In 1983, Trump received the Jewish National Fund Tree of Life Award, after he helped fund two playgrounds, a park, and a reservoir in Israel. In 1986, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in recognition of "patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity", and in 1995 was awarded the President's Medal from the Freedoms Foundation for his support of youth programs. He has been awarded five honorary doctorates, but one was revoked by Robert Gordon University in 2015 after Trump called for a Muslim ban, citing Trump's speech being "wholly incompatible ... with the ethos and values of the university". The remaining awards are Lehigh University's honorary doctorate of laws in 1988, Wagner College's honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2004, and Liberty University's honorary doctorates of business and law in 2012 and 2017 respectively.
The connections between Trump associates and Russia have been widely reported by the press. One of Trump's campaign managers, Paul Manafort, had worked from December 2004 until February 2010 to help pro-Russian politician Viktor Yanukovych win the Ukrainian presidency. Other Trump associates, including former National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn and political consultant Roger Stone, have been connected to Russian officials. Russian agents were overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump.Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff, particularly Flynn, were in contact with Russian officials both before and after the November election. On December 29, 2016, Flynn talked with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions that had been imposed the same day; Flynn later resigned in the midst of controversy over whether he misled Pence. The Washington Post reported that Trump had told Kislyak and Sergei Lavrov in May 2017 he was unconcerned about Russian interference in U.S. elections.
More InfoBefore and throughout his presidency, Trump has promoted numerous conspiracy theories, including the Barack Obama "birther" theory, the Clinton body count theory, conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal and QAnon. A July 2020 video asserting conspiracy theories about coronavirus by Stella Immanuel, a Texas physician, was retweeted by Trump before it was removed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube because it violated their rules on misinformation. At a press conference on July 28 he was asked why he would trust Immanuel, considering the context of her claims about "alien DNA" and its supposed use in medicine. Trump defended Immanuel saying, "I thought she was very impressive, in the sense that, from where she came – I don't know what country she comes from – but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her." When pressed further about the conflict with existing official medical information about the virus, Trump ended the briefing abruptly.
More InfoSome view the nature and frequency of Trump's falsehoods as having profound and corrosive consequences on democracy. James Pfiffner, professor of policy and government at George Mason University, wrote in 2019 that Trump lies differently from previous presidents, because he offers "egregious false statements that are demonstrably contrary to well-known facts"; these lies are the "most important" of all Trump lies. By calling facts into question, people will be unable to properly evaluate their government, with beliefs irrationally settled by "political power"; this erodes liberal democracy, wrote Pfiffner.
More InfoOn March 22, 2019, Mueller concluded his investigation and gave his report to Attorney General William Barr. On March 24, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress summarizing the "principal conclusions" in the report. He quoted Mueller as stating "while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him." Barr further wrote that he and Rosenstein did not see sufficient evidence to prove obstruction of justice. Trump interpreted Mueller's report as a "complete exoneration", a phrase he repeated multiple times in the ensuing weeks. Mueller privately complained to Barr on March 27 that his summary did not accurately reflect what the report said, and some legal analysts called the Barr letter misleading.
More InfoTrump has a history of insulting or demeaning women through comments on appearance or bodily functions, comparisons to animals, or other sexist language. Trump's behavior became a campaign issue when he was questioned about it during the Republican Party presidential debate by Fox News journalist and debate host Megyn Kelly on August 6, 2015. Trump brushed off Kelly's question, implying she was treating him unfairly, but then on CNN the following day stated about Kelly, "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever." The comment was widely viewed as referring to menstrual blood. Trump denied the comment was about menstruation and insisted that what he said was appropriate. Trump incurred bipartisan condemnation for his comments.
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