Early life
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens.He is the fourth of five children to Mary Anne (née MacLeod; 1912–2000), a homemaker and philanthropist,and Fred Trump (1905–1999), who worked as a real estate developer. His mother was born at Tong on the Scottish island of Lewis and Harris. In 1930, aged 18, she visited the United States and met Fred Trump. They were married in 1936 and settled in Jamaica Estates, Queens, as Fred Trump eventually became one of the city's biggest real estate developers.[10][12] Trump has one living brother, Robert (born 1948), and two living sisters: Maryanne (born 1937) and Elizabeth (born 1942). Maryanne is a United States federal judge on senior status for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.[13] Another brother, Fred Jr. (1938–1981), died of complications from alcoholism.[14]Trump's father was born in Woodhaven, Queens, the son of Elizabeth (née Christ) and Frederick Trump, emigrants who moved to the United States from Germany in 1885.[15] Frederick worked as a successful Klondike Gold Rush restaurateur and brothel keeper.[16][17][18] In a 1976 New York Times biographical profile,[19] and again in his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, Trump incorrectly stated that Frederick Trump was of Swedish origin,[20][21] an assertion that Fred Trump made for many years ostensibly because "he had a lot of Jewish tenants and it wasn't a good thing to be German", according to a nephew identified as a family historian by The New York Times.[22] Donald Trump later acknowledged his German ancestry and served as grand marshal of the 1999 German-American Steuben Parade in New York City.[12]
The family had a two-story mock Tudor Revival home on Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates,[23] where Trump lived while attending The Kew-Forest School. At Kew-Forest, Fred Trump served as a member of the Board of Trustees. Due to behavior problems, Trump left the school at age 13 and was enrolled in the New York Military Academy (NYMA).[24] In 1983, Fred told an interviewer that Donald "was a pretty rough fellow when he was small." Trump finished eighth grade and high school at NYMA.[25] During his senior year, Trump participated in marching drills and wore a uniform, attaining the rank of captain.[26] In 2015, he told a biographer that NYMA gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military."[27]
Trump attended Fordham University in the Bronx for two years. He entered the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, as Wharton then offered one of the few real estate studies departments in U.S. academia.[28] While there, he worked at his father's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son.[29] Trump graduated from Wharton in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics.[30][31]
Trump was eligible for the draft lottery during the Vietnam War.[32] "I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number", he told WNYW in 2011.[33] Selective Service records retrieved by The Smoking Gun website from the National Archives show that, although Trump did eventually receive a high selective service lottery number in 1969, he was not drafted earlier secondary to four student deferments (2-S) while attending college, as well as a medical deferment (1-Y, later converted to 4-F) obtained in 1968 after his college graduation, prior to the lottery being initiated.[34] Trump was deemed fit for service after a military medical examination in 1966 and was briefly classified as 1-A by a local draft board shortly before his 1968 medical disqualification.[35] Trump attributed his medical deferment to "heel spurs" in both feet, according to a 2015 biographer,[27] but told an Iowa campaign audience he suffered from a spur in one foot, although he could not remember which one.[35]
Business career
Trump has said that when he graduated from college in 1968, he was worth about US$200,000 (equivalent to $1,021,000 in 2016).[36] At age 23 he made an unsuccessful foray into show business, investing $70,000 to become co-producer of the 1970 Broadway comedy "Paris Is Out!", which flopped.[37] Trump began his real estate career at his father's company,[38] Elizabeth Trump and Son,[39] which focused on middle-class rental housing in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. During his undergraduate study, one of Trump's first projects had been the revitalization of the foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father had purchased for $5.7 million in 1962.[40] Fred and Donald Trump became involved in the project and, with a $500,000 investment, turned the 1,200-unit complex's occupancy rate from 34% to 100%. Trump oversaw the company's 14,000 apartments across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.[41] In 1972, The Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million.[42][43]In 1971, Trump moved to Manhattan, where he became involved in larger construction projects, and used attractive architectural design to win public recognition.[44] Trump initially came to public attention in 1973 when he was accused by the Justice Department of violations of the Fair Housing Act in the operation of 39 buildings, including false "no vacancy" statements, and sham leases presenting higher rents to minority applicants, to facilitate the denial of housing to racial minorities.[45] Trump in turn accused the Justice Department of targeting his company because it was a large one, and in order to force it to rent to welfare recipients. After an unsuccessful countersuit filed by attorney Roy Cohn,[45] Trump settled the charges in 1975 without admitting guilt, saying he was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant."[46] The Trump Organization was again in court several years later for violating terms of the settlement.[45]
The Trump Organization owns, operates, develops, and invests in real estate around the world such as Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower, seen at center, in Panama City, Panama.
Trump promoted Penn Central's rail yard on 30th Street as a site for New York City's planned Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Trump estimated his company could have completed the project for $110 million,[50] but, while the city chose his site, it rejected his offer and Trump received a broker's fee on the sale of the property instead. Repairs on the Wollman Rink in Central Park, built in 1955, were started in 1980 with an expected 2 1⁄2-year construction schedule, but were not completed by 1986. Trump took over the management of the project without the city needing to pay anything, and completed it in three months for $1.95 million, which was $750,000 less than the initial budget.[51]
In 1988, Trump acquired the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in a transaction with Merv Griffin and Resorts International,[52] which led to mounting debt,[53] and by 1989, Trump was unable to meet loan payments. Although he secured additional loans and postponed interest payments, increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy by 1991.[53] Banks and bondholders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars but opted to restructure the debt. The Taj Mahal emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991, with Trump ceding 50 percent ownership in the casino to the original bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates on the debt and more time to pay it off.[54] He also sold his financially challenged Trump Shuttle airline and his 282-foot megayacht, the Trump Princess.[55] The late 1990s saw a resurgence in Trump's financial situation. The will of Trump's father, who died in 1999, divided an estate estimated at $250–300 million[22] equally among his four surviving children.
In 2001, Trump completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters.[56] Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump owns commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. Trump owns several million square feet of prime Manhattan real estate.[57]
By 2014, Trump retained only 10% ownership of Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, both in Atlantic City. In that year, Trump Entertainment Resorts entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed Trump Plaza indefinitely. Billionaire Carl Icahn purchased the company in 2016, acquiring Trump Taj Mahal and kept Trump's name on the building even though Trump no longer maintains any ownership.[58]
According to a July 2015 press release from his campaign manager, Trump's "income" was $362 million ("which does not include dividends, interest, capital gains, rents and royalties").[59] According to Fortune magazine, the $362 million figure as stated on his FEC filings is not "income" but gross revenue before salaries, interest payments on outstanding debt, and other business-related expenses; Trump's true income was "most likely" about one-third of what Trump has publicly claimed.[60][61] According to public records, Trump received a $302 New York tax rebate in 2013 (and in two other recent years) given to couples earning less than $500,000 per year, who submit as proof their Federal tax returns.[61] Trump's campaign manager has suggested that Trump's tax rebate was an error,[61] but Trump has not publicly released his Federal tax returns, citing ongoing IRS audits.[62]
Trump has licensed his name and image for the development of many real estate projects. At least two Trump-branded real estate projects have gone into foreclosure.[63] The Turkish owner of Trump Towers Istanbul, who pays Trump for the use of his name, was reported in December 2015 to be exploring legal means to dissociate the property after the candidate's call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S.[64]
Trump has also licensed his name to son-in-law Jared Kushner's fifty story Trump Bay Street, a Jersey City luxury development that has raised $50 million of its $200 million capitalization largely from wealthy Chinese nationals who, after making an initial downpayment of $500,000 in concert with the government's expedited EB-5 visa program, can usually be expected to obtain U.S. permanent residency for themselves and their families after two years.[65] The EB-5 program, which does not require visa recipients to demonstrate marketable skills, has aroused concerns from the Homeland Security Department regarding inadequate background checks, with money laundering concerns and cases of identity fraud also noted by the General Accounting Office.[65] A spokesperson clarified that Trump is a partner with Kushner Properties only in name licensing and not in the building's financing.[65]
An analysis of Trump's business career by The Economist in 2016, concludes that his "...performance has been mediocre compared with the stockmarket and property in New York."[66]
Business ventures and investments
Trump Tower
Main article: Trump Tower (New York City)
Trump Tower occupies the former site of the architecturally significant Bonwit Teller flagship store, demolished in 1980.[68][69] There was controversy when valuable Art Deco bas-relief sculptures on its facade, which were supposed to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, were destroyed during the demolition process.[68][69] In addition, the demolition of the Bonwit Teller store was criticized for a contractor's use of some 200 undocumented Polish immigrant workers, who, during the rushed demolition process, were reportedly paid 4–5 dollars per hour for work in 12-hour shifts.[70][71] Trump testified in 1990 he rarely visited the site and was unaware of the illegal workers, some of whom lived at the site and who were known as the "Polish Brigade." A judge ruled in 1991 that the builders engaged in "a conspiracy to deprive the funds of their rightful contribution", referring to the pension and welfare funds of the labor unions.[72] However, the record became sealed when long-running labor lawsuit was settled in 1999, after 16 years in court.[70][71]
Trump Taj Mahal
Main article: Trump Taj Mahal
Trump Taj Mahal, at 1000 Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey
In November 2014, the Trump Taj Mahal announced plans to close and cease casino and hotel operations by the end of the year if the union would not drop its appeal of the casino's bankruptcy ruling, rebuffing their demand for continued health insurance and pension coverage. On December 18, 2014 the Trump Taj Mahal reached an agreement with its union and kept the casino open, but did not restore the contested benefits.
In February 2016, the Trump Taj Mahal and its parent, Trump Entertainment Resorts, were purchased by billionaire Carl Icahn and exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[58] Its sister casino in Atlantic City, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, closed indefinitely in 2014.
Golf courses
The Trump Organization operates many golf courses and resorts in the U.S. and around the world.[73] On February 11, 2014, it was announced that Trump had purchased Doonbeg Golf Club in the Republic of Ireland. It was confirmed that the club would be renamed Trump International Golf Links, Ireland.[74]
In April 2014, Trump purchased the Turnberry hotel and golf resort in Ayrshire, Scotland, which is a regular fixture in the Open Championship rota.[80][81] In June 2015, Trump's appeal objecting to an offshore windfarm (Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm) within sight of the golf links was denied.[82]
In December 2015, Trump's attempt to prevent the windfarm being built within sight of his golf course was dismissed by five justices at the UK Supreme Court in the case of Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. Commenting on the decision, former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond branded Trump "three times a loser." A spokesman for The Trump Organization responded to Salmond's comment by saying: "Does anyone care what this man thinks? He's a has-been and totally irrelevant. The fact that he doesn't even know what's going on in his own constituency says it all ... He should go back to doing what he does best: unveiling pompous portraits of himself that pander to his already over-inflated ego."[83]
Branding and licensing
See also: List of things named after Donald Trump
Trump has marketed his name on a large number of building projects as
well as commercial products and services, achieving mixed success doing
so for himself, his partners, and investors in the projects.[84][85] His external entrepreneurial and investment ventures include Trump Financial
(a mortgage firm), Trump Sales and Leasing (residential sales), Trump
International Realty (a residential and commercial real estate brokerage
firm), The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative (a for profit business education company, formerly called the Trump University),[4]
Trump Restaurants (located in Trump Tower and consisting of Trump
Buffet, Trump Catering, Trump Ice Cream Parlor, and Trump Bar), GoTrump[5] (an online travel search engine[86][87][88]), Select By Trump (a line of coffee drinks),[89] Trump Drinks (an energy drink for the Israeli and Palestinian markets)[90][91][92][93] Donald J. Trump Signature Collection (a line of menswear, men's accessories, and watches), Donald Trump The Fragrance (2004), SUCCESS by Donald Trump (a second fragrance launched by The Trump Organization and the Five Star Fragrance Company released in March 2012), Trump Ice bottled water, the former Trump Magazine,[94] Trump Golf, Trump Chocolate, Trump Home (home furnishings),[95] Trump Productions
(a television production company), Trump Institute, Trump: The Game
(1989 board game with a 2005 re-release version tied to The Apprentice),[87] Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon (a business simulation game), Trump Books, Trump Model Management, Trump Shuttle, Trump Mortgage, Trump Network (a multi-level vitamin, cosmetic, and urinalysis marketing company),[96][97] Trump Vodka,[95][98][99] Trump Steakhouse[86][100] and Trump Steaks.[87] In addition, Trump reportedly received $1.5 million for each one-hour presentation he did for The Learning Annex.[101] Trump also endorsed ACN Inc., a multi-level marketing telecommunications company. He has spoken at ACN International Training Events at which he praised the company's founders, business model and video phone.[102] He earned a total $1.35 million for three speeches given for the company, amounting to $450,000 per speech.[90][103][104][105][106][107][108]In 2011, Forbes' financial experts estimated the value of the Trump brand at $200 million. Trump disputes this valuation, saying that his brand is worth about $3 billion.[109] Many developers pay Trump to market their properties and to be the public face for their projects.[110] For that reason, Trump does not own many of the buildings that display his name.[110] According to Forbes, this portion of Trump's empire, actually run by his children, is by far his most valuable, having a $562 million valuation. According to Forbes, there are 33 licensing projects under development including seven "condo hotels" (the seven Trump International Hotel and Tower developments). In June 2015, Forbes pegged the Trump brand at USD$125 million[111] as retailers like Macy's Inc. and Serta Mattresses began dropping Trump branded products, with Macy's saying they are "disappointed and distressed by recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico."[112][113]
Net worth
Unlike past Presidential candidates, Trump has never publicly verified his income claims by releasing his tax returns;[114] "I try to pay as little tax as possible ... It's a little tax," Trump told an interviewer in January 2016, while saying he was preparing the documents for release in the near future and claiming to have filed "big returns."[115] Former GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is among those who have questioned Trump's purported wealth and his unwillingness to release his tax returns, suggesting Trump might be wary of revealing a potential electoral "bombshell".[116][117][118][119] In the wake of Romney's accusation, Trump said during a February 25, 2016 debate that he was currently subject to an IRS audit going back "two or three years,"[120] later saying the audit affected "four or five" years,[62] and that he had been audited every year for the past 12 years.[121] Trump later told CNN he suspected the government's scrutiny was due to religion, because he was a "strong Christian."[122] As he was "in the midst of negotiating and talking with the IRS" over tax obligations going back several years, he would neither reveal recent returns nor records for audited years he had "passed" because such records "mesh" and "interrelate" with current disputed IRS filings.[122] Tax experts observed that the normal statute of limitations for IRS audits is three years, and an inquiry involving four or five years of returns might indicate substantial under-reporting or evidence of fraud, in which case normal statutes of limitations do not apply.[62]Trump was listed on the initial Forbes List of wealthy individuals in 1982 as having an estimated $200 million fortune, including a share of his father's estimated $200 million net worth.[123] After several years on the list, Trump's financial indiscipline in the 1980s caused him to be dropped from 1990 to 1995, and reportedly obliged him to borrow from his siblings' trusts in 1993;[123] in 2005, The New York Times referred to Trump's "verbal billions" in a skeptical article about Trump's self-reported wealth.[123] At the time, three individuals with direct knowledge of Trump's finances told reporter Timothy L. O'Brien that Trump's actual net worth was between $150 and $250 million, though Trump then publicly claimed a net worth of $5 to $6 billion.[123] Claiming libel, Trump sued the reporter (and his book publisher) for $5 billion, lost the case, and then lost again on appeal; Trump refused to turn over his unredacted tax returns despite his assertion they supported his case.[124] In a sworn deposition, Trump testified that he once borrowed $9.6 million from his father, calling it "a very small amount of money," but could not recall when he did so;[125] Trump has since told campaign audiences he began his career with "a small loan of one million dollars" from his father,[125] which he paid back with interest: "it has not been easy for me," Trump told one New Hampshire crowd.[126]
In April 2011, amidst speculation whether Trump would run as a candidate in the U.S. presidential election of 2012, Politico quoted unnamed sources close to him stating that, if Trump should decide to run for president, he would file "financial disclosure statements that [would] show his net worth [was] in excess of $7 billion with more than $250 million of cash, and very little debt."[127] (Presidential candidates are expected to disclose their finances after announcing their intentions to run.) Although Trump did not run as a candidate in the 2012 elections, his "professionally prepared" 2012 financial disclosure was published in his book which claimed a $7 billion net worth.[128]
A July 2015 campaign press release, issued one month after Trump announced his presidential run, said that the FEC filing "was not designed for a man of Mr. Trump's massive wealth"[137] and that his "net worth is in excess of TEN BILLION DOLLARS" (emphasis in original document).[136][139] However, Trump has testified that "my net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings—even my own feelings."[140] On the same day, Trump's own stated estimates of his net worth have varied by as much as $3.3 billion.[123] Trump has also acknowledged that past exaggerated estimates of his wealth have been "good for financing."[141] Forbes has said that although Trump "shares a lot of information with us that helps us get to the figures we publish," he "consistently pushes for a higher net worth—especially when it comes to the value of his personal brand."[133] Forbes reduced its estimate of Trump's net worth by $125 million following Trump's controversial 2015 remarks about Mexican illegal immigrants, which ended Trump's business contracts with NBCUniversal, Univision, Macy's, Serta, PVH Corporation, and Perfumania.[142] An internal Young & Rubicam study of Trump's brand favorability among high-income consumers showed "plummeting" ratings at the end of 2015, suggesting Trump's various businesses could face market and financing challenges in the future.[143]
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