He’s loud, audacious, doesn’t bite his tongue, and is always ready to get involved in one or more controversies.
But Donald J. Trump, with all his braggadocio and no-holds-barred quips, comments, and rhetoric, was the 45th President of the United States.
His rise to the Oval Office was among the most controversial in the United States’ recent history.
He defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a closely contested election that remained a close call right up until the end.
Trump has experienced both successes and failures, all of which are closely scrutinized and reported by the media, who are eager to cover his every move.
With his distinctive hairstyle and blunt remarks, Donald Trump was one of the most notable and polarizing Presidents to sit in the Oval Office.
From a real estate developer to a casino owner to a reality TV star, Trump is definitely not afraid to try his hand at new things.
Here are 50 facts about Donald Trump that you probably didn’t know.
His full name is Donald John Trump.
Donald Trump is 78 years old; he was born on June 14, 1946, in New York City, New York.
Trump has had three political affiliations. He was Independent from 2011-2012, Democratic from pre-1987 to 2009, and Republican at present.
He has been married three times. First to Ivana Zelnickova from 1977-1991, Marla Maples from 1993-1999, and Melania Knauss from 2005 to the present.
He is the second youngest of five children.
Trump does not smoke or drink. The death of a sibling, his older brother Red Jr., urged Donald toward these decisions.
He is of German and Scottish ancestry.
He had a famous uncle, John G. Trump, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had the distinction of being allowed by the FBI in 1943 to examine famed inventor Nikola Tesla‘s papers and equipment when Tesla passed away that year.
Trump’s family fortune began when his grandfather Frederick Trump pulled in a fortune by operating restaurants and boarding houses in the boom towns of Seattle and Klondike, Canada.
His family’s name was originally Drumpf or Drumpft but changed to Trump when the Thirty Years’ War occurred in the 1600s.
He attended the New York Military Academy, aka NYMA, to whom he credits much of his success.
Trump attended Fordham University, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated from Wharton in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.
Trump avoided being drafted into the military by getting four student deferments. After being determined twice to be fit for duty, he got a 1-Y medical deferment in October of 1968. Then, in December 1969, he received a high placement number in the draft lottery that exempted him from service.
His first real estate venture was with his family’s company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which he took control of in 1971 and renamed The Trump Organization. In 1973, the company faced controversy when the Justice Department accused it of racial discrimination in its housing practices. Without admitting wrongdoing, the company reached a settlement with the DOJ to resolve the issue.
Donald Trump made his first major real estate deal in Manhattan with the remodeling of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in 1978.
His signature base of operations, Trump Tower, was completed in 1983.
Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but he filed for bankruptcy six times for his business properties between 1991 and 2009.
Donald Trump owns and operates around 18 golf courses around the world.
At one time, Trump was part owner of three major beauty pageants. From 1996 to 2015, he partly owned Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA.
From 2005 until 2010, Trump owned and ran the Trump University LLC, where his courses covered real estate training.
He once ran the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was established in 1988 but shut down by the NY State Attorney General’s office in 2013 for multiple violations.
Trump is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, an organization that promotes the welfare of working actors in movies and television.
Trump was an executive producer of the hit reality show The Apprentice from 2003 to 2015.
Donald is a big WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) fan.
Donald Trump has five children. The three oldest – Don, Jr., Eric, and Ivanka – are from his first marriage to Ivana Trump; Tiffany is from his second marriage to Marla Maples; and his youngest son Barron, born March 20, 2006, is from his current marriage to Melania Trump.
Donald Trump has ten grandchildren.
Donald Trump is of the Presbyterian faith, a Christian denomination noted for its use of committees of elders to govern the church.
Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for President of the United States on July 19, 2016.
He won the election on November 8, 2016, and became the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017.
Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden in the electoral college stage. He received 232 votes to Biden’s 306.
Trump was impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress when he tried to coerce Ukraine’s government into investigating Joe Biden. The Senate later acquitted him.
Trump was impeached for a second time in 2021 for inciting the January 6 US Capitol Riot. He is the first president to be impeached after leaving office. The Senate also acquitted him for this impeachment.
Trump was the first president of the United States to be convicted of a crime. He was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to hush money payments.
Judge Arther Engoron ordered Trump to pay 364 million dollars to the state of New York in January 2024 following his property fraud trial.
Trump’s academic records have never been released, and in 2015, his lawyer threatened legal action against his high school and colleges if they were ever leaked.
Thanks to loans from his father, Trump was a millionaire at eight years old.
In 2011, Mac Miller produced a song called “Donald Trump.” The song became very popular, prompting Trump to publicly request royalties.
In 2007, Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his role in producing the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants.
Trump borrowed from more than 70 banks in the 1980s, amassing a debt of over 4 billion dollars. His corporations later filed for bankruptcy, and most of the banks decided not to work with him again.
Ghostwriters have written 19 books under Trump’s name, mostly about business. There are also textbooks written under his name that were used at Trump University.
After being banned from Twitter and Facebook in 2021, Trump started TRUTH Social, a social media company that mimicked Twitter.
Despite winning the Electoral College vote in 2016, Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by about 2.9 million votes. He is one of only five presidents to be elected despite losing the popular vote.
In 2016, Trump promised to build a 1,000-mile (1600 kilometers) long wall along the US border with Mexico. At the end of his term, only about 40 miles (64 km) of new wall had been built, and 364 miles (587 km) of old fencing had been replaced.
To begin the exit from Afghanistan, Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020. This greatly reduced the number of US troops in the region towards the end of his term.
Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a MAGA rally on July 13, 2024, which left his ear injured after a bullet seemingly grazed it.
Twenty-six women have accused Trump of assault, ranging from violent attacks to inappropriate touching.
Since the 1980s, Trump has been mentioned hundreds of times in music, from hip-hop to opera, both in praise of his success and to criticize him for his racism.
In 2016, Johnny Depp portrayed Donald Trump in the parody film “Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal: The Movie.” Many others have played parodies of him, including a 2020 film called “Bad President.”
Trump has a long history of making cameos in films and TV, most famously in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992).
In 2017, a species of moth native to California and Mexico was named Neopalpa Donald Trumpi. The scales on the moth’s head resemble Trump’s well-known hairstyle.
Donald Trump achieved a landslide victory against Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election. While Trump and his supporters were always sure of his victory, the defeat of Kamala Harris shocked both the Democrats and the world.
Donald Trump has experienced both significant successes and notable failures throughout his career.
As an entrepreneur and business owner, he achieved the highest office in the country: President of the United States.
Love or loath him, Trump is still one of the most interesting presidents in US history.
I don’t know about you, but I’m just wondering what he will do or say next to surprise us…
