Joe Biden four years later.

© imago

6 / 14Barely in office and dignified, Donald Trump slipped from one embarrassment to the next affront.

During a state visit to France, Trump held a handshake competition with French President Emmanuel Macron, which Macron ultimately won.

At least that's what the clear marks left by the Frenchman's fingers on the US President's hand suggested.

© Peter Dejone/dpa

7 / 14But Donald Trump not only polarizes with his actions, speculations about his appearance also repeatedly make headlines.

Why is his skin orange, what is he smearing on his face, can't a billionaire afford a better toupee?

It regularly refuses to lie properly on its head - as can be seen here, for example, at the airport in Shanghai.

© Jim Watson/imago

8 / 14 Donald Trump's allies, in particular, were upset with his fickleness.

The troubled relationship between the US under his reign and the rest of the western world is summed up in this photo taken at the G7 summit in Canada in 2018.

Angela Merkel, then Chancellor, French President Emmanuel Macron and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talk to Trump.

He's sitting there with a defiant expression on his face and his arms crossed.

Merkel in particular is clearly frustrated with such a negotiating partner.

© Jesco Denzel/dpa

9 / 14Anyone who believed that Donald Trump as president would at least only produce political scandals was soon taught otherwise.

Erotic actress Stormy Daniels made her affair with the US President public.

Both met while Trump was already married to Melania.

Spicy: Melania was probably pregnant with their child at the time.

Trump ordered his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay Stormy Daniels hush money to keep everything secret.

But because the money allegedly never reached her, Daniels wrote a book.

Now we all know, whether we like it or not, what Trump's penis looks like.

© Mandel Ngan/afp

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10 / 14But neither with bedtime stories nor with political scandals did Donald Trump attract as much attention as with his Twitter channel.

As @realdonaldtrump, Donald tweeted until the bars buckled: in the middle of the night, full of misspellings and preferably in all caps.

Legendary is his "Covfefe" tweet from May 31, 2017 (pictured).

At times, almost 89 million accounts followed him.

But in January 2021 it was suddenly over.

In the course of the attack on the Capitol, Twitter blocked the account of the then incumbent US President.

Reason: He encouraged the mob to violence.

© Christina Horsten/dpa

11 / 14In which direction Donald Trump was heading domestically became clear by 2017 at the latest.

A horde of neo-Nazis marched through the city of Charlottesville with torches.

Uniformed men shouted in unison: "Jews will not replace us." A man drove his car into a group of counter-demonstrators, killing a 30-year-old woman as a result.

The whole US was shocked.

But the head of state refused to condemn the neo-Nazi march.

Instead, Donald Trump spoke of "very good people on both sides".

© Zach D Roberts/imago

12 / 14When Hurricane Florence devastated the island of Puerto Rico in September 2018, Donald Trump was initially of little interest.

After political pressure, however, he sent help and even traveled to the island himself, which belongs to the United States but is not an official state.

Once there, Trump threw toilet paper rolls at people.

At no time did he seem aware of the scope of the catastrophe.

Star chef José Andrés, himself from Puerto Rico and present at the said situation, said some time later to the Washington Post: "It was proof of his inability to empathize." © Evan Vucci / dpa

13 / 14What doesn't fit is manipulated.

No moment characterizes this credo of Donald Trump as impressively as the "Sharpie Gate".

As Hurricane Dorian threatened the United States, Trump tweeted that the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama should beware.

The problem: according to the official map from the national weather service, Alabama was not affected.

Instead of admitting that he was wrong, Trump simply smeared the map with a Sharpie felt-tip pen (the American equivalent of Edding), thus expanding the danger area and hey presto: Alabama was also affected - at least in Donald Trump's world, in which facts are freely interchangeable.

© JIM WATSON/afp

14 / 14 Donald Trump's time as President ended as it began: with a scandal.

For weeks, Trump fueled the aggression of his supporters with his allegations of electoral fraud ("The Big Lie").

Anger erupted on January 6, 2021, the day Joe Biden was supposed to be officially named president.

After Trump asked his supporters to march to the Capitol, the situation there escalated.

The mob overcomes the barricades of the completely overwhelmed and undermanned police force and enters the parliament building.

Five people die as a result of the riot.

That hardly changes anything for Donald Trump.

To date, he has not publicly admitted his defeat.

© Lev Radin/imago