Donald Trump Biography; Age, Accomplishment, Career, Net Worth and Family

Donald Trump served as America’s 45th president from January 2017-January 2021. The New York City real estate developer, reality TV star and billionaire businessman ran as a Republican and scored an upset victory over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election.

Profile Summary on Donald Trump

Trump began his career working for his father’s real estate development firm, taking over its leadership in the 1970s. In the ensuing decades, he acquired and built hotels, office towers, casinos and golf courses and also appeared on 14 seasons of “The Apprentice.”

He was the first person ever elected to the U.S. presidency without any previous government or military experience. On December 18, 2019, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives. On January 13, 2021, he became the only president in U.S. history to be impeached a second time.

Early Life of Donald Trump

He was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in the borough of Queens in New York City, he was the son of Fred, a real estate developer, and his wife, Mary, a homemaker and Scottish immigrant.

Donald was the second youngest of five children and 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 neighbourhood of Queens.

Educational Height of Donald Trump

Donald 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 B.S. in economics.

In 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.

Business Career of Young Donald Trump

After college, Trump joined his father’s company, E. Trump & Son, which developed apartments for the middle-class in New York City’s outer boroughs. He became president of the firm in 1974 and went on to make a name for himself in the Manhattan real estate world with the construction of such high-profile projects as the Grand Hyatt New York hotel, which opened in 1980, and Trump Tower, a luxury high-rise that opened in 1983.

Also in the 1980s, Trump opened hotel-casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey; acquired Manhattan’s storied Plaza Hotel and bought the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which he renovated and turned into a private club. Among other ventures, he briefly owned an airline and a professional football team in the short-lived United States Football League.

In 1987, “The Art of the Deal,” Trump’s memoir and business advice book, was published and became a best-seller. In 1989, his net worth was $1.5 billion, according to Forbes, and he made his first appearance on the cover of Time magazine.

Trump continued to acquire and develop real estate properties, and in 2016, when he became the first billionaire elected to the White House, his empire included office buildings, hotels and golf courses around the world. (His various business holdings, before and during his presidency, would become the topic of two Supreme Court cases where potential conflicts of interest were investigated, prompting a request for Trump to release his tax returns).

His Venture into the Entertainment Industry

As at 2004, Trump started hosting a reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” in which contestants vied for a management job at one of his companies. The show featured Trump’s catchphrase “You’re fired” and drew big ratings. The business mogul eventually raked in $1 million per episode and became a household name. He hosted 14 combined seasons of “The Apprentice” and a spinoff show, “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

In addition to starring on “The Apprentice” and making cameo appearances in other TV shows and movies like “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” Trump owned several beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015, including Miss Universe and Miss USA. In 1999, he founded a modeling agency that continues to operate.

Donald’s Political and Presidential Campaign

Before winning the U.S. presidency, Trump never held any elected or appointed government office. He had considered a presidential bid on at least several earlier occasions prior to the 2016 race but ultimately opted not to run.

He began questioning in TV interviews in the year 2011, whether then-President Barack Obama was born in the United States. In the following years, he harnessed rumors about Obama’s birthplace to help grow his audience on social media and gain notice in the world of conservative politics. (The White House released the Hawaiian-born president’s short-form birth certificate in 2008 and his long-form birth certificate in 2011.)

In June 2015, the real estate developer announced his presidential candidacy in a speech at Trump Tower. He ran his campaign on a pledge to “Make America Great Again,” the slogan emblazoned on the baseball hats he often wore at his public rallies, and spoke out against political correctness, illegal immigration and government lobbyists, while promising to cut taxes, renegotiate trade deals and create millions of jobs for American workers.

Trump’s brash, unapologetic style and sometimes-controversial comments garnered widespread media coverage. In May 2016, he cinched the Republican nomination, beating out a field of 16 other candidates, including Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and John Kasich.

In the general election, Trump ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential candidate from a major political party. The race was divisive, in part due to a number of inflammatory remarks and tweets made by Trump. While some members of the Republican establishment distanced themselves from the candidate, Trump’s supporters admired his outspokenness and business success, along with the fact that he wasn’t a politician. A big campaign promise was to build a fortified border wall with Mexico.

He graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in 1968. He became president of his father’s real estate business in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organization. He expanded the company’s operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He later started side ventures, mostly by licensing his name.

From 2004 to 2015, he co-produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies.

Trump’s political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, isolationist, and nationalist. He won the 2016 United States presidential election as the Republican nominee against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote.^[a] He became the first U.S. president with no prior military or government service. His election and policies sparked numerous protests.

The 2017–2019 special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller established that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to favor the election of Trump. Trump promoted conspiracy theories and made many false and misleading statements during his campaigns and presidency, to a degree unprecedented in American politics. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged or racist, and many as misogynistic.

Donald ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, diverted military funding towards building a wall on the U.S.–Mexico border, and implemented a policy of family separations for apprehended migrants. He signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which cut taxes for individuals and businesses and rescinded the individual health insurance mandate penalty of the Affordable Care Act.

He appointed 54 federal appellate judges and three United States Supreme Court justices.

In foreign policy, Trump initiated a trade war with China and withdrew the U.S. from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the Iran nuclear deal. Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un three times, but made no progress on denuclearization. He reacted slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic, ignored or contradicted many recommendations from health officials in his messaging, and promoted misinformation about unproven treatments and the need for testing.

Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden but refused to concede defeat, falsely claiming widespread electoral fraud and attempting to overturn the results by pressuring government officials, mounting scores of unsuccessful legal challenges, and obstructing the presidential transition. On January 6, 2021, Trump urged his supporters to march to the United States Capitol, which many of them then attacked, resulting in multiple deaths and interrupting the electoral vote count. In November 2022, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

He is the only American president to have been impeached twice. After he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden in 2019, he was impeached by the House of Representatives for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in December. The Senate acquitted him of both charges in February 2020. The House of Representatives impeached Trump a second time in January 2021, for incitement of insurrection.

The Senate acquitted him in February, after he had already left office. Since leaving office, Trump has remained heavily involved in the Republican Party, including making over 200 political endorsements during the 2022 midterm elections. Scholars and historians rank Trump as one of the worst presidents in American history.

As the election neared, almost all national polls predicted a victory for the Democratic nominee. However, on November 8, 2016, in what was viewed by many people as a stunning upset, Trump and his vice-presidential running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, defeated Clinton and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Trump won reliably red states as well as important swing states including Florida and Ohio and racked up 306 electoral votes to his rival’s 232 votes. Clinton won the popular vote.