Donald Trump

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the and current . Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality.

Trump was born and raised in , a borough of New York City, and received a in economics from the . He took charge of his family's real-estate business in 1971, renamed it , and expanded its operations from Queens and into . The company built or renovated skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. Trump later started , mostly by licensing his name. He owned the and beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015 and produced and hosted , a show, from 2003 to 2015. As of 2019, estimates his net worth to be $3.1 billion.

Trump entered the as a and defeated 16 other candidates in the . have been described as , , and . Despite not being favored in most forecasts, he was elected over nominee , although he lost the popular vote. He became the ,. His election and policies have sparked . Trump has made during his campaign and presidency. The statements have been documented by , and the media have widely described the phenomenon as unprecedented in American politics. Many of his have also been characterized as racially charged or racist.

During , Trump on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, citing security concerns; after , the Supreme Court upheld . He enacted for individuals and businesses, rescinding the . He appointed and to the . In foreign policy, Trump has pursued an agenda, withdrawing the U.S. from the trade negotiations, the on climate change, and the , eventually with the country. He , triggering , and attempted toward its .

A led by that Trump and welcomed and encouraged in the 2016 presidential election under the belief that it would be politically advantageous, but did not find sufficient evidence to press charges of or coordination with Russia. Mueller also investigated Trump for , and his report neither indicted nor exonerated Trump on that count. A found that Trump solicited from to help his and then obstructed the inquiry itself. He was by the on December 18, 2019, for and ; he was of both charges by the on February 5, 2020.

Early life and education

Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at the Jamaica Hospital in the borough of , New York City. His father was , a Bronx-born real estate developer whose parents were German immigrants. His mother was Scottish-born housewife . Trump grew up in the neighborhood of Queens and attended the from kindergarten through seventh grade., a private boarding school.
In 1964, Trump enrolled at . of the . graduating in May 1968 with a in economics. Profiles of Trump published in The New York Times in 1973 and 1976 erroneously reported that he had graduated first in his class at Wharton but he had never made the school's honor roll. threatened Fordham University and the New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records.

While in college, Trump obtained four student deferments. In 1966, he was deemed fit for military service based upon a medical examination, and in July 1968 a local draft board classified him as eligible to serve. Trump said in 2015 that the medical deferment was due to a in a foot, though he could not remember which foot had been afflicted.[20]

Family

Trump's father, Fred, was born in 1905 in . He started working with his mother in real estate when he was 15. Their company, "E. Trump & Son", founded in 1923, of and , building and selling thousands of houses, barracks, and apartments., Fred claimed to be Swedish amid the sparked by World War II; Fred and Mary were married in 1936 and raised their family in Queens. Trump grew up with three elder siblings – , Fred Jr., and Elizabeth – and younger brother Robert.[28]

In 1977, Trump married model . (born 1977), (born 1981), and (born 1984), and ten grandchildren. The couple divorced in 1992, following Trump's affair with actress . (born 1993). and Tiffany was raised by Marla in California. model . (born 2006).

Religion

Trump is a . in Jamaica, Queens, where he had his . in Manhattan,.,

Trump says he is "not sure" whether he ever asked God for forgiveness: "If I do something wrong, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture." He tries to take as often as possible because it makes him "feel cleansed". as his second favorite book saying, "Nothing beats the ."[48]

In 2015, Trump's campaign released a list of religious advisers, including , , , , and .
In November 2019, Trump appointed his personal pastor, controversial televangelist , to the White House Office of Public Liaison.[51]

Health and lifestyle

Trump has said that he , a reaction to his older brother Fred Trump Jr.'s and early death,.. He has called golfing his "primary form of exercise",[60]

In December 2015, , who had been Trump's personal physician since 1980, wrote in a letter that he would "be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency". and that three Trump agents had removed his medical records in February 2017 without due authorization.

In January 2018, White House physician said Trump was in excellent health and that his cardiac assessment revealed no issues, Several outside cardiologists commented that Trump's 2018 level of 143 did not indicate excellent health. said Trump was in "very good health overall", although he was clinically . score indicates he suffers from , which is common for white men at his age.[69]

Wealth

In 1982, Trump was listed on the initial list of wealthy individuals as having a share of his family's estimated $200 million net worth. His financial losses in the 1980s caused him to be dropped from the list between 1990 and 1995. ranking, Forbes estimated Trump's net worth at $3.1 billion (715th in the world, 259th in the U.S.) and the first billionaire American president. When he filed mandatory financial disclosure forms with the (FEC) in July 2015, Trump claimed a net worth of about $10 billion; Trump said in a 2007 deposition, "My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feelings."[77]

Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in April 2018 that Trump, using a pseudonym "", called him in 1984 to falsely assert that he owned "in excess of ninety percent" of the Trump family's business, in an effort to secure a higher ranking on the list of wealthy Americans. Greenberg also wrote that Forbes had vastly overestimated Trump's wealth and wrongly included him on the Forbes 400 rankings of 1982, 1983, and 1984.[78]

Trump has often said he began his career with "a small loan of one million dollars" from his father, and that he had to pay it back with interest. and The Washington Post have concluded that Trump's investments underperformed the stock market. Forbes estimated in October 2018 that the value of Trump's personal brand licensing business had declined by 88% since 2015, to $3 million.[86]

Trump's tax returns from 1985 to 1994 show net losses totaling $1.17 billion over the ten-year period, in contrast to his claims about his financial health and business abilities. The New York Times reported that "year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer", and Trump's "core business losses in 1990 and 1991 – more than $250 million each year – were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years". In 1995 his reported losses were $915.7 million.

Real estate

Trump began his career in 1968 at his father Fred's real estate development company, E. Trump & Son, which owned middle-class rental housing in New York City's outer boroughs..[92]

Manhattan developments

Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family's first Manhattan venture, the renovation of the derelict , adjacent to . The financing was facilitated by a $400 million city property tax abatement arranged by Fred Trump, The hotel reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and that same year, Trump obtained rights to develop , a skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan. The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization and was Trump's primary residence until 2019.[101]

In 1988, Trump acquired the in Manhattan with a loan of $425 million from a consortium of banks. Two years later, the hotel filed for bankruptcy protection, and a reorganization plan was approved in 1992.[104]

In 1996, Trump acquired a vacant 71-story skyscraper at . After an extensive renovation, the high-rise was renamed the Trump Building. In the early 1990s, Trump won the right to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in the neighborhood near the . Struggling with debt from other ventures in 1994, Trump sold most of his interest in the project to Asian investors who were able to finance completion of the project, . Trump temporarily retained a partial stake in an adjacent site along with other investors.[106]

Palm Beach estate

In 1985, Trump acquired the estate in . On September 27, 2019, Trump declared Mar-a-Lago his primary residence.

Atlantic City casinos

In 1984, Trump opened hotel and casino in with financing from the , who also managed the operation. Gambling had been legalized there in 1977 in an effort to revitalize the once-popular seaside destination. Soon after it opened the casino was renamed "Trump Plaza", but the property's poor financial results worsened tensions between Holiday and Trump, who paid Holiday $70 million in May 1986 to take sole control of the property. Earlier, Trump had also acquired a partially completed building in Atlantic City from the for $320 million. Upon its completion in 1985, that hotel and casino was called . Trump's then-wife managed it until 1988.

Trump acquired a third casino in Atlantic City, the , in 1988 in a highly leveraged transaction. and completed at a cost of $1.1 billion, opening in April 1990. The project went bankrupt the following year, Facing "enormous debt", he gave up control of his money-losing airline, , and sold his 282-foot (86 m) mega yacht, the , which had been indefinitely docked in Atlantic City while leased to his casinos for use by wealthy gamblers.

In 1995, Trump founded (THCR), which assumed ownership of Trump Plaza, Trump Castle, and the in . He remained chairman of THCR until 2009.[131]

Golf courses

As of December 2016, the Trump Organization owns or operates 18 golf course and golf resorts in the United States and abroad.

Trump began acquiring and constructing golf courses in 1999; his first property was the in . Following the , he began purchasing existing golf courses and re-designing them. for his numerous golf outings, Trump golfed eleven times during his first eight weeks in office.

Branding and licensing

After the Trump Organization's financial losses in the early 1990s, it refocused its business on branding and licensing the Trump name for building projects that are owned and operated by other people and companies. to locations around the world, including ; ; ; ; ; and . There were also Trump-branded buildings in Dubai, , , Manila, Mumbai, and Indonesia.[141]

The Trump name has also been licensed for various consumer products and services, including foodstuffs, apparel, adult learning courses, and home furnishings. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, there are more than fifty licensing or management deals involving Trump's name, which have generated at least $59 million in yearly revenue for his companies.

Lawsuits and bankruptcies

As of April 2018, Trump and his businesses had been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, according to a running tally by ., he or one of his companies had been the plaintiff in 1,900 cases and the defendant in 1,450. With Trump or his company as plaintiff, more than half the cases have been against gamblers at his who had failed to pay off their debts. With Trump or his company as a defendant, the most common type of case involved personal injury cases at his hotels. In cases where there was a clear resolution, Trump's side won 451 times and lost 38.

Trump has never filed for ., they were allowed to operate while negotiations proceeded. Trump was quoted by Newsweek in 2011 saying, "I do play with the bankruptcy laws – they're very good for me" as a tool for trimming debt. The six bankruptcies were the result of over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York: (1991), (1992), (1992), (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and (2009).

During the 1980s, more than 70 banks had lent Trump $4 billion,.[156]

In April 2019, the issued seeking financial details from Trump's banks, Deutsche Bank and , and his accounting firm, . In response, Trump sued the banks, Mazars, and committee chairman to prevent the disclosures. In May, judge ruled that Mazars must comply with the subpoena, of the ruled that the banks must also comply. Trump's attorneys appealed the rulings,[164]

Side ventures

After taking over control of the Trump Organization in 1971, Trump expanded its real estate operations and ventured into other business activities. The company eventually became the umbrella organization for several hundred individual business ventures and partnerships.

In September 1983, Trump purchased the , a team in the . After the 1985 season, the league folded largely due to Trump's strategy of moving games to a fall schedule where they competed with the for audience, and trying to force a merger with the NFL by bringing an antitrust lawsuit against the organization.

Trump's businesses have hosted several boxing matches at the adjacent to and promoted as taking place at the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, including against . cycling stage race, which was an attempt to create an American equivalent of European races such as the or the .[171]

Trump purchased significant blocks of shares in various public companies during the late 1980s, as Wall Street saw a wave of corporate acquisitions known as . In some cases, these acquisitions were conducted by so-called . Some raiders purchased a stake in a public company with the stated but feigned intent of acquiring it, then pressured management to repurchase the stake at a profitable premium for the raider – a practice known as . Some observers believed Trump was engaged in such practices, though he denied it. Analysis conducted by The New York Times found that Trump made millions of dollars in these stock transactions, but "lost most, if not all, of those gains after investors stopped taking his takeover talk seriously."[174]

In 1988, Trump founded , purchasing 21 planes and landing rights at three airports in New York City, Boston, and the Washington, D.C., area, from the defunct , costing $380 million financed from 22 banks. The airline offered charter services in addition to scheduled shuttle flights, and was eventually sold to in 1992 after failing to operate at a profit.[175]