Current consensus
NOTE: It is recommended to link to this list in your edit summary when reverting, as:[[Talk:Donald Trump#Current consensus|current consensus]] item [n]
To ensure you are viewing the current list, you may wish to .
1. Use the official White House portrait as the infobox image. ( Dec 2016, Jan 2017, Oct 2017, March 2020) (temporarily suspended by #19 following copyright issues on the inauguration portrait, enforced when an official public-domain portrait was released on 31 October 2017)
2. Show birthplace as "
Queens, New York City, U.S.
" in the infobox. (
Nov 2016,
Oct 2018,
Feb 2021) "New York City" de-linked. (
September 2020)
3. Omit reference to county-level election statistics. ( Dec 2016)
gaining a majority of the U.S. Electoral College" and "
receiving a smaller share of the popular vote nationwide", without quoting numbers. ( Nov 2016, Dec 2016) (Superseded by #15 since 11 February 2017)
5. Use Trump's annual net worth evaluation and matching ranking, from the Forbes list of billionaires, not from monthly or "live" estimates. (
Oct 2016) In the lead section, just write: Removed from the lead per #47.
Forbes estimates his net worth to be [$x.x] billion.
(
July 2018,
July 2018)
6. Do not include allegations of sexual misconduct in the lead section. ( June 2016, Feb 2018)
Many of his public statements were controversial or false." in the lead. ( Sep 2016, February 2017, wording shortened per April 2017, upheld with July 2018) (superseded by #35 since 18 February 2019)
8. Mention that Trump is the first president elected "without
prior military or government service
". (
Dec 2016)
9. Include a link to Trump's Twitter account in the "External links" section. (
Jan 2017) Include a link to an archive of Trump's Twitter account in the "External links" section. (
Jan 2021)
10. Keep Barron Trump's name in the list of children and wikilink it, which redirects to his section in Family of Donald Trump per AfD consensus. ( Jan 2017, Nov 2016)
12. The article title is Donald Trump, not Donald J. Trump. ( RM Jan 2017, RM June 2019)
13. Auto-archival is set for discussions with no comments for 14 days. Manual archival is allowed for (1) closed discussions, 24 hours after the closure, provided the closure has not been challenged, and (2) "answered" edit requests, 24 hours after the "answer", provided there has been no follow-on discussion after the "answer". ( Jan 2017) (amended with respect to manual archiving, to better reflect common practice at this article) ( Nov 2019)
14. Omit mention of Trump's alleged bathmophobia/fear of slopes. ( Feb 2017)
Trump won the general election on November 8, 2016, …"). Accordingly the pre-RfC text ( Diff 8 Jan 2017) has been restored, with minor adjustments to past tense ( Diff 11 Feb 2018). No new changes should be applied without debate. ( RfC Feb 2017, Jan 2017, Feb 2017, Feb 2017) In particular, there is no consensus to include any wording akin to "losing the popular vote". ( RfC March 2017) (Superseded by local consensus on 26 May 2017 and lead section rewrite on 23 June 2017)
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality." The hatnote is simply {{ Other uses}}. ( April 2017, RfC April 2017, April 2017, April 2017, April 2017, July 2017, Dec 2018) Amended by lead section rewrite on 23 June 2017 and removal of inauguration date on 4 July 2018. Lower-case "p" in "president" per Dec 2018 and MOS:JOBTITLES RfC Oct 2017. Wikilinks modified per April 2020. Wikilink modified again per July 2020. "45th" de-linked. ( Jan 2021)
Wharton School ( BS Econ.)", does not mention Fordham University. ( April 2017, April 2017, Aug 2020, Dec 2020)
20. Mention protests in the lead section with this exact wording: His election and policies
(
June 2017,
May 2018) (Note: In February 2021, when he was no longer president, the verb tense was changed from "have sparked" to "sparked", without objection.)
have sparked
numerous protests.
22. Do not call Trump a "liar" in Wikipedia's voice. Falsehoods he uttered can be mentioned, while being mindful of calling them "lies", which implies malicious intent. ( RfC Aug 2017)
Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, citing security concerns; after legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld the policy's third revision.( Aug 2017, Nov 2017, Dec 2017, Jan 2018, Jan 2018) Wording updated ( July 2018) and again ( Sep 2018).
25. Do not add web archives to cited sources which are not dead. ( Dec 2017, March 2018)
26. Do not include opinions by
Michael Hayden and
Michael Morell that Trump is a "useful fool […] manipulated by Moscow"
or an "unwitting agent of the Russian Federation"
. (
RfC April 2018)
27. State that Trump falsely claimed
that Hillary Clinton started the Barack Obama birther
rumors. (
April 2018,
June 2018)
28. Include, in the Wealth section, a sentence on Jonathan Greenberg's allegation that Trump deceived him in order to get on the Forbes 400 list. ( June 2018, June 2018)
29. Include material about the Trump administration family separation policy in the article. ( June 2018)
30. Supersedes #24. The lead includes: "Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged or racist.
" (
RfC Sep 2018,
Oct 2018,
RfC May 2019)
31. Do not mention Trump's office space donation to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition in 1999. ( Nov 2018)
32. Omit from the lead the fact that Trump is the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean supreme leader. ( RfC July 2018, Nov 2018)
33. Do not mention "birtherism" in the lead section. ( RfC Nov 2018)
34. Refer to Ivana Zelníčková as a Czech model, with a link to Czechs (people), not Czechoslovakia (country). ( Jan 2019)
Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-checkers, and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics.( RfC Feb 2019)
37. Resolved: Content related to Trump's presidency should be limited to summary-level about things that are likely to have a lasting impact on his life and/or long-term presidential legacy. If something is borderline or debatable, the resolution does not apply. ( June 2019)
38. Do not state in the lead that Trump is the wealthiest U.S. president ever. ( RfC June 2019)
39. Supersedes #21 and #36. Do not include any paragraph regarding Trump's mental health or mental fitness for office. Do not bring up for discussion again until an announced formal diagnosis or WP:MEDRS-level sources are provided. This does not prevent inclusion of content about temperamental fitness for office. ( RfC Aug 2019, July 2021)
40. Include, when discussing Trump's exercise or the lack thereof: He has called golfing his "primary form of exercise", although he usually does not walk the course. He considers exercise a waste of energy, because he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite amount of energy" which is depleted by exercise.
(
RfC Aug 2019)
41. Omit book authorship (or lack thereof) from the lead section. ( RfC Nov 2019)
42. House and Senate outcomes of the impeachment process are separated by a full stop. For example: He was impeached by the House on December 18, 2019, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was acquitted of both charges by the Senate on February 5, 2020.
(
Feb 2020)
43. The rules for edits to the lead are no different from those for edits below the lead. For edits that do not conflict with existing consensus: Prior consensus is NOT required. BOLD edits are allowed, subject to normal BRD process. The mere fact that an edit has not been discussed is not a valid reason to revert it. ( March 2020)
44. The lead section should mention North Korea, focusing on Trump's meetings with Kim, and stating that they haven't produced clear results. ( RfC May 2020)
46. Use the caption "Official portrait, 2017" for the infobox image. ( Aug 2020, Jan 2021)
47. Do not mention Trump's net worth or Forbes ranking (or equivalents from other publications) in the lead, nor in the infobox. ( Sep 2020)
48. Supersedes #45. Trump's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic should be mentioned in the lead section. There is no consensus on specific wording, but the status quo is Trump reacted slowly to the
COVID-19 pandemic; he minimized the threat, ignored or contradicted many recommendations from health officials, and promoted false information about unproven treatments and the availability of testing.
(
Oct 2020,
RfC Aug 2020)
49. Supersedes #35. Include in lead: Trump has made many false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to a degree unprecedented in American politics.
(
Dec 2020)
50. Supersedes #17. The lead sentence is: Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th
president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
(
March 2021), amended (
July 2021), inclusion of politician (
RfC September 2021)
51. Include in the lead that many of Trump's comments and actions have been characterized as misogynistic. ( Aug 2021 and Sep 2021)
52. Supersedes #23. The lead should contain a summary of Trump's actions on immigration, including the Muslim travel ban (cf. item 23), the wall, and the family separation policy. ( September 2021)
53. The lead should mention that Trump promotes conspiracy theories. ( October 2021)
54. Include in the lead that, quote, Scholars and historians rank Trump as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
(
October 2021)
55. Regarding Trump's comments on the
2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
, do not wiki-link "
Trump's comments" in this manner. (
RfC December 2021)
56. Retain the content that Trump never confronted Putin over its alleged bounties against American soldiers in Afghanistan
but add context. Current wording can be altered or contextualized; no consensus was achieved on alternate wordings. (
RfC November 2021) Trump's expressions of doubt regarding the Russian Bounties Program should be included in some capacity, though there there is no consensus on a specific way to characterize these expressed doubts. (
RfC March 2022)
57. Do not mention in the lead Gallup polling that states Trump's the only president to never reach 50% approval rating. ( RfC January 2022)
58. Use inline citations in the lead for the more contentious and controversial statements. Editors should further discuss which sentences would benefit from having inline citations. ( RfC May 2022, discussion on what to cite May 2022)
59. Do not label or categorize Trump as a far-right politician. ( RfC August 2022)
60. Insert the links described in the RfC January 2023.
61. When a thread is started with a general assertion that the article is biased for or against Trump (i.e., without a specific, policy-based suggestion for a change to the article), it is to be handled as follows:
- Reply briefly with a link to Talk:Donald Trump/Response to claims of bias.
- Close the thread using
{{ archive top}}and{{ archive bottom}}, referring to this consensus item. - Wait at least 24 hours per current consensus #13.
- Manually archive the thread.
This does not apply to posts that are clearly in bad faith, which are to be removed on sight. ( May 2023)
62. The article's description of the five people who died during and subsequent to the January 6 Capitol attack should avoid a) mentioning the causes of death and b) an explicit mention of the Capitol Police Officer who died. ( RfC July 2023)
63. Supersedes #18. The alma mater field of the infobox reads: "University of Pennsylvania (BS)". ( September 2023)
64. Omit the {{
Very long}} tag. (
January 2024)
65. Mention the
Abraham Accords in the article; no consensus was achieved on specific wordings. (
RfC February 2024)
Current consensus
NOTE: It is recommended to link to this list in your edit summary when reverting, as:[[Talk:Donald Trump#Current consensus|current consensus]] item [n]
To ensure you are viewing the current list, you may wish to .
1. Use the official White House portrait as the infobox image. ( Dec 2016, Jan 2017, Oct 2017, March 2020) (temporarily suspended by #19 following copyright issues on the inauguration portrait, enforced when an official public-domain portrait was released on 31 October 2017)
2. Show birthplace as "
Queens, New York City, U.S.
" in the infobox. (
Nov 2016,
Oct 2018,
Feb 2021) "New York City" de-linked. (
September 2020)
3. Omit reference to county-level election statistics. ( Dec 2016)
gaining a majority of the U.S. Electoral College" and "
receiving a smaller share of the popular vote nationwide", without quoting numbers. ( Nov 2016, Dec 2016) (Superseded by #15 since 11 February 2017)
5. Use Trump's annual net worth evaluation and matching ranking, from the Forbes list of billionaires, not from monthly or "live" estimates. (
Oct 2016) In the lead section, just write: Removed from the lead per #47.
Forbes estimates his net worth to be [$x.x] billion.
(
July 2018,
July 2018)
6. Do not include allegations of sexual misconduct in the lead section. ( June 2016, Feb 2018)
Many of his public statements were controversial or false." in the lead. ( Sep 2016, February 2017, wording shortened per April 2017, upheld with July 2018) (superseded by #35 since 18 February 2019)
8. Mention that Trump is the first president elected "without
prior military or government service
". (
Dec 2016)
9. Include a link to Trump's Twitter account in the "External links" section. (
Jan 2017) Include a link to an archive of Trump's Twitter account in the "External links" section. (
Jan 2021)
10. Keep Barron Trump's name in the list of children and wikilink it, which redirects to his section in Family of Donald Trump per AfD consensus. ( Jan 2017, Nov 2016)
12. The article title is Donald Trump, not Donald J. Trump. ( RM Jan 2017, RM June 2019)
13. Auto-archival is set for discussions with no comments for 14 days. Manual archival is allowed for (1) closed discussions, 24 hours after the closure, provided the closure has not been challenged, and (2) "answered" edit requests, 24 hours after the "answer", provided there has been no follow-on discussion after the "answer". ( Jan 2017) (amended with respect to manual archiving, to better reflect common practice at this article) ( Nov 2019)
14. Omit mention of Trump's alleged bathmophobia/fear of slopes. ( Feb 2017)
Trump won the general election on November 8, 2016, …"). Accordingly the pre-RfC text ( Diff 8 Jan 2017) has been restored, with minor adjustments to past tense ( Diff 11 Feb 2018). No new changes should be applied without debate. ( RfC Feb 2017, Jan 2017, Feb 2017, Feb 2017) In particular, there is no consensus to include any wording akin to "losing the popular vote". ( RfC March 2017) (Superseded by local consensus on 26 May 2017 and lead section rewrite on 23 June 2017)
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th and current president of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality." The hatnote is simply {{ Other uses}}. ( April 2017, RfC April 2017, April 2017, April 2017, April 2017, July 2017, Dec 2018) Amended by lead section rewrite on 23 June 2017 and removal of inauguration date on 4 July 2018. Lower-case "p" in "president" per Dec 2018 and MOS:JOBTITLES RfC Oct 2017. Wikilinks modified per April 2020. Wikilink modified again per July 2020. "45th" de-linked. ( Jan 2021)
Wharton School ( BS Econ.)", does not mention Fordham University. ( April 2017, April 2017, Aug 2020, Dec 2020)
20. Mention protests in the lead section with this exact wording: His election and policies
(
June 2017,
May 2018) (Note: In February 2021, when he was no longer president, the verb tense was changed from "have sparked" to "sparked", without objection.)
have sparked
numerous protests.
22. Do not call Trump a "liar" in Wikipedia's voice. Falsehoods he uttered can be mentioned, while being mindful of calling them "lies", which implies malicious intent. ( RfC Aug 2017)
Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, citing security concerns; after legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld the policy's third revision.( Aug 2017, Nov 2017, Dec 2017, Jan 2018, Jan 2018) Wording updated ( July 2018) and again ( Sep 2018).
25. Do not add web archives to cited sources which are not dead. ( Dec 2017, March 2018)
26. Do not include opinions by
Michael Hayden and
Michael Morell that Trump is a "useful fool […] manipulated by Moscow"
or an "unwitting agent of the Russian Federation"
. (
RfC April 2018)
27. State that Trump falsely claimed
that Hillary Clinton started the Barack Obama birther
rumors. (
April 2018,
June 2018)
28. Include, in the Wealth section, a sentence on Jonathan Greenberg's allegation that Trump deceived him in order to get on the Forbes 400 list. ( June 2018, June 2018)
29. Include material about the Trump administration family separation policy in the article. ( June 2018)
30. Supersedes #24. The lead includes: "Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged or racist.
" (
RfC Sep 2018,
Oct 2018,
RfC May 2019)
31. Do not mention Trump's office space donation to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition in 1999. ( Nov 2018)
32. Omit from the lead the fact that Trump is the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean supreme leader. ( RfC July 2018, Nov 2018)
33. Do not mention "birtherism" in the lead section. ( RfC Nov 2018)
34. Refer to Ivana Zelníčková as a Czech model, with a link to Czechs (people), not Czechoslovakia (country). ( Jan 2019)
Trump has made many false or misleading statements during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by fact-checkers, and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics.( RfC Feb 2019)
37. Resolved: Content related to Trump's presidency should be limited to summary-level about things that are likely to have a lasting impact on his life and/or long-term presidential legacy. If something is borderline or debatable, the resolution does not apply. ( June 2019)
38. Do not state in the lead that Trump is the wealthiest U.S. president ever. ( RfC June 2019)
39. Supersedes #21 and #36. Do not include any paragraph regarding Trump's mental health or mental fitness for office. Do not bring up for discussion again until an announced formal diagnosis or WP:MEDRS-level sources are provided. This does not prevent inclusion of content about temperamental fitness for office. ( RfC Aug 2019, July 2021)
40. Include, when discussing Trump's exercise or the lack thereof: He has called golfing his "primary form of exercise", although he usually does not walk the course. He considers exercise a waste of energy, because he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite amount of energy" which is depleted by exercise.
(
RfC Aug 2019)
41. Omit book authorship (or lack thereof) from the lead section. ( RfC Nov 2019)
42. House and Senate outcomes of the impeachment process are separated by a full stop. For example: He was impeached by the House on December 18, 2019, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was acquitted of both charges by the Senate on February 5, 2020.
(
Feb 2020)
43. The rules for edits to the lead are no different from those for edits below the lead. For edits that do not conflict with existing consensus: Prior consensus is NOT required. BOLD edits are allowed, subject to normal BRD process. The mere fact that an edit has not been discussed is not a valid reason to revert it. ( March 2020)
44. The lead section should mention North Korea, focusing on Trump's meetings with Kim, and stating that they haven't produced clear results. ( RfC May 2020)
46. Use the caption "Official portrait, 2017" for the infobox image. ( Aug 2020, Jan 2021)
47. Do not mention Trump's net worth or Forbes ranking (or equivalents from other publications) in the lead, nor in the infobox. ( Sep 2020)
48. Supersedes #45. Trump's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic should be mentioned in the lead section. There is no consensus on specific wording, but the status quo is Trump reacted slowly to the
COVID-19 pandemic; he minimized the threat, ignored or contradicted many recommendations from health officials, and promoted false information about unproven treatments and the availability of testing.
(
Oct 2020,
RfC Aug 2020)
49. Supersedes #35. Include in lead: Trump has made many false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to a degree unprecedented in American politics.
(
Dec 2020)
50. Supersedes #17. The lead sentence is: Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th
president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
(
March 2021), amended (
July 2021), inclusion of politician (
RfC September 2021)
51. Include in the lead that many of Trump's comments and actions have been characterized as misogynistic. ( Aug 2021 and Sep 2021)
52. Supersedes #23. The lead should contain a summary of Trump's actions on immigration, including the Muslim travel ban (cf. item 23), the wall, and the family separation policy. ( September 2021)
53. The lead should mention that Trump promotes conspiracy theories. ( October 2021)
54. Include in the lead that, quote, Scholars and historians rank Trump as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
(
October 2021)
55. Regarding Trump's comments on the
2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
, do not wiki-link "
Trump's comments" in this manner. (
RfC December 2021)
56. Retain the content that Trump never confronted Putin over its alleged bounties against American soldiers in Afghanistan
but add context. Current wording can be altered or contextualized; no consensus was achieved on alternate wordings. (
RfC November 2021) Trump's expressions of doubt regarding the Russian Bounties Program should be included in some capacity, though there there is no consensus on a specific way to characterize these expressed doubts. (
RfC March 2022)
57. Do not mention in the lead Gallup polling that states Trump's the only president to never reach 50% approval rating. ( RfC January 2022)
58. Use inline citations in the lead for the more contentious and controversial statements. Editors should further discuss which sentences would benefit from having inline citations. ( RfC May 2022, discussion on what to cite May 2022)
59. Do not label or categorize Trump as a far-right politician. ( RfC August 2022)
60. Insert the links described in the RfC January 2023.
61. When a thread is started with a general assertion that the article is biased for or against Trump (i.e., without a specific, policy-based suggestion for a change to the article), it is to be handled as follows:
- Reply briefly with a link to Talk:Donald Trump/Response to claims of bias.
- Close the thread using
{{ archive top}}and{{ archive bottom}}, referring to this consensus item. - Wait at least 24 hours per current consensus #13.
- Manually archive the thread.
This does not apply to posts that are clearly in bad faith, which are to be removed on sight. ( May 2023)
62. The article's description of the five people who died during and subsequent to the January 6 Capitol attack should avoid a) mentioning the causes of death and b) an explicit mention of the Capitol Police Officer who died. ( RfC July 2023)
63. Supersedes #18. The alma mater field of the infobox reads: "University of Pennsylvania (BS)". ( September 2023)
64. Omit the {{
Very long}} tag. (
January 2024)
65. Mention the
Abraham Accords in the article; no consensus was achieved on specific wordings. (
RfC February 2024)