US Election: Who is Donald Trump?

Donald Trump is set to return to the White House as the next president of the United States after winning the 2024 US election.

The Republican Party's nominee secured the votes needed to win the presidency, beating Democratic nominee and current Vice-President Kamala Harris.

It will be the second time that Mr Trump will take up the role - he previously served as the 45th US president between 2017 to 2021.

Mr Trump's return as president has been celebrated by his supporters.

But it has also caused controversy with his opponents; the former president was impeached twice during his time in office - a first for any US president.

Mr Trump's campaign has been an eventful one.

In May 2024, he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business counts - becoming the first former or sitting president to be convicted of a crime.

In July, Mr Trump was injured in a shooting at an event he was attending to promote his campaign.

Just a few weeks later, in September, another gunman was spotted near where Trump was playing golf.

But who is Donald Trump? Read on to find out more.

Donald Trump was a famous property developer and TV personality before he became president

Who is Donald Trump?

Before he became president, Donald Trump was a businessman and television personality.

In the 1990s he had a cameo in the film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and in the 2000s he co-produced and presented a show in the US called The Apprentice, that was later remade for UK audiences with Lord Sugar.

He served as president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, before losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

As president, Mr Trump said he had cut taxes, helped to grow the US economy and tried to stop illegal immigrants entering the US.

He also became the first sitting US president to visit North Korea and met the country's leader Kim Jong Un three times.

But Mr Trump had many controversial moments during his time in office.

When Mr Trump was president he met the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in South Korea

What is he accused of?

In December 2019, Mr Trump was impeached - a political process that can result in a president being removed from his role if found guilty of wrongdoing.

Mr Trump was accused and later cleared of "abuse of power and obstruction of Congress".

It was over claims he had broken the law by asking Ukraine to uncover potentially damaging secret information about his political rival Joe Biden, in return for US military help in Ukraine's war against Russia.

It was claimed Mr Trump wanted this information to increase his chances of being re-elected as president in 2020.

A trial was held by the US senate, which cleared him on two charges.

Then in 2021, a week before Mr Trump's four-year presidential term was due to end, he was impeached again.

When Joe Biden was announced as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Mr Trump refused to accept he had lost.

On 6 January 2021, he told a rally of his supporters in Washington D.C. the election had been "stolen".

Shortly after, some of his supporters marched to The US Capitol Building - an important place where laws are written - to protest against the result of the election.

The protest turned violent and Mr Trump was later impeached by the House of Representatives, but he was again cleared by the Senate.

The House was made up of politicians mainly from the Democratic Party, and the Senate was mainly filled with Republicans. The result of the impeachment processes reflected the divided nature of US politics.

A poll run by CBS News in June 2023 suggests that 61% of Republican voters had not changed their opinion of Donald Trump because of the criminal charges against him, and 14% said that had improved their opinion of him.

Some polling organisations think this is because his supporters believe the charges are politically motivated, as a way to attack their candidate.

American think tank the Pew Research Center found that 37% of Republicans thought he was the best recent US president, following closely behind Ronald Reagan who received 41% of the vote.

What has Donald Trump been campaigning on in 2024?

Mr Trump's slogan is "Make America Great Again", often shortened to just Maga.

As part of his 2024 campaign, he says he wants to rebuild the US economy, secure the country's borders and "embrace patriotism".

Another of his plans is to make the US more able to rely on its own energy sources, including oil, natural gas and coal.