Donald Trump: 24 things the next president believes
(14 days later)
Donald Trump is the frontrunner in the Republican race to be the presidential nominee for next year's election. What are his policies and beliefs?
Republican Donald Trump has won victory in the presidential race, but no one's quite sure what President Trump will actually do in office.
1. Arab-Americans cheered the attacks on 9/11. Trump repeatedly claimed that on 11 September, 2001, there were thousands of Arab-Americans celebrating in New Jersey after two planes flew into the Twin Towers. He says such public demonstrations "tell you something" about Muslims living in the US. However, there are no media reports to back up the claim.
The New York businessman-turned-politician said many controversial things and flip-flopped on a number of policy positions during the campaign.
2. There should be surveillance on US mosques. Trump believes Muslims should be tracked by law enforcement as a counterterrorism initiative. He has walked back some comments about keeping a database on all American Muslims, but says he doesn't care if watching mosques is seen as "politically incorrect".
Here, we look back at 24 of his professed beliefs.
3. The US should use waterboarding and other methods of "strong interrogation" in its fight against the Islamic State. The candidate said that these methods are "peanuts" compared to the tactics used by the militants, such as beheadings.
1. The US should use waterboarding
4. Trump would "bomb the hell" out of IS. He claims that no other candidate would be tougher on the Islamic State and he would weaken the militants by cutting off their access to oil.
This and other methods of "strong interrogation" should be deployed in its fight against the Islamic State group. These methods, Mr Trump said, are "peanuts" compared to the tactics used by the militants, such as beheadings. "I like it a lot. I don't think it's tough enough," he said in June of the banned practice.
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2. Mexico should pay for the "great, great wall"
A Muslim Marine's retort to Donald Trump
Mr Trump has said he wants to start building the much-touted wall on the shared border from the first day of his presidency, and that Mexico will pay for it. In some of his earliest campaign comments, he suggested that Mexicans coming to the US were criminals and "rapists". BBC analysis estimates the border wall could cost between $2.2bn and $13bn.
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3. Muslims should not be admitted to the US
The strange Trump and Carson phenomenon explained
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, Mr Trump wrote that he was "calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on".
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He's since gone back on the announcement, instead saying that that he would temporarily suspend "immigration from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism".
5. Create a simpler tax code. Trump wants anyone who earns less than $25,000 (£16,524) to pay no income tax. They would submit nothing more than a single page tax form that reads "I win". He would lower the business tax to 15%. He would also allow multinational companies keeping money overseas to repatriate their cash at a 10% tax rate.
4. Arab-Americans cheered the attacks on 9/11
6. Hedge fund managers are "getting away with murder" under the current US tax code.Trump found common ground with Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren when he said that hedge fund managers and the ultra-wealthy do not pay enough taxes. However, after the campaign released specifics of his plan, analysts argued that hedge fund managers would actually get a tax cut along with the middle class.
Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that on 11 September 2001, there were thousands of Arab-Americans celebrating in New Jersey after two planes flew into the Twin Towers. He says such public demonstrations "tell you something" about Muslims living in the US. However, there are no media reports to back up the claim.
7. He wants to build a "great, great wall" between the US and Mexico. In some of his earliest campaign comments, Trump suggested that Mexicans coming to the US are largely criminals. "They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and they're rapists," he said. A wall on the border, he claims, will not only keep out undocumented immigrants but Syrian migrants as well. He also believes that Mexico should have to pay for the wall, which a BBC analysis estimates could cost between $2.2bn and $13bn.
5. Obamacare is a "disaster".
8. A mass deportation of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the US should go into effect. Despite criticism that this idea is both xenophobic and prohibitively expensive - the BBC estimates $114bn - Trump says his deportation plan is as achievable as it will be humane. In addition, his immigration reforms would end "birthright citizenship", the policy that grants the children of illegal immigrants citizenship so long as they are born on American soil. He does not support creating a new path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
Mr Trump says he wants Congress to fully repeal the president's Affordable Care Act, which aims at extending the number of Americans with health insurance, but he believes that "everybody's got to be covered". A spokesman for Mr Trump said he would propose "a health plan that will return authority to the states and operate under free market principles". The increase in premiums revealed just before the election bolstered the Trump attacks.
9. He and Vladmir Putin would "get along very well". In an interview with CNN, Trump said that Putin and Obama dislike one another too much to negotiate, but that "I would probably get along with him very well. And I don't think you'd be having the kind of problems that you're having right now".
6. Climate change is just "weather"
10. In order to end mass shootings, the US should invest in mental health treatment. However, Trump does not believe that more gun control is the answer. In a position paper on gun rights, Trump revealed he has a concealed carry permit and that when it comes to gun and magazine bans, "the government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own". He would also oppose an expansion of background checks.
While Mr Trump believes that maintaining "clean air" and "clean water" is important, he has dismissed climate change science as a "hoax" and believes environmental restrictions on businesses make them less competitive in the global marketplace. "I do not believe that we should imperil the companies within our country," he told CNN on the issue. "It costs so much and nobody knows exactly if it's going to work."
11. China should be taken to task on a number of issues in order to make trade with the US more equitable. If elected he says he will make China stop undervaluing its currency, and force it to step up its environmental and labour standards. He is also critical of the county's lax attitude towards American intellectual property and hacking.
7. The world would be better off if Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power
12. The Black Lives Matter movement is "trouble". Trump mocks former Democratic candidates like Martin O'Malley for apologising to members of the protest movement against police brutality and casts himself as a pro-law enforcement candidate. "I think they're looking for trouble," he once said of the activist group. He also tweeted a controversial graphic purporting to show that African Americans kill whites and blacks at a far higher rates than whites or police officers. However, the graphic cites a fictitious "Crime Statistics Bureau" for its numbers, and has been widely debunked using real FBI data.
Mr Trump told CNN that he believes the situation in both Libya and Iraq is "far worse" than it ever was under the leaders of the two countries. While he concedes Saddam was a "horrible guy", he says he did a better job combating terrorists.
13. Current unemployment statistics are wrong. Trump has said repeatedly that unemployment in the US is at 20% - once commenting it may be as high as 42% - despite the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs the number at 5.1%. Trump says he doesn't believe that figure is real.
8. Illegal migrants should be deported
14. His net worth is $10bn. Based on Trump's 92-page personal financial disclosure form, Bloomberg calculated that the real estate mogul is worth about $2.9bn and Forbes put Trump's worth at $4bn. In response, Trump insisted in a press release that he is worth "in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS". He is "self-funding" his campaign and describes his start in the business world as a "small loan of a million dollars" from his father.
Trump once said that he wanted to deport all of the approximately 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the US, despite criticism that this idea is both xenophobic, next to impossible and prohibitively expensive - the BBC estimates a cost of $114bn. His official policy now says only those with criminal records will be deported immediately, although immigration controls will still be massively beefed up. Any undocumented migrants would also face the risk of deportation.
15. Veteran healthcare in the US needs a major overhaul. Trump wants to clear out the executive level in the Department of Veterans Affairs, saying that wait times for doctor visits have only increased after previous interventions failed. Thousands of veterans have died while waiting for care, he says. He will invest in the treatment of "invisible wounds" like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He would also increase the number of doctors who specialise in women's health to help care for the increasing number of female veterans.
9. Syrian refugees could be a "Trojan horse"
16. Obamacare is a "disaster". Trump says he favours repealing the president's Affordable Care Act, which aims at extending the number of Americans with health insurance, but he believes that "everybody's got to be covered". A spokesman for Trump told Forbes that he will propose "a health plan that will return authority to the states and operate under free market principles".
He says that the Paris attacks prove that even a handful of terrorists posing as migrants could do catastrophic damage, and so he will oppose resettling any Syrians in the US, and deport those who have already been resettled. It's unclear if he still believes that deportations are necessary, though he has still vowed to suspend the intake of Syrian refugees.
17. Climate change is just "weather". While Trump believes that maintaining "clean air" and "clean water" is important, he dismissed climate change science as a "hoax" and believes environmental restrictions on businesses makes them less competitive in the global marketplace. "I do not believe that we should imperil the companies within our country," he told CNN on the issue. "It costs so much and nobody knows exactly if it's going to work."
10. Vladimir Putin is a "leader"
18. The world would be better off if Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddhafi were still in power. Trump told CNN that he believes the situation in both Libya and Iraq is "far worse" than it ever was under the two deceased dictators. While he concedes Saddam was a "horrible guy", he says he did a better job combating terrorists.
He has noted the Russian president's "great control over his country" and criticised the state of the relations between it and the US. He told CNN: "I would probably get along with him very well. And I don't think you'd be having the kind of problems that you're having right now". More recently he has said that Mr Putin doesn't "respect" the US, although that was no reason to get tough on him.
19. He would send back Syrian migrants seeking asylum in the US. He says that the Paris attacks prove that even a handful of terrorists posing as migrants could do catastrophic damage, and so he will oppose resettling any Syrians in the US, and deport those who have already been placed here.
11. Taxes should be reduced for everyone
20. Lobbyists should be more restricted. The candidate proposes that there be a five-year ban that prevents government officials from departing the government and then immediately becoming lobbyists. He also calls for a lifetime ban on senior administration officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments, and has called on Congress to change campaign finance laws to ban those people that lobby for foreign governments from raising funds for US elections.
Trump wants to condense the current seven tax brackets to just three, with no income tax for "low-income Americans". He would lower the business tax to 15%, from 35%. He would also allow multinational companies keeping profits overseas to repatriate their cash at a 10% tax rate.
21. Muslims should not be admitted to the US. In a press release published in the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, Trump wrote that he is "calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on". The release created a huge backlash, including a petition submitted to British Parliament demanding that Trump not be allowed into the country. He's since walked back the announcement, instead saying that he would put in place "extreme vetting" for anyone wishing to immigrate to the US.
12. Hedge fund managers are "getting away with murder"
22. He is a "really nice guy". In Trump's most recent book, Crippled America, he writes that "I'm a really nice guy, believe me, I pride myself on being a nice guy but I'm also passionate and determined to make our country great again". The news site Gawker points out that he calls himself a "nice guy" throughout the book, and Trump repeated that self-assessment in his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live and in an interview with the Washington Post.
Mr Trump found common ground with Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren when he said that hedge fund managers and the ultra-wealthy did not pay enough taxes. However, after the campaign released specifics of his plan, analysts argued that hedge fund managers would actually get a tax cut along with the middle class.
23. Tokyo and Seoul should build up nuclear arsenals. He has said Japan and South Korea should not rely on the US so much and would benefit from having their own weapons. Nuclear war between Japan and North Korea may be "terrible" but it would be "pretty quick".
13. China should be taken to task on a number of trade-related issues
24. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) is a "rip-off" because the US pays more than anyone else.
He has said he will make China stop undervaluing its currency, and force it to step up its environmental and labour standards. He is also critical of the county's lax attitude towards American intellectual property and hacking.
25. Doctors should be punished for administering abortions - or should they? In an interview with MSNBC, Mr Trump said that if abortion were to become illegal, women should be punished for obtaining them. He then retracted, saying the doctor would be responsible and he or she should be punished instead.
14. The Black Lives Matter movement is "trouble"
26. The Republican National Committee's rules are "stacked against him". He has called the delegate system "crooked" and "unfair". He has repeatedly clashed with the RNC over its nomination process and how it has treated his candidacy. He has called rules that allowed Senator Ted Cruz to gain more delegates than him in some states "rigged".
Mr Trump mocked former Democratic candidates like Martin O'Malley for apologising to members of the protest movement against police brutality and cast himself as a pro-law enforcement candidate. "I think they're looking for trouble," he once said of the activist group. He also tweeted a controversial and widely debunked graphic purporting to show that African Americans kill white and black people at far higher rates than white people or police officers.
27. Hillary Clinton "destroyed" the women who accused her husband Bill of impropriety. George Stephanopoulous, a former aide to Bill Clinton, wrote in his memoir that in 1991 when a woman came forward to accuse Mr Clinton of having an affair, Mrs Clinton said: "We have to destroy her story."
15. He's worth $10bn
28. The federal minimum wage should be raised from its present level of $7.25/hour.
Based on Mr Trump's 92-page personal financial disclosure form, Bloomberg calculated last year that the real estate mogul was worth about $2.9bn, while Forbes recently put Trump's net worth at $3.7bn. Mr Trump has however insisted that he is worth "in excess" of $10bn.
29. Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was efficient at killing terrorists. "He was a bad guy - really bad guy. But you know what? He did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists. Over."
16. Veteran healthcare in the US needs a major overhaul
30. Hillary Clinton bribed Attorney General Loretta Lynch with the promise of keeping her job if she became president, in return for escaping prosecution for the use of a private email when secretary of state.
Mr Trump wants to clear out the executive level in the Department of Veterans Affairs, saying that waiting times for doctor visits have only increased after previous interventions failed. Thousands of veterans have died while waiting for care, he says. He will invest in the treatment of "invisible wounds" like post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He would also increase the number of doctors who specialise in women's health to help care for the increasing number of female veterans.
Assembled by Jessica Lussenhop and Ashley Gold.
17. Lobbyists should be more restricted
Mr Trump proposes that there be a five-year ban that prevents government officials and members of congress from leaving and then immediately becoming lobbyists. He also calls for a lifetime ban on senior administration officials from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments.
18. He is a "really nice guy"
In Trump's most recent book, Crippled America, he writes that "I'm a really nice guy, believe me, I pride myself on being a nice guy but I'm also passionate and determined to make our country great again". The news site Gawker points out that he calls himself a "nice guy" throughout the book, and Mr Trump repeated that self-assessment in his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live and in an interview with the Washington Post.
19. He could not have groped an unattractive woman
A video from 2005 showed Mr Trump making obscene comments about women and triggered numerous claims of alleged sexual harassment. At one rally, he suggested that one of the accusers - a "horrible woman" - was not attractive enough for him to have groped: "I don't think so! I don't think so!"
20. Tokyo and Seoul should build up nuclear arsenals
He has said Japan and South Korea should not rely on the US so much and would benefit from having their own weapons. Nuclear war between Japan and North Korea may be "terrible" but it would be "pretty quick".
21. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) is a "rip-off"
Why? Because the US pays more than anyone else. But he later said he was "all" in favour of the alliance.
22. Doctors should be punished for administering abortions
Or should they? In an interview with MSNBC, Mr Trump said that if abortion were to become illegal, women should be punished for obtaining them. He then retracted, saying the doctor would be responsible and he or she should be punished, instead.
23. The Republican National Committee's rules were "stacked against him"
He called the delegate system "crooked" and "unfair". He repeatedly clashed with the RNC over its nomination process and how it treated his candidacy during the primaries. He called rules that allowed Senator Ted Cruz to gain more delegates than him in some states "rigged", as he did later when talking about the electoral process when polls were showing Hillary Clinton ahead of him.
24. The federal minimum wage should be raised
Workers should be paid more than the current level of $7.25/hour, he has said. though this is another issue he has flip-flopped on repeatedly.
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