Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, television personality, politician, and the 45th President of the United States.
Born and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, Trump received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. In 1971, he took charge of his family's real estate and construction firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which was later renamed The Trump Organization. During his business career, Trump built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He has lent the use of his name in the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, a reality television series on NBC, from 2004 to 2015. As of 2016, Forbes listed him as the 324th wealthiest person in the world and 113th richest in the United States, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Trump sought the Reform Party's presidential nomination in 2000, but withdrew before voting began. He considered running as a Republican for the 2012 election, but ultimately decided against it. In June 2015, he announced his candidacy for the 2016 election, and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was formally nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention. Many of his statements in interviews, on social media, and at campaign rallies were controversial or false.
Trump won the general election on November 8, 2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He became the oldest and wealthiest person to assume the presidency, the first without prior military or government service, and the fifth elected with less than a plurality of the national popular vote.
Trump's platform emphasizes renegotiating U.S.–China relations and free trade agreements such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, strongly enforcing immigration laws, and building a new wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. His other positions include pursuing energy independence while opposing climate change regulations such as the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement, modernizing and expediting services for veterans, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, abolishing Common Core education standards, investing in infrastructure, simplifying the tax code while reducing taxes for all economic classes, and imposing tariffs on imports by companies offshoring jobs. He advocates a largely non-interventionist approach to foreign policy while increasing military spending, "extreme vetting" of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries to preempt domestic Islamic terrorism, and aggressive military action against ISIS. His positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, and nationalist.
Early life
Further information: Trump family
Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five children born to Frederick Christ "Fred" Trump (1905–1999) and Mary Anne Trump (née MacLeod, 1912–2000).[2][3] His siblings are Maryanne, Fred Jr., Elizabeth, and Robert. Trump's older brother Fred Jr. died in 1981 from alcoholism, which Trump says led him to abstain from alcohol and cigarettes.[4]
Ancestry
Trump is of paternal German ancestry and maternal Scottish ancestry. His mother and all his grandparents were born in Europe. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Kallstadt, Germany, and his father, who became a New York City real estate developer, was born in the Bronx.[5][6] His mother emigrated to New York (where she worked as a maid) from her birthplace of Tong, Lewis, Scotland.[7] Fred and Mary met in New York and married in 1936, raising their family in Queens.[7][8]
His uncle, John G. Trump, a professor at MIT from 1936 to 1973, was involved in radar research for the Allies in the Second World War, and helped design X-ray machines that prolonged the lives of cancer patients; in 1943, the Federal Bureau of Investigation requested John Trump examine Nikola Tesla's papers and equipment when Tesla died in his room at the New Yorker Hotel.[9] Donald Trump's grandfather was Frederick Trump, who amassed a fortune operating boom-town restaurants and boarding houses in the region of Seattle and Klondike, Canada.[10]
The Trump family were originally Lutherans, but Trump's parents belonged to the Reformed Church in America.[11] The family name, which was formerly spelled Drumpf, was changed to Trump during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century.[12] Trump has said that he is proud of his German heritage; he served as grand marshal of the 1999 German-American Steuben Parade in New York City.[13]
Education
Trump at the New York Military Academy, spring 1964[14][15]
Trump's family had a two-story mock Tudor home on Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates, where he lived while attending The Kew-Forest School.[16][17] He left the school at age 13 and was enrolled in the New York Military Academy (NYMA),[18] in Cornwall, New York, where he finished eighth grade and high school. Trump was an energetic child; his parents hoped that the discipline at the military school would allow him to channel his energy in a positive manner. In 1983, Fred Trump told an interviewer that Donald "was a pretty rough fellow when he was small".[19]
Trump participated in marching drills, wore a uniform, and during his senior year attained the rank of captain. He was transferred from a student command position after the alleged hazing of a new freshman in his barracks by one of Trump's subordinates; Trump later described the transfer as "a promotion".[20] In 2015, he told a biographer that NYMA gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military".[21]
Trump attended Fordham University in the Bronx for two years, beginning in August 1964. He then transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which offered one of the few real estate studies departments in United States academia at the time.[22][23] While there, he worked at the family's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, named for his paternal grandmother.[24] He graduated from Penn in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.[23][25][26]
Trump was not drafted during the Vietnam War.[27] While in college from 1964 to 1968, he obtained four student deferments.[28] In 1966, he was deemed fit for service based upon a military medical examination, and in 1968 was briefly classified as fit by a local draft board, but was given a 1-Y medical deferment in October 1968.[29] In an interview for a 2015 biography, he attributed his medical deferment to heel spurs.[21] In 1969, he received a high number in the draft lottery, which would also have likely exempted him from service.[29][30][31]
Family
Main article: Family of Donald Trump
At a 2016 campaign event, from left: son-in-law Jared, daughter Ivanka, Trump, wife Melania, daughter-in-law Lara, and son Eric
Trump has five children by three marriages, and has eight grandchildren.[32][33] His first two marriages ended in widely publicized divorces.[34]
Trump married his first wife, Czech model Ivana Zelníčková, on April 7, 1977, at the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan[35] in a ceremony performed by one of America's most famous ministers, the Reverend Norman Vincent Peale.[36] They had three children: son Donald Jr. (born December 31, 1977), daughter Ivanka (born October 30, 1981), and son Eric (born January 6, 1984). Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric now serve as executive vice presidents of The Trump Organization.[37] Ivana became a naturalized United States citizen in 1988.[38]
Trump has been nicknamed "The Donald" since Ivana referred to him as such in a 1989 Spy magazine cover story.[39][40] By early 1990, the tabloid press was commenting on trouble in Trump's marriage and reporting his affair with actress Marla Maples.[41][42][43] Ivana Trump was granted an uncontested divorce in 1990, on the grounds that Trump's treatment of her, such as his affair with Maples, had been "cruel and inhuman".[44][45] In 1992, he successfully sued Ivana for violating a gag clause in their divorce agreement by disclosing facts about him in her book.[46][47][48] In 2015, Ivana said that she and Donald "are the best of friends".[49]
Maples gave birth to their daughter Tiffany, named after Tiffany & Company (Trump's purchase of the air rights above the store in the 1980s allowed him to build Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue), on October 13, 1993.[50] They married two months later on December 20, 1993.[51] The couple formally separated in May 1997,[52] with their divorce finalized in June 1999.[53][54] Maples raised Tiffany as a single mother in Calabasas, California, where they lived until Tiffany's graduation from Viewpoint School.[55] In a February 2009 interview, Trump commented that his commitment to his business had made it difficult for his first two wives to compete with his affection for work.[56]
The President and First Lady at the Liberty Ball on Inauguration Day
In 1998, Trump began a relationship with Slovene model Melania Knauss, who became his third wife.[57][58] They were engaged in April 2004[59] and were married on January 22, 2005, at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, on the island of Palm Beach, Florida, followed by a reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.[60][61][62] In 2006, Melania became a naturalized United States citizen,[58] and gave birth to their son Barron on March 20, 2006.[63][64] Barron is fluent in Slovene.[65]
Trump's brother, Fred Jr., predeceased their father Fred. Shortly after the latter died in 1999, the wife of Fred Jr.'s son Fred III gave birth to William, who had serious medical problems.
Foundation
Main article: Donald J. Trump Foundation
The Donald J. Trump Foundation is a U.S.-based private foundation[88] established in 1988 for the initial purpose of giving away proceeds from the book Trump: The Art of the Deal by Trump and Tony Schwartz.[89][90] The foundation's funds have mostly come from donors other than Trump,[91] who has not given personally to the charity since 2008.[91] In 2016, investigations by The Washington Post uncovered several potential legal and ethical violations conducted by the charity, including alleged self-dealing and possible tax evasion.[92] After beginning an investigation into the foundation, the New York State Attorney General's office notified the Trump Foundation that it was allegedly in violation of New York laws regarding charities, and ordered it to immediately cease its fundraising activities in New York.[93][94][95] A Trump spokesman called the investigation a "partisan hit job".[93]
The foundation's tax returns show that it has given to health care and sports-related charities, as well as conservative groups.[96] In 2009, for example, the foundation gave $926,750 to about 40 groups, with the biggest donations going to the Arnold Palmer Medical Center Foundation ($100,000), the New York–Presbyterian Hospital ($125,000), the Police Athletic League ($156,000), and the Clinton Foundation ($100,000).[97][98] From 2004 to 2014, the top donors to the foundation were Vince and Linda McMahon of WWE, who donated $5 million to the foundation after Trump appeared at WrestleMania in 2007.[91] After winning the presidency, Trump announced his intention to give Linda McMahon a cabinet-level position in his administration, as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.[99] In response to mounting complaints, Trump's team announced in late December 2016 that the Trump Foundation would be dissolved to remove "even the appearance of any conflict with [his] role as President”.[100]
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