How The Trump Family Got To Their Current Stations In Life
Donald Trump started out as a real estate businessman and ended up as the 45th President of the United States. Just how exactly did a boy from Queens become the most powerful person in the country? You see, it all began with the success of his very own granddad. His father was also able to continue the success of the family. When it was time for him to take over, Donald Trump increased their fortune and expanded the family business as well. Keep reading to learn more about the famous Trump family!
A Little Boy
Donald John Trump is the fifth child of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod. The 45th President of the United States was born at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens on June 14, 1946. His parents got married 10 years before his birth. His father’s family came from Germany, and his mother’s family has its roots in Scotland. Frederick, his granddad, moved to the United States in 1885 at the age of 16 and became an American citizen in 1892. He proved to be a great businessman and launched the family fortune with the operation of boarding houses and “boomtown” restaurants. On Facebook, Donald Trump shared this photo of his childhood years with the caption, “Who knew this innocent kid would grow into a monster?” For the sake of clarification, that was only a joke.
A Little Boy
Siblings
The Trump family must be thankful for the business savvy of his grandfather. In 1902, Frederick Trump got married to Elisabeth Christ, and they moved to New York in 1905. That was also the year that they gave birth to Fred, Donald’s father. The younger Trump joined the family real estate business at the age of 15. In 1923, he founded E. Trump & Son together with his mother. The company primarily operated in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City. Fred Trump married Mary Anne MacLeod in 1936, and the couple went on to have five children between them. Their son Donald was known to follow his own rules ever since he was young. Here is a photo of the Trump siblings. Donald is on the far left. From left to right, we also have Fred Jr., Elizabeth, Maryanne, and Robert.
Siblings
Boarding School
Donald Trump was a student at the Kew-Forest School from kindergarten until seventh grade. It is a college prep school in Queens. His parents shipped him off to the New York Military Academy when he was 13 years old, however. They sent him to the private boarding school in Cornwall as punishment when they found out that he often went to Manhattan without asking for permission. When he got to his new school, Donald became a popular kid. He took to Facebook to post this old photo and captioned it, “#TBT My confirmation picture at First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, N.Y.”
Boarding School
Love of Sports
When he was attending the Military Academy, he was active in a bunch of sports. With a height of 6’2”, he was able to play tennis, football, golf, and squash. There are also pictures that show him on the school varsity baseball team. He would eventually lose interest in these sports, but golf was there to stay with him. It is, to this day, a staple in his life.
Love Of Sports
Football
Trump was a football player when he was attending the New York Military Academy. This totally explains why he went on to own a football team of his own as an adult. He tried to run an American football league and made it compete with the more established National Football League.
Football
Proud Parents
Donald Trump also shared this photo of him on Facebook and said, “#TBT Myself with mother and father at New York Military Academy. See, I can be very military. High rank!” While he might describe himself as “very military,” he actually received 5 draft deferments from service in the army during the Vietnam war. Four of those were for his college studies. The fifth one, however, came about after a diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. The diagnosis has recently received some scrutiny. The daughter of the man who diagnosed him said that it was only a “favor” to Fred Trump. Apparently, the podiatrist had the older Trump as his landlord.
Proud Parents
The Beat Of His Own Drum
By this point, you must already know that Donald Trump likes to do things in his own way. Here is yet another “Throwback Thursday” photo of himself wearing the NYMA uniform. He previously said that it made him look “very military” despite not having any military experience at all. A couple of decades after this, he landed in hot water after criticizing Senator John McCain, who was captured and kept prisoner in Vietnam. Trump did not think that he was a hero and even said, “I like people that weren’t captured.”
The Beat Of His Own Drum
Graduate
In May 1964, Donald Trump graduated from the New York Military Academy. Fall of that year, he started his tertiary education at Fordham University. He studied there for 2 years before he started at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He got his degree in economics in 1968. Here is the senior yearbook photo of him from 1964. When he made his declaration about his intention to run for president, the New York Daily News printed this photo after he criticized John McCain. The newspaper called him out about the medals on his uniform and said they must have been awarded for “being neat.”
Graduate
College Graduate
The photo below is one of Donald Trump and his father after his graduation from Wharton. He posted the photo on Instagram. The younger Trump talked about how Fred Trump, his father, was able to continue the success of the family business by creating and then selling “thousands of houses, barracks, and apartments” in NYC. Three years after that, he would become the president of E. Trump & Son, his father’s business. He eventually changed its name to the Trump Organization.
College Graduate
Brooklyn, 1975
Here is another photo that he put up on his Facebook page. The caption read, “#TBT With my father, Fred Trump, in Brooklyn,1975. A great Father’s Day gift—a stay at my 5-star hotel”. This must have been a great moment for these two men. However, there was trouble waiting for them when this was taken. After all, it was the year that the family had to settle a Justice Department lawsuit. It claimed that the company had been systematically discriminating against renters of African descent. It said that the Trump Organization screened their clients based on race and not economic status. This was not even the first time they had to settle a racial discrimination case. In 1969, they got sued by the management of a property they had in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fred wanted it to be settled on the down-low if the reports are to be believed. Even though they had to deal with these things, the business just kept going.
Brooklyn, 1975
Father and Son
Donald and Fred Trump were both on the 1982 richest Americans list released by Forbes. They earned a spot on the list thanks to their combined $200 million fortune. In 1976, Fred also created trust funds worth $1 million for each of his children and grandchildren. Donald himself has admitted that he was able to start his career with the help of a “small loan of $1 million” from Fred. In reality, he must have had access to the money built by his dad and grandfather. However, it looks like Donald Trump was simply not happy with a fortune of $200 million!
Father And Son
The Business
Donald was able to accumulate a big fortune as the ‘80s rolled by. He eventually made it to the Forbes list of billionaires in 1989! Jonathan Greenberg, a reporter with Forbes, revealed that he suspected that Trump tricked him about the wealth of the family to secure a post on the list. At any rate, he did not stay a billionaire for a long time. He had business losses that took him off of it from 1990 to 1995. In the picture, Trump talked about his failed bid to create the New York City convention center by saying, “#TBT As a young man when I proposed the Convention Center in New York City.”
The Business
Trump Tower
As his wealth kept growing, Trump was determined to make an impact on the history of New York City. He wanted to change its skyline by pushing for the development of his Trump Tower. It eventually received the approval and started construction. It was ready in 1983. This is a photo of Trump with the model of his Fifth Avenue complex, where “one of the apartments will sell for $11 million and [Trump] claims four bidders – none of them Americans – are bidding for it.”
Trump Tower
Ivana Zelníčková
By 1978, he launched his real estate business in Manhattan, which would turn him into the billionaire he is. He got a 50% stake in the abandoned Commodore Hotel beside Grand Central Terminal. The hotel was relaunched as the Grand Hyatt Hotel in 1980. This was done in partnership with Hyatt, a hotel chain. Back then, he was not only all business. He got married to a Czech model by the name of Ivana Zelníčková in 1977. They had 3 kids, but it ended in divorce in 1992 after his affair with Marla Maples.
Ivana Zelníčková
First-Born Son
Below, you can see Donald Trump with Donald Jr. in 1977. Aside from his firstborn son, he and Ivana had two more kids between them: Ivanka and Eric, born in 1981 and 1984 respectively. Trump had been happily married and expanding the family when something tragic happened. His brother Fred Jr. died in 1981 after struggling with alcoholism. This tragedy had a huge impact on him, and Donald even quit drinking and smoking completely afterward.
First Born Son
Team Owner
In 1983, Donald Trump purchased a team in the United States Football League called the New Jersey Generals. In that year, he lured the talented and famous Herschel Walker to this league. In 1985, he was able to recruit Doug Flutie, who was a QB for Boston College. Prior to the 1986 season, however, the USFL decided to fold after it lost an antitrust case against the National Football League. On top of that, Trump made the wrong move by moving the schedule of the league from spring/summer to fall/winter.
Team Owner
‘The Art of the Deal’
In 1988, he launched the Donald J. Trump Foundation. In the beginning, he planned to use it to give away the proceeds of The Art of the Deal, his famous book. Just so you know, the tax returns of the foundation show that it gave away money to not only healthcare and sports charities but also to conservative political groups. Trump shared this photo and wrote this in the caption: “Here with my father Fred, back in 1980. My hero, role model, and best friend. #TBT.”
‘The Art Of The Deal’
Wollman Rink Renovation
After dealing with overbudgeting, missing deadlines, and bureaucracy, the city of New York finally gave him the contract for the renovation of the Wollman Rink in Central Park. Approved in June 1986, the renovations were completed by December. Trump was able to leave his mark on such a huge attraction. He literally added his logo on the rink railing! He donated part of the profits to public works and charity.
Wollman Rink Renovation
Fred Trump
Fred Trump passed away in 1999. Back then, his will indicated that $20 million was going to be given away to his surviving kids. This is a photo of Donald Trump and his dad outside the Central Park skating rink after it was renovated. The photo came with the caption, “#PresidentTrump with his father Fred #Trump at the Wollman Rink in #CentralPark, #NYC – in 1987. #POTUS45 #ThrowbackThursday #TBT”
Fred Trump
Marla Maples
Marla Maples was the second wife of Trump. The two of them met in 1989 and embarked on an infamous affair while he and Ivana were still together. Donald had one daughter with Marla, Tiffany. They named her after the jewelry house! Only two months after she was born in October 1993, her parents became man and wife in a ceremony held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Trump bought the establishment in 1988, turned it into a four-star hotel, and then sold it off in 1995.
Marla Maples
The Kids
Here is a throwback photo yet again. Donald shared the image of him with his children 20 years ago. In the photo, he is joined by Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Jr. They would follow suit by inheriting an impressive amount of money and working for the family. As you can see, the business was in very good hands.
The Kids
‘Lost City’
This is a photo of Donald Trump with his “Television City” model. That was the name of a proposed complex in Manhattan. It was going to be a residential and commercial complex located in the Upper West Side. He hoped that it was going to be the new location of the HQ of NBC News and more TV studios. His model had a 150-story building as its centerpiece, which would turn it into the tallest building in history. However, the plan received criticism with critics saying that this idea was not only “woefully simplistic” but also had “little connection to the varied pattern of streets” of New York. On top of that, the community disapproved when Trump wanted to double the size of the proposal. It went even more out of control after Mayor Ed Koch wanted to give NBC tax breaks if its studios moved there but did not plan to give Trump one. It was not surprising to hear that Trump name-called him for this.
‘Lost City’
Branching Out
This must be the best photo to show how Trump branched out of the family business created by his grandfather and father. This is Trump, moments after the New York Board of Estimate approved his plan to buy and fix the Commodore Hotel in Manhattan. It was this project that let Trump kickstart his real estate company. However, we do not think that it is correct to say that he built it all on his own. After all, he obtained a $70 million loan for construction because the Hyatt Hotel chain and Fred Trump served as his guarantors. Trump might claim that he started from the ground up, it is more accurate to say that he just kept the success of his father and grandfather going strong.
Branching Out
Trump Tower Completion
In the same year that they finished the takeover of the Commodore Hotel, Donald Trump was also given the rights to build Trump Tower in Manhattan. There were reports that Trump had undocumented Polish workers to tear down the flagship store of Bonwit Teller. It was a building known for art deco features and had originally been marked by the city for preservation. The construction of the Trump Tower took 4 years. They opened the final spaces in November 1983. These days, it holds many commercial and residential spaces. No doubt, the most famous ones are Trump’s penthouse and the HQ of the Trump Organization.
Trump Tower Completion
Trump Tower Opening
Here are Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, his lawyer and friend, during the inauguration of the Trump Tower back in 1983. The two men have a long history together. Cohn was the legal counsel of Trump during the federal lawsuit in which the Justice Department accused him of breaking the Fair Housing Act at 39. It claimed that he quoted different rental availabilities, conditions, and terms to African American clients to stop them from renting the properties he owned. He failed to provide sufficient counterargument, which was why Trump had to settle it out of court in 1975. Three years after that, Donald Trump found himself in court once more, this time for the violation of the 1975 settlement terms. Trump did not only need legal aid from Cohn, however. It was said that Trump has had similar public ‘counterattacks,’ which might explain the reason he is so eager to give the press comments, both negative and positive.
Trump Tower Opening
Expansion
This photo of Donald Trump in the Trump Tower was taken in 1984. “What I have done is build the most beautiful buildings in the best locations,” he once told reporters. During the ‘80s, he was able to leave his mark on the city by working on the Plaza Hotel and the Wollman skating rink. At the start of the ‘90s, he refurbished the Gulf and Western Building as well as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building. He ended up renaming it to Trump Building after the renovations. On top of that, he also bought shares of the Empire State Building from 1994 to 2002 in the hopes of renaming it “Trump Empire State Building Tower Apartments.” He could have done this if he had been able to get a majority share!
Expansion
Unhappy
This photo was taken outside the federal court as Donald Trump left the building in 1986. Does he seem unhappy? It might have something to do with his agreement to pay a penalty of $750,000 to settle the antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission. He failed to notify the government before he bought more than $15 million worth of Bally Manufacturing Corp. and Holiday Corp. voting stock. It might be a lot of money, but things had been going nicely for him back then. He could easily forget about these problems because he had just acquired the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida!
Unhappy
A Gamble
It looks like Trump had been unfulfilled by his properties in New York City. This might be the reason he started to explore New Jersey as well. When the state passed casino gambling in 1977, he started to look for business opportunities in the area. In 1984, he inaugurated Harrah’s at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino. During the mid and late ‘80s, he bought multiple casino properties in Atlantic City. These did not turn out to be financially sound decisions!
A Gamble
Happier Times
This is a photo of Donald Trump, Fred Trump, and Mayor Ed Koch. Take in July 1982, they might have seemed very happy. However, Trump was about to be in for financial losses in a matter of years because his New Jersey casino business could not turn a profit. He bought Atlantic City properties, which caused such terrible financial performances that Trump had to sell off Trump Shuttle, his declining airline, and Trump Princess, his mega-yacht. On top of that, he needed to restructure his debt. In 1995, he finished consolidating his casinos under Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. The company had to go bankruptcy restructuring twice: in 2004 and in 2009.
Happier Times
Football Fan
The Atlantic City casino properties were not his only failed attempt at business in New Jersey. He also hired Walt Michaels to be the Head Coach of the New Jersey Generals, his team in the United States Football League. He acquired the team in 1983 and hoped to turn USFL into a serious contender of the more famous National Football League. Sadly, it proved to be the wrong move for him. Many teams were already losing money when he tried to move the schedule of the league from spring/summer to fall/winter in order to compete with the NFL. Even though the USFL filed and won an antitrust suit against the NFL, this was a “victory in name only” and only received $1 for it. By then, many teams were unable to keep up with the costs of running the teams, which was the reason the league just disbanded.
Football Fan
The Penthouse
If you know Donald Trump and his aesthetic preferences, you will probably assume that this is the interior of his property. He is known for his love of gold. However, the truth is that this photo of him and Ivana was taken in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1987. He has quite a history with this country. He paid this visit in the hopes of exploring the idea of developing hotels in Russia with the invitation of Ambassador Yuri Dubinin. He tried to close in on more deals in the real estate sector nearly a decade later in 1996. For many years, he asserted that he did not have business connections in Russia, although this was proved false when it came to light that he was trying to lock in on a deal to construct a building in Moscow back in June 2016. It was also revealed that he got lots of financial support from a Russian friend when he had to deal with bankruptcy in the ‘90s. Donald Jr. said that the country had a “pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. … We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
The Penthouse
Red Carpet
These days, Donald Trump is no longer all that friendly with many Hollywood elites. There was a time, however, when he was a red carpet staple in industry events. He has been a part of the elite class in New York since his birth, after all. He appeared in a number of major films in 1989, always cast to play himself. He became an even bigger star when “The Donald” was brought in to host the NBC show called The Apprentice. It was a big hit and was where he coined the catchphrase, “You’re fired.” There was also a spin-off series called The Celebrity Apprentice.
Red Carpet
Florida Friends
These days, Trump has no qualms about feuding with celebrities who express criticism of his political style. However, this was not always true. He might have stayed at arm’s length of certain famous people, but one connection has returned to the spotlight recently. Below is a photo of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein at the Mar-a-Lago in 1997. They had been friends for over a decade. The New York Magazine even quoted Trump saying, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Florida Friends
Friends Like These
People scrutinized his comment, particularly about the part where he said Jeffrey liked women “on the younger side.” In July 2019, his friend got arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York. For decades before this, there were already rumors about his pedophilic tendencies. Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein used to party often at the Mar-a-Lago estate owned by the Trump family. However, they fell out after they both entered a 2004 bidding war for the Maison de l’Amitie, also known as the House of Friendship, in Palm Beach. In the end, Trump won the competition. It was said that Epstein was so upset about it that they stopped speaking. Four years after that, a Russian businessperson called Dmitry Rybolovlev bought it from Trump.
Friends Like These
Dreams
Take a look at this portrait of Donald Trump, which was shot in 1983. It truly brings us all back to when he made the headlines every single day. That was the same year that he and his father made it to the Forbes list of rich people with their estimated net worth of $200 million. In the ‘80s, Donald Trump would lose his place on the list but eventually made a comeback anyway. In 2019, he was ranked the 259th richest person in the United States with his net worth of $3.1 billion. Fun fact: he is the first billionaire to become a president! Forbes, however, says that his wealth saw a drop by 31% after he made his intentions to run for president known.
Dreams
‘Ladies’ Man’
During his time at the New York Military Academy, Trump joined many school teams, events, and functions. This is a photo from his NYMA yearbook. In it, Trump was dubbed a “Ladies’ Man.” The woman in the photo remained unknown for 50 years! In the end, it was revealed that she was a secretary who went by the name Fran Dunn. Apparently, she was requested to pose for a photo with the young Donald Trump. With that said, his friends must not have been surprised to hear of his scandals!
‘Ladies’ Man’