What are the dates of Donald Trumps first term as president of US

1. What the basic record says: inauguration to inauguration

The constitutional and conventional markers for a U.S. presidential term are the date of the presidential oath at the inauguration and the next inauguration; sources show Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president on January 20, 2017, and left office at the next inauguration on January 20, 2021 — commonly summarized as “2017–2021” ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Reference repositories and presidential timelines (Wikipedia’s presidency pages, the American Presidency Project and Ballotpedia) all use those precise dates when noting his first term ^{[1] [3] [5]}.

2. How different types of sources frame the dates

Academic and archival sources (for example, the American Presidency Project) present the dates as formal entries: “45th President of the United States: 2017–2021; January 20, 2017” ^[3]. Encyclopedic entries such as Britannica and Wikipedia summarize the first presidency as 2017–2021 and note the January 20, 2017 inauguration specifically ^{[2] [4]}. The Trump Presidential Library’s biography likewise lists the November 8, 2016 election and inauguration on January 20, 2017 as the start of his first term ^[6].

3. Election date vs. term dates — a common point of confusion

Some readers conflate the election date with the start of a term. Trump won the 2016 general election on November 8, 2016, but the presidential term did not begin until his oath of office on January 20, 2017; his first term concluded on January 20, 2021, when the next president was sworn in ^{[6] [7] [1]}. Sources consistently separate the election event (November 2016) from the constitutional start of the presidency (January 20, 2017) ^{[6] [7]}.

4. Consistency across timelines and reference projects

Multiple independent repositories that compile presidential timelines and histories — Wikipedia’s presidency pages, the American Presidency Project, Ballotpedia, Britannica, the Trump Presidential Library, and other history outlets — all align on the 2017–2021 span for Trump’s first presidency and the January 20 inauguration dates ^{[1] [3] [5] [4] [6] [8]}. This cross-check reduces the likelihood of an unresolved dispute over the basic dates, at least in the sources provided.

5. Additional context: second, nonconsecutive term noted by sources

Several of the same sources also record that Trump later won a second, nonconsecutive term in the 2024 election and returned to the presidency with inauguration on January 20, 2025, becoming the 47th president. This framing — first term 2017–2021; second term beginning January 20, 2025 — appears in the same timelines and encyclopedias that document the first term ^{[1] [9] [5] [8]}. If your interest is a complete view of his time in office, those sources treat the two presidencies as distinct episodes ^[2].

6. What the available sources do not address here

Available sources do not mention any alternative legal or scholarly disputes that would change the formal start or end dates of Trump’s first term beyond the standard inauguration-to-inauguration framing (not found in current reporting). If you need primary-document verification (e.g., the actual certified inauguration oath record or the Constitution’s Twentieth Amendment text), those were not part of the dataset provided here.

7. Bottom line for quick reference

Use January 20, 2017 — January 20, 2021, or simply “2017–2021,” to describe Donald Trump’s first presidential term; this is how major timelines and reference works record it ^{[1] [2] [3] [5]}.