Donald Trump: From Queens to the White House
- Published
A quick guide to the life of Donald Trump
Donald Trump - businessman turned reality TV star turned president - is running again for America’s highest office. We’ve got a quick guide to his backstory as the Republican Party’s frontrunner sets his sights on returning to the White House.
Donald Trump’s family were migrants from Germany and Scotland
He was born in Queen’s New York in 1946 to Mary Anne MacLeod, a Scottish immigrant, and Fred Trump, the son of German immigrants. Donald was the fourth of five children. His father had a real estate company, developing housing around New York. Donald joined the family business after school and became its president in 1971, renaming the company The Trump Organization.
Trump built up his family's property empire before entering politics
In the 1980s, The Trump Organisation invested in several big real estate projects in New York, including Manhattan skyscraper Trump Tower. Trump soon became a well-known businessman, helped by his book The Art of The Deal. In 1988, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth to be $1 billion. However, it was later revealed by tax returns obtained by the New York Times that Trump lost over a billion dollars between 1985 to 1994, and several of his businesses collapsed or were sold, like the airline Trump Shuttle.
He's been down the aisle three times and has five children
He married his first wife Ivana Zelnickova in 1977, and the couple had three children: Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric. They divorced 15 years later amid reports of his affair with actress Marla Maples - whom he then married. They had a daughter, Tiffany, but then divorced in 1999. Trump later married Slovenian model Melania Knauss in 2005, his current wife and the former first lady. In 2006, the couple had a son, Barron.
The Apprentice US made Trump a reality TV star
Trump has made several on-screen appearances, including in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Home Alone 2. However, The Apprentice - which ran with him as the host from 2004 to 2015 - made Trump a household name. On the show, he judged aspiring entrepreneurs competing for a one-year $250,000 starting contract with The Trump Organization. He pocketed some $427 million in earnings. However, broadcaster NBC cut ties with Trump in 2015 following his comments about Mexican immigrants during his first presidential campaign.
Trump surged to victory as the outsider in 2016
Many political experts didn’t take Trump’s bid for president seriously in June 2015. But, one year later, he won the Republican Party’s nomination to face Democrat Hillary Clinton, former US secretary of state and wife of former president Bill Clinton. She was favourite to win come Election Day and received three million more votes but Trump pulled off a surprise victory by winning key states like Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
There were major policy changes both home and abroad under President Trump
He appointed three Supreme Court justices which shifted the top court in the US towards more right-wing values. He introduced the biggest tax cut on businesses in US history and tightened rules around immigration, banning travellers from several Muslim-majority countries. He withdrew from the Paris climate agreement and was the first serving US president to meet a North Korean leader.
He became only the third president to be impeached by the lower house of Congress over a controversial phone call he made to Ukraine’s leader, but was not convicted in the Senate. His final months in office were dominated by one story, the Covid-19 pandemic, when his critics say he heightened divisions over masks, lockdowns and vaccines.
Trump lost against Joe Biden but refused to accept defeat
Turnout in the 2020 election was the highest for 120 years. After a few days of counting, it was confirmed that Joe Biden had won the electoral college, the state-by-state system that decides the presidency. He also won the popular vote. But Trump maintained, without evidence, that he had been cheated out of votes and on the day Biden’s win was to be certified by Congress, Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol after he gave a speech on the National Mall. The events that day led to his second impeachment, just before he left office.
Trump faces four separate criminal investigations
In a New York trial, the former president was convicted of falsifying business records in a case about hush-money payments to silence a porn star before the 2016 election. A jury deliberated over two days to reach the guilty verdict in May 2024.
Other criminal trials include two relating to his alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and one about whether Trump mishandled classified documents by taking them to his Florida residence.
Trump survived an assassination attempt during his 2024 election campaign
The former president was speaking at an event in Butler Pennsylvania on Saturday 13 July when shots were fired among the crowd and a bullet hit his right ear. Trump was then quickly bundled off the stage by Secret Service and blood was seen strewn across his face. The shots killed one spectator at the rally and critically wounded others.
Trump called the assassination attempt a “surreal experience” and said he was “supposed to be dead”.
By Rosemary McCabe and Text Formats
Image credit: Getty Images
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