On November 8, 2016, Trump won the presidency with 306 electoral votes to Clinton's 232 votes, even though Trump won a smaller part of the popular vote than Clinton. He is the fourth person to become president without winning the popular vote. The final popular vote difference between Clinton and Trump is that Clinton finished ahead by 2.86 million or 2.1 percentage points, 48.04% to 45.95%, with neither candidate reaching a majority. Trump's victory was considered a big political upset, as nearly all national polls at the time showed Hillary Clinton with a modest lead over Trump, and state polls showed her with a modest lead to win the Electoral College. In the early hours of November 9, 2016, Trump received a phone call in which Clinton conceded the presidency to him. Trump then delivered his victory speech before hundreds of supporters in the Hilton Hotel in New York City.
Trump's transition team was led by Chris Christie until November 11, 2016, when Vice President-elect Mike Pence took over. His nominees for cabinet and other positions include:
On January 20, 2017, Trump was sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts as President of the United States at his inauguration ceremony at the United States Capitol Building. Within his first hour as president, he signed several executive orders, including an order to minimize "the economic burden" of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
On the Saturday following Trump's inauguration there were massive demonstrations protesting Trump in the United States and worldwide, including the 2017 Women's March.
On January 23, 2017 Trump signed the executive order withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between the United States and eleven Pacific Rim nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam that would have created a "free-trade zone for about 40 percent of the world's economy." Two days later, he ordered the construction of the Mexico border wall. He reopened the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline construction projects.
On January 27, an order suspended admission of refugees for 120 days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, citing security concerns about terrorism. Later, the administration seemed to reverse a portion of part of the order, effectively exempting visitors with a green card. Several federal judges issued rulings that curtailed parts of the immigration order, stopping the federal government from deporting visitors already affected.
On January 30, 2017, Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates because of her criticisms of Trump's immigration suspension. On January 31, 2017, Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
After "The Wall Street Journal" reported that Trump's National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn was under investigation by U.S. counterintelligence agents for his communications with Russian officials, Flynn resigned on February 13, 2017. Two days later on February 15, Trump's Secretary of Labor-nominee Andrew Puzder withdrew his nomination due to not having support from Democrats or Republicans to confirm his nomination.
On May 9, 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey after he reportedly asked for more information and funding for the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. The White House stated that this was not true and that Trump fired Comey in order to end the investigation.
As of March 2018, Trump is reportedly a "subject" of the Robert Mueller investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, meaning his conduct is being looked at, but not a "target" which would indicate the likelihood of criminal charges.
On April 7, 2017, Trump ordered the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea into Syria, aimed at Shayrat Air Base as a reaction to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack.
On May 4, 2017, the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) was passed narrowly to replace and repeal Obamacare by the United States House of Representatives with a vote of 217 to 213, sending the bill to the Senate for voting. This is the second time the AHCA was voted in the House as the first version was not approved by the House in March 2017.
On June 1, 2017, he announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement, making the United States one of only three nations, including Syria and Nicaragua, to do so. On June 16, 2017, President Trump announced that he was "cancelling" the Obama administrations deals with Cuba, while also expressing that a new deal could be negotiated between the Cuban and United States governments.
On July 12, 2017, California Representative Brad Sherman formally introduced an article of impeachment, H. Res. 438, accusing the president of obstructing justice regarding the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
On July 26, 2017, Trump tweeted that the "United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." Trump cited the alleged "disruption" and "tremendous medical costs" of having transgender service members.
Between August 11 and 12, 2017, there was a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia regarding the removal of Confederate statues. Trump did not speak out against white nationalists explicitly, instead condemning "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides" leading people to think he did not take a harsh approach on racism.
In late August, Trump dramatically escalated tensions against North Korea, warning that further threats against the U.S. will be met with "fire and fury like the world has never seen." North Korean leader Kim Jong-un then threatened to direct the country's next missile test toward Guam. Trump responded in his war-related service that if North Korea took steps to attack Guam, "things [would] happen to them like they never thought possible."
In March 2018, Trump fired United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Mike Pompeo. Later that month, the White House confirmed that President Trump would accept a meeting invitation from Kim Jong-un. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that "in the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain."
In May 2018, Trump announced on Twitter that he will meet with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un on June 12, 2018 in Singapore for peace talks.
In September 2017, Trump controversially oversaw the rescinding of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or "DACA" which removed protections for children immigrants and removed benefits. The decision was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Two injunctions in January and February 2018 allowed renewals of applications and stopped the rolling back of DACA, and in April 2018 a federal judge ordered the acceptance of new applications; this would go into effect in 90 days.
On October 3, Trump visited Puerto Rico after it was damaged by Hurricane Maria and the next day visited Las Vegas to visit the victims from the Las Vegas shooting.
In December 2017, Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which cut the corporate tax rate to 21%, lowered personal tax brackets, increased child tax credit, doubled the estate tax threshold to $11.2 million, and limited the state and local tax deduction to $10,000.