Melania’s jacket and nine other defining images of Trump’s presidency
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After four years of President Donald Trump, the US is gearing up for a new leader on 20 January.
We’ve put together a selection of some of the key moments from his presidency, from meetings with world leaders to celebrity guests at the White House.
Crowds are seen gathered at Mr Trump’s inauguration ceremony on 20 January 2017.
Days after the ceremony, the president accused the media of lying about attendance, claiming that TV footage and photos of the inauguration had made the crowds look smaller than they were.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the media it had been “the largest audience to ever see an inauguration, period”.
The new president was reported to have been angry at unfavourable comparisons with photos from Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 which showed a significantly larger crowd size.
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A torch-lit rally by the far-right and white nationalists through Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 drew comparisons with the Ku Klux Klan.
The following day a woman was killed and 19 were injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of counter-protesters in the university city.
In response, President Trump condemned violence by “many sides”, prompting a wave of criticism for appearing to make an equivalence between white supremacists and anti-racism protesters.
It then took 48 hours for him to explicitly denounce far-right extremists. He eventually called “KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists repugnant to everything we hold dear” but the damage was done.
Three years later, Joe Biden said it was this hesitation that prompted his decision to run against him.
image copyrightEPA
Mr Trump frequently sparred with the US’s traditional allies and this was certainly in evidence at the G7 summit in Canada in June 2018.
The meeting did not get off to a good start when prior to the summit he announced a 25% tariff on imports of steel and 10% on aluminium from the EU, Mexico and Canada. They all threatened retaliatory measures and the rift overshadowed the summit. French President Emmanuel Macron engaged in a Twitter spat with the president just hours before the summit.
Other photos from the meeting showed more friendly relations between the leaders but the one pictured here was considered by many to reflect the underlying tensions of the gathering.
Mr Trump left before other leaders and claimed that America was “like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing”.
image copyrightReuters
First Lady Melania Trump is pictured wearing a jacket in June 2018 which reads “I really don’t care, do you?” during a trip to a migrant child detention centre.
There was widespread speculation and criticism over what message Mrs Trump intended to send by wearing the jacket on that particular trip, particularly at a time when the president was coming under fire for his policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
Mrs Trump’s spokeswoman said at the time “there was no hidden message” behind the coat.
However, the First Lady later admitted it had been a message “for the people and for the left-wing media who are criticising me. I want to show them I don’t care. You could criticise whatever you want to say. But it will not stop me to do what I feel is right”.
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Nancy Pelosi gives what many saw as a sarcastic clap at the end of Mr Trump’s State of the Union address in February 2019. Mr Trump called for compromise in politics during his speech.
He broke traditional protocol by not waiting for the customary introduction from the House speaker before beginning his speech.
Many on social media thought the political rivalry between the House speaker and the president was captured in this image. The photo, termed the “Pelosi clap”, quickly went viral.
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Mr Trump walks into the northern side of the military demarcation line that divides North and South Korea in June 2019. In doing so, he became the first US sitting president to cross the line.
Mr Trump’s decision to meet Kim Jong-un without pre-conditions was unprecedented and stunned the world, particularly as it came after the pair had exchanged insults and threats.
Despite the apparent warming of relations, little concrete progress was made on negotiations over North Korea’s nuclear programme and a second summit in Hanoi in 2019 broke down after the US refused Pyongyang’s demands for sanctions relief.
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Kim Kardashian-West speaks at a White House event about prison reform in June 2019. The reality TV star has had the ear of the president while campaigning for changes to the US justice system.
In 2018, she lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of a grandmother jailed for life. Alice Johnson was later granted clemency in a high-profile decision by Mr Trump.
President Trump has already given pardons to 94 people and there is speculation he may pardon 100 others before he leaves office.
image copyrightReuters
Mr Trump holds a bible in front of St John’s Episcopal Church, just across the road from the White House in June 2020.
Peaceful demonstrators had been cleared in nearby Lafayette Square with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades so that the president and his entourage could walk to the church.
He had earlier said he planned to “dominate the streets” to end weeks of civil unrest over the killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
His actions prompted shock and anger from many religious leaders, who accused him of using religion for political purposes.
image copyrightAFP
The Trump family watch as Donald Trump debates Joe Biden at their first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, on 29 September 2020.
They broke debate rules that all spectators wear masks – sparking the same criticism often aimed at their father for taking a cavalier attitude to the virus.
A few days after the debate, the president tested positive himself.
He spent three nights in a hospital receiving treatment before returning to the White House and declaring he felt “really good” and urging others not to be afraid of the virus.
image copyrightReuters
Crowds of Trump supporters climb on the US Capitol in DC earlier this month following a “Stop the Steal” rally.
It followed a 70-minute address by the president in which he exhorted them to march on Congress where politicians were meeting to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s win. The mob ransacked the Capitol building and attempted to enter the chambers where lawmakers were hiding.
Five people, including a police officer, were killed.
Mr Trump has since been impeached, becoming the first president ever to be impeached twice. But he denies charges that he inciting the mob to attack the Capitol.