No single adjective fits to describe Donald Trump as he means different things to different sets of people. Hero to some, villains to others, Donald Trump’s name has been prominently featured in 2016 election coverage. With all his many interpretations, Trump is vying for the United States Presidency under the Republican ticket.
Where he was born
The American businessman, television personality, and politician Donald J. Trump was born in Queens, New York City of the United States in June 14, 1946. He is the president of the famous Trump Organization and also the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts a gaming and hotel enterprise. Donald is fourth child of Maryanne and Fred Trump. His mother was a philanthropist and a homemaker. Maryanne is of Scottish origin having been born at Tong, which is on the Scottish island. She met Fred Trump in 1930 while visiting the United States. In 1936, they got married after which they settled in Jamaican Estates, Queens. Donald’s father Fred Trump was one of the city’s renowned real estate developers. Fred was born in Wood Haven and his parents were immigrants from Germany. Trump has only one living brother, Robert and two sisters, Maryanne and Elizabeth. The sister Maryanne is a Federal judge for the United States court of appeals. Trump’s brother Fred Jr. died in 1981 from alcoholism complications. The family lived in Wareham place that is in Jamaica estates where they had a two-storey Tudor Revival.
Where he went to college
Whenever anyone questions Donald Trump’s intellectual credibility, he is so quick to remind them where he attended his college. He repeats multiple of times in his speeches that he went to the Wharton School of Finance. Donald Trump went to Fordham University for two years. He joined Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania which offered real estate studies in U.S academia. Trump worked at his father’s company called Elizabeth Trump &son while still studying. In 1968, he got an economics bachelor’s degree from Wharton. He is so proud of Wharton school and often describes it as a great business school, the hardest to get into and a place where the greatest of the world’s best minds have gone through.
Despite Trump’s constant mention of Wharton, the school has declined to comment about the famous alumni. His classmates also don’t seem to remember him.
How he made his fortune
Donald Trump boasts of a net worth of over $10billion. Coming from a very wealthy family, he started real estate investment in the 1980s in the Manhattan market and later moved to self-marketing in the 1990s. He bought beauty pageants, television shows, football teams and fashion lines. Trump made his own brand; boisterous, brash unapologetic and entertaining. Marketers loved it and Donald made wealth from his name being Donald Trump.
Donald started out his business in his father’s real estate company. His father died in 1999 leaving behind an estimated wealth of between 250 million and $450 million most of which was made while Donald was still in high school and college from real estate business. Donald Trump received an estimated inheritance of $200 million from his father’s wealth.1n 1974 Donald became the acting president of his father’s company. He dealt mostly with real estate investments particularly, the condo associations, Federal Housing Administration, and huge apartment buildings all in New York Metropolitan area. Trump established the Trump organization in 1980 which was to oversee the real estate operations this one being the very first of hundreds books and organizations with “trump” as their title.
In 1988, Trump bought the Taj Mahal Casino, an action that has been largely blamed for the financial troubles that trumps business underwent in 1990. The company was said to be in over $5 billion debt with Donald personally having guaranteed $1 billion. More than 70 banks came to his rescue bailing his business out. He has been able to leverage his business from bankruptcy four times. From his lenders extras, he was able to shore up debt, build up his rents and purchased more enterprises, especially casinos.
Trump’s business troubles ceased in 1995 when he took the trump hotels public selling 13.25 million shares at $32.50 per share in 1996. This made him a capital gain of $290 million. He also bought the old Bank of Manhattan Trust building which is located on 40wall Street later in 1995. This location is best known as Trump Towers and was worth several hundred million dollars by the end of 2015. Around this time the Grand Hyatt building, one of Donald’s initial investments became very successful. He sold back to Hyatt his stake for a reported $140 billion.
Trump’s wealth does not only come from his massive real estate investments. He owns and part-awns over 400 businesses, books, properties, trademarks and television show. Most of these businesses include the name “Trump” in their title. He also owns sky crappers in Chicago, Toronto, New York, Honolulu and Fort Lauderdale. Their names are some variation of Trump Tower. Trump has made a brand out of his name with most of his businesses going by his name.
Donald Trump loves to be in the spotlight since he knows that the more the attention, the higher brand recognition; which is treasured to him. He started to be seen on TV in the 1980s on the WWE. He eventually stared in “The Apprentice” a reality TV show about his business. He never shies away from controversy, and since Americans love entertainment they are more than ready to pay lots of money to get entertained by Trump.
Though Trump has been fortunate in his life, he has also worked hard to see his businesses stand the test of time and emerge the winner. From understanding the power of; leverage he was undeterred by risk. He can be said to understand the marketing perspective, the power of entertainment and the evolving American media. This understanding has helped transform his family real estate business into a nationwide brand.
His presidential bid
In the years 1988, 2004 and 2012 Trump floated his idea of running for President and Governor of the New York City in the years 2006 and 2014 but never entered the races. Trump was considered a potential running mate for George Bush in 1998s presidential elections on a Republicans Party’s ticket. He however lost out to the Dan Quayle who became the vice president. Several polls done in 2011 on the November 2012 presidential elections had Trump leading in the contest for being nominated on the Republicans ticket to run for presidency. Some media houses however interpreted his actions as promotional tools for his reality show the apprentice. He later announced that he would not be running for the presidency.
In June 2015, Donald Trump announced that he will be running for the United States presidency in the 2016 elections. This, he did at the Trump Tower with the slogan ‘Make America Great Again” since then Trump has gained significant support for his idea that he calls “telling it like it is” Trumps candidacy is said to succeed largely because of his widespread media coverage. Due to his bold and controversial statement he has described by his opponents as divisive, a bully and unserious. Trump makes personal attacks on journalists, politicians, and his competing candidates. The New York Times recently published a comprehensive collection of Trump’s tweeted “insults.”
Trump’s campaigning policies have received widespread opposition from his competitors. One of his policies calls for the deportation of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States and the building of a wall the US’s border with Mexico. This has been opposed by the Felipe Calderon, the former Mexican president saying that Mexico cannot pay a single cent for such a wall.
Trump calls for the aggressive bombing of ISIS the Middle East terrorist group and is supporting surveillance of mosques in the United States. He has been very rhetoric on religion and actively supports Christian groups in the US. Trump claims that he will be able to reverse the unfavorable tax treatments that he alleges prevents them from expressing themselves freely in the political arena. He has called for a ban on Muslims entering the US saying that there are links between Muslim and terrorism. Other central issues that trump highlights in his campaigns include making the military stronger, taking care of the army veterans, and also getting for American workers more favorable trade agreements.
Trump’s race to the White House has received endorsements in equal measures from individuals like Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, Paul Le Page of Maine, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Republican Representative Chris Collins of New York, Duncan Hunter of California and Ben Carson; former Republican presidential candidate who threw in the towel in favor of Trump.
