Donald Trump

Donald John Trump (/dnld dn trmp/; born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, reality television personality, real estate mogul and President-elect of the United States. He is heir to the Trump fortune and has since 1971 chaired The Trump Organization, the principal holding company for his real estate ventures and other business interests. During his business career, Trump has built office towers, hotels, casinos, golf courses, and other branded facilities worldwide. He was elected as the 45th U.S. president in the 2016 election on the Republican ticket, defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and is scheduled to take office on January 20, 2017.

Trump was born and raised in New York City and received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. In 1971, he took control of his father Fred Trump's real estate and construction firm. Trump has appeared at the Miss USA pageants, which he owned from 1996 to 2015, and has made cameo appearances in films and television series. He sought the Reform Party presidential nomination in 2000, but withdrew before voting began. He hosted and co-produced The Apprentice, a reality television series on NBC, from 2004 to 2015. As of 2016, he was listed by Forbes as the 324th wealthiest person in the world, and 113th in the United States, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

In June 2015, Trump announced his candidacy for president as a Republican and quickly emerged as the front-runner for his party's nomination. In May 2016, his remaining Republican rivals suspended their campaigns, and in July he was formally nominated for president at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Trump's campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention. Many of his statements in interviews, on Twitter, and at campaign rallies have been controversial or false. Several rallies during the primaries were accompanied by protests. Following Trump's victory in the general election, he began transitioning to his administration. At 70 years old, he will be the oldest person to assume the presidency.

Trump's platform includes renegotiation of U.S.–China trade deals, opposition to particular trade agreements such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, pursuit of energy independence using all energy sources with opposition to policies and agreements aimed at combating climate change such as the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement, stronger enforcement of immigration laws together with building a wall along the Mexico–U.S. border, reform of veterans' care, repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, abolition of Common Core education standards, investments in the country's infrastructure and a simplified tax code with lower rates. Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, which he later changed to a policy of "extreme vetting" from certain areas of the world.

Early life and career

Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Jamaica, Queens, a neighborhood in New York City. He was the second youngest of five children. Of his four siblings, three are living: Maryanne, Elizabeth, and Robert. Trump's older brother Fred Jr. died in 1981 from alcoholism, which Trump says led him to never drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes.

Trump is of German ancestry on his father's side and Scottish ancestry on his mother's side; all four of his grandparents were born in Europe. His father, Fred Trump (1905–1999), was born in Queens to parents from Kallstadt, Germany, and became one of the biggest real estate developers in New York City. His mother, Mary Trump (née MacLeod, 1912–2000), was born in Tong, Lewis, Scotland. Fred and Mary met in New York and married in 1936, establishing their household in Queens. His uncle John G. Trump, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1936 to 1973, was involved in radar research for the Allies in the Second World War, and helped design X-ray machines that provided additional years of life to cancer patients. In 1943, the Federal Bureau of Investigation requested John Trump to examine Nikola Tesla's papers and equipment when Tesla died in his room at the New Yorker Hotel. Donald Trump's grandfather was Frederick Trump who amassed a fortune operating boom-town restaurants and boarding houses in the region of Seattle and Klondike, Canada.