One of the problems with keeping track of Trump’s wrongdoing is that there have been so many incidents that our attention is absorbed by the current one – e.g. Jeffrey Epstein – and the rest of the story is downplayed. One exception has been Wikipedia which not only has an excellent summary of Trump’s career at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump but also has a comprehensive collection of facts about Donald Trump you won’t see on TV or in your newspaper. See: Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump and Legal affairs of the first Donald Trump presidency. Here are some examples:
1990s & 2000s – Files for six business bankruptcies in the 1990s and 2000s…
1984 - Trump opened Harrah's at Trump Plaza, a hotel and casino, with financing and management help from the Holiday Corporation. It was unprofitable, and he paid Holiday $70 million in May 1986 to take sole control. In 1985, he bought the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel and renamed it Trump Castle., Both casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992 Trump bought a third Atlantic City venue in 1988, the Trump Taj Mahal. It was financed with $675 million in junk bonds and completed for $1.1 billion, opening in April 1990. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991. Under the provisions of the restructuring agreement, he gave up half his initial stake and personally guaranteed future performance… .
1985 - Bought the unopened Atlantic City Hilton Hotel and renamed it Trump Castle. Both casinos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992
1988 - Trump purchased the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle, financing the purchase with $380 million (equivalent to $1010 million in 2024) in loans from a syndicate of 22 banks. He renamed the airline Trump Shuttle and operated it until 1992. He defaulted on his loans in 1991, and ownership passed to the banks.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a private foundation established in 1988. From 1987 to 2006, Trump gave his foundation $5.4 million, which had been spent by the end of 2006… The Washington Post reported that the charity had committed several potential legal and ethical violations, including self-dealing and tax evasion. Also in 2016, the New York attorney general stated the foundation had violated state law by soliciting donations without submitting to required annual external audits and ordered it to cease its fundraising activities in New York immediately
2005 - Trump cofounded Trump University, a company that sold real estate seminars for up to $35,000. After New York State authorities notified the company that its use of "university" violated state law (as it was not an academic institution), its name was changed to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in 2010. In 2013, the State of New York filed a $40 million civil suit against Trump University, alleging that the company made false statements and defrauded consumers. Additionally, two class actions were filed in federal court against Trump and his companies. Internal documents revealed that employees were instructed to use a hard-sell approach, and former employees testified that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students. Shortly after he won the 2016 presidential election, he agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three cases.
2016 - Trump's team announced that his foundation would be dissolved. In June 2018, the New York attorney general's office filed a civil suit against the foundation, Trump, and his adult children, seeking $2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties In December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed its assets to other charities. In November 2019, a New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to a group of charities for misusing the foundation's funds, in part to finance his presidential campaign….
2018 - According to a review of state and federal court files conducted by USA Today in 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions…. His over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection six times between 1991 and 2009. They continued to operate while the banks restructured debt and reduced his shares in the properties. During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $4 billion. After his corporate bankruptcies of the early 1990s, most major banks, with the exception of Deutsche Bank, declined to lend to him.[81] After the January 6 Capitol attack, the bank decided not to do business with him or his affiliated company in the future.
2019 - journalist E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s and sued him for defamation over his denial. Carroll sued him again in 2022 for battery and more defamation. He was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation and ordered to pay $5 million in one case and $83.3 million in the other. In 2022, New York filed a civil lawsuit against Trump accusing him of inflating the Trump Organization's value to gain an advantage with lenders and banks. He was found liable and ordered to pay $350 million plus interest
2020 - After losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump attempted to overturn the result, culminating in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021. He was impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and in 2021 for incitement of insurrection; the Senate acquitted him both times.
2021 - At noon on January 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying the presidential election results in the U.S. Capitol, Trump held a rally at the nearby Ellipse. Speaking from behind a glass barrier, he called for the election to be overturned and urged his supporters to "fight like hell" and "take back our country" by marching to the Capitol. His supporters then formed a mob that broke into the building, disrupting certification and causing the evacuation of Congress. During the attack, Trump posted on social media but did not ask the rioters to disperse. In a tweet at 6 p.m., he told them to "go home with love & in peace", called them "great patriots", and restated that he had won the election.] Congress later reconvened and confirmed Biden's victory in the early hours of January 7
2022 - In January 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration retrieved 15 boxes of documents Trump had taken to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, some of which were classified In the ensuing Justice Department investigation, officials retrieved more classified documents from his lawyers. On August 8, 2022, FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago for illegally held documents, including those in breach of the Espionage Act, collecting 11 sets of classified documents, some marked top secret. A federal grand jury constituted by Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump in June 2023 on 31 counts of "willfully retaining national defense information" under the Espionage Act, among other charges.[425][428][429] Trump pleaded not guilty. In July 2024, judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case, ruling Smith's appointment as special prosecutor was unconstitutional.
2023 - Trump found liable in civil cases for sexual abuse and defamation and for business fraud.
Trump was found liable in civil cases for sexual abuse and defamation and for business fraud.
2024 – Trump found guilty of falsifying business records in 2024, making him the first U.S. president convicted of a felony…
In May 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The case stemmed from evidence that he booked Michael Cohen's hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels as business expenses to cover up his alleged 2006–2007 affair with Daniels during the 2016 election. On January 10, 2025, the judge gave Trump a no-penalty sentence known as an unconditional discharge, saying that punitive requirements would have interfered with presidential immunity After his reelection, the 2020 election obstruction case and the classified documents case were dismissed without prejudice due to Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
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