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Donald Trump
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For other uses, see Donald Trump (disambiguation).
Donald Trump
Official White House presidential portrait. Head shot of Trump smiling in front of the U.S. flag, wearing a dark blue suit jacket with American flag lapel pin, white shirt, and light blue necktie.
Official portrait, 2017
45th President of the United States
In office
January 20, 2017 – January 20, 2021
Vice President Mike Pence
Preceded by Barack Obama
Succeeded by Joe Biden
Personal details
Born Donald John Trump
June 14, 1946 (age 74)
Queens, New York City
Political party Republican (1987–1999, 2009–2011, 2012–present)
Other political
affiliations
Reform (1999–2001)
Democratic (2001–2009)
Independent (2011–2012)
Spouse(s)
Ivana Zelníčková
(m. 1977; div. 1992)
Marla Maples
(m. 1993; div. 1999)
Melania Knauss
(m. 2005)
Children
Donald Jr. Ivanka Eric Tiffany Barron
Parents
Fred Trump
Mary Anne MacLeod
Relatives Family of Donald Trump
Residence Mar-a-Lago[1]
Alma mater Wharton School (BS Econ.)
Occupation
Politicianbusinessmantelevision presenterauthor
Awards List of honors and awards
Signature Donald J. Trump stylized autograph, in ink
Website
Official website
White House Archives
Donald Trump official portrait (cropped).jpg
This article is part of
a series about
Donald Trump
President of the United States
Presidency
Timeline
Transition Inauguration Executive actions
proclamations pardons Trips
international North Korea summits
Singapore Hanoi DMZ Helsinki summit Riyadh summit Shutdowns
January 2018 2018–2019 Polls Lawsuits Protests
St. John's Church photo op Social media Veracity of statements Killings
al-Baghdadi Soleimani Trumpism
Appointments
Cabinet
formation Ambassadors Federal judges
Gorsuch Kavanaugh Barrett Supreme Court candidates Executives U.S. Attorneys
Policies
Economy
tax cuts tariffs China trade war Environment
Paris withdrawal Foreign policy
America First Iran deal Gulf crisis Jerusalem Golan Heights Palestine peace plan Abraham Accords USMCA Immigration
travel ban wall family separation migrant detentions troop deployments national emergency Infrastructure Social issues
cannabis Space
Impeachments
Efforts First impeachment
Trump–Ukraine scandal House inquiry Senate trial Second impeachment
Capitol storming Senate trial
COVID-19 pandemic
Taskforce Communication Government response
CARES Act Operation Warp Speed White House outbreak Interference with science agencies
Presidential campaigns
Interactions involving Russia
Business and personal
vte
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American media personality, businessman, and politician who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump attended Fordham University for two years and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He became the president of his father Fred Trump's real estate business in 1971, and renamed it to The Trump Organization. Trump expanded the company's operations to building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He later started various side ventures, mostly by licensing his name. Trump and his businesses have been involved in more than 4,000 state and federal legal actions, including six bankruptcies. He owned the Miss Universe brand of beauty pageants from 1996 to 2015 and produced and hosted the reality television series The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015.
Trump's political positions have been described as populist, protectionist, isolationist, and nationalist. He entered the 2016 presidential race as a Republican and was elected in an upset victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton while losing the popular vote.[a] He became the first U.S. president without prior military or government service. His election and policies sparked numerous protests. Trump 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.
During his presidency, Trump ordered a travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries, citing security concerns; after legal challenges, the Supreme Court upheld the policy's third revision. He enacted a tax-cut package for individuals and businesses, rescinding the individual health insurance mandate penalty of the Affordable Care Act. He signed criminal justice reform and appointed Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. 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 availability of testing. In foreign policy, Trump pursued an America First agenda: he renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement as the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement and withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal. He imposed import tariffs which triggered a trade war with China, moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and withdrew U.S. troops from northern Syria. He met three times with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; negotiations on denuclearization eventually broke down.
A special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller found that Trump and his campaign benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but did not find sufficient evidence to press charges of criminal conspiracy or coordination with Russia. Mueller also investigated Trump for obstruction of justice and his report neither indicted nor exonerated Trump on that offense. Trump later pardoned five of his associates who were convicted as a result of the Russia investigation. After Trump solicited Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, the House of Representatives impeached him in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate acquitted him of both charges in February 2020.
Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Biden, but refused to concede defeat. He attempted to overturn the results by making false claims of electoral fraud, pressuring government officials, mounting scores of unsuccessful legal challenges and obstructing the presidential transition. On the day Congress met to tally the electoral votes, January 6, 2021, Trump rallied his supporters and told them to march to the Capitol. They did and stormed it, resulting in the deaths of five people and forcing Congress to evacuate. Seven days later, the House impeached him for incitement of insurrection, making him the only federal officeholder in American history to be impeached twice. The Senate acquitted Trump on February 13, 2021.
Contents
1 Personal life
1.1 Early life
1.2 Family
1.3 Religious views
1.4 Health
1.5 Wealth
2 Business career
2.1 Real estate
2.2 Branding and licensing
2.3 Legal affairs and bankruptcies
2.4 Side ventures
2.5 Foundation
3 Media career
3.1 Books
3.2 Film and television
4 Pre-presidential political career
4.1 2000 presidential campaign
4.2 2012 presidential speculation
4.3 2016 presidential campaign
5 Presidency (2017–2021)
5.1 Early actions
5.2 Conflicts of interest
5.3 Domestic policy
5.4 Other issues
5.5 Immigration
5.6 Foreign policy
5.7 Personnel
5.8 Judiciary
5.9 COVID-19 pandemic
5.10 Investigations
5.11 First impeachment (2019–2020)
5.12 2020 presidential election
5.13 Storming of the U.S. Capitol
5.14 Second impeachment (2021)
6 Post-presidency
7 Public profile
7.1 Approval ratings
7.2 Social media
7.3 False statements
7.4 Promotion of conspiracy theories
7.5 Relationship with the press
7.6 Racial views
7.7 Misogyny and allegations of sexual misconduct
7.8 Allegations of inciting violence
7.9 Popular culture
8 Notes
9 References
9.1 Works cited
10 External links
Personal life
Early life
A black-and-white photograph of Donald Trump as a teenager, smiling, wearing a dark pseudo-military uniform with various badges and a light-colored stripe crossing his right shoulder
Trump at the New York Military Academy in 1964
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in the borough of Queens in New York City,[2][3] 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.[4][5][6] At age 13, he was enrolled in the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school,[7] 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.[8][9] The New York Times reported in 1973 and 1976 that he had graduated first in his class at Wharton, but he had never made the school's honor roll.[10] In 2015, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen threatened Fordham University and the New York Military Academy with legal action if they released Trump's academic records.[11] While in college, Trump obtained four student draft deferments.[12] 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.[13] In October 1968, he was classified 1-Y, a conditional medical deferment,[14] and in 1972, he was reclassified 4-F due to bone spurs, permanently disqualifying him from service.[15][16]
Family
Main article: Family of Donald Trump
Further information: Trump family
In 1977, Trump married Czech model Ivana Zelníčková.[17] They have three children, Donald Jr. (born 1977), Ivanka (born 1981), and Eric (born 1984).[18] Ivana became a naturalized United States citizen in 1988.[19] The couple divorced in 1992, following Trump's affair with actress Marla Maples.[20] Maples and Trump married in 1993[21] and had one daughter, Tiffany (born 1993).[22] They were divorced in 1999,[23] and Tiffany was raised by Marla in California.[24] In 2005, Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss.[25] They have one son, Barron (born 2006).[26] Melania gained U.S. citizenship in 2006.[27]
Religious views
Trump went to Sunday school and was confirmed in 1959 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens.[28][29] In the 1970s, his parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, which belongs to the Reformed Church.[28][30] The pastor at Marble, Norman Vincent Peale,[28] ministered to Trump's family until Peale's death in 1993.[30] Trump has described Peale as a mentor.[31] In 2015, after Trump said he attends Marble, the church stated he "is not an active member" of the church.[29] In November 2019, Trump appointed his personal pastor, televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison.[32] In October 2020, Trump said that he identified as a non-denominational Christian.[33]
Health
Trump discharged on October 5 by his team of doctors at Walter Reed
Trump says he has never drunk alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or used drugs.[34][35] He sleeps about four or five hours a night.[36][37] Trump has called golfing his "primary form of exercise" but usually does not walk the course.[38] He considers exercise a waste of energy, because he believes the body is "like a battery, with a finite amount of energy" which is depleted by exercise.[39]
In 2015, Harold Bornstein, who had been Trump's personal physician since 1980, wrote that Trump would "be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency" in a letter released by the Trump campaign.[40] In 2018, Bornstein said Trump had dictated the contents of the letter and that three agents of Trump had removed his medical records in February 2017 without authorization.[40][41]
Trump was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for COVID-19 treatment on October 2, 2020, reportedly with a fever and difficulty breathing. It was revealed in 2021 that his condition had been much more serious. He had extremely low blood oxygen levels, a high fever, and lung infiltrates, indicating a severe case of the disease.[42] He was treated with the antiviral drug remdesevir, the steroid dexamethasone, and the unapproved experimental antibody REGN-COV2.[43] Trump returned to the White House on October 5, still struggling with the disease.[42]
Wealth
Main article: Wealth of Donald Trump
See also: Tax returns of Donald Trump
In 1982, Trump was listed on the initial Forbes 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.[44] In its 2020 billionaires ranking, Forbes estimated Trump's net worth at $2.1 billion[c] (1,001st in the world),[47] making him one of the richest politicians in American history and the first billionaire American president.[47] Forbes estimated that his net worth declined 31% and his ranking fell 138 spots between 2015 and 2018.[48] When he filed mandatory financial disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in July 2015, Trump claimed a net worth of about $10 billion;[49] however, FEC figures cannot corroborate this estimate because they only show each of his largest buildings as being worth over $50 million, yielding total assets worth more than $1.4 billion and debt of more than $265 million.[50]
Trump and wife Ivana in the receiving line of a state dinner for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in 1985,[51] with U.S. president Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan
Journalist Jonathan Greenberg reported in 2018 that Trump, using the pseudonym "John Barron" and claiming to be a Trump Organization official, called him in 1984 to falsely assert that he owned "in excess of ninety percent" of the Trump family's business, to secure a higher ranking 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.[52]
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.[53] In October 2018, The New York Times reported that Trump "was a millionaire by age 8," borrowed at least $60 million from his father, largely failed to repay those loans, and had received $413 million (adjusted for inflation) from his father's business empire over his lifetime.[54][55] According to the report, Trump and his family committed tax fraud, which a lawyer for Trump denied. The tax department of New York said it is investigating.[56][57] Trump's investments underperformed the stock market and the New York property market.[58][59] Forbes estimated in October 2018 that the value of Trump's personal brand licensing business had declined by 88% since 2015, to $3 million.[60]
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 that 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.[61][62]
According to a September 2020 analysis by The New York Times of twenty years of data from Trump's tax returns, Trump had accumulated hundreds of millions in losses and deferred declaring $287 million in forgiven debt as taxable income.[63] According to the analysis, Trump's main sources of income were his share of revenue from The Apprentice and income from businesses in which he was a minority partner, while his majority-owned businesses were largely running at losses.[63] A significant portion of Trump's income was in tax credits due to his losses, which enables him to avoid paying income tax, or paying as little as $750, for several years.[63] Over the past decade, Trump has been balancing his businesses' losses by selling and taking out loans against assets, including a $100 million mortgage on Trump Tower (due in 2022) and the liquidation of over $200 million in stocks and bonds.[63] Trump has personally guaranteed $421 million in debt, most of which is due to be repaid by 2024. The tax records also showed Trump had unsuccessfully pursued business deals in China, including by developing a partnership with a major government-controlled company.[64]
Trump has a total of over $1 billion in debts, borrowed to finance his assets, reported Forbes in October 2020. Around $640 million or more was owed to various banks and trust organizations. Around $450 million was owed to unknown creditors. However, Trump's assets still outvalue his debts, reported Forbes.[65]
Business career
Main article: Business career of Donald Trump
Further information: Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia
Real estate
Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan
While a student at Wharton and after graduating in 1968, Trump worked at his father Fred's real estate company, Trump Management, which owned middle-class rental housing in New York City's outer boroughs.[66][67][68] In 1971, he became president of the company and began using The Trump Organization as an umbrella brand.[69] It was registered as a corporation in 1981.[70]
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 by Fred Trump,[71] who also joined Hyatt in guaranteeing $70 million in bank construction financing.[72][73] The hotel reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt Hotel,[74] and that same year, Trump obtained rights to develop Trump Tower, a mixed-use skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan.[75] The building houses the headquarters of the Trump Organization and was Trump's primary residence until 2019.[76][77]
