Washington, Nov 9 : A colourful billionaire businessman with a propensity to court controversies, Donald Trump single-handedly ran one of the most unconventional presidential campaigns in which political correctness was tossed out of the window.
Upending the 162-year old Republican Party, the 70-year-old real estate mogul from New York tapped into the disillusionment of the average American against the establishment, moulding it into vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric which proved to be an electoral gold mine.
In the bitterly-fought presidential campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump was often synonymous with controversy, with divisive pronouncements on Muslims, immigrants, economy and terrorism.
A succession of women accused him of sexually assaulting them. He also hogged headlines for several suggestive and denigrating remarks against women, including his own daughter, developments that threatened to derail his campaign.
Most prominent was a video that resurfaced after 5 years, in which Trump is heard boasting about being able to sexually assault women and get away with it for being “a star”.
Trump had teased the idea of running for the presidency since 1987, but many feel the final straw for him was the 2011 White House Correspondents’ dinner when he was made the unwitting target of President Barack Obama’s pointed jokes.
The incident had unfolded amid Trump upping the ante on the birther row, as he questioned whether the US President was an American citizen.
The annual dinner happened just a couple of days before the US Navy Seals raid that killed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in May 2011 in Pakistan. The killing of the man who masterminded the 9/11 terror attacks unified the nation and Trump faced a backlash for questioning the nationality of the President who took the world’s most wanted man out.
Four years later, the tycoon entered the crowded field of the Republican Party’s presidential campaign.
With 17 candidates in the fray including Jeb Bush, the second son of former President George H W Bush and younger brother of former President George W Bush, Trump’s candidature was instantly dismissed as a reality stunt by many, including his own party members as well as Obama.
But far from being entertaining, the Trump campaign shocked people with divisive statements that threatened to undermine the long-cherished secular and Democratic American traditions.
Trump was also criticised by his party for insulting the parents of a decorated Muslim-American soldier who died in the line of duty in Iraq.
Such was his rhetoric in the campaign that top leaders of his own party, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and United States Senator Ted Cruz, did not endorse him till close to the end of the election cycle.
