Was Donald Trump a Democrat? Timeline of new US president's flip-flopping political history
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Donald Trump is set for another term in the White House with his inauguration next week marking the beginning of a further four-year stint at the helm. The 78-year-old (who will become the oldest-ever president during his term) has been the face of the Republican party for the past decade, standing in three elections since 2016.
During his election campaign, Mr Trump has pledged to carry on where he left off in 2021, committing to an “America first” policy on trade, protecting the right to bear arms, implementing stricter abortion protocol, and building a wall on the Mexico border.
However, his large federal infrastructure spending has been more in line with Democratic precedent while his stance against Nato is not typical of a Republican. His willingness for domestic isolation crossed with his social conservatism is atypical of a career politician. It reflects Mr Trump’s own lack of political history, as well as how he has crossed party lines as he sought to establish himself as a business brand.
Here is how Mr Trump’s political history is far more chequered than images of his gun-shooting, flag-waving, baseball-cap wearing fanbase would suggest. However, “Let’s Make America Great Again” was actually the campaign slogan of Ronald Reagan in the former actor’s run for office in 1980. Mr Trump was a mover and a shaker in New York’s development circles of the decade but stayed clear of political alignment, despite his repeated clashes with the city’s Democratic mayor Ed Koch.
