It’s been exactly a year since Donald Trump announced his campaign for president. In the weeks and months following, political pundits frequently dismissed his rising poll numbers as the result of media coverage and name recognition.
Some said voters were trying to send the Republican Party a message by saying they would vote for Trump, but would choose an establishment candidate in the end. In a GOP field that grew to become one of the largest ever for a presidential primary, Trump’s name stood out among the group full of career politicians.
As Trump’s poll numbers continued to rise throughout the summer and into the fall, so did his list of controversial campaign moments. With each of his so-called gaffes, outrageous statements or proposals, observers signaled that the beginning of the end of Trump’s ascent was imminent. Trump proved each of their predictions false by securing his position as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.
So as the campaign reaches its critical points in the coming months, here’s a review of some of Trump’s campaign controversies that — despite all of the conventional wisdom in the world — haven’t stopped him yet:
June 16, 2015: Trump wasted no time stirring controversy, raising the issue of illegal immigration during the first few minutes of his campaign announcement.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapist. And some, I assume, are good people.”
July 18, 2015: After feuding with Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Trump turned up the attack and dismissed McCain’s title of a war hero.
“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Dec. 8, 2016: In response to the San Bernardino terrorist attack that left 14 people dead, Trump proposed a plan to ban all Muslims from traveling to the U.S. until officials had a better handle on controlling immigration from the Middle East.
“Donald J. Trump 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,” Trump’s press release read. “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.”
Jan. 23, 2016: At a campaign rally in Iowa less than two weeks before the caucuses, Trump expressed such confidence in his poll numbers that he said there was almost nothing he could do that would cause them to go down.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Trump said.
He declined to address the comments after the rally.
Feb. 18, 2016: Pope Francis suggested that Trump was “not Christian” specifically because of his plan to build a wall that keeps out immigrants from Mexico. Trump quickly responded by posting his response on his website, saying he is “proud to be a Christian” and that no religious leader “should have the right to question another man’s religion or faith.” He also warned the pope about the possible consequences of him losing the election.
“If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.”
Feb. 28, 2016: White supremacist and former KKK grand wizard David Duke told his radio listeners to vote for Trump, after which CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Trump if he would “unequivocally condemn David Duke” and say that he does not want his vote or the vote of other white supremacists. Trump claimed he didn’t know enough about Duke to make that decision.
“Just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke, OK?” Trump said. “I don’t even know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.”
Trump later claimed that he had disavowed Duke the day before.
March 30, 2016: Trump was asked by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that if abortions were illegal, whether or not a woman who gets an abortion should be punished. His initial response sparked backlash from both sides of the aisle.
“There has to be some form of punishment,” Trump said.
After the criticism he received for his comments, he attempted to clarify his comments by posting to his site that the woman should not be punished: “The doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman.”
June 2, 2016: Former students of Trump’s real estate school, Trump University, have filed civil lawsuits accusing the school of fraud. Trump openly criticized the federal judge handling the case, Gonzalo Curiel, of being biased against him. He doubled down on his attacks when he accused Curiel of not being able to be objective due to his Mexican heritage, even though Curiel was born in Indiana, saying there is an “absolute conflict.”
“I’m building a wall,” Trump said. “It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
Since Trump has turned his attention to the general election, he has shown no signs of taking on a different tone than what voters heard in the primary. So on the road to November, Trump’s list of controversial moments is poised to continue. Now that Trump and Clinton’s campaigns are squaring off, voters will learn whether Trump will once again defy the expected results of his unpopular remarks and proposals and make his new home the White House.
