The 9 most controversial moments of Donald Trump's campaign

Over the past year, Donald Trump has forged a political campaign out of celebrating wilful ignorance and pandering to the worst intolerance sections of American society can unify behind.

He's made headlines and generated support through his controversial statements, often times targeting figures and generating hatred towards them for support.

Let's run through some of the worst things he's said throughout the course of this presidential campaign:

1. When he mocked a New York Times reporter's disability

Despite attempting to revise the history of his actions, Trump absolutely mocked the disability of a New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.

Mr Kovaleski suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting how his joints move. Trump mocked this while defending his claim that he had witnessed thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating on the day of the 9/11 attacks.

2. When he bragged about sexual assault

Earlier this month, tape of a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood was unearthed in which Trump was caught bragging about sexual assualt, saying “when you’re a star, they let you do it".

In the tape, published by the Washington Post, Trump discusses his failed attempts to seduce a woman, before saying he needs to "use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her":

You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything.

Grab them by the p***y, you can do anything.

Trump apologised for the remarks following widespread criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, as well as from his wife, Melania, whom he had recently married at the time of the remarks.

Since the tape was released, 14 women have come forward accusing the Republican candidate of sexual assault. Trump denies all of the accusations.

3. When he called Mexicans rapists and then defended his comments

Trump was invited onto CNN to discuss his comments that Mexicans immigrating to the US are drug-using rapists.

When announcing his campaign, he said:

They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime; they're rapists.

Coming onto CNN to defend his comments, he cited a 2014 Fusion article reporting that 80 per cent of Central American migrants passing through Mexico are raped.

Don Lemon pointed out

That's about women being raped, it's not about criminals coming across the border.

Trump replied:

Somebody's doing the raping, Don. The thing is women being raped, well, then who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping?

4. When he incited physical violence at his rallies

He's done this many times before and has played a large part in stirring up crowd violence from his supporters at his rallies.

Some of his quotes at rallies include:

We’re not allowed to punch back any more. You know what they used to do to a guy like that in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.

Speaking of people throwing tomatoes:

If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of 'em, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.

Speaking of a Black Lives Matter protester:

Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.

5. When he disrespected the mother of a fallen veteran:

Khizr and Ghazala Khan were invited to the Democratic National Convention this year, and Khizr gave an impassioned speech about his son, Humayun S M Khan, who died in combat when deployed to Iraq in 2004.

The speech greatly criticised Trump's intolerance to Muslims.

Trump replied by implying that Ghazala hadn't been permitted to talk:

His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably... maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me but plenty of people are saying that.

She was extremely quiet. And it looked like she had nothing to say.

If you're wondering, she swiftly proved him wrong:

Sacrifice - I don't think he knows the meaning of sacrifice, the meaning of the word. Because when I was standing there, all America felt my pain. Without saying a single word. Everybody felt that pain

6. When he proposed a total ban on Islam:

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris of last year, he called for a totla ban on Muslims entering the US.

He's since rolled back on this policy, which he long campaigned on to applause at rallies, revising it to a suggestion.

7. When he tried to suggest Megyn Kelly gave him a grilling because she was on her period:

During the Republican debate, Trump deflected questions about his sexism and later attributed his poor answers to Megyn Kelly's line of questioning, saying she had:

blood coming out of her wherever.

His comments attracted widespread condemnation:

Trump was disinvited from a political event hosted by a Republican blog in Atlanta, following the comments, and Megyn Kelly was invited in place.

8. When he made sexual comments about his own daughter:

When she was 16, Trump made comments about his daughter Ivanka as she helped host the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant as the New York Times reports in an anecdote:

Mr. Trump frequently sought assurances — at times from strangers — that the women in his life were beautiful. During the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant, he sat in the audience as his teenage daughter, Ivanka, helped to host the event from onstage. He turned to Brook Antoinette Mahealani Lee, Miss Universe at the time, and asked for her opinion of his daughter’s body.

“‘Don’t you think my daughter’s hot? She’s hot, right?’” Ms. Lee recalled him saying. ‘I was like, ‘Really?’ That’s just weird. She was 16. That’s creepy.”

On The Howard Stern Show in 2003, he talked about his then-22-year-old daughter as such:

You know who’s one of the great beauties of the world, according to everybody? And I helped create her. Ivanka.

My daughter, Ivanka. She’s 6 feet tall, she’s got the best body. She made a lot money as a model—a tremendous amount.

On The Howard Stern Show in 2004, he was involved in a rather shameful dialogue with the host:

Trump: “My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka."

Stern: “By the way, your daughter…”

Trump: “ - she’s beautiful"

Stern: “Can I say this? A piece of ass.”

Trump: “Yeah.”

On The View in 2006, Trump said of the prospect of Ivanka doing a photoshoot for Playboy:

I don't think Ivanka would do that, although she does have a very nice figure. I've said if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her.

Isn’t that terrible? How terrible? Is that terrible?

9. When he made sexual comments about children:

Earlier this month several news stories emerged about sexual comments he had made about children:

He told Howard Stern's radio show that he was attracted to Paris Hilton, saying:

Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but in actuality is really beautiful is Paris Hilton.

I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12.

Her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into a room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?

He later attempted to clarify those remarks:

She's a very... Well, at 12 I wasn't interested. I've never been into that. They've sort of always stuck around that 25 category.

However, a few other stories also surfaced. In a 1992 recording, a 46-year-old Trump asks a little girl id she's going up an escalator, before turning to the camera and saying:

I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?

The Los Angeles Times also unearthed a wires story which concerned Trump watching a youth choir, before asking two of the girls how old they were.

They said they were 14, to which Trump replied:

Wow! Just think — in a couple of years, I'll be dating you.

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