If controversy has a name, it's "Trump" — and there are more than a few scandals that the first family will simply never live down.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00If controversy has a name, it's Trump, and there are more than a few scandals that the
00:05first family will simply never live down.
00:08Donald Trump's first presidential campaign hit a speed bump when, in October 2016, The
00:13Washington Post obtained the now-notorious Access Hollywood tape.
00:17Recorded while he and host Billy Bush yucked it up during a break in filming, the tape
00:21caught Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.
00:24"...just start hissing them, it's like a magnet, you just kiss them, and when you're a star
00:29they let you do it, you can do anything, grab them by the b----."
00:33Conventional wisdom might have suggested that Trump's campaign would have ended then and
00:37there, but, as the world has since learned, this is a guy who's anything but conventional.
00:41"...what was that?
00:43This was locker room talk."
00:45Both before and while he was serving as president, at least 18 women came forward to accuse Trump
00:50of sexually harassing or assaulting them.
00:52Although they each detailed very specific allegations, Trump continued to insist on
00:57his innocence.
00:58"...they made false statements about me, knowing they were false, I never met them, I never
01:04met these people."
01:06One of the women to accuse Donald Trump of sexual assault was writer E. Jean Carroll.
01:11According to Carroll, Trump had groped and assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing
01:15room in the mid-90s.
01:16Trump, who was president at the time of the accusation, responded,
01:20"...but I have no idea who she is."
01:23In 2019, Carroll sued Trump for libel, alleging that he'd defamed her with that remark.
01:28She later expanded her claim to include battery.
01:31Perhaps unsurprisingly, Trump continued to insist that he'd never met Carroll even at
01:36deposition.
01:37"...never took place, there was no anything, I know nothing about this nutjob."
01:44At the end of the trial, a jury found that not only did Trump defame Carroll, but that
01:49he was libel for sexually abusing her, too.
01:51Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages, and when Trump continued shooting his mouth
01:56off about her, she sued again.
01:58This time, she was awarded over $83 million, an award that consisted of some $7 million
02:04in emotional damages, $11 million for damage done to her reputation, and $65 million in
02:09punitive damages.
02:11By far the most controversial scene in the movie The Apprentice is one in which Donald
02:16Trump rapes his then-wife, Ivana.
02:18That scene sprang straight from the 1993 book Lost Tycoon, The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump,
02:24which featured excerpts from a sworn deposition Ivana gave during her divorce from Donald
02:28in the early 1990s.
02:30In her deposition, she claimed that her then-husband had raped her after becoming furious about
02:35a botched scalp reduction surgery.
02:37Trump denied Ivana's allegations.
02:39During the divorce, his lawyer defended him by asserting that it was impossible for a
02:43husband to rape their spouse, and decades later, Ivana recanted her claim.
02:47In a 2015 statement, she said,
02:49"...the story is totally without merit.
02:51Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised three children that we love and
02:55are very proud of."
02:56Back when the deposition was published in 1993, Ivana had made a public attempt to contextualize
03:01the incident within her marriage to Donald.
03:04She explained in a statement,
03:05"...Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than
03:09he had during our marriage.
03:11As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness which he normally exhibited towards
03:15me was absent.
03:16I referred to this as a rape, but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal
03:21or criminal sense."
03:23Donald Trump's affair with Stormy Daniels might well be the most notorious of his many
03:27scandals, especially considering what happened afterwards.
03:30"...we do begin with the breaking news late today, that stunning moment in American history,
03:35the former President Donald Trump found guilty on 34 felony counts."
03:40According to Daniels, she had engaged in a brief sexual encounter with Trump shortly
03:44after his wife Melania had given birth to their son, Barron.
03:47Many years later, it emerged that Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, had paid $130,000
03:53in hush money to secure her silence during the 2016 presidential election.
03:58Because Trump had reimbursed Cohen under the guise of paying for legal services, he was
04:02hit with criminal charges for falsifying business records.
04:05In 2023, Trump entered a plea of not guilty.
04:08The subsequent trial was a real doozy, one that ended up revealing yet another of Trump's
04:13alleged extramarital affairs.
04:15Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified that the tabloid had utilized a
04:20catch-and-kill strategy to protect Trump.
04:22Pecker had paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the exclusive rights
04:28to her story about her months-long affair with Trump, only to sit on the story to prevent
04:33it from ever getting out.
04:34In the end, the jury found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts.
04:39Following sentencing in early January 2025, however, Judge Juan Machan let the defendant
04:44off with an unconditional discharge.
04:46Judge Machan explained that this was pretty much his only option, considering the defendant
04:50in question had again been elected President of the United States.
04:55Back in 2004, Donald Trump launched Trump University.
04:58At Trump University, we teach success.
05:02That's what it's all about.
05:04Despite the name, this wasn't actually so much of a university as it was a series of
05:08get-rich-quick real estate seminars.
05:10In 2013, Eric Schneiderman, then New York's attorney general, sued the university for
05:15fraud.
05:16In a statement, Schneiderman said,
05:18"...Mr. Trump used his celebrity status and personally appeared in commercials making
05:22false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of dollars they couldn't
05:26afford for lessons they never got."
05:29Trump U was also targeted by two class-action suits from disgruntled students who accused
05:34Trump of racketeering.
05:35And to say these lawsuits didn't go Trump's way would be something of an understatement.
05:39A federal judge ordered Trump to pay $25 million in total, $21 million to the victims and $4
05:45million to the New York attorney general's office.
05:48After the case, Schneiderman said in a statement,
05:50"...this settlement marked a stunning reversal by President Trump, who for years refused
05:55to compensate the victims of his sham university.
05:57My office won't hesitate to hold those who commit fraud accountable, no matter how rich
06:01or powerful they may be."
06:04During his first administration, Donald Trump hired his daughter, Ivanka, and her husband,
06:08Jared Kushner, as special White House advisors.
06:11Even though the two declined to take salaries for their positions, many found the nepotism
06:15impossible to ignore.
06:17Even tougher to ignore was the subsequent report claiming that the couple, dubbed Jivanka,
06:21raked in a staggering amount of money during their years in public service, with estimates
06:25ranging from $172 million to $640 million.
06:30That was chump change compared to the payday Kushner received when his private equity firm
06:34Affinity Partners got $2 billion from the Saudi Arabian government's public investment
06:39fund in 2021.
06:41Many were appalled at this development, including California Congressman Robert Garcia, who
06:45subsequently called for an investigation into how $2 billion in Saudi money could have ended
06:50up in Kushner's pocket.
06:52Garcia offered one theory, that the money was quid pro quo for a $110 billion arms deal
06:58between the U.S. and the Saudis that Kushner had brokered during his time in the White
07:02House.
07:03"'We protect Saudi Arabia.
07:05Why aren't they paying?'
07:07Notably, even Republicans had trouble explaining away this particular scandal.
07:11Speaking to CNN, Republican Congressman James Comer said,
07:14"'I've been vocal that I think that what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics.'"
07:18The whole thing began to look even shadier in September 2024, when reports emerged that
07:23Affinity Partners had returned a grand total of $0 in profit since 2021.
07:28Whether anything comes of all this now that Donald Trump is back in the White House, however,
07:32remains to be seen.
07:34The Donald J. Trump Foundation was an organization set up by the Trumps to fund other charities
07:39— or at least, that's what it was supposed to do.
07:42In 2018, then-New York State Attorney General Barbara Underwood launched a lawsuit against
07:47Donald, Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka Trump over the foundation.
07:51The suit accused the Trumps of using their foundations as little more than a checkbook
07:55to serve Mr. Trump's business and political interests, describing their actions as a shocking
08:00pattern of illegality.
08:02Trump was ultimately found guilty of misappropriation of charitable funds.
08:05He was forced to make 19 different admissions of guilt and ordered to pay $2 million to
08:10the charities he'd stiffed.
08:12The charity was subsequently dissolved.
08:14Eric Trump, meanwhile, had been running his own charitable organization, the Eric Trump
08:18Foundation.
08:20In early 2016, Eric came under fire over accusations that the foundation had provided a front for
08:25cash-for-access dealings in the early days of the Trump presidency.
08:28The uproar that ensued forced him to suspend the charity's operations.
08:32Things then went from bad to worse for the Eric Trump Foundation when, in 2017, Forbes
08:37found that donations originally intended for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital had
08:41partly been funneled to other charities, including the Trump Organization.
08:46As it turned out, the Trump Organization had been providing venues for fundraisers
08:50at extraordinary cost to Eric's foundation.
08:52Speaking to ABC News, a spokesperson for the Eric Trump Foundation insisted no wrong had
08:57been done, adding,
08:58"...to infer malicious intent on a charity that has changed so many lives is not only
09:03shameful but is truly disgusting."
09:06Donald Trump Jr.'s love of hunting has been well-documented.
09:09We did it!
09:11We killed the last lion in Africa!
09:14Now everyone will think that we have huge ding-dongs!"
09:19A hunting trip in 2019 attracted more criticism than usual, however, when he headed to Mongolia
09:24to shoot at a rare, endangered type of sheep.
09:26As it turned out, Don Jr. had been accompanied by a Secret Service detail, which had cost
09:31more than $76,000 in tax dollars.
09:34According to a report from Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, this was $60,000 more
09:39than had previously been publicly disclosed.
09:41Don Jr. faced a double whammy of controversy when it became apparent that a special permit
09:46was required from the Mongolian government to hunt that particular species of sheep.
09:50When Don Jr. killed his sheep, he had not been in possession of a permit, and only acquired
09:55one retroactively a month later.
09:58In 2018, tabloids reported that Vanessa Trump, wife of Donald Trump Jr., had filed for divorce.
10:04Shortly after this news broke, a follow-up report from Page Six claimed that Don Jr.
10:08had been unfaithful during his marriage.
10:10He'd allegedly cheated on his wife with singer Aubrey O'Day when she was a contestant on
10:14his dad's TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice, back in 2011.
10:18O'Day later admitted they had indeed engaged in an affair.
10:22After his divorce, Donald Jr. sparked up a relationship with Fox News personality Kimberly
10:26Guilfoyle.
10:27They soon became the ultimate MAGA power couple and eventually got engaged in 2020.
10:32But that relationship came crashing down in late 2024 when rumors emerged of Don Jr.'s
10:37romantic involvement with Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson.
10:41According to the Daily Mail, Guilfoyle was blindsided by her fiancé's infidelity.
10:45A source told the outlet,
10:46"...Kimberly either didn't know about Bettina or didn't want to know."
10:49Meanwhile, another report in Page Six indicated that Guilfoyle believed she would still maintain
10:55a presence in her ex's life.
10:56A source said,
10:57"...Kimberly and Don have known each other for years and have a lot of history together
11:00so she feels like they'll always have a connection."
11:02And, she was right, in a sense.
11:05Soon after Anderson and Don Jr.'s affair became public, Guilfoyle was named as President Donald
11:10Trump's ambassador to Greece.
11:12Remember Eric Trump's foundation's snafu in 2017?
11:16Well, similar accusations were levied against his wife, Lara, in 2021.
11:20This time, the scandal revolved around the Big Dog Ranch Rescue charity, for which Lara
11:24served as chairwoman of charity events.
11:27According to IRS filings obtained by HuffPost, the dog rescue had spent a grand total of
11:32$1,883,160 on fundraising costs for events at Trump-owned properties since 2014, including
11:40Mar-a-Lago and one of Trump's Florida golf courses.
11:43Meanwhile, a 2021 permit indicated that the charity had planned to spend approximately
11:48$225,000 at Mar-a-Lago in a single weekend by hosting a charity event there.
11:54Big Dog Ranch Rescue founder and president Lori Simmons insisted there was nothing shady
11:59going on by hosting events at Mar-a-Lago.
12:01In a statement, she claimed it was simply a great place to be.
12:04Simmons explained,
12:05"'The quality of service, beauty of the venue and excellent rate provided us as a non-profit,
12:10as well as the generosity of supporters who sell out our event there every year allows
12:14us to rescue and home thousands of dogs.'"