Donald J. Trump was born in Queens, New York as the son of a prominent businessman. But how did he go from the Trump Tower to the White House? 

By Eden Perkins – 10th grade.

Donald Trump, the 45th and soon-to-be 47th President of the United States, is seen by his supporters as a hero, but, to others, he is a completely different person with a past of racism, oppression, and abuse. Because of this, they are many areas where he is being judged, from his alleged inability to read to his extreme right-wing goals and choices. LILA Gazette explores Donald Trump’s past, what his life was like, and how he got into politics in the first place.

Donald Trump was born in Queens, New York on June 14, 1946 to Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. Trump was born the second-youngest of five children. He grew up in a decently large red brick house in Jamaica Estates, an upper-middle class neighborhood in Queens. His father, Fred Trump Sr, was a successful real estate developer who owned Trump Village, a seven-building apartment complex in Coney Island. However, at 21 years old, he was arrested for participating in a KKK rally that he was present at, according to the New York Times. His mother, Marry Anne, was a Scottish-American philanthropist and socialite.

Donald Trump went to the Kew-Forest School, an independent private school in Queens founded in 1918, for his primary school years. Then, he went to the New York Military Academy, where “Trump would emerge from military school with a blueprint for leadership by force and ridicule,” according to PBS Frontline, and graduated from there as a captain in 1964. From there, Trump studied economics at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. 

Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump was born in 1965, three years after her brother, Fred C. Trump III. According to Mary’s memoir “Who Could Ever Love You,” her uncle traumatized both her and her brother in many ways. According to the book, Donald once told Fred, her brother, to hit Rob, Donald’s brother and Fred’s uncle. Immediately after, Rob retaliated by beating Fred, although, in reality, it was his uncle who gave the order. Another moment in the book describes Mary’s family, including Donald, ignoring her asthma attacks. She recalls an episode of suffocating due to her inability to breathe properly, and, even though it was obvious she was in danger, Donald never lifted a finger to help her. 

In 1966, Donald transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to complete his degree in 1968. Due to his state of being a student, Trump had dodged being drafted for the Vietnam war, which was going on at the time.

After graduating, Trump proceeded to join his father’s business. In 1973, the case “United States v. Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump, and Trump Management, Inc” was filed because of complaints that Fred and Donald Trump had “committed systemic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in their many complexes” (Civil Rights Litigation ClearingHouse). Among the complaints were allegations that White prospective renters were told that there were vacancies, while Black ones were told the opposite, as well as claims that Trump employees had “placed codes next to housing applicant names to indicate if they were black” (Civil Rights Litigation ClearingHouse). Two years later, in 1975, the case was closed, resulting in a decree that made the Trumps stop discriminating against Black people and to constantly post all vacancies on the New York Urban League, among other things. The Justice Department called it “one of the most far reaching [decrees] ever negotiated.” 

In 1976, Trump made his first big move for the company: he developed the Grand Hyatt Hotel. Even though the Trump Organization (as it had been renamed) did not have enough money to buy the hotel, Donald Trump used his relationship with the Hyatt hotel chain and his father’s political power negotiate an abnormal plan: Trump had 40 years of abatement and, instead of paying the $4 million that the property was originally worth, he would pay $400 million over 40 years.

Fast-forward seven years to 1983, and the construction of Trump Plaza and Trump Tower was completed. In 1985, he built Trump Castle, which would be renamed as Trump Marina in 1997, to expand the casino business. In 1990, Trump completed the Trump Taj Mahal, located in Atlantic City. Costing more that $1 billion dollars to make, he described it as “the eighth wonder of the world.”

But because of these major investments, Trump and his father faced severe challenges financially. In 1991, the Trump Taj Mahal filed bankruptcy, and the Trump Plaza Hotel followed in suit the following year. However, Trump took advantage of this, and used the United States’ laws on bankruptcy protection, which basically protects a company that files for bankruptcy from any legal trouble, such as lawsuits or anything in that sense, to reorganize the debts of his many companies in order to make debt payments. In order to defend himself from liability financially, he formed Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, which was a publicly traded company. Even so, Trump went from owning 56% of its stocks to owning 27% after even that company went broke. 

Through all this, Trump put all of his economic and business interests into the “Trump Organization,” which was based off a company founded by his grandmother and his father. This one, unlike all of his other companies, grew prosperously. 

Even though he is a very experienced businessman, Trump never really dabbled in the political world until the last two decades. “In a 1980 interview, a 34-year-old Trump describes politics as “a very mean life” and says “the most capable people” instead choose the business world” (BBC). However, in 2000, he briefly considered running for president as a member of the Reform Party, and then in 2012 as a Republican. While Barack Obama was president, Trump was very vocal about his belief in the conspiracy theory that Obama was born outside the U.S. In 2016, Trump admitted his lies but never apologized for his actions.

In 2015, Trump formally announced his choice of running in the election, basing his campaign off of wanting to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico due to claims of Mexico sending in drugs, criminals and rapists through cartels and other means. On January 20, 2017, he was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America.