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Project 1: Socialism in Italy sidebar proposal

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Project 2: French Left sidebar proposal

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Project 3: Austria–Romania relations rewrite

Austria-Romania relations

Austria	Romania

Austria–Romania relations are the bilateral foreign relations between the Republic of Austria and Romania, which have been largely determined and limited by the global political environment. Romania has an embassy in Vienna (as well as a branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute) and six honorary consulates in Eisenstadt, Linz, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee and Sankt Pölten-Niederösterreich. Austria has an embassy in Bucharest (and established a cultural forum in Bucharest in 1999) and two honorary consulates. Both countries are full members of the European Union (EU) and Council of Europe, as well as the Central European Initiative and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Historically, both countries have fluctuated in relations, including Austro-Hungarian support of Romanian independence, conflict during World War I and alliance during World War II. More recently, Austrian and Romanian foreign policy has been friendlier, valuing high levels of cooperation, with Austria supporting Romanian admission into the EU. However, relations have recently worsened, with Austria opposing Romanian membership in the Schengen Area, resulting in the withdrawal of Romania's ambassador to Austria from Vienna. Economic relations have also been strained with Romanian companies, universities and entrepreneurs boycotting Austria, and branches of Austrian banks facing anti-Austrian inscriptions.

History

Background

Prior to the establishment of Romania as an independent state, the Austrian House of Habsburg had controlled Romanian territory and historical regions throughout European history, including the Banat of Temeswar in the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, and Transylvania after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, until the unification of the region with the Kingdom of Romania in the aftermath of World War I. It was in this time under Habsburg rule that the Romanian community experienced nationalist cultural and ideological movements like the Transylvanian School. In the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War, in which the United Principalities fought with Russia to secure independence from the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary played a key role in the Congress of Berlin, which formally recognised Romanian independence. Afterwards, Austria-Hungary became the first country to establish foreign relations with Romania on September 22, 1878.

World War I and conflict

Romanian prisoners of war passing by an Austro-Hungarian howitzer during the Central Powers' counteroffensive in 1916

Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Romania in 1918

In the decades leading up to World War I, Austria-Hungary signed the Triple Alliance in 1882 with Germany and Italy, which Carol I of Romania wished to join out of fear of Russian expansion and the competing claims on Bessarabia. Romania secretly joined the alliance on October 18, 1883, pledging with Austria-Hungary to help each other in the event of a Russian, Serbian or Bulgarian attack. Nonetheless, there were ongoing territorial disputes regarding Transylvania's status and its community's rights. The Balkan Wars, which resulted in Romania annexing the southern part of Dobruja from the Ottoman Empire and achieving the status of regional power in the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913. Their aspirations of expanding to regions with significant Romanian populations, as desired by Carol and Ferdinand I, conflicted with Austria-Hungary's strong opposition to other nations' expansion in the area.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, World War I broke out in Europe. Romania initially declared neutrality, reasoning that Austria-Hungary started it and they had no obligation to intervene, despite their efforts to invoke a casus foederis linked to the Triple Alliance. To ensure neutrality, Austria-Hungary granted territorial concessions to Romania, as encouraged by Germany. Carol desired entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, which included Austria-Hungary, in contrast to the Romanian public and political parties preferring the Triple Entente on the side of the United Kingdom, France and Russia. Ferdinand, who succeeded the throne upon Carol's death in October 1914, also favoured this, and in August 1916, Romania signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Entente Powers, facilitating their entry into the war on the Allied side in return for territorial promises in Austria-Hungary, of whom they declared on August 27, suspending relations between the two countries.

In the Eastern Front, the Romanian campaign resulted in Austro-Hungarian forces, alongside Ottoman and Bulgarian forces, occupying a significant portion of Romanian territory from Romania's entry until December 1917. Fighting in the region included Transylvania, part of Austria-Hungary, which was included in the 1916 treaty for Romania. When Romania was surrounded by the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary helped isolate Romania out of the war with the treaty of Bucharest in May 1918 and ceasing the Carpathian Mountains. However, as the war turned in the Allies' favour in 1918, Romania renounced the treaty in November, contributing to Austro-Hungarian defeat in the war. With the 1918 treaty nullified, Romania was free to unite Bukovina and Transylvania into its territory with the creation of Greater Romania. Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary was dissolved and the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye cemented the new Republic of Austria. The aftermath of World War I and new geopolitical dynamics redefined relations for the two countries going into the interwar period.

Interwar period

One of the main territorial treaties which was an example of border changes influencing future relations was the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, of which both Romania and Austria were beneficiaries, with Transylvania being fully and formally transferred to Romania, and Austria receiving most of Burgenland from western Hungary. Both countries were members of the League of Nations, which reflected efforts for diplomatic initiatives, and both experienced economic challenges pertaining to World War I reparations for Austria, and the impact of the Great Depression. Foreshadowing their military alliance during World War II, both countries were also the subject of fascist movements: austrofascism in Austria under the Fatherland Front beginning in 1934, and the National Christian Party and later Iron Guard in Romania. On March 12, 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria, once again ending bilateral relations.

Following World War II

President of Austria Rudolf Kirchschläger on an official state visit to Romania in 1978, meeting with President Nicolae Ceaușescu.

The defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, which had included both Romania and Austria through Germany, once again transformed the geopolitical dynamics of their relations, as Romania was under Soviet occupation beginning in 1944 and Austria was made independent by the Allied powers and divided into occupation zones, which included the Soviet Union, allowing them to exert influence on both nations, Romania more so as King Michael I was forced to abdicate the throne with the Romanian People's Republic being established in 1947. Austria's occupation and policy of neutrality allowed it to maintain relations with Eastern Bloc countries under Soviet influence like Romania, as a Western power in the Cold War. This was in contrast to relations with West Germany, a Western Bloc and NATO ally which was divided with East Germany. The 1955 Austrian State Treaty meant that continued Soviet forces' presence in Romania ceased to exist, yet Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party announced their continued presence on the justification of foreign soldiers stationed in West Germany. This showed the significance of Austria's neutrality, politically aligned with the West but not in a military alliance, with the ability to maintain good relations across both blocs of the Cold War, which Germany was no longer able to accomplish in contrast to close German–Romanian relations during World War II.

Project 4: Marxist–Leninist state leaders template major revision

Original template with added colours

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New template with expanded leadership across party and legislature

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Project 5: Dictators multiple image for lead section

Version 1: Fascist, Marxist–Leninist and military dictators

20th-century leaders typically described as dictators

Dictators under fascist states

• Benito Mussolini, Duce and Prime Minister of Italy
• Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany
• Francisco Franco, Caudillo and Prime Minister of Spain

Dictators under communist states

• Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party
• Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Military dictators

• Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile
• Idi Amin, President of Uganda
• Suharto, President of Indonesia

Notes: This stays close to the original collage in terms of examples of images, but framed by common ideological or occupational framework. Fascist dictators (Mussolini, Hitler, Franco), Marxist–Leninist dictators (Stalin, Mao, Ceaușescu), military dictators (Pinochet, Amin, Suharto). It is indisputable that these figures belong in these categories, even if Augusto Pinochet and his ideology can be considered fascist as well, it is clear-cut that he was a military dictator, but Mussolini and Hitler were not only not senior military figures, nor did they rule through the military, but they were undeniably fascists. The downside to this version is that these categories may not be as accepted as those in the dictatorship article, where the specific types section list those found in version 2; absolute monarchies were mainly left out of the article, and therefore the same goes for the multiple image.

20th-century leaders typically described as dictators

One-party dictators

• Benito Mussolini, Duce of Italy and the National Fascist Party
• Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party

Personalist dictators

• Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany
• Francisco Franco, Caudillo and Prime Minister of Spain
• Kim Il Sung, Supreme Leader of North Korea

Military dictators

• Augusto Pinochet, President of Chile
• Idi Amin, President of Uganda
• Suharto, President of Indonesia

Version 2: One-party, personalist and military dictators

Notes: Deviating slightly, we could instead focus on the categorial types of dictatorship and how their rulers fit in. One-party dictators (Mussolini, Stalin, Mao), personalist dictators (Hitler, Franco, Kim), military dictators (Pinochet, Amin, Suharto). It also features all of the dictators from the original collage. The downside to this version is that the categorisation is up for interpretation. For example, Adolf Hitler was also a one-party dictator, serving as Führer of the Nazi Party. So while closer to the collage than version 1, the former is still more concrete in terms of framing via ideology: Adolf Hitler can only be described as a fascist dictator, in direct contrast to Marxism–Leninism and having no senior military background which would constitute Nazi Germany as a military dictatorship.

Verdict: These versions have been linked to in the talk page for Dictator, where it was pointed out the significance of not supplanting information through the infobox, which the multiple image de facto serves as. I have my disputes over this, where I could argue in a counter-reply that the multiple image shouldn't be treated as an infobox in the explicit sense, that nine examples across multiple fields strikes a good balance between not being too unnecessarily lengthy or not having enough information to justify its existence. And how mainly, this opens up ways to incorporate these examples (not just those mentioned, but others which succinctly showcase the range of such examples) into the article, which would give the multiple image more legitimacy as summarising, which fits into MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. However, this wouldn't be the best way to deliver such a dispute, and I would need time to figure out how to phrase it in a convincing way, though it has now been a week since the response to the new section I have created on the talk page. And given that my schedule has been quite filled up and I don't feel too strongly about this project, it is to be put indefinitely on halt instead of pursuing it further.

– February 12, 2024, 23:35 (UTC) –

Project 6: "Template:Anarchism US" sidebar and footer proposal

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Project 7: Timeline of Trumpism (with sidebar)

The timeline of Trumpism lists the chronological events related to Trumpism, an American fascist political ideology and movement associated with Donald Trump, a politician and media personality who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.

Background

See also: Trumpism § Similar movements, politicians and personalities

The following is a timeline of events related to the evolution of Trumpism prior to Trump's 2016 presidential candidacy. This includes past historical events associated with Trumpist rhetoric, tactics and beliefs, including but not limited to the history of American fascism and modern conservatism, as well as the early stages of Trump’s political career.

• January 31, 1933: The Silver Legion of America is founded by journalist and occultist William Dudley Pelley. The Legion's ideology consists of Christian fascism, white nationalism, and non-interventionism. These are direct or adjacent ideologies found in Trumpism, including white nationalism, Christian nationalism, and isolationism. The Legion also operated the Christian Party as its political wing, and ran in the 1936 presidential election with Pelley as its candidate, winning less than 2000 votes.
• February 20, 1939: The German American Bund, a German-American Nazi organization holds a rally at Madison Square Garden, one of the largest fascist rallies in American history. The rally, styled as “pro-Americanism”, prominently features American flags and a large portrait of George Washington, and German Nazi activist Fritz Julius Kuhn speaking of American patriots returning to a glorious past, and fear mongering and joking about antisemitic canards about the “Jewish-controlled press” and the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency. The rally gets interrupted by a Jewish protester, Isadore Greenbaum, who stormed at Kuhn before stormtroopers tackled, beat and stripped Greenbaum before being saved and escorted by the police. The rally's themes of anti-communism, Christian nationalism and American nationalism, as well as the tone of the event and Kuhn's speech reflected the themes and tone of Trumpist rallies.
• December 9, 1958: The John Birch Society (JBS), a far-right political advocacy group, is founded, causing controversy for their anti-communist conspiracy theories propagated by Robert W. Welch Jr., leading to American conservatives like William F. Buckley Jr. denouncing them. Since the 2010s, observers and commentators have reflected on "Bircherism" influencing Trump's campaigns and administration, causing the JBS to be mainstreamed within the American right.
• July 19, 1980: Following his selection two days prior as the official Republican nominee for the 1980 presidential election, Ronald Reagan gives a speech with a tumultuous rally in Texas with his campaign slogan, "Let's Make America Great Again". Trump admitted he was unaware of Reagan's use of the slogan until 2015, but it would be cemented by Trump as an appeal to American nostalgia and the use of dog whistles in politics, as some scholars and journalists have noted the reactionary undertones of the slogan.
• May 1, 1989: Following the Central Park jogger case, whereby four black men and one Hispanic man (the 'Central Park Five') were falsely accused, coerced into making false confessions, and wrongly convicted for the rape and attempted murder of woman Trisha Meili, Trump calls for the return of capital punishment in New York against them in advertisements. Despite public condemnation, including assessments from the 'Central Park Five' that the advertisements inflamed public opinion about the case, Trump refused to apologize and attacked the 2014 settlement of the case. Scholar of fascism Jason Stanley in his 2018 book How Fascism Works would later attest Trump's advertisements (and Trump's attorney general Jeff Sessions praising those advertisements and comments) to reflect a fascistic and racist view of "law and order", lacking due process.
• November 8, 1994: The 1994 midterm elections, termed the Republican Revolution, leads to the speakership of Newt Gingrich, who has been credited as undermining democratic norms and hastening political polarization and partisan prejudice. Gingrich has since been allied with Trump, who briefly considered appointing him to his cabinet.
• October 7, 1996: Fox News, an American conservative news and political commentary television station is founded by conservative media proprietor Rupert Murdoch and consultant Roger Ailes, which prior to Trump's campaign was known for biased reporting for the Republican Party and against the Democratic Party, and would come to be one of the news media's most noteworthy and ardent supporters of Trump.
• October 7, 1999: Trump announces his intentions to form an exploratory committee for a campaign for President of the United States in the 2000 presidential election under the Reform Party ticket.
• February 14, 2000: Trump suspends his 2000 presidential campaign on the airing of The Today Show on NBC, believing Reform was too dysfunctional to support his campaign. It would be his final attempt at a presidential campaign until 2016.
• February 19, 2009: CNBC commentator and editor Rick Santelli made comments on the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, calling for a "Chicago Tea Party". These comments are credited with launching the Tea Party movement, a fiscally conservative movement which propagated Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories, a series of debunked and racist conspiracy theories, claiming Obama to be born outside the United States. Trump repeatedly praised the movement during his 2016 presidential campaign, with Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots (which Santelli was also involved with) arguing that Trump's campaign propelling the movement into power.
• February 10, 2011: At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump gives a speech in which he promotes the Obama citizenship conspiracy theories, and would repeat the conspiracy theories on Good Morning America and The View, foreshadowing his use of fringe conspiracy theories as a political strategy.
• March 18, 2013: The Republican National Committee (RNC) releases the Growth & Opportunity Project, assessing reasons for the party's defeat in the 2012 presidential election. The report's proposals for Republican campaigns to criticize big business, de-emphasize social conservatism and reform its fundraising and position on campaign finance reform would be disregarded by Trump's own campaign the following election, and serves as a footnote for the party's image prior to its shift to the far-right.
• July 4, 2013: The far-right cable news and political opinion commentary channel One America News Network (OAN) launches, which would become a staunch supporter of Trump during his presidency.
• January 26, 2015: The Freedom Caucus is founded by right-wing Republicans and Tea Party members from the House of Representatives, aiming to shift the party rightward, and is positioned to the far-right of the spectrum. With a mixed relationship with Trump during his presidency, the Caucus would come to pledge loyalty to Trump and adopted Trumpism as part of their ideology.
• March 18, 2015: Trump forms a presidential exploratory committee for a potential Republican candidacy for the 2016 presidential election.

Timeline

The following is a timeline of Trumpism as a movement, beginning with the announcement of Trump's 2016 Republican candidacy for the presidential election in June 2015.

2015–2016: Trump presidential campaign and election of 2016

• June 16, 2015: American businessman and media personality Donald Trump announces his campaign to run for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, which came to serve as his campaign headquarters. In his speech, Trump declares his candidacy for the Republican Party and draws attention to illegal immigration, saying that Mexicans were "bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Trump mentions his Mexico border wall proposal: "I would build a great wall [...] and I will have Mexico pay for that wall." The campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" (MAGA), is also announced in the speech.
• June 27, 2015: The subreddit r/The_Donald was launched to promote "the news related to Donald Trump during his presidential run". The subreddit had a documented history of white supremacist, misogynistic, and Islamophobic content, and its prolific dissemination of Trumpist conspiracy theories made it of Reddit's most active communities.
• September 3, 2015: Trump signs a pledge promising his allegiance to the Republican Party and its eventual nominee, which was not yet decided.
• December 7, 2015: Trump issues a statement in response to the 2015 San Bernardino attack calling for a 'total and complete' shutdown of Muslims entering the U.S., which he repeated at subsequent political rallies. The statement is criticized within Republican circles, including RNC chair Reince Priebus, and receives international condemnation.
• February 28, 2016: In response to CNN's Jake Tapper asking about former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon David Duke endorsing Trump's 2016 campaign, Trump claimed ignorance of Duke and white supremacy more broadly. This contradicted statements Trump made during his 2000 campaign, where he called Duke "a bigot, a racist, a problem." Though noting his disavow of Duke later that day and reaffirming his disavow on March 3, Republican candidate Marco Rubio condemned Trump as "unelectable" and called on the party to nominate someone else.
• March 15, 2016: Trump's victories in the Super Tuesday Republican primaries (including his victory over Ohio governor and early frontrunner John Kasich in Florida) bolstered support for the Never Trump movement, a moderate conservative movement in opposition to Trumpism.
• May 3, 2016: Following the Republican primaries and caucuses, where Trump won the delegates from the Indiana primary against Texas senator Ted Cruz and John Kasich, Trump is declared the presumptive nominee of the party.
• July 15, 2016: Trump announced via Twitter his selection of governor of Indiana Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence voices his support for Trump's Muslim ban proposal "from countries where terrorist influence and impact represents a threat to the United States" (despite previously condemning the proposal as "offensive and unconstitutional"), as well as support for the border wall proposal.
• July 21, 2016: At the end of the 2016 Republican National Convention, whereby the Republican state delegations formally nominate Trump and Pence respectively for president and vice president, Trump accepts the nomination.
• September 9, 2016: The Democratic nominee for the presidential election Hillary Clinton refers to half of Trump supporters as a "basket of deplorables". The following day, Clinton would walk back on the phrase, which has since been reappropriated by Trump supporters.
• October 7, 2016: The Washington Post publishes a recording showing Trump with television host Billy Bush joking about sexual assault while on their way to film an episode of entertainment news program Access Hollywood: "Grab 'em by the pussy. You can do anything." This prompts swift national condemnation, including several dozen Republicans calling for Trump's withdrawal the following day, though the RNC continues their support. Trump makes a statement apologizing, while also calling the remarks "locker room banter" and deflecting to claiming that Bill Clinton "has said far worse to me on the golf course".
• October 30, 2016: White supremacist Twitter account @DavidGoldbergNY falsely claims the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had discovered a pedophile ring linked to Democrats, with the Washington, D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong involved as a meeting ground for Satanic ritual abuse. This would instigate the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which pro-Trump websites like InfoWars and The Epoch Times, as well as r/The_Donald and Trumpist activists like Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec. Michael Flynn and his son Michael Flynn Jr. were also involved in propagating the conspiracy theory. Pizzagate led to a shooting at Comet Ping Pong and is considered to have influenced QAnon.
• November 8, 2016: The presidential election is held, and the Republican ticket of Trump and Pence defeats the Democratic ticket of Clinton and Tim Kaine. It is one of the few examples of presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote; Trump would over-perform polls and win upset victories in the Rust Belt region.
• November 19, 2016: Neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist Richard B. Spencer celebrates the election results at a D.C. meeting with the National Policy Institute, a white supremacist think tank. In his speech, Spencer calls Trump's campaign "the first step towards identity politics in the United States" and that Trumpism must unite with the alt-right, which he calls "an intellectual vanguard" which can "complete Trump". Spencer finishes his speech with, "Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!" as audience members give the Nazi salute in response.

Project 8: Hoxhaism sidebar proposal and lead section reform

Hoxhaism is a Marxist–Leninist political philosophy associated with the theories and policies of Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania (PPSh) from 1941 to 1985. Following the ideological dispute between the PPSh and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the late 1970s, Hoxhaism emerged during a split in the anti-revisionist movement within Marxism–Leninism. Hoxhaism opposes any deviation from the orthodox teachings of Marxism–Leninism, demarcating itself by a strict defense of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and the centralized organization of the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. Hoxhaists emphasize economic independence and self-reliance, including autarky and isolation from capitalism, believing it to be inherently exploitative. Furthermore, Hoxhaism asserts the self-determination of nations to pursue and develop socialism by different paths, dictated by their conditions.

Prior to its entrenchment, Hoxhaism developed during the Cold War under Hoxha's leadership in Albania, in response to other developments in the Marxist–Leninist movement, including the Tito–Stalin split, de-Stalinization following the death of Stalin and the Sino-Soviet split. The Albanian–Chinese split led to many groups identifying as Maoist converting to Hoxhaism in the late 1970s. The term Hoxhaism is rarely employed by the organizations which are associated with this trend, with Hoxhaists viewing Hoxha's theoretical contributions to Marxism as strictly an augmentation of anti-revisionism rather than a distinct ideology. Hoxhaists typically identify themselves with Marxism–Leninism or Stalinism.

Project 10: Last Week Tonight Trump segments expansion

John Oliver (pictured left) has focused several segments in his show Last Week Tonight on Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, has been the subject of several segments featured in episodes of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, a late-night talk show on HBO created and hosted by British-American comedian John Oliver. These mainly cover Trump's 2016 Republican primary, presidential campaign and subsequent presidency, either as opening news recap segments or as main segments prominently featuring him. Many of these segments have received prominent coverage from other media and have gone viral on the show's YouTube channel LastWeekTonight; for example, the original segment on Trump had accumulated 19 million views within eight days, and amassed 41 million in total as of June 2024.

Last Week Tonight did not prominently feature Trump, who announced his Republican candidacy for the 2016 United States presidential election in June 2015 (during season 2 of the show), or the election in general, until season 3. Oliver initially commented that the show would not cover his campaigning, believing that the prospect of Trump becoming president was not "going to be a problem that we're going to have to deal with [...] I'm less interested with what he is saying than what is happening underneath." Throughout season 3, Trump's campaign became a key political topic featured in segments. In promoting season 4, Oliver stated that their in-depth pieces would not concern "party politics", though Oliver noted that issues influenced by the Trump administration would be covered. Many of Trump's comments and actions during his presidency were featured in multiple segments, including main segments, though in the subsequent seasons throughout Trump's presidency, the segments focused more on the topics pertaining to the presidency and not Trump directly.

Season 3 (2016)

Episode 3: "Donald Trump"

Main article: Donald Trump (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver)

"Donald Trump" was the core part of the third season's third episode, which aired for the first time on February 28, 2016. During this time, Trump was the frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, leading to Last Week Tonight host John Oliver characterizing Trump as "America's back mole. Oliver summarizes his "unpredictable and entertaining" style and acknowledges his appeal to voters disenchanted with the American political establishment, yet disputes the validity of Trump's purported qualities among his supporters. Oliver criticizes Trump as a "serial liar", outlining Trump's dubious and unsubstantiated claims regarding his net worth, as well as Trump's claims that he declined to appear on Last Week Tonight, which he tweeted as "very boring". Oliver cites these examples and argues them as evidence of Trump having a careless attitude towards the truth. Regarding the claim that Trump was self-funding his 2016 presidential campaign, spending $20-25 million himself, Oliver acknowledges that while Trump hadn't taken corporate donations, he in fact loaned his campaign $17.5 million and only contributed $250,000 himself. Oliver then notes that Trump's campaign has taken almost $7.5 million in individual contributions.

Oliver also disputes the notion that Trump is "tough", citing a 1988 Spy feature piece criticizing Trump a "short-fingered vulgarian". According to the now-defunct magazine's editor Graydon Carter in a November 2015 Vanity Fair article, Trump had since sent envelopes enclosed with photos of himself at various times, with all the pictures highlighting his fingers with a circular gold Sharpie to dispute the claims. Oliver subsequently compares Trump to the gold Sharpie as "something that gives the passing appearance of wealth, but is actually just a cheap tool." Oliver then states that Trump had frequently threatened to file lawsuits against various people, including Rosie O'Donnell, Mac Miller and Lawrence O'Donnell, despite never actually filing these lawsuits. Oliver also notes that despite Trump bragging that he never settles his legal disputes, he has settled lawsuits filed against him about his never-completed condominium developments.

Oliver then moves onto Trump's purported success as his main selling factor, showing a number of clips of Trump's comments on his success, including his statement: "I know words, I have the best words", to which Oliver mockingly responded: "Literally the biggest word in the sentence 'I have the best words' is the word 'words'." Oliver then pointed out that Trump's wealth, while massive, was a product of the inheritance of his father, Fred Trump, and was undermined by Donald's numerous bankruptcies. He also cited the 2003 documentary Born Rich, in which Trump's daughter Ivanka had said her father once portrayed himself as poorer than a homeless person. To dispute Trump's stated net worth of over $10 billion, Oliver cited TrumpNation by Timothy L. O'Brien, claiming the figure to be $150 million to $250 million, and noted Trump filing an unsuccessful $5 billion lawsuit against O'Brien. Oliver then mentions his brand as a major aspect of his self-evaluation, and argues that Trump's name valued at $3 billion is excessive, partly due to his failed business ventures, including Trump Shuttle, Trump Vodka, Trump magazines, Trump University and GoTrump.com. Oliver also noted Trump Steaks, arguing that their exclusive selling at Sharper Image to be bizarre, and Trump Mortgage, which was established years prior to the bursting of the 2000s housing bubble. Oliver also mentions that for buildings with Trump's name, Trump may have licensed his name to them, such as the condominium developments of Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico and Trump Tower Tampa, where Trump abandoned the projects and shifted blame to the developers.

Oliver then argues that Trump's brand, for which Trump has portrayed himself as its mascot as seen in The Apprentice and WrestleMania 23, is insufficient for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election: "It's time to stop thinking of the mascot and start thinking of the man." Oliver acknowledges the platforms of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to be at least understandable and coherent, compared to Trump's inconsistent positions on abortion, assault weapon bans and Syrian refugees. Oliver also criticizes Trump's failure to repudiate David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, claiming in a CNN interview to not know who he was despite publicly denouncing Duke in a 2000 NBC News interview as "a bigot [and] a racist". Oliver called Trump out on this contradiction: "you are either racist, or you are pretending to be, and at some point, there is no difference there." While acknowledging Trump's disavowal of Duke later that day after the CNN interview, Oliver argues that "we have no way of knowing which of [Trump's] inconsistent views he will hold in office", further citing Trump's conspiratorial statement on vaccines and autism, his characterization of Mexicans as "rapists", and during a phone-in interview on Fox & Friends, his advocacy of killing families of suspected terrorists as part of his strategy to defeat ISIS, which would constitute a war crime under the laws of the Geneva Conventions.

Oliver concludes the segment by again acknowledging Trump's entertaining character, and also recognising Trump's brand name as "almost onomatopoeic" and powerful for many voters. This leads into Oliver noting that the Trump family's ancestral name is "Drumpf", which Oliver mocks as "much less magical" and "much more reflective of who he actually is." He then urges his viewers to refer to him as "Donald Drumpf", an epithet Oliver justifies by quoting Trump mocking Jon Stewart's name change from 'Jonathan Leibowitz': "He should be proud of his heritage!" Oliver subsequently announced plans to file a trademark application for the word "Drumpf" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (which would be rejected in May 2016), and released a Google Chrome extension to automatically change all instances of "Trump" to "Drumpf". The segment closed with Oliver in front of a lighted "DRUMPF" sign, calling on viewers to not vote for Trump, and dares Trump to sue him over the segment.

Episode 6: "Border Wall"

Three weeks after the original episode aired, Oliver then performed another segment on Trump, focusing on his proposed border wall between the Mexico–United States barrier. Due to Oliver's continued campaign of jokingly calling Trump "Drumpf", the description of the segment uploaded to the show's official YouTube channel mentioned "Donald Drumpf's" plan to build the wall, while the segment is titled "Border Wall". Oliver reasoned discussing the border wall proposal due to it being one of Trump's few proposals that he has been consistent and detailed about, and to treat Trump as a presidential candidate and the proposal seriously. Oliver disputes the wall's practicality, beginning with Trump's inconsistent and sporadic estimates of its cost. While citing Trump's initial hypothetical at a September 2015 rally that the wall "costs $4 billion, you know they say $10 billion. That means $4 billion if you know what you're doing", Oliver then plays several subsequent clips where Trump's cost estimates increase up to $12 billion.

Oliver focuses on the materials that Trump will use to build the wall, followed by a clip of a child at a campaign rally who asked about the materials, to which Trump responded with rebar and steel; Oliver subsequently remarked that he held the child "less like a human being and more like a cat he gave a bath to." Responding to Trump's answer, Oliver acknowledged it as clear, but then noted that Trump's subsequent estimates of the wall's height have been unclear, ranging from 35 to 90 feet. Oliver posited the lowest estimate of a 35-foot wall at 1000 miles, and disputed the legitimacy of Trump's estimates by citing an expert writing for The Washington Post. The costs would include about $10 billion for the concrete panels and $5-6 billion for steel columns [...] including labor", an additional $1 billion for "concrete footing for the columns and a concrete foundation", $2 billion for building roads "so 20-ton trucks could deliver the materials", and "another 30 percent for engineering, design, management". Oliver notes that the total estimated cost of building the wall is $25 billion, which is "anywhere from 2-6 times Trump's estimate", while the Congressional Budget Office "estimates that wall maintenance costs will exceed initial construction costs within seven years."

Oliver then moved onto Trump's repeated claim that Mexico will pay for the wall. Oliver notes that within Mexico, then-Secretary of the Treasury Luis Videgaray Caso stated that Mexico would not pay under any circumstance, while former presidents Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox derogatorily refused to pay. Regarding Trump's response to the comments by claiming the wall would then be 10 feet taller, Oliver sarcastically referred to Trump's response as his "characteristic diplomacy." While recognising that Trump considered utilizing the United States' $58 billion trade deficit with Mexico, Oliver pointed out that the money didn't belong to the Mexican government, but instead Mexican businesses. Oliver then discussed the logistics of the proposal's wall location, and cited the Secure Fence Act of 2006 as examples of the issues arose from border construction. This included overlapping land owned by private citizens and a Brownsville golf course, which resulted from avoiding violating the Boundary Treaty of 1970 between the U.S. and Mexico to prevent building structures that may obstruct water flow along the Rio Grande and Colorado River basins. Oliver also notes the waiving of numerous environmental laws and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to build the fence, subsequently damaging wildlife and Native American culture. Oliver states that Trump may argue that regardless of the proven logistical issues, the wall would still be necessary due to inhibiting unauthorized migration and drug trafficking across the border. Oliver disputes the effectiveness of the wall in achieving these ends due to methods of legal entry by unauthorized migrants like overstaying a visa, and the wall being subverted by use of ladders and, as Trump himself jokingly remarked, "maybe a rope."

Oliver then argues that the motivating factor for many supporters of Trump's proposed border wall is a feeling of security, which is embedded in anti-Mexican racism and xenophobia, and cites Trump's campaign announcement speech in June 2015. Oliver compares Trump's racist stereotyping of Mexicans as criminals and rapists and subsequent back-tracking ("And some, I assume are good people") to an angry villager warning of werewolves while claiming some exceptions. To disprove Trump's argument of Mexicans and other immigrants being more susceptible to committing violent crimes, Oliver cites data that show that most Mexican-born migrants residing in the U.S. entered the latter country legally and that illegal immigrants committed violent crimes at lower rates than American citizens did. After summarizing the costs of Trump's proposed border wall, Oliver concludes the segment punctuating his thesis on the lack of necessity of the wall by jokingly counter-proposing a scheme to buy a waffle iron for every American. Oliver ended the segment with his basis for the satirical proposal:

This waffle iron plan will cost less, it will do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won't harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, if it is racist, it's only towards Belgians, and unlike Donald Trump's wall, this makes fucking waffles!

Episode 14: "Trump University"

On June 5, 2016, three months after the initial "Donald Trump" segment aired, Oliver discussed the controversies surrounding Trump University, a for-profit educational institution which ran a real estate training program from 2005 to 2010, founded by Trump in 2004. The segment was uploaded on the LastWeekTonight YouTube channel on November 29, 2016, following Trump as president-elect settling three lawsuits pertaining to the company for $25 million. Oliver initially discussed related issues pertaining to Trump's numerous other lawsuits, remarking that the 3,500 lawsuits that Trump has been involved in would exceed the combined number of episodes of most of the attorney-centered drama series that have been produced in the history of American television. He then comments on how Trump said that Gonzalo P. Curiel (the Indiana-born presiding judge for the lawsuit centering around Trump University) should recuse himself due to his Mexican heritage, and that the same should occur if the judge was a Muslim; Oliver denounced Trump's comments as bigotry. Oliver then moves into Trump University itself due to new documents surfacing about its fraudulent aspects, noting that it was not a university. Oliver also mentions that despite Trump's statement that he had "hand-picked" his instructors, he acknowledged this as false in a deposition and couldn't recall key faculty members' names.

Oliver cited testimonies from former employees that many instructors and mentors, including a Lowe's salesman and Buffalo Wild Wings regional manager, lacked any experience in buying or selling real estate, as well as a member of Trump's sale staff who called it "a joke. [...] It was a facade [...] it was just selling false hopes and lies." Elsewhere in the documents include what Oliver describes as "several revealing playbooks of sales tactics." This includes setting the room temperature at no more than 68°F and selling and upselling students (referred to as "buyers"). On the advice for students being "If they complain about the price, remind them that Trump is the BEST!" Oliver remarked how "that is the same technique that Trump has been using to run for president, and apparently, it fucking works!" Oliver also argues that the playbook's instructions and advice for its employees should an attorney general arrive, including reminding them, "you do not have to show them any personal information unless they [have] a warrant" was suspicious.

Oliver gives accounts of students who were disappointed, including some who had expected to meet Trump only to find a cardboard cutout of Trump, which Oliver describes as "a perfect metaphor for Trump University. You're expecting the real thing, but in the end, all you're gonna get is a tacky, two-dimensional facade with Donald Trump's face slapped on it." Oliver contrasts this with Trump and his attorneys espousing satisfactory customer reviews and a survey finding 98% approval, which Oliver then revealed was not anonymous and that the "participants were still expecting to receive future benefits from the program." To further rebuke the legitimacy of the survey, Oliver cites one participant who had since regretted his positive review and had likened the experience to food poisoning. Oliver concludes the segment by arguing that Trump University and its playbook strategy of selling feelings instead of "products, benefits or solutions" is emblematic of Trump's campaign strategy. He warned voters in the ending by quoting Trump from the Trump University website: "Take the risk, but before you do, learn what you're getting yourself into."

Season 6 (2019)

Episode 15: "Impeachment"

In the main segment of the 16 June 2019 episode during season 6, Oliver covered efforts to impeach Donald Trump, which gained traction as the House Judiciary Committee opened hearings pertaining to the Mueller report. Oliver explained the process of impeachment of the president, including Article II, Section 4 and the charge of high crimes and misdemeanors. Oliver then featured a clip of Trump dismissing the legitimacy of impeachment by saying, "High crimes and, it's not 'with' or 'or', it's 'high crimes and misdemeanors'. There was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor, so how do you impeach based on that?" To which Oliver chastised Trump's statement as an overly literal interpretation of the charge.

Among Trump's potential misconduct that the committee is investigating, including campaign finance violations and the use of his presidency to enrich himself, the segment centered on obstruction of justice, a charge that the Mueller report detailed multiple potential instances of. Oliver focused on the involvement of former White House Counsel Don McGahn, whom Trump asked to have special counsel Robert Mueller fired during his investigation into the Trump campaign's involvement in Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Oliver also pointed out another instance in the report where Trump desired McGahn release a statement denying the attempt at firing Mueller, and to additionally write a letter to the file 'for our records'. Oliver explained that Trump's actions were significant due to the threat of a president shutting down an investigation and thereby acting without consequence. Likewise, Oliver noted that the publicity of this information failed to make an impression, citing Justin Amash holding a town hall where he explained his decision as the sole House Republican to favour impeaching Trump, and one attendee was surprised at the presence of any evidence of Trump's obstruction. When Oliver reasoned the committee's investigations into the report's findings would highlight its information for public awareness, he mentioned McGahn's defiance of the committee's subpoena to testify in May, at Trump's direction.

Oliver highlights the argument for concentrating the committee's investigations and the report's findings into one impeachment inquiry against Trump. Oliver noted House speaker Nancy Pelosi's resistance to pursuing impeachment based on lack of public support for such an endeavour; Oliver acknowledged this, but also argued that public support may increase upon further awareness of the report's findings. To demonstrate this, Oliver cited Richard Nixon's impeachment process and public scepticism at the time over Nixon's culpability amid Watergate. Furthermore, Oliver reasoned that should House Democrats be convinced that impeachment is the correct course of action, they have a responsibility to argue for that and increase its support. Oliver also addresses the concern that impeaching Trump may produce a similar outcome to Bill Clinton's impeachment and result in Democratic defeat during the 2020 elections. Oliver jokingly remarked that Democrats' disproportionate liability for public backlash compared to Trump makes that potential outcome less unique: "Maybe Trump is caught on tape saying the N-word, but then two weeks later, Elizabeth Warren accidentally calls a veteran a 'veterinarian', and people get twice as angry about that!"

Oliver argued discussions about impeaching Trump have created a false dilemma, whereby the merits of impeachment depends solely on its ability to convict Trump. While noting the likelihood that Trump would not be convicted, Oliver contended that impeachment could publicise existing and new information on Trump's misconduct, forcing Republicans to choose whether to hold him to account. Admitting he has been indecisive on the issue, he expresses support for impeachment on the basis that "not opening an inquiry comes with consequences too", setting a precedent of presidential impunity, including for Trump. Oliver points to an interview Trump had with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, when the topic of Donald Trump Jr. failing to disclose to the FBI about intel he received from Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during the Trump Tower meeting came up. Trump rejected the need to alert the FBI on such matters, said that FBI director Christopher A. Wray was wrong on the matter (to which Federal Election Commission commissioner Ellen Weintraub released a statement on June 13 rebuking Trump's comments). Trump also stated that should a scenario of obtaining information on a political rival from a foreign source like Russia or China occur again for his 2020 presidential campaign, he would still not feel obliged to inform the FBI: "I think you might want to listen - there isn't anything wrong with listening." Oliver concluded the segment by arguing that efforts to impeach Trump would at least uphold the principles of the rule of law and accountability.

References

• References 1-77 refer to Project 7: Timeline of Trumpism (with sidebar).
• References 78-89 refer to Project 10: Last Week Tonight Trump segments expansion.