Thursday will mark a month since Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States.
However, much has happened since Mr Trump’s inauguration ceremony, from launching a meme coin; getting Google to rename the Gulf of Mexico; preparing a migrant detention centre at Guantanamo Bay; instigating sweeping tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China; seeking to bring back plastic straws; and now alleging that Ukraine started Vladimir Putin’s three-year war.
Mr Trump made history for his questionable quotes during his first term in office, such as the infamous ‘grab them’ line — among many others. And it appears he wants to add more to the list.
Here are several of Mr Trump’s most jaw-dropping quotes since his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
‘I don't know much about it other than I launched it, other than it was very successful’
Mr Trump kicked off the eve of his inauguration with the launch of a multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency meme coin.
The digital currency, called $TRUMP, surfaced on his social media pages and swiftly rose to the top of the cryptocurrency market. Within a day, a single coin's value soared to $75 (£56), but then dropped to $39 (£31).
Mr Trump told reporters when announcing the launch: “I don't know much about it other than I launched it, other than it was very successful.”
However, industry insiders have openly questioned the introduction of the coin.
Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner, said in a statement: “Trump's comments about not knowing much about the coin back up my opinion that he is making a mockery of the industry. It's a stunt.”
‘My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal’
It wouldn’t be a Mr Trump speech if he didn’t comment on the outgoing president.
Using his podium in the Capitol Rotunda to attack his predecessor, outgoing Democratic president Joe Biden, Mr Trump adopted an aggressive stance during his January 20 inaugural address.
He said: “My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place.”
Gulf of America has a ‘beautiful ring’ to it
Mr Trump announced at his January news conference at Mar-a-Lago that he would rename the Gulf of Mexico to become the Gulf of America. He claimed. that cartels now control the gulf and that “it's ours”.
“We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory, the Gulf of America,” he said.
“What a beautiful name. And it's appropriate. It's appropriate. And Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.”
Google is also running with it. It said on January 27: “We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.
— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle) January 27, 2025
However, Mexico contends that the US cannot lawfully rename the Gulf. It says the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that a nation's sovereign territory can be extended only 12 nautical miles offshore.
“[The name change] could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.
Trump says he is preparing migrant detention centre at Guantanamo Bay
Mr Trump revealed on January 29 that he was overseeing the construction of a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. He said this would house up to 30,000 unauthorised migrants.
“Today I'm also signing an executive order to instruct the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantanamo Bay. Most people don't even know about it,” he said.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, then-US president George W Bush established the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in 2002 to house suspected foreign militants.
Sky News reported that the facility for migrants was separate from the detention centre on the base.
Slamming the FAA’s disability recruitment programme for hiring ‘people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities’
Speaking after a midair collision between a US military helicopter and an American Airlines flight from Kansas killed all 67 aboard, Mr Trump speculated that diversity hiring may have been a factor in the disaster.
He said during a press conference on Thursday, January 30: “We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.”
He claimed that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website stated that persons with disabilities such as “hearing, vision, missing, extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism” were “all qualified for the position of a controller of airplanes pouring into our country”.
Mr Trump added: “Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it,”
There is no proof that the tragedy was caused by the FAA's diversity initiatives.
‘You want me to go swimming?’
When asked about his plans to visit the crash site, Mr Trump added: “I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? You want me to go swimming?”
Reporter: Do you have a plan to go visit the site?
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 30, 2025
Trump: I have a plan to visit, not the site. Because you tell me, what’s the site? The water? pic.twitter.com/TytZjonqvx
‘The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too’
In an astonishing proposal that would drastically reorient the Middle East and subject a population of over a million to further displacement, Mr Trump said on Tuesday, February 4, that the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip”. He said this would “possibly be with the assistance of American troops, and that the Palestinians living there should leave, in order to redevelop Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
In a joint press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump said: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings.”
Mr Trump did not rule out the possibility of sending US soldiers to Gaza to cover a security void when asked about it.
He added: “As far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary. If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re going to take over that piece that we’re going to develop it”
The UK’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer rejected this plan at Prime Minister’s Questions the following day.
“I have from the last few weeks two images fixed in my mind. The first is the image of Emily Damari reunited with her mother which I found extremely moving.
“The second was the image of thousands of Palestinians walking through the rubble to try to find their homes and communities in Gaza. They must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them with that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”
‘Let hell break out’
Mr Trump set a deadline for the militant group Hamas to return all hostages while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office late on Monday, February 10.
His comments came after Hamas reportedly announced that it would delay the return of hostages, citing the failure to adhere to parts of the ceasefire agreement. This led Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz to place the country’s military on high alert, preparing for "any scenario in Gaza”.
Mr Trump described Hamas’s comments as “terrible” and pledged to back any decision made by Israel.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock — I think it’s an appropriate time — I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” the president continued.
This would end the ceasefire that came into effect on January 19. Mr Trump added that the hostages should be released “not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two”. He said “We want them all back.
“I’m speaking for myself. Israel can override it, but for myself, Saturday at 12 o’clock — and if they’re not here, all hell is going to break out.”
Trump says Ukraine ‘should have never started’ the war and ‘could have made a deal’ to prevent it
During a news conference at his Florida residence on February 18, Mr Trump alleged Ukraine started Russian President Mr Putin’s three-year war.
Mr Trump added he was "disappointed" by Ukraine's reaction to not being allowed to join talks to end the conflict, insisting it "could have made a deal" earlier.
The US president added in controversial comments: "Today I heard, 'Oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you have been there for three years. You should have ended it three years" ago.
"You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
"This could have been settled very easily. Just a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without, I think, the loss of much land and without the loss of any lives and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their side”, he added.
The comments are just one of many made by the Republican that have sparked a social media frenzy since his return to the Oval Office last month.
Following the press conference, former British defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace criticised on X (formerly Twitter) the “fake news” being spread by Trump’s administration.
He said: “Ukraine started the war..this claim is straight out of the Kremlin talking points. Russia invaded in 2014 and 2022. Putin’s amateur essay revealed it all the previous year.”
