Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Donald Trump: Facts
- Date of Birth :June 14, 1946 (age 77) Queens, New York City, U.S.
- Parents :Fred Trump,Mary Anne MacLeod
- Residence(s): Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, Florida
- Children:Donald Jr,Ivanka Eric ,Tiffany Barron
- Political party : Republican (1987–1999, 2009–2011, 2012–present U.S)
- Relatives : Family of Donald Trump
- Alma mater :University of Pennsylvania (BS)
- Occupation:Politician,businessman,media personality
- Award: by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation (2011)
Donald Trump :Education
Trump received a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968,
Donald Trump:Personal life
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York City,the fourth child of Fred Trump, a Bronx-born real estate developer whose parents were German immigrants, and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, an immigrant from Scotland. Trump grew up with older siblings Maryanne, Fred Jr., and Elizabeth and younger brother Robert in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens, and attended the private Kew-Forest School from kindergarten through seventh grade.At age 13, he was enrolled at the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school,and, in 1964, he enrolled at Fordham University. Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economicsIn 2015, Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Trump’s colleges, high school, and the College Board with legal action if they released Trump’s academic records.
While in college, Trump obtained four student draft deferments during the Vietnam War era. 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.In October 1968, he was classified 1-Y, a conditional medical deferment and in 1972, he was reclassified 4-F due to bone spurs, permanently disqualifying him from service.
Donald Trump:Family
In 1977, Trump married Czech model Ivana Zelníčková.They had three children: Donald Jr. (born 1977), Ivanka (born 1981), and Eric (born 1984). Ivana became a naturalized United States citizen in 1988.The couple divorced in 1990, following Trump’s affair with actress Marla Maples. Trump and Maples married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. They have one daughter, Tiffany (born 1993), who was raised by Marla in California In 2005, Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss.They have one son, Barron (born 2006) Melania gained U.S. citizenship in 2006.
Donald Trump:Religion
Trump went to Sunday school and was confirmed in 1959 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens. In the 1970s, his parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, which belongs to the Reformed Church in America.] The pastor at Marble, Norman Vincent Peale, ministered to the family until his death in 1993Trump has described him as a mentor.In 2015, the church stated that Trump was not an active member.In 2019, he appointed his personal pastor, televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison. In 2020, he said he identified as a non-denominational Christian.
Donald Trump:Wealth
In 1982, Trump made the initial Forbes list of wealthy people for holding a share of his family’s estimated $200 million net worth (equivalent to $606 million in 2022). His losses in the 1980s dropped him from the list between 1990 and 1995. After filing the mandatory financial disclosure report with the FEC in July 2015, he announced a net worth of about $10 billion. Records released by the FEC showed at least $1.4 billion in assets and $265 million in liabilities. Forbes estimated his net worth dropped by $1.4 billion between 2015 and 2018.In their 2021 billionaires ranking, Trump’s net worth was estimated to be $2.4 billion (1,299th in the world).
Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported that Trump called him in 1984, pretending to be a fictional Trump Organization official named “John Barron”. Greenberg said that Trump, speaking as “Barron”, falsely asserted that he owned more than 90 percent of his father’s business to get a higher ranking for himself on the Forbes 400 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.
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.[38] He was a millionaire by age eight, borrowed at least $60 million from his father, largely failed to repay those loans, and received another $413 million (2018 dollars adjusted for inflation) from his father’s company.In 2018, he and his family were reported to have committed tax fraud, and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance started an investigation. His investments underperformed the stock and New York property markets. Forbes estimated in October 2018 that his net worth declined from $4.5 billion in 2015 to $3.1 billion in 2017 and his product-licensing income from $23 million to $3 million.
Contrary to his claims of financial health and business acumen, Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994 show net losses totaling $1.17 billion. The losses were higher than those of almost every other American taxpayer. The losses in 1990 and 1991, more than $250 million each year, were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers. In 1995, his reported losses were $915.7 million .equivalent to $1.76 billion in 2022
In 2020, the New York Times obtained Trump’s tax information extending over two decades. Its reporters found that Trump reported losses of hundreds of millions of dollars and had, since 2010, deferred declaring $287 million in forgiven debt as taxable income. His income mainly came from his share in The Apprentice and businesses in which he was a minority partner, and his losses mainly from majority-owned businesses. Much income was in tax credits for his losses, which let him avoid annual income tax payments or lower them to $750. During the 2010s, Trump balanced his businesses’ losses by selling and borrowing against assets, including a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower (due in 2022) and the liquidation of over $200 million in stocks and bonds. He personally guaranteed $421 million in debt, most of which is due by 2024.
As of October 2021, Trump had over $1.3 billion in total debts, much of which is secured by his assets. In 2020, he owed $640 million to banks and trust organizations, including Bank of China, Deutsche Bank, and UBS, and approximately $450 million to unknown creditors. The value of his assets exceeds his debt.
Donald Trump:Business career
Starting in 1968, Trump was employed at his father’s real estate company, Trump Management, which owned racially segregated middle-class rental housing in New York City’s outer boroughs.[49][50] In 1971, he became president of the company and began using the Trump Organization as an umbrella brand.Between 1991 and 2009, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for six of his businesses, the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, the casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts company.
Manhattan developments
Trump attracted public attention in 1978 with the launch of his family’s first Manhattan venture, the renovation of the derelict Commodore Hotel, adjacent to Grand Central Terminal. The financing was facilitated by a $400 million city property tax abatement arranged for Trump by his father who also, jointly with Hyatt, guaranteed a $70 million bank construction loan. The hotel reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel, and that same year, Trump obtained rights to develop Trump Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Corporation and Trump’s PAC and was Trump’s primary residence until 2019.
In 1988, Trump acquired the Plaza Hotel with a loan from a consortium of sixteen banks. The hotel filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992, and a reorganization plan was approved a month later, with the banks taking control of the property.] In 1995, Trump defaulted on over $3 billion of bank loans, and the lenders seized the Plaza Hotel along with most of hisDonald Trump other properties in a humiliating restructuring that allowed Trump to avoid personal bankruptcy. The lead bank’s attorney said of the banks’ decision that they “all agreed that he’d be better alive than dead.”
In 1996, Trump acquired the mostly vacant 71-story skyscraper at 40 Wall Street, later rebranded as the Trump Building, and renovated it.[63] In the early 1990s, Trump won the right to develop a 70-acre (28 ha) tract in the Lincoln Square neighborhood near the Hudson River. 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 the project’s completion, Riverside South.
Donald Trump:Trump University
In 2004, Trump co-founded Trump University, a company that sold real estate training courses priced from $1,500 to $35,000.[99] After New York State authorities notified the company that its use of the word “university” violated state law (as it was not an academic institution), its name was changed to the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in 2010.
In 2013, the State of New York filed a $40 million civil suit against Trump University, alleging that the company made false statements and defrauded consumers.[101] In addition, two class actions were filed in federal court against Trump and his companies. Internal documents revealed that employees were instructed to use a hard-sell approach, and former employees testified that Trump University had defrauded or lied to its students.[102][103][104] Shortly after he won the 2016 presidential election, Trump agreed to pay a total of $25 million to settle the three cases.
Foundation
Main article: Donald J. Trump Foundation
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a private foundation established in 1988.[106][107] In the foundation’s final years, its fundsDonald Trump mostly came from donors other than Trump, who did not donate any personal funds to the charity from 2009 until 2014.[108] The foundation gave to health-care- and sports-related charities, as well as conservative groups.
In 2016, The Washington Post reported that the charity committed several potential legal and ethical violations, including alleged self-dealing and possible tax evasion.[110] Also in 2016, the New York Attorney General determined the foundation to be in violation of state law for soliciting donations and ordered it to immediately cease its fundraising activities in New York.Trump’s team announced in December 2016 that the foundation would be dissolved.
In June 2018, the New York attorney general’s office filed a civil suit against the foundation, Trump, and his adult children, seeking $2.8 million in restitution and additional penalties. In December 2018, the foundation ceased operation and disbursed its assets to other charities. In November 2019, a New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million to a group of charities for misusing the foundation’s funds, in part to finance his presidential campaign.
Donald Trump:Political career
Trump’s political party affiliation has changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in 1987 a member of the Independence Party, the New York state affiliate of the Reform Party, in 1999;[1a Democrat in 2001; a Republican in 2009; unaffiliated in 2011; and a Republican in 2012.
In 1987, Trump placed full-page advertisements in three major newspapers,expressing his views on foreign policy and on how to eliminate the federal budget deficit.He ruled out running for Donald Trumplocal office but not for the presidency.[145] In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater, asking to be put into consideration to be Republican nominee George H. W. Bush’s running mate. Bush found the request “strange and unbelievable”.
Donald Trump:Presidential campaigns (2000–2016)
n 2000, Trump ran in the California and Michigan primaries for nomination as the Reform Party candidate for the 2000 United States presidential election but withdrew from the race in February 2000.[148][149][150] A July 1999 poll matching him against likely Republican nominee George W. Bush and likely Democratic nominee Al Gore showed Trump with seven percent support.[151]
Trump, leaning heavily onto a lectern, with his mouth open mid-speech and a woman clapping politely next to him
Trump speaking at CPAC 2011
In 2011, Trump speculated about running against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, making his first speaking appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February 2011 and giving speeches in early primary states. In May 2011, he announced he would not run,and he endorsed Mitt Romney in February 2012 Trump’s presidential ambitions were generally not taken seriously at the time.