title: Josephus on Jesus

text: Louis Feldman states that it is significant that the passages on James and John are found in the "Antiquities" and not in the "Jewish Wars", but provides three explanations for their absence from the "Jewish Wars". One explanation is that the "Antiquities" covers the time period involved at a greater length than the "Jewish Wars". The second explanation is that during the gap between the writing of the "Jewish Wars" () and "Antiquities" (after AD 90) Christians had become more important in Rome and were hence given attention in the "Antiquities". Another explanation is that the passages were added to the "Antiquities" to highlight the power of the Pharisees, but he considers the last explanation less likely than the others.


title: Josephus on Jesus

text: One of the arguments against the authenticity of the James passage has been that in the "Jewish Wars" Josephus portrays the High Priest Ananus in a positive manner, while in the "Antiquities" he writes of Ananus in a negative tone. Louis Feldman rejects these arguments against the authenticity of the James passage and states that in several other unrelated cases the "Jewish War" also differs from the "Antiquities", and that an interpolator would have made the two accounts correspond more closely to each other, not make them differ.


title: Josephus on Jesus

text: The twenty-year gap between the writing of the "Jewish Wars" and the "Antiquities" has also been used to explain some of the differences in tone between them. Clemens Thoma provides an explanation for this based on the observation that Josephus may have learned of the details of the actions of Ananus in the twenty-year gap between the writing of the Jewish Wars and the Antiquities, and thus avoided a positive tone when writing of Ananus in the "Antiquities".


title: Josephus on Jesus

text: John Painter states that the difference in the context for the "Jewish Wars" and the "Antiquities" may also account for some of the differences in tone between them, e.g. when writing of Ananus in a positive tone in the "Jewish Wars" the context was Ananus' prudence in avoiding a war and hence Josephus considered that a positive aspect. However, when writing in the "Antiquities" about the actions of Ananus which resulted in his demotion from the High Priesthood, the context required the manifestation of a negative aspect of Ananus' character.


title: Phantom Blood

text: The story is set in England in the early-to-late 1880s, and follows Jonathan Joestar, the heir of the wealthy Joestar family, and his adoptive brother Dio Brando, who wishes to take the Joestar fortune for himself. Using an ancient stone mask, Dio transforms himself into a vampire, and Jonathan learns the sunlight-based martial arts technique of to fight him. Araki described the themes of the story as "being alive" and "an affirmation that humanity is wonderful", with characters growing and overcoming problems through their own actions.


title: Phantom Blood

text: The series received reviews ranging from mixed to positive, with critics frequently criticizing the anatomy and character posing in Araki's artwork, and Araki was often told during the serialization that "Phantom Blood" was the one series that did not fit in with the "best of the best" that were published at the same time, like "Dragon Ball" and "Fist of the North Star". The series has seen two anime adaptations, in the form of a 2007 film by A.P.P.P., and as part of the first season of David Production's 2012 "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" TV series. It was also adapted into a 2006 video game by Bandai.


title: Phantom Blood

text: In 19th-century England, a youth born into poverty named Dio Brando is adopted by the wealthy George Joestar to repay a family debt to Dio's father Dario, who died in 1880. George's son Jonathan, who aspires to become a gentleman, is shunned by his family and friends, whom Dio manipulates as part of his plot to take the Joestar fortune for himself. After Jonathan overpowers Dio in a fistfight, Dio gets revenge by murdering Jonathan's pet dog Danny, before biding his time to adulthood. Jonathan and Dio develop an interest in a mysterious stone mask that reacted to Dio's blood being spilt in the battle. Jonathan learns that the mask was used by the Aztecs to bring the wearer immortality.


title: Phantom Blood

text: In 1888, after becoming old enough to inherit the Joestar fortune, Dio deliberately poisons Jonathan's father, George. Jonathan's search for an antidote takes him to Ogre Street, a dangerous street in London, where he befriends a thug named Robert E. O. Speedwagon. At the same time, Dio intends to arrange a freak accident to kill Jonathan with the stone mask and tests the mask on a drunkard. The mask instead turns the drunkard into a powerful vampire who nearly kills Dio before being destroyed by sunlight. Jonathan and Speedwagon return to the mansion with an antidote and expose Dio's scheme. Dio attempts to kill Jonathan with a knife but George sacrifices his life to save Jonathan. Dio uses the blood spilt by George and the mask to become a vampire. Jonathan sets the Joestar family's mansion on fire and impales Dio on a statue in the burning mansion, but Dio survives.


title: Phantom Blood

text: While Jonathan walks with Erina Pendleton, his girlfriend, they meet Will A. Zeppeli, a man who intends to destroy the stone mask after it caused his father's death. Zeppeli teaches Jonathan how to use a supernatural energy produced by controlled breathing called Then, on November 30, 1888, Jonathan, Speedwagon, and Zeppeli travel to Wind Knights Lot, where Dio is creating an army of zombies. Zeppeli is mortally wounded by one of these zombies, Tarkus, and passes the last of his Hamon energy on to Jonathan before dying. Joined by Zeppeli's fellow Hamon users, on December 1, 1888, Jonathan destroys Dio's body by sending Hamon directly through him. Dio decapitates his head to survive the Hamon attack. Speedwagon destroys the stone mask. On February 2, 1889, Jonathan marries Erina. The next day, they leave on a ship to America on their honeymoon. Dio sneaks aboard the ship, intending to transplant his head onto Jonathan's body.


title: Phantom Blood

text: On February 7, 1889, Dio mortally wounds Jonathan. Jonathan uses the last of his Hamon to manipulate the body of Dio's servant Wang Chan into obstructing the ship's paddle wheel, setting it to explode. Jonathan dies with Dio's head in his arms while Erina escapes in the coffin that Dio hid in with a dead passenger's baby girl. Rescued near the Canary Islands two days later, Erina vows to pass on the truth of Jonathan's life to her unborn child and the generations to follow.


title: Phantom Blood

text: "Phantom Blood" was written and drawn by Hirohiko Araki. Prior to working on the series, he created a manga that resembled the works of Hisashi Eguchi, an artist known for his art of female characters; Araki's editor, Ryōsuke Kabashima, angrily told Araki to never draw something as derivative again, which led him to take another direction with his art, and the creation of "Phantom Blood". Due to the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone at the time, Araki designed characters with muscular body types. The character posing, which Araki considers a distinctive aspect of his art, was influenced by a trip to Italy just before the serialization of "Phantom Blood", where he went to the Galleria Borghese in Rome and saw Gian Lorenzo Bernini's sculpture "Apollo and Daphne". Seeing it in person from different angles had a large influence on him; he described it as overwhelmingly beautiful and intense, and unlike sculptures in Japanese museums and the figure posing of most manga artists.


title: Phantom Blood

text: "Phantom Blood" was created using a "ki-shō-ten-ketsu" structure – introduction (ki), development (shō), twist (ten), and resolution (ketsu) – along with the rule of rising and falling, in which the hero must grow over time in relation to their starting point in the beginning of the story, and not stagnate or regress. Araki did however note that due to the weekly format of the series, Jonathan's initial regression when Dio turns Jonathan's happy life into hardships meant that Jonathan's growth remained in the negative for a few weeks after the series' premiere, leading to a negative feeling that Jonathan always loses. Araki implemented a similar growth curve for Dio, although with him rising towards evil. Despite following the rule of the ever-progressing hero, Araki decided to bend the rule and have Jonathan die to save his wife and child: he acknowledged that dying is as far negative as a hero can go, and called it unthinkable to do such a thing in a "shōnen" manga, but said that since he wanted to pass down the Joestar family's lineage, he needed Jonathan to die, and for his blood and spirit to be passed to the protagonist of the second part of the series. While calling it a gamble, he called this passing of the torch a positive that enables the extreme negative of killing the first protagonist.


title: Phantom Blood

text: The themes of "Phantom Blood" were described by Araki as "being alive" and "an affirmation that humanity is wonderful". He explained the latter as a description for humanity's ability to grow and overcome hardships through one's strength and spirit; this is a recurring theme that has been used in all following parts of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", portrayed through people succeeding in fights through their own actions, without relying on machines or gods. This theme, along with the passing of the torch, was influenced by Araki's grandfather's death near the start of the serialization, and his thoughts about how people leave parts of themselves behind for the next generation when they die.


title: Phantom Blood

text: Wanting readers to know that the stone mask and its powers would be what would drive the plot, Araki started the manga with a prologue involving the mask, focusing on communicating the mood, rather than the standard way of opening a manga with an introduction of the protagonist. The concept of Hamon was created as he thought about how to create drawings that show the invisible; he came up with the idea of a character punching a frog, which was left unharmed, while the rock underneath cracked open, thus showing the supernatural power of the character's abilities. It was also influenced by his love for karate manga, with the supernatural moves used within them.


title: Phantom Blood

text: As part of the creation of each character, Araki wrote down a fictional history for the character, to prevent inconsistencies; while not all information he writes in these is used directly in the manga, it helps him determine how the character should act and react in different situations. Jonathan and Dio, the protagonist and antagonist, were created with the duality of light and shadow in mind, with the intention to have them contrast against each other: Dio was depicted as an embodiment of evil, and Jonathan as "fundamentally virtuous" and just. Araki also made use of black and white in his art to further contrast the two. Jonathan was designed to be a symbol for the story and setting, something Araki would continue doing with later protagonists in the series. Because Araki wanted the series to move on with new characters in the Joestar family, Jonathan was specifically written as "the first Joestar" that would function as a symbol of purity and dignity, and not as a unique character. This limited what Jonathan could do; in retrospect, Araki considered him passive and "a bit boring".


title: Phantom Blood

text: From the start of the planning of the manga, Araki intended to depict Dio as a "cool" character who descends into villainy. Thinking that it could be difficult to create an evil antagonist that readers would empathize with, Araki wrote Dio as coming from a poor family with a father "with no redeeming qualities whatsoever", giving Dio motivation to acquire power and get revenge on the world even if it led him to do immoral and illegal things. Araki also noted that a character who acts without regard for morals and laws can give readers a feeling of catharsis due to exhibiting the same "ugly feelings" people hold but cannot show, making Dio more easily relatable than a character who only does good. Dio's name was taken directly from the Italian word for "god", and was chosen to sound good together with the name "JoJo".


title: Phantom Blood

text: The main supporting character of "Phantom Blood", Zeppeli, was created as a "silly teacher" in the style of the martial art masters from Jackie Chan's films and "The Karate Kid", with a charm in the contrast between how they appear and who they are inside. Araki designed him with a mustache, drawing inspiration from the appearances of the painter Salvador Dalí and the "Osomatsu-kun" character Iyami; this was considered a gamble, as mustachioed characters in "shōnen" magazines were considered to appear old and untrustworthy, potentially turning readers off. His name comes from the rock band Led Zeppelin, and was chosen to balance out the large amount of names in the series beginning with "J"; the character Speedwagon was given his name (which comes from the rock band REO Speedwagon) for the same reason.


title: Phantom Blood

text: "Phantom Blood" was originally serialized in Shueisha's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" under the title "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1 Jonathan Joestar: His Youth". It ran from January 1 to October 26, 1987, for a total of 44 chapters, and was later collected in five "tankōbon" volumes. It was also collected in a three-volume "bunkoban" collection on February 15, 2002, and a single volume "sōshūhen" edition in 2012. Another three-volume collection with new cover art by Araki was released from December 4, 2013, to January 4, 2014, as part of the "JoJonium" line, along with the second and third part of the series, "Battle Tendency" and "Stardust Crusaders". This version was released in North America by Viz Media, beginning digitally in 2014 and in print in 2015. A digitally colored version of the complete manga was released digitally for smartphones and tablet computers in Japan on July 13, 2012.


title: Phantom Blood

text: To celebrate the series' anniversary, a video game adaptation was released in 2006 by Bandai for the PlayStation 2, and a "Phantom Blood" anime film adaptation, "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood", was produced by A.P.P.P. and released in Japanese theaters in 2007. The film has never been released on home video. The "owarai" duo Speedwagon (Jun Itoda and Kazuhiro Ozawa), who took their name from the "Phantom Blood" character, make cameo appearances in the film as Dario Brando and Wang Chen. "Phantom Blood" was again adapted into anime in 2012, as part of the first season of David Production's "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" TV anime series.


title: Phantom Blood

text: "Phantom Blood" was met with reviews ranging from critical to positive. According to Araki, he was often told during the original serialization of the manga that it was the one series that did not fit in with the "best of the best" that were serialized at the same time, such as "Dragon Ball", "Fist of the North Star", "Captain Tsubasa", "Kinnikuman" and "Saint Seiya". "Weekly Shōnen Jump" readers were critical of the first few chapters, finding Jonathan unlikable as he kept losing against Dio at that point. The series was included in Anime News Network list of the best and most memorable manga of 2015, as the winner in the "WTF Did I Just Read?!" category.


title: Phantom Blood

text: Joseph Luster at "Otaku USA" called "Phantom Blood" "a treat" for both new and old readers of the "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" series, but thought that it feels slow-paced compared to "Stardust Crusaders". Ziah Grace and Clair Napier of ComicsAlliance were very critical of the series, calling it "meaningless junk" that should not have been republished in 2015, and recommended readers to read a plot summary of "Phantom Blood" and start with "Battle Tendency" instead. They criticized the series' depiction of animal cruelty, and the "bad or non-existent" female roles in the story. Anime News Network Rebecca Silverman appreciated the realism in how Dio appears perfectly mannered to George while also being sadistically cruel, and how the series uses a mix between Aztec mythology and vampire lore, but thought that the story could be too cruel for some readers, citing the animal cruelty as an example. She liked how the story escalates in intensity and weirdness, but criticized it for telling more often than showing, and using exclamation marks too much.


title: Phantom Blood

text: Several reviewers criticized the artwork in "Phantom Blood" for the characters' anatomy and posing; Silverman described it as featuring impossible poses and characters appearing to have disproportionally small heads atop large, muscled bodies. She additionally criticized the art for being crowded and hard to read. ComicsAlliance disliked how the art felt derivative of "Fist of the North Star". Takato at Manga-News thought that the anatomy and posing, while fitting the tone of the story, were unlikely and badly drawn. Luster thought that the art was not nearly as good as Araki's later works, but that it was charming and worked despite the "twisted proportions" due to its high intensity and stylization. Kory Cerjak at The Fandom Post enjoyed the artwork, however, calling it "straight out of the 80s", giving the series a similar feeling to watching a good action film from that time period.


title: Phantom Blood

text: The box set for the three-volume "JoJonium" release of the series was the 47th best selling comic in Japan during its debut week according to "Oricon", selling an estimated 19,374 copies. The three English volumes all charted on "The New York Times" Manga Best Seller list for three weeks in a row; volume 1 premiered in first place, and both volume 2 and 3 debuted in second place, after "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" and "Naruto" volume 71, respectively.


title: Kaiser

text: Kaiser is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king ("König"). In English, the (untranslated) word "Kaiser" is mainly applied to the emperors of the unified German Empire (1871–1918) and the emperors of the Austrian Empire (1804–1918). During the First World War, anti-German sentiment was at its zenith; the term "Kaiser"—especially as applied to Wilhelm II, German Emperor—thus gained considerable negative connotations in English-speaking countries.


title: Kaiser

text: Especially in Central Europe, between northern Italy and southern Poland, between western Austria and western Ukraine and in Bavaria, Emperor Franz Joseph I is still associated with "Der Kaiser (the emperor)" today. As a result of his long reign from 1848 to 1916 and the associated Golden Age before the First World War, this title often has still a very high historical respect in this geographical area.


title: Kaiser

text: Like the Bulgarian, Serbian, and Russian word "Tsar", "Kaiser" is directly derived from the Roman emperors' title of "Caesar", which in turn is derived from the personal name of the Julii Caesares, a branch of the "gens" (clan) Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar, the forebear of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, belonged.


title: Kaiser

text: Although the British monarchs styled "Emperor of India" were also called "Kaisar-i-Hind" in Hindi and Urdu, this word, although ultimately sharing the same Latin origin, is derived from the Turkish "Kaysar", not the German "Kaiser".


title: Kaiser

text: "Kaiserwetter" (Weather of the emperor) is a colloquial expression and means in German "Sunny weather" with a deep blue, cloudless sky. According to Duden, this proverb goes back to the mostly bright sunshine on 18 August, the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Kaiserschmarrn (Emperor's Mess) is a lightly sweetened pancake that takes its name also from Franz Joseph I. Also with the Austrian Kaisersemmel ("Kaiser roll"), Kaiserfleisch ("Kaiser meat") or Kaisersuppe ("Kaiser soup") the word "Kaiser" is supposed to denote the ultimate highest increase, the best of its kind. Kaiserjäger and Kaiserschützen were special elite units of the Imperial and Royal (k.u.k.) Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces, especially expressed by the part of the name Kaiser.


title: Kaiser

text: "Der Kaiser" is the nickname of both Franz Beckenbauer, a German footballer active in the 1960s and 1970s who captained West Germany to the 1974 World Cup title, and of the Austrian ski racer and 1976 Olympic champion Franz Klammer - both in an allusion to the Austrian Kaiser Franz I.


title: Kaiser

text: The Holy Roman Emperors (962–1806) called themselves "Kaiser", combining the imperial title with that of "King of the Romans" (assumed by the designated heir before the imperial coronation); they saw their rule as a continuation of that of the Roman Emperors and used the title derived from the title "Caesar" to reflect their supposed heritage. From 1452 to 1806, except for the years 1742–1745, only members of the Habsburg family were "Holy Roman Emperors".


title: Kaiser

text: In 1806, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, but the title of "Kaiser" was retained by the House of Habsburg, the head of which, beginning in 1804, bore the title of Emperor ("Kaiser") of Austria. After 1273, the Habsburgs provided most of Holy Roman Kings or Emperors, so they saw themselves as legitimate heirs to the title they adopted. Despite Habsburg ambitions, however, the Austrian Empire could no longer claim to rule over most of Germany, although they did rule over large areas of lands inhabited by non-Germans in addition to Austria. According to the historian Friedrich Heer, the Austrian Habsburg emperor remained an "auctoritas" of a special kind. He was "the grandson of the Caesars", he remained the patron of the holy church, but without excluding other religions. In this tradition, the Austrian emperor saw himself as the protector of his peoples, minorities and all religious communities. In this regard, minorities in the Habsburg Monarchy, but also the Jews on the one hand and the Muslims on the other hand were particularly loyal to the emperor (German: "kaisertreu").


title: Kaiser

text: In 1867 the Austrian Empire was divided into the state of Austria-Hungary (the so-called Danube Monarchy), with Franz Joseph I, like his successor Karl I, being Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. As a result of this centuries-long uninterrupted tradition, today family members of the Habsburgs are often referred to as Imperial Highnesses (German: Kaiserliche Hoheit) and, for example, the members of the Imperial and Royal Order of Saint George as Imperial Knights. There were four "Kaisers" of the Austrian Empire who all belonged to the Habsburg dynasty. They had an official list of crowns, titles, and dignities (Grand title of the emperor of Austria).


title: Kaiser

text: With the unification of Germany (aside from Austria) in 1871, there was some debate about the exact title for the monarch of those German territories (such as free imperial cities, principalities, duchies, and kingdoms) that agreed to unify under the leadership of Prussia, thereby forming the new German Empire. The first "Kaiser" himself preferred either "Kaiser von Deutschland" ("Emperor of Germany"). In the end, his chancellor Bismarck's choice "Deutscher Kaiser" ("German Emperor") was adopted as it simply connoted that the new emperor, hearkening from Prussia, was a German, but did not imply that this new emperor had dominion over all German territories, especially since the Austrian "Kaiser" would have been offended as Austria, inhabited by Germans, was still considered part of the German lands. There were only three "Kaisers" of the (second) German Empire. All of them belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty, which, as kings of Prussia, and had been "de facto" leaders of lesser Germany (Germany excluding Austria).


title: Kaiser

text: Georg Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, is currently head of the House of Hohenzollern, which was the former ruling dynasty of the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in "Graham's Magazine" in 1841. It has been described as the first modern detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of ratiocination".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: As the first fictional detective, Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The unnamed narrator of the story opens with a lengthy commentary on the nature and practice of analytical reasoning, then describes the circumstances under which he first met Dupin during an extended visit to Paris. The two share rooms in a dilapidated old mansion and allow no visitors, having cut off all contact with past acquaintances and venturing outside only at night. "We existed within ourselves alone," the narrator states. One evening, Dupin demonstrates his analytical prowess by deducing the narrator's thoughts about a particular stage actor, based on clues gathered from the narrator's previous words and actions.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: During the remainder of that evening and the following morning, Dupin and the narrator read with great interest the newspaper accounts of a baffling double murder. Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter have been found dead at their home in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. The mother was found in a yard behind the house, with multiple broken bones and her throat so deeply cut that her head fell off when the body was moved. The daughter was found strangled to death and stuffed upside down into a chimney. The murders occurred in a fourth-floor room that was locked from the inside; on the floor were found a bloody straight razor, several bloody tufts of gray hair, and two bags of gold coins. Several witnesses reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and French, but disagreed on the language spoken by the other. The speech was unclear, and all witnesses claimed not to know the language they believed the second voice to be speaking.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: A bank clerk named Adolphe Le Bon, who had delivered the gold coins to the ladies the day before, is arrested even though there is no other evidence linking him to the crime. Remembering a service that Le Bon once performed for him, Dupin becomes intrigued and offers his assistance to "G–", the prefect of police.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language spoken by the second voice, Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human voice at all. He and the narrator examine the house thoroughly; the following day, Dupin dismisses the idea of both Le Bon's guilt and a robbery motive, citing the fact that the gold was not taken from the room. He also points out that the murderer would have had to have superhuman strength to force the daughter's body up the chimney. He formulates a method by which the murderer could have entered the room and killed both women, involving an agile climb up a lightning rod and a leap to a set of open window shutters. Showing an unusual tuft of hair he recovered from the scene, and demonstrating the impossibility of the daughter being strangled by a human hand, Dupin concludes that an "Ourang-Outang" (orangutan) killed the women. He has placed an advertisement in the local newspaper asking if anyone has lost such an animal, and a sailor soon arrives looking for it.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The sailor offers to pay a reward, but Dupin is interested only in learning the circumstances behind the two murders. The sailor explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought it back to Paris, but had trouble keeping it under control. When he saw the orangutan attempting to shave its face with his straight razor, imitating his morning grooming, it fled into the streets and reached the Rue Morgue, where it climbed up and into the house. The orangutan seized the mother by the hair and was waving the razor, imitating a barber; when she screamed in fear, it flew into a rage, ripped her hair out, slashed her throat, and strangled the daughter. The sailor climbed up the lightning rod in an attempt to catch the animal, and the two voices heard by witnesses belonged to it and to him. Fearing punishment by its master, the orangutan threw the mother's body out the window and stuffed the daughter into the chimney before fleeing.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The sailor sells the orangutan, Le Bon is released from custody, and G– mentions that people should mind their own business once Dupin tells him the story. Dupin comments to the narrator that G– is "somewhat too cunning to be profound", but admires his ability ""de nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas"" (a quote from "Julie, or the New Heloise" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: "to deny that which is, and explain that which is not").


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: In a letter to friend Joseph Snodgrass, Poe said of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "its "theme" was the exercise of ingenuity in detecting a murderer." Dupin is not a professional detective; he decides to investigate the murders in the Rue Morgue for his personal amusement. He also has a desire for truth and to prove a falsely accused man innocent. His interests are not financial and he even declines a monetary reward from the owner of the orangutan. The revelation of the actual murderer removes the crime, as neither the orangutan nor its owner can be held responsible. Poe scholar Arthur Hobson Quinn speculates that later detective stories might have set up M. Le Bon, the suspect who is arrested, as appearing guilty as a red herring, though Poe chose not to.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe wrote "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" at a time when crime was at the forefront in people's minds due to urban development. London had recently established its first professional police force and American cities were beginning to focus on scientific police work as newspapers reported murders and criminal trials. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" continues an urban theme that was used several times in Poe's fiction, in particular "The Man of the Crowd", likely inspired by Poe's time living in Philadelphia.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The tale has an underlying metaphor for the battle of brains vs. brawn. Physical strength, depicted as the orangutan as well as its owner, stand for violence: the orangutan is a murderer, while its owner admits he has abused the animal with a whip. The analyst's brainpower overcomes their violence. The story also contains Poe's often-used theme of the death of a beautiful woman, which he called the "most poetical topic in the world".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe defines Dupin's method, "ratiocination", using the example of a card player: "the extent of information obtained; lies not so much in the validity of the inference as in the quality of the observation." Poe then provides a narrative example where Dupin explains how he knew the narrator was thinking about the actor Chantilly. Dupin then applies his method to the solving of this crime.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Dupin's method emphasizes the importance of reading and the written word. The newspaper accounts pique his curiosity; he learns about orangutans from a written account by "Cuvier" — likely Georges Cuvier, the French zoologist. This method also engages the reader, who follows along by reading the clues himself. Poe also emphasizes the power of the spoken word. When Dupin asks the sailor for information about the murders, the sailor himself acts out a partial death: "The sailor's face flushed up as if he were struggling with suffocation... the next moment he fell back into his seat, trembling violently, and with the countenance of death itself."


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe biographer Jeffrey Meyers sums up the significance of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by saying it "changed the history of world literature." Often cited as the first detective fiction story, the character of Dupin became the prototype for many future fictional detectives, including Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. The genre is distinctive from a general mystery story in that the focus is on analysis. Poe's role in the creation of the detective story is reflected in the Edgar Awards, given annually by the Mystery Writers of America.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" also established many tropes that would become common elements in mystery fiction: the eccentric but brilliant detective, the bumbling constabulary, the first-person narration by a close personal friend. Poe also portrays the police in an unsympathetic manner as a sort of foil to the detective. Poe also initiates the storytelling device where the detective announces his solution and then explains the reasoning leading up to it. It is also the first locked room mystery in detective fiction.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Upon its release, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and its author were praised for the creation of a new profound novelty. The Pennsylvania "Inquirer" printed that "it proves Mr Poe to be a man of genius... with an inventive power and skill, of which we know no parallel." Poe, however, downplayed his achievement in a letter to Philip Pendleton Cooke:


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The word "detective" did not exist at the time Poe wrote "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", though there were other stories that featured similar problem-solving characters. "Das Fräulein von Scuderi" (1819), by E. T. A. Hoffmann, in which Mlle. de Scuderi, a kind of 19th-century Miss Marple, establishes the innocence of the police's favorite suspect in the murder of a jeweler, is sometimes cited as the first detective story. Other forerunners include Voltaire's "Zadig" (1748), with a main character who performs similar feats of analysis, themselves borrowed from "The Three Princes of Serendip", an Italian rendition of Amir Khusro's "Hasht-Bihisht".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe may also have been expanding on previous analytical works of his own including the essay on "Maelzel's Chess Player" and the comedic "Three Sundays in a Week". As for the twist in the plot, Poe was likely inspired by the crowd reaction to an orangutan on display at the Masonic Hall in Philadelphia in July 1839. Poe might have picked up some of the relevant biological knowledge from collaborating with Thomas Wyatt, with Poe furthermore linking "his narrative with the subject of evolution, especially the studies done by Cuvier", possibly also influenced by the studies conducted by Lord Monboddo, though it has been argued that Poe's information was "more literary than scientific".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The name of the main character may have been inspired from the "Dupin" character in a series of stories first published in "Burton's Gentleman's Magazine" in 1828 called "Unpublished passages in the Life of Vidocq, the French Minister of Police". Poe would likely have known the story, which features an analytical man who discovers a murderer, though the two plots share little resemblance. Murder victims in both stories, however, have their neck cut so badly that the head is almost entirely removed from the body. Dupin actually mentions Vidocq by name, dismissing him as "a good guesser".


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe originally titled the story "Murders in the Rue Trianon" but renamed it to better associate with death. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" first appeared in "Graham's Magazine" in April 1841 while Poe was working as an editor. He was paid an additional $56 for it — an unusually high figure; he was paid only $9 for "The Raven". In 1843, Poe had the idea to print a series of pamphlets with his stories entitled "The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe". He printed only one, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" oddly collected with the satirical "The Man That Was Used Up". It sold for 12 and a half cents. This version included 52 changes from the original text from "Graham's", including the new line: "The Prefect is somewhat too cunning to be profound", a change from the original "too cunning to be acute". "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was also reprinted in Wiley & Putnam's collection of Poe's stories simply called "Tales". Poe did not take part in selecting which tales would be collected.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: Poe's sequel to "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt", first serialized in December 1842 and January 1843. Though subtitled "A Sequel to 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue'", "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" shares very few common elements with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" beyond the inclusion of C. Auguste Dupin and the Paris setting. Dupin reappeared in "The Purloined Letter", which Poe called "perhaps the best of my tales of ratiocination" in a letter to James Russell Lowell in July 1844.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: The original manuscript of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" which was used for its first printing in "Graham's Magazine" was discarded in a wastebasket. An apprentice at the office, J. M. Johnston, retrieved it and left it with his father for safekeeping. It was left in a music book, where it survived three house fires before being bought by George William Childs. In 1891, Childs presented the manuscript, re-bound with a letter explaining its history, to Drexel University. Childs had also donated $650 for the completion of Edgar Allan Poe's new grave monument in Baltimore, Maryland in 1875.


title: The Murders in the Rue Morgue

text: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" was one of the earliest of Poe's works to be translated into French. Between June 11 and June 13, 1846, "" was published in "La Quotidienne", a Paris newspaper. Poe's name was not mentioned and many details, including the name of the Rue Morgue and the main characters ("Dupin" became "Bernier"), were changed. On October 12, 1846, another uncredited translation, renamed "Une Sanglante Enigme", was published in "Le Commerce". The editor of "Le Commerce" was accused of plagiarizing the story from "La Quotidienne". The accusation went to trial and the public discussion brought Poe's name to the attention of the French public.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: The political positions of Donald Trump (sometimes referred to as Trumpism), the 45th president of the United States, have frequently


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Donald Trump registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987; since that time, he has changed his party affiliation five times. In 1999, Trump changed his party affiliation to the Independence Party of New York. In August 2001, Trump changed his party affiliation to Democratic. In September 2009, Trump changed his party affiliation back to the Republican Party. In December 2011, Trump changed to "no party affiliation" (independent). In April 2012, Trump again returned to the Republican Party.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In a 2004 interview, Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat", explaining: "It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans. Now, it shouldn't be that way. But if you go back, I mean it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats...But certainly we had some very good economies under Democrats, as well as Republicans. But we've had some pretty bad disaster under the Republicans." In a July 2015 interview, Trump said that he has a broad range of political positions and that "I identify with some things as a Democrat."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: During his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Trump consistently described the state of the United States in bleak terms, referring to it as a nation in dire peril that is plagued by lawlessness, poverty, and violence, constantly under threat, and at risk of having "nothing, absolutely nothing, left". In accepting the Republican nomination for president, Trump said that "I alone can fix" the system, and pledged that if elected, "Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo." He described himself as a "law and order" candidate and "the voice" of "the forgotten men and women". Trump's inaugural address on January 20, 2017, focused on his campaign theme of America in crisis and decline. He pledged to end what he referred to as "American carnage", depicting the United States in a dystopian light—as a "land of abandoned factories, economic angst, rising crime"—while pledging "a new era in American politics".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Although Trump was the Republican nominee, he has signaled that the official party platform, adopted at the 2016 Republican National Convention, diverges from his own views. According to a "The Washington Post" tally, Trump made some 282 campaign promises over the course of his 2016 campaign.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In February 2017, Trump stated that he was a "total nationalist" in a "true sense". In October 2018, Trump again described himself as a nationalist.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: During the last week of his presidential term, Trump was reportedly considering founding a new political party and wanted to call it the Patriot Party.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump's political positions are viewed by some as populist. Politicians and pundits alike have referred to Trump's populism, anti-free trade, and anti-immigrant stances as "Trumpism".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Liberal economist and columnist Paul Krugman disputes that Trump is a populist, arguing that his policies favor the rich over those less well off. Harvard Kennedy School political scientist Pippa Norris has described Trump as a "populist authoritarian" analogous to European parties such as the Swiss People's Party, Austrian Freedom Party, Swedish Democrats, and Danish People's Party. Columnist Walter Shapiro and political commentator Jonathan Chait describe Trump as authoritarian. Conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham characterized Trump as a "casual authoritarian," saying "he is a candidate who has happily and proudly spurned the entire idea of limits on his power as an executive and doesn't have any interest in the Constitution and what it allows him to do and what [it] does not allow him to do. That is concerning for people who are interested in limited government." Charles C. W. Cooke of the "National Review" has expressed similar views, terming Trump an "anti-constitutional authoritarian." Libertarian journalist Nick Gillespie, by contrast, calls Trump "populist rather than an authoritarian". Rich Benjamin refers to Trump and his ideology as fascist and a form of inverted totalitarianism.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Legal experts spanning the political spectrum, including many conservative and libertarian scholars, have suggested that "Trump's blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law." Law professors Randy E. Barnett, Richard Epstein, and David G. Post, for example, suggest that Trump has little or no awareness of, or commitment to, the constitutional principles of separation of powers and federalism. Law professor Ilya Somin believes that Trump "poses a serious threat to the press and the First Amendment," citing Trump's proposal to expand defamation laws to make it easier to sue journalists and his remark that the owner of "The Washington Post", Jeff Bezos, would "have problems" if Trump was elected president. Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in an op-ed published in "The Washington Post" in July 2016 that "Trump's proposed policies, if carried out, would trigger a constitutional crisis. By our reckoning, a Trump administration would violate the First, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth amendments if it tried to implement his most controversial plans."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Prior to his election as president, his views on social issues were often described as centrist or moderate. Political commentator Josh Barro termed Trump a "moderate Republican," saying that except on immigration, his views are "anything but ideologically rigid, and he certainly does not equate deal making with surrender." MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Trump is essentially more like a "centrist Democrat" on social issues. Journalist and political analyst John Heilemann characterized Trump as liberal on social issues, while conservative talk radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh said that Heilemann is seeing in Trump what he wants to see. Since he became president, commentators have generally characterized his policy agenda as socially conservative.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump and his political views have often been described as nationalist. John Cassidy of the "New Yorker" writes that Trump seeks to make the Republican Party "into a more populist, nativist, avowedly protectionist, and semi-isolationist party that is skeptical of immigration, free trade, and military interventionism." "The Washington Post" editorial page editor Fred Hiatt and College of the Holy Cross political scientist Donald Brand describe Trump as a nativist. Rich Lowry, the editor of "National Review", instead calls Trump an "immigration hawk" and supports Trump's effort to return immigration levels to what Trump calls a "historically average level". Trump is a protectionist, according to free-market advocate Stephen Moore and conservative economist Larry Kudlow. Historian Joshua M. Zeitz wrote in 2016 that Trump's appeals to "law and order" and "the silent majority" were comparable to the dog-whistle and racially-coded terminology of Richard Nixon.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: According to a 2020 study, voters had the most difficulty assessing the ideology of Trump in the 2016 election out of all presidential candidates since 1972 and all contemporary legislators.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 2015, Crowdpac gave Trump a ranking of 0.4L out of 10, indicating moderate positions. In 2016, the ranking was changed to 5.1C out of 10, shifting him more to the conservative spectrum.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: The organization and website On the Issues has classified Trump in a variety of ways over time, showing the variance of his political beliefs:


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As president, Trump has pursued sizable income tax cuts, deregulation, increased military spending, rollbacks of federal health-care protections, and the appointment of conservative judges consistent with conservative (Republican Party) policies. However, his anti-globalization policies of trade protectionism cross party lines. In foreign affairs he has described himself as a nationalist. Trump has said that he is "totally flexible on very, very many issues."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump's signature issue is immigration, especially illegal immigration, and in particular building or expanding a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump promised significant infrastructure investment and protection for entitlements for the elderly, typically considered liberal (Democratic Party) policies. In October 2016, Trump's campaign posted fourteen categories of policy proposals on his website, which have been since removed. During October 2016, Trump outlined a series of steps for his first 100 days in office.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump's political positions, and his descriptions of his beliefs, have often been inconsistent. "Politico" has described his positions as "eclectic, improvisational and often contradictory." According to an NBC News count, over the course of his campaign Trump made "141 distinct shifts on 23 major issues." Fact-checking organizations reported that during the campaign, Trump made a record number of false statements and lies compared to other candidates, a pattern that has continued — and further increased — in office.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: While Trump has repeatedly expressed support for "the idea of campaign finance reform," he has not outlined specifics of his actual views on campaign-finance regulation. For example, Trump has not said whether he favors public financing of elections or caps on expenditures of campaigns, outside groups, and individuals.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: During the Republican primary race, Trump on several occasions accused his Republican opponents of being bound to their campaign financiers, and asserted that anyone (including Trump himself) could buy their policies with donations. He called super PACs a "scam" and "a horrible thing". In October 2015, he said, "All Presidential candidates should immediately disavow their Super PACs. They're not only breaking the spirit of the law but the law itself."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Having previously touted the self-funding of his campaign as a sign of his independence from the political establishment and big donors, Trump reversed course and started to fundraise in early May 2016. While Trump systematically disavowed pro-Trump super PACs earlier in the race, he stopped doing so from early May 2016.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: According to Chris Christie (who served briefly as leader of Trump's White House transition team), Trump will seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Obama and will ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to fire public workers.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump's former Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, stated in February 2017 that Trump's goal is to "deconstruct the administrative state".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has provided "little detail regarding his positions on disability-related policies," and his campaign website made no mention of disabled people. As of June 1, 2016, Trump had not responded to the issue questionnaire of the nonpartisan disability group RespectAbility.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Donald Trump is opposed to DC statehood. In 2020, Donald Trump indicated that if the statehood legislation for Washington, D.C. passes both houses of Congress, he would veto the admission legislation.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has stated his support for school choice and local control for primary and secondary schools. On school choice he's commented, "Our public schools are capable of providing a more competitive product than they do today. Look at some of the high school tests from earlier in this century and you'll wonder if they weren't college-level tests. And we've got to bring on the competition—open the schoolhouse doors and let parents choose the best school for their children. Education reformers call this school choice, charter schools, vouchers, even opportunity scholarships. I call it competition—the American way."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has blasted the Common Core State Standards Initiative, calling it a "total disaster". Trump has asserted that Common Core is "education through Washington, D.C.", a claim which Politifact and other journalists have rated "false", since the adoption and implementation of Common Core is a state choice, not a federal one.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has stated that Ben Carson will be "very much involved in education" under a Trump presidency. Carson rejects the theory of evolution, believes that "home-schoolers do the best, private schoolers next best, charter schoolers next best, and public schoolers worst"; he said that he wanted to "take the federal bureaucracy out of education."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has proposed redirecting $20 billion in existing federal spending to block grants to states to give poor children vouchers to attend a school of their family's choice (including a charter school, private school, or online school). Trump did not explain where the $20 billion in the federal budget would come from. Trump stated that "Distribution of this grant will favor states that have private school choice and charter laws."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As president, Trump chose Republican financier Betsy DeVos, a prominent Michigan charter school advocate, as Secretary of Education. The nomination was highly controversial; "The Washington Post" education writer Valerie Strauss wrote that "DeVos was considered the most controversial education nominee in the history of the nearly 40-year-old Education Department." On the confirmation vote the Senate split 50/50 (along party lines, with two Republican senators joining all Democratic senators to vote against confirmation). Vice President Mike Pence used his tie-breaking vote to confirm the nomination, the first time in U.S. history that this has occurred.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 2015 Trump called eminent domain "wonderful". He repeatedly asked the government to invoke it on his behalf during past development projects.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In September 2016, Trump posted a list on his web site of regulations that he would eliminate. The list included what it called the "FDA Food Police" and mentioned the Food and Drug Administration's rules governing "farm and food production hygiene" and "food temperatures". The factsheet provided by Trump mirrored a May report by the conservative "Heritage Foundation". It was replaced later that month and the new factsheet did not mention the FDA.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Colman McCarthy of "The Washington Post" wrote in 1993 that in testimony given that year to the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Native American Affairs, Trump "devoted much of his testimony to bad-mouthing Indians and their casinos," asserted that "organized crime is rampant on Indian reservations" and that "if it continues it will be the biggest scandal ever." Trump offered no evidence in support of his claim, and testimony from the FBI's organized crime division, the Justice Department's criminal division, and the IRS's criminal investigation division did not support Trump's assertion. Representative George Miller, a Democrat who was the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee at the time, stated: "In my 19 years in Congress, I've never heard more irresponsible testimony."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump bankrolled in 2000 a set of anti-Indian gaming ads in upstate New York that featured "a dark photograph showing hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia," a warning that "violent criminals were coming to town," and an accusation that the St. Regis Mohawks had a "record of criminal activity." The ad—aimed at stopping the construction of a casino in the Catskills that might hurt Trump's own Atlantic City casinos—was viewed as "incendiary" and racially charged, and at the time local tribal leaders, in response, bought a newspaper ad of their own to denounce the "smear" and "racist and inflammatory rhetoric" of the earlier ad. The ads attracted the attention of the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying because they failed to disclose Trump's sponsorship as required by state lobbying rules. Trump acknowledged that he sponsored the ads and reached a settlement with the state in which he and his associates agreed to issue a public apology and pay $250,000 (the largest civil penalty ever levied by the commission) for evading state disclosure rules.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 2015, Trump defended the controversial team name and mascot of the Washington Redskins, saying that the NFL team should not change its name and he did not find the term to be offensive. The "Change the Mascot" campaign, led by the Oneida Indian Nation and National Congress of American Indians, condemned Trump's stance.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: While campaigning in 2016, Trump has repeatedly belittled Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts by calling her "Pocahontas" (a reference to Warren's claim, based on family lore, of Native American ancestry, which she has been unable to document). Trump's comments were criticized by a number of public figures as racist and inappropriate. Gyasi Ross of the Blackfeet Nation, a Native American activist and author, criticized Trump's "badgering of Elizabeth Warren as 'Pocahontas'" as "simply the continuation of his pattern of racist bullying."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: For several years Trump promoted "birther" conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship.<ref name="Gass_1/12/2012"></ref><ref name="Keneally_9/18/2015"></ref><ref name="Epps_2/26/2016"></ref>


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In March 2011, during an interview on "Good Morning America", Trump said he was seriously considering running for president, that he was a "little" skeptical of Obama's citizenship and that someone who shares this view should not be so quickly dismissed as an "idiot." Trump added: "Growing up no one knew him"—a claim ranked "Pants on Fire" by Politifact. Later, Trump appeared on "The View" repeating several times that "I want him (Obama) to show his birth certificate" and speculating that "there's something on that birth certificate that he doesn't like." Although officials in Hawaii certified Obama's citizenship, Trump said in April 2011 he would not let go of the issue, because he was not satisfied that Obama had proved his citizenship.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: After Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, Trump said: "I am really honored and I am really proud, that I was able to do something that nobody else could do." Trump continued to question Obama's birth certificate in the following years, as late as 2015. In May 2012, Trump suggested that Obama might have been born in Kenya. In October 2012, Trump offered to donate five million dollars to the charity of Obama's choice in return for the publication of his college and passport applications before the end of the month. In a 2014 interview, Trump questioned whether Obama had produced his long-form birth certificate. When asked in December 2015 if he still questioned Obama's legitimacy, Trump said that "I don't talk about that anymore."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: On September 14, 2016, Trump declined to acknowledge whether he believed Obama was born in the United States. On September 15, 2016, Trump for the first time acknowledged that Obama was born in the United States. He gave a terse statement, saying, "President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period." He falsely accused Hillary Clinton of having started the "Birther" movement. He also asserted that he "finished" the birther controversy, apparently referring to Obama's 2011 release of his long-form birth certificate, despite the fact that he continued to question Obama's citizenship in the years that followed. The next day, Trump tweeted a story in "The Washington Post" with the headline "Donald Trump's birther event is the greatest trick he's ever pulled". The "greatest trick" of the headline referred to the fact that cable networks aired the event live, waiting for a "birther" statement, while Trump touted his new hotel and supporters gave testimonials. In October 2016, Trump appeared to question the legitimacy of Barack Obama's presidency, referring to him at a rally as the "quote 'president' ".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: During his campaign Trump repeatedly promised "I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid." For the first three years of his presidency he said nothing about cutting Social Security or Medicare. In a January 2020 interview he said he planned to "take a look" at entitlement programs like Medicare, but he then said via Twitter "We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget." His proposed 2021 budget, unveiled in February 2020, included a $45 billion cut to the program within Social Security that supports disabled people, as well as cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. In August 2020, as part of a package of executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic, he signed an order to postpone the collection of the payroll taxes that support Social Security and Medicare, paid by employees and employers, for the rest of 2020. He also said that if he wins re-election, he will forgive the postponed payroll taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax, saying he would "terminate the tax," although only Congress can change tax law. Analysts said such an action would threaten Social Security and Medicare by eliminating the dedicated funding which pays for the programs.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump caused a stir in July 2015 when he charged that Senator John McCain had "done nothing to help the vets," a statement ruled false by PolitiFact and the "Chicago Tribune." Trump added that McCain is "not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As a presidential candidate, Trump was critical of the ways in which veterans are treated in the United States, saying "the vets are horribly treated in this country...they are living in hell." He favored eliminating backlogs and wait-lists that had caused a Veterans Health Administration scandal the previous year. He claimed that "over 300,000 veterans have died waiting for care." He said he believed Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities needed to be technologically upgraded, to hire more veterans to treat other veterans, to increase support of female veterans, and to create satellite clinics within hospitals in rural areas. He proposed a plan for reforming the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with provisions to allow veterans to obtain care from any doctor or facility that accepts Medicare, to increase funding for PTSD and suicide prevention services, and to provide ob/gyn services at every VA hospital. Trump called for greater privatization of veterans' care, although his plan made no direct reference to letting veterans get health care outside the VA system. The "Wall Street Journa"l noted that "such a plan is counter to recommendations from major veterans groups, the VA itself and from the Commission on Care, an independent body established by Congress that last week made recommendations for VA changes." Trump's plan calls "for legislation making it easier to fire underperforming employees, increasing mental-health resources and adding a White House hotline so veterans can bypass the VA and bring problems directly to the president." Trump opposed the current G.I. Bill.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In January 2016, Trump hosted a fundraising rally for veterans (skipping a televised Republican debate to do so). Weeks later, after the "Wall Street Journal" inquired with the Trump campaign when veterans' groups would receive their checks, the funds began to be disbursed. In April, the "Journal" reported that the funds had yet to be fully distributed. In May, NPR confirmed directly with 30 recipient charities that they had received their funds, "accounting for $4.27 million of the $5.6 million total," while the remaining 11 charities did not answer the question.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In February 2018, the Trump administration initiated a policy known as ‘Deploy Or Get Out’ (DOGO), ordering the Pentagon to discharge any soldier who would be ineligible for deployment within the next 12 months. This mainly affected disabled soldiers. It also affected HIV-positive soldiers, who are allowed to serve within the US but cannot be deployed overseas; the DOGO policy meant that they could no longer serve within the US, either.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2019, Trump credited himself for the passing the Veterans Choice Act, a law that had actually been passed under the previous president, Barack Obama, in 2014. Trump did sign an expansion of that act in 2018.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In September 2020, "The Atlantic" reported that Trump referred to Americans who were casualties of war as "losers" and "suckers", citing multiple people who were present for the statements; later reporting by the Associated Press and Fox News corroborated some of these stories. Veterans expressed scorn over the report's allegations. Trump denied these allegations and called them "disgraceful", adding: "I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes". John Bolton, who was present at the discussion, also said he never heard Trump make such comments.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: By March 2016, Trump had not released any plans to combat climate change or provided details regarding his approach to energy issues more broadly.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In May 2016, Trump asked U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota—described by "Reuters" as "one of America's most ardent drilling advocates and climate change skeptics"—to draft Trump's energy policy.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In May 2016, Trump said that he could solve the water crisis in California. He declared that "there is no drought," a statement which the Associated Press noted is incorrect. Trump accused California state officials of denying farmers of water so they can send it out to sea "to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish." According to the AP, Trump appeared to be referring to a dispute between Central Valley farming interests and environmental interests; California farmers accuse water authorities of short-changing them of the water in their efforts to protect endangered native fish species.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, repeatedly contending that global warming is a "hoax." He has said that "the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," a statement which Trump later said was a joke. However, it was also pointed out that he often conflates weather with climate change.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump criticized President Obama's description of climate change as "the greatest threat to future generations" for being "naive" and "one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard." A 2016 report by the Sierra Club contended that, were he to be elected president, Trump would be the only head of state in the world to contend that climate change is a hoax. In December 2009, Trump and his three adult children had signed a full-page advertisement from "business leaders" in "The New York Times" stating "If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet" and encouraging "investment in the clean energy economy" to "create new energy jobs and increase our energy security".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Although "not a believer in climate change," Trump has stated that "clean air is a pressing problem" and has said: "There is still much that needs to be investigated in the field of climate change. Perhaps the best use of our limited financial resources should be in dealing with making sure that every person in the world has clean water."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In May 2016, during his presidential campaign, Trump issued an energy plan focused on promoting fossil fuels and weakening environmental regulation. Trump promised to "rescind" in his first 100 days in office a variety of Environmental Protection Agency regulations established during the Obama administration to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, which contribute to a warming global climate. Trump has specifically pledged to revoke the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the United States rule, which he characterizes as two "job-destroying Obama executive actions."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has said "we're practically not allowed to use coal any more," a statement rated "mostly false" by PolitiFact. Trump has criticized the Obama administration's coal policies, describing the administration's moves to phase out the use of coal-fired power plants as "stupid." Trump has criticized the Obama administration for prohibiting "coal production on federal land" and states that it seeks to adopt "draconian climate rules that, unless stopped, would effectively bypass Congress to impose job-killing cap-and-trade." Trump has vowed to revive the U.S. coal economy, a pledge that is viewed by experts as unlikely to be fulfilled because the decline of the coal industry is driven by market forces, and specifically by the U.S. natural gas boom. An analysis by "Scientific American" found that Trump's promise to bring back closed coal mines would be difficult to fulfill, both because of environmental regulations and economic shifts. An analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance dismissed Trump's claims of a "war on coal": "U.S. coal's main problem has been cheap natural gas and renewable power, not a politically driven 'war on coal'...[coal] will continue being pushed out of the generating mix."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: According to FactCheck.org, over at least a five-year period, Trump has on several occasions made incorrect claims about the use of hair spray and its role in ozone depletion. At a rally in May 2016, "Trump implied that the regulations on hairspray and coal mining are both unwarranted" and incorrectly asserted that hairspray use in a "sealed" apartment prevents the spray's ozone-depleting substances from reaching the atmosphere.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In June 2019, the Trump White House tried to prevent a State Department intelligence analyst from testifying to Congress about "possibly catastrophic" effects of human-caused climate change, and prevented his written testimony containing science from NASA and NOAA from being included in the official Congressional Record because it was not consistent with administration positions.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2019, Trump described America's coal production as "clean, beautiful", despite coal being a particularly polluting energy source. Although "clean coal" is a specific jargon used by the coal industry for certain technologies, Trump instead generally describes that coal itself is "clean".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump pledged in his May 2016 speech on energy policy to "cancel the Paris climate agreement" adopted at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (in which 170 countries committed to reductions in carbon emissions). Trump pledged to cancel the agreement in his first hundred days in office. This pledge followed earlier comments by Trump, in which he said that as president, he would "at a minimum" seek to renegotiate the agreement and "at a maximum I may do something else." Trump characterizes the Paris Agreement "one-sided" and "bad for the United States," believing that the agreement is too favorable to China and other countries. In his May 2016 speech, Trump inaccurately said that the Paris Agreement "gives foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use on our land, in our country"; in fact, the Paris Agreement is based on voluntary government pledges, and no country controls the emissions-reduction plan of any other country.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Once the agreement is ratified by 55 nations representing 55 percent of global emissions (which has not yet occurred), a four-year waiting period goes into effect for any country wishing to withdraw from the agreement. A U.S. move to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as Trump proposes is viewed as likely to unravel the agreement; according to Reuters, such a move would spell "potential doom for an agreement many view as a last chance to turn the tide on global warming."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In Trump's May 2016 speech on energy policy, he declared that if elected president, he would "stop all payment of U.S. tax dollars to global warming programs." This would be a reversal of the U.S. pledge to commit funds to developing countries to assist in climate change mitigation and could undermine the willingness of other countries to take action against climate change.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2016, 375 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including 30 Nobel laureates, issued an open letter warning that Trump's plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Paris Agreement would have dire effects on the fight against climate change. The scientists wrote, in part:


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In his May 2016 speech on energy policy, Trump stated : "Under my presidency, we will accomplish complete American energy independence. We will become totally independent of the need to import energy from the oil cartel or any nation hostile to our interest." "The New York Times" reported that "experts say that such remarks display a basic ignorance of the workings of the global oil markets."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In January 2016, Trump vowed "tremendous cutting" of the budget for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if elected. In an October 2015 interview with Chris Wallace, Trump explained, "what they do is a disgrace. Every week they come out with new regulations." When Wallace asked, "Who's going to protect the environment?", Trump answered "we'll be fine with the environment. We can leave a little bit, but you can't destroy businesses."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has charged that the "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abuses the Endangered Species Act to restrict oil and gas exploration." In 2011, Trump said that would permit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In July 2016, Trump suggested that he was in favor of state and local bans on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), saying, "I'm in favor of fracking, but I think that voters should have a big say in it. I mean, there's some areas, maybe, they don't want to have fracking. And I think if the voters are voting for it, that's up to them...if a municipality or a state wants to ban fracking, I can understand that."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump promised to construct the Keystone XL pipeline, a proposed project to bring Canadian petroleum to the U.S. Trump pledged that if elected, he would ask TransCanada Corp. to renew its permit application for the project within his first hundred days in office. Trump claimed that Keystone XL pipeline will have "no impact on environment" and create "lots of jobs for U.S.," although in fact the pipeline is projected to create only 35 permanent jobs.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In his first days in office, Trump revived the Keystone XL project, signing a presidential memorandum reversing the rejection of the proposed pipeline that President Obama had made. Trump "also signed a directive ordering an end to protracted environmental reviews," pledging to make environmental review " a very short process."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: After months of protest by thousands of protesters, including the largest gathering of Native Americans in 100 years, in December 2016 the United States Army Corps of Engineers under the Obama administration announced that it would not grant an easement for the pipeline, and the Corps of Engineers undertook an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: However, in February 2017, newly elected President Donald Trump ended the environmental impact assessment and ordered for construction to continue. Trump has financial ties to Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66, who are both directly involved in the controversial project. The CEO of Energy Transfer Partners is a campaign donor for Donald Trump.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In his 2015 book "Crippled America", Trump is highly critical of the "big push" to develop renewable energy, arguing that the push is based on a mistaken belief that greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. He writes, "There has been a big push to develop alternative forms of energy—so-called green energy—from renewable sources. That's a big mistake. To begin with, the whole push for renewable energy is being driven by the wrong motivation, the mistaken belief that global climate change is being caused by carbon emissions. If you don't buy that—and I don't—then what we have is really just an expensive way of making the tree-huggers feel good about themselves."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Despite criticizing wind farms in the past (calling them "ugly"), Trump has said that he does not oppose the wind production tax credit, saying: "I'm okay with subsidies, to an extent." Trump has criticized wind energy for being expensive and for not working without "massive subsidies". He added, "windmills are killing hundreds and hundreds of eagles. One of the most beautiful, one of the most treasured birds—and they're killing them by the hundreds and nothing happens," a claim rated as "mostly false" by PolitiFact since best estimates indicate that about one hundred golden eagles are killed each year by wind turbine blades.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In his official platform, Trump claims that he will reduce bureaucracy which would then lead to greater innovation. His platform mentions "renewable energies", including "nuclear, wind and solar energy" in that regard but adds that he would not support those "to the exclusion of other energy".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump supports a higher ethanol mandate (the amount of ethanol required by federal regulation to be blended into the U.S. gasoline supply). Trump vowed to protect the government's Renewable Fuel Standard and the corn-based ethanol.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2019, Trump falsely claimed: "if a windmill is within two miles of your house, your house is practically worthless"; this claim is not supported by studies in the United States.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In October 2016, the Humane Society denounced Trump's campaign, saying that a "Trump presidency would be a threat to animals everywhere" and that he has "a team of advisors and financial supporters tied in with trophy hunting, puppy mills, factory farming, horse slaughter, and other abusive industries."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In February 2017, under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unexpectedly removed from its public website "all enforcement records related to horse soring and to animal welfare at dog breeding operations and other facilities." The decision prompted criticism from animal welfare advocates (such as the Animal Welfare Institute), investigative journalists, and some of the regulated industries (the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the group Speaking of Research said that the move created an impression of non-transparency).


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: President Trump advocated repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare"). The Republican-controlled House passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) in May 2017, handing it to the Senate, which decided to write its own version of the bill rather than voting on the AHCA. The Senate bill, called the "Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017" (BCRA), failed on a vote of 45–55 in the Senate during July 2017. Other variations also failed to gather the required support, facing unanimous Democratic Party opposition and some Republican opposition. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bills would increase the number of uninsured by over 20 million persons, while reducing the budget deficit marginally.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Several insurers and actuary groups cited uncertainty created by President Trump, specifically non-enforcement of the individual mandate and not funding cost sharing reduction subsidies, as contributing 20-30 percentage points to premium increases for the 2018 plan year on the ACA exchanges. In other words, absent Trump's actions against the ACA, premium increases would have averaged 10% or less, rather than the estimated 28-40% under the uncertainty his actions created. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) maintains a timeline of many "sabotage" efforts by the Trump Administration.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: President Trump announced in October 2017 he would end the smaller of the two types of subsidies under the ACA, the cost sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies. This controversial decision significantly raised premiums on the ACA exchanges (as much as 20 percentage points) along with the premium tax credit subsidies that rise with them, with the CBO estimating a $200 billion increase in the budget deficit over a decade. CBO also estimated that initially up to one million fewer would have health insurance coverage, although more might have it in the long-run as the subsidies expand. CBO expected the exchanges to remain stable (e.g., no "death spiral") as the premiums would increase and prices would stabilize at the higher (non-CSR) level.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: President Trump's argument that the CSR payments were a "bailout" for insurance companies and therefore should be stopped, actually results in the government paying more to insurance companies ($200B over a decade) due to increases in the premium tax credit subsidies. Journalist Sarah Kliff therefore described Trump's argument as "completely incoherent."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2019, at a campaign rally, Trump claimed that his administration "will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions, always." However, his administration had already repeatedly attempted to water down or repeal the ACA's protections for people with preexisting medical conditions, without any proposal on how to restore these protections if the ACA is rendered void.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: According to a report by the RAND Corporation, Trump's proposed health-care policy proposals, depending on specific elements implemented, would result in between 15 and 25 million fewer people with health insurance and increase the federal deficit in a range from zero to $41 billion in 2018. This was in contrast to Clinton's proposals, which would expand health insurance coverage for between zero and 10 million people while increasing the deficit in a range from zero to $90 billion in 2018. According to the report, low-income individuals and sicker people would be most adversely affected by his proposed policies, although it was pointed out that not all policy proposals have been modeled.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As the 2016 campaign unfolded, Trump stated that he favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "Obamacare")—which Trump refers to as a "complete disaster"—and replacing it with a "free-market system." On his campaign website, Trump says, "on day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare." Trump's campaign has insisted that the candidate has "never supported socialized medicine."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has cited the rising costs of premiums and deductibles as a motivation to repeal the Affordable Care Act. However, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the after-subsidy premium costs to those with insurance coverage via the Affordable Care Act's exchanges did not change significantly on average from 2016 to 2017, as increases in the subsidies offset pre-subsidy insurance premium increases. For example, after-subsidy costs for a popular "silver plan" remained around $200/month in 2016 and 2017. An estimated 70% of persons on the exchanges could purchase a plan for $75/month after subsidies. Further, in the employer market, health insurance premium cost increases from 2015 to 2016 were an estimated 3% on average, low by historical standards. While deductibles rose 12% on average from 2015 to 2016, more workers are pairing higher-deductible plans with tax-preferred health savings accounts (HSAs), offsetting some of the deductible increase (i.e., lowering their effective deductible).


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: The Congressional Budget Office reported in March 2016 that there were approximately 23 million people with insurance due to the law, with 12 million people covered by the exchanges (10 million of whom received subsidies to help pay for insurance) and 11 million made eligible for Medicaid. The CBO also reported in June 2015 that: "Including the budgetary effects of macroeconomic feedback, repealing the ACA would increase federal budget deficits by $137 billion over the 2016–2025 period." CBO also estimated that excluding the effects of macroeconomic feedback, repeal of the ACA would increase the deficit by $353 billion over that same period.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In the early part of his campaign, Trump responded to questions about his plan to replace the ACA by saying that it would be "something terrific!" Trump subsequently said at various points that he believes that the government should have limited involvement of health care, but has also said that "at the lower end, where people have no money, I want to try and help those people," by "work[ing] out some sort of a really smart deal with hospitals across the country." and has said "everybody's got to be covered." At a February 2016 town hall on CNN, Trump said that he supported the individual health insurance mandate of the ACA, which requires all Americans to have health insurance, saying "I like the mandate. So here's where I'm a little bit different [from other Republican candidates]." In March 2016, Trump reversed himself, saying that "Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate. No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In March 2016, Trump released his health care plan, which called for allowing health-insurance companies to compete across state lines and for making Medicaid into a block grant system for the states. He also called for elimination of the individual mandate for health insurance, for allowing health insurance premiums to be deducted on tax returns, and for international competition in the drug market. In the same document, Trump acknowledged that mental health care in the U.S. is often inadequate but offered no immediate solution to the problem, instead stating that "there are promising reforms being developed in Congress." Trump also emphasized the removal of market entry barriers for drug providers and improved access to imported medication corresponding to safety standards.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Explaining how he would address the problem of ensuring the people that would lose their insurance coverage if Obamacare were repealed, Trump said, "We have to come up, and we can come up with many different plans. In fact, plans you don't even know about will be devised because we're going to come up with plans—health care plans—that will be so good. And so much less expensive both for the country and for the people. And so much better." His plan has been criticized by Republican health experts as "a jumbled hodgepodge of old Republican ideas, randomly selected, that don't fit together" (Robert Laszewski) providing nothing that "would do anything more than cover a couple million people," (Gail R. Wilensky).


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 1999, during his abortive 2000 Reform Party presidential campaign, Trump told TV interviewer Larry King, "I believe in universal health care." In his 2000 book, "The America We Deserve", Trump reiterated his call for universal health care and focused on a Canadian-style single-payer health care system as a means to achieve it. Though he characterized the Canadian health-care system as "catastrophic in certain ways" in October 2016 during the second presidential debate, the Trump campaign website wrote in June 2015 about his support for "a system that would mirror Canada's government-run healthcare service" under the title "What does Donald Trump believe? Where the candidate stands on 10 issues". In 2015, Trump also expressed admiration for the Scottish health-care system, which is single payer.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 2014, after a New York physician returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa and showed symptoms of the disease, Trump tweeted that if the doctor had Ebola, "Obama should apologize to the American people & resign!" When the doctor was later confirmed to have developed Ebola in New York, Trump tweeted that it was "Obama's fault" and "I have been saying for weeks for President Obama to stop the flights from West Africa. So simple, but he refused. A TOTAL incompetent!" Trump also criticized President Obama's decision to send 3,000 U.S. troops to affected regions to help combat the outbreak (see Operation United Assistance).


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As Dr. Kent Brantly returned to the U.S. for treatment, Trump tweeted that U.S. doctors who went abroad to treat Ebola were "great" but "must suffer the consequences" if they became infected and insisted that "the U.S. must immediately stop all flights from EBOLA infected countries or the plague will start and spread inside our 'borders.'" When an Ebola patient was scheduled to come to the U.S. for treatment, Trump tweeted, "now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!"


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump's suggestion on the Ebola crisis "would go against all the expert advice being offered," with doctors warning "that isolating West Africa would only make the Ebola outbreak much worse, potentially denying help and supplies from getting in," and possibly destabilizing the countries and contributing to the disease's spread outside West Africa.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: On August 3, 2016, Trump called the Zika virus outbreak in Florida "a big problem". He expressed his support for Florida Governor Rick Scott's handling of the crisis, saying that he's "doing a fantastic job". When asked if Congress should convene an emergency session to approve Zika funding, Trump answered, "I would say that it's up to Rick Scott." On August 11, 2016, Trump said that he was in favor of Congress setting aside money to combat the Zika virus.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump believed that childhood vaccinations were related to autism, a hypothesis which has been repeatedly debunked. The American Academy of Pediatrics and Autism Speaks have "decried Trump's remarks as false and potentially dangerous."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In 2010, the Donald J. Trump Foundation donated $10,000 to Generation Rescue, Jenny McCarthy's nonprofit organization that advocates the incorrect view that autism and related disorders are primarily caused by vaccines.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Despite his prior views, however, Trump did drop his claims of vaccines being related to autism in 2019 after the 2019 measles outbreaks, in saying: "They have to get those shots," as well as "...vaccinations are so important".


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Illegal immigration was a signature issue of Trump's presidential campaign, and his proposed reforms and controversial remarks regarding immigration have also expressed support for a variety of "limits on legal immigration and guest-worker visas," including a "pause" on granting green cards, which Trump says will "allow record immigration levels to subside to more moderate historical averages."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In August 2019, Trump accused Democrats of supporting "open borders" by attempting to use their opposition to his immigration priorities as an example despite no explicit evidence to support his claim. He also claimed that his administration is "building the wall faster and better than ever", but no new barriers were erected by June 2019 at the Mexico–United States border unlike what Trump promised during his 2016 campaign. The only installations have been replacement fencing of old barriers. Trump also falsely claimed that only 2% of migrants who were released instead of detained eventually returned for their immigration hearings. The 2017 statistic is 72% for migrants, and 89% of migrants applying for asylum.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has long advocated for capital punishment in the United States. In May 1989, shortly after the Central Park jogger case received widespread media attention, Trump purchased a full-page ad in four New York City newspapers with the title "BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY!" Five defendants (the "Central Park Five") were wrongfully convicted in the case and were subsequently exonerated. By October 2016, Trump still maintained that the "Central Park Five" were guilty.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In December 2015, in a speech accepting the endorsement of the New England Police Benevolent Association, Trump said that "One of the first things I do [if elected President] in terms of executive order if I win will be to sign a strong, strong statement that will go out to the country, out to the world, that...anybody killing a police officer—death penalty. It's going to happen, O.K.?" However, the president has no authority over these prosecutions as they usually take place in state court under state law, and over one-third of U.S. states have already abolished the death penalty. Furthermore, mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional, as held by the Supreme Court in "Woodson v. North Carolina" (1976).


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has said that he believes that "torture absolutely works". During his campaign, Trump said that "I would bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding". However, during his presidency, he did not bring back waterboarding.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: As of May 2016, Trump's campaign website makes no mention of criminal justice reform, and Trump rarely talks specifics. Trump has stated that he would be "tough on crime" and criticized Barack Obama's and Hillary Clinton's criminal justice reform proposals. When asked about specific criminal justice reforms, Trump reportedly often changes the subject back to supporting police or vague answers about needing to be "tough." In January 2016, Trump said that along with veterans, "the most mistreated people in this country are police."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump supports the use of "stop and frisk" tactics, of the kind once used in New York City. In 2000, Trump also rejected as elitist and naive the arguments of criminal justice reformers that the U.S. criminal justice system puts too many criminals in jail. Trump is in favor of at least one mandatory sentence, where using a gun to commit a crime results in a five-year sentence.


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: Trump has on several occasions asserted that crime is rising in the United States. Trump's assertion that crime is rising is false; in fact, both violent crime and property declined consistently declining in the U.S. from the early 1990s until 2014. Trump's claim that "inner-city crime is reaching record levels" received a "pants-on-fire" rating from PolitiFact. As President, Trump reiterated in February 2017 the false claim that crime was rising, saying, "the murder rate in our country is the highest it's been in 47 years."


title: Political positions of Donald Trump

text: In May 2016, Trump stated that the cities of Oakland and Ferguson are "among the most dangerous in the world". In response, CBS News in San Francisco reported that the murder rates in Oakland and Baghdad are comparable, but PolitiFact rated Trump's claim false given that "homicide rates alone are not enough to gauge whether a city is dangerous or not".