Who is Donald John Trump? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, news, achievements, and relationship with Melania Trump, Marla Maples, Ivana Trump, net worth and the early life and education of the 45th President of the United States.
Donald Trump also known as Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality and businessman.
He is the former and the 45th President of the United States of America.
Donald Trump took over as president of his father’s real estate company, renaming it the Trump Organization in 1971.
Early Life and Education
Donald J. Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York City.
He is the fourth child of Fred Trump, a Bronx-born real-estate tycoon whose parents were German immigrants, and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, a Scottish immigrant.
Donald Trump was raised in Queens’ Jamaica Estates area with older siblings Maryanne, Fred Jr., Elizabeth, and a younger brother Robert.
He attended Sunday school and was confirmed at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, in 1959.
His parents joined the Reformed Church in America’s Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan in the 1970s.
Trump attended the elite Kew-Forest School from kindergarten to sixth grade.
He then enrolled in the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school, when he was 13 years old.
He later joined Fordham University in 1964. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in economics degree in May 1968.
During the Vietnam War, Trump secured four student draft deferments while in college. Based on a medical check, he was deemed fit for military duty in 1966, and a local draft board designated him as eligible to serve in July 1968.
He was classified 1-Y, a conditional medical deferment, in October 1968, and 4-F owing to bone spurs in 1972, permanently barring him from service.
Donald Trump’s Family
In 1977, Trump married Ivana Zelnková, a Czech model. The couple had three children: Donald Jr. (1977), Ivanka (1981), and Eric (1984).
In 1988, Ivana became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The couple separated in 1990, after Trump’s involvement with actress Marla Maples.
Trump and Maples then got married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. Tiffany (born in 1993) is their only child, whom Marla raised in California.
Trump moved on to marry Melania Knauss, a Slovenian former model and businesswoman in 2005.
Barron, their son, was born in 2006 and in the same year, Melania obtained US citizenship.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Donald Trump returned to New York City after college and began working for his father’s real estate firm. In 1971, he became president of the Trump Organization, a conglomeration of family-owned enterprises.
Trump continued to engage in real estate development after taking over the Trump Organization, but he also moved into other industries. He bought sports franchises, wrote books, and was the producer and host of The Apprentice, a reality TV show.
Trump initially came to public attention in 1978, with the opening of his family’s first Manhattan enterprise, the refurbishment of the decrepit Commodore Hotel next to Grand Central Terminal.
Trump opened Harrah’s at Trump Plaza, a hotel and casino, in 1984, with funding and operational assistance from the Holiday Corporation.
He purchased a third Atlantic City venue, the Trump Taj Mahal, in 1988.
Trump established Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (THCR) in 1995, which acquired control of the Trump Plaza.
He purchased the Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1985. He turned the estate into a private club with an initiation fee and annual dues in 1995.
In 1999, the Trump Organization began developing and purchasing golf courses. It owns fourteen Trump-branded golf facilities and administers three more.
Donald J Trump’s Presidency
Donald Trump ran for president in 2000 as a third-party candidate, against candidates from the two major political parties, Republicans and Democrats. He withdrew out of the race early on but pondered participating again in 2004 and 2012.
In 2015, he stated that he would run for president again, this time as a Republican nominee on a major-party ticket. In 2016, he defeated 16 other candidates to become the party’s official nominee.
In the 2016 elections, Trump faced Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and wife of former President Bill Clinton.
After the votes were tabulated, Clinton received roughly 2.9 million more votes than Trump, gaining the popular vote.
But Trump won the popular vote in multiple states with a large number of delegates, and thus the presidency.
Trump is the fifth president to be elected despite receiving fewer votes in the popular vote.
On January 20, 2017, he was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America.
Following his election as president, Trump promised to “Make America Great Again.” He began by creating more middle-class jobs, attempting to reduce the national debt.
He also started raising funds to construct a wall along the United States-Mexico border to increase border security and prevent illegal immigrants from entering the country.
During his presidency, Trump named three justices to the United States’ highest court, the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.
In the spring of 2020, Donald Trump began aggressively campaigning for a second term in office. He was competing against Democrat Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s vice president throughout his two years in office.
Once all the votes were tabulated, Biden was proclaimed the winner.
He received around 81 million votes against Trump’s approximately 74 million ballots, garnering 51.4 percent of the popular vote.
The Electoral College formally chose Biden as the next President of the United States on December 14, 2020, making Trump the tenth incumbent commander-in-chief to serve only one term.
Trump, however, refused to concede to Biden in the weeks following the 2020 election, insisting that he had won.
On January 6, 2021, during a joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes, a mob of violent demonstrators stormed the United States Capitol, preventing Congress from pronouncing Biden’s triumph.
Many individuals suspected Trump urged his supporters to storm the Capitol through remarks he made on social media and at rallies, including one right before the incident.
As a result, the US government attempted to impeach Trump for the second time during his presidency, accusing him of inciting insurgency.
On January 13, 2021, he was officially impeached by the House of Representatives, this time with 10 Republicans joining Democrats in charging him.
Trump is the only president in US history to have been impeached twice.
Achievements and Awards
Trump’s administration may be remembered most for its disastrous conclusion. His four years as president, however, influenced genuine American policy in significant ways.
From banning Chinese-made drones to rolling back sexual harassment standards, from cracking down on robocalls to allowing states to legalise marijuana, Trump changed some critical areas of federal policy in ways that may have long-term consequences.
Donald Trump has received numerous honours, including “Hotel and Real Estate Visionary of the Century” and “World’s Most Competitive Businessman.”
He was honoured by the Construction Management Association of America and other similar organisations for his achievements in the field of construction and real estate.
He is on the committees of the United Nations and UNICEF’s Celebration of Nations.
Donald Trump has also received numerous other awards, like:
The National Jewish Health Humanitarian Award (1976)
The Jewish National Fund’s Tree of Life Award (1983)
Ellis Island Medal of Honour for his work as a successful New York City developer (1986)
Freedom Foundation awarded him the President’s Medal for his contributions to youth programmes in 1995.
(2007) Muhammad Ali Entrepreneur Award
Shining Star Award from the Unicorn Children’s Foundation (2008)
Palm Beach Police Foundation’s Palm Tree Award (2010)
Lois Pope LIFE Foundation awarded him the Presidential Hero Award in 2011.
The Algemeiner Liberty Award (2015) for services to Israel-US relations
Commandant’s Leadership Award from the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation (2015)
The Friends of Zion Museum presented the Friends of Zion Award in 2017.
Wounded Warrior Project Award honouring Trump’s support for the organisation during the 2018 Soldier Ride (2018)
Bipartisan Justice Award for enacting the First Step Act (2019).
He has been acknowledged in the following halls of fame;
(1995) Gaming Hall of Fame
Television star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard (2007)
(2013) WWE Hall of Fame
(2015) New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame
Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame (2018)
Trump’s star which is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame tops them all.
Donald Trump has received the following international honours and recognitions:
Georgia awarded him the Presidential Order of Excellence in 2012.
Saudi Arabia awarded him the Saudi Arabian Collar of the order of Abdulaziz al Saud (2017)
In commemoration of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the country’s capital (2018), the Mikdash Educational Centre issued an Israel Temple Coin featuring Trump (along with King Cyrus).
Logar Province awarded him the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Medal of Bravery from the Afghan people in 2018.
In honour of Donald J. Trump (2020), the Golan Eagle was installed near the entrance to Trump Heights.
Israel Trump Square in Petah Tikva, Israel, is named after Donald Trump, who recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2019.
Donald Trump’s Net Worth
Donald Trump has a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023 according to Forbes.
Trump appeared on the first Forbes list of affluent people in 1982, owning a portion of his family’s estimated $200 million net worth (equivalent to $606 million in 2022).
Between 1990 and 1995, he was dropped from the list due to his losses in the 1980s.
He declared a net worth of almost $10 billion after filing the required financial disclosure report with the FEC in July 2015.
According to FEC records, the company had at least $1.4 billion in assets and $265 million in liabilities.
Also according to Forbes, his net worth fell by $1.4 billion between 2015 and 2018.
Controversies
In 2019, proof surfaced that Trump had allegedly blocked aid to Ukraine in order to persuade them to disclose embarrassing details about one of his political opponents.
Many members of Congress were outraged by this. The House of Representatives voted on December 18, 2019, to impeach Trump, or to officially charge him with malfeasance in office.
The two charges (known as articles of indictment) were abuse of authority and hindrance of Congress, which is defined as preventing Congress from doing its job correctly.
The Senate then conducted a trial to determine if Trump could be dismissed from office. The Senate voted to keep the president in office after nearly three weeks.
Donald J. Trump received the dreaded Rosemary Award for worst performance in open government in 2021 from the National Security Archive.
During his presidency, Trump was widely claimed to have both destroyed and impeded the development of records.
Trump violated the Presidential Records Act (PRA) requirement that all of his official records be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) immediately after leaving office, denying the public its rightful ownership of his materials and undermining congressional efforts to hold his administration accountable for events such as the January 6 insurgency.
