Fred Trump
Template:Short description {{#invoke:Other people|otherPeople}} Template:Pp-blp Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real-estate developer and businessman. He was the father of the 45th and 47th U.S. president, Donald Trump.
Born in the Bronx in New York City to German immigrant parents, Trump began working in home construction and sales in the 1920s before heading the real-estate business started by his parents (later known as the Trump Organization).Template:Efn His company rose to success, building and managing single-family houses in Queens, apartments for war workers on the East Coast during World War II, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York overall. Trump was investigated for profiteering by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 and again by New York State in 1966. Donald Trump became the president of his father's real-estate business in 1971. Two years later, they were sued by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for racial discrimination against black people.
According to The New York Times, Fred and his wife, Mary, provided over $1 billion (in 2018 currency) to their children, avoiding over $500 million in gift taxes. In 1992, Fred and Donald set up a subsidiary which was used to funnel Fred's finances to his progeny. Shortly before his death, Fred transferred the ownership of most of his buildings to his surviving children, who several years later sold them for over 16 times their previously declared worth.
In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration; there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn From World War II onward, to avoid associations with Nazism, Trump denied his German ancestry and also supported Jewish causes.Template:EfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn
Early life and careerEdit
Trump's father, the German-born Frederick Trump, amassed considerable wealth during the Klondike Gold Rush by running a restaurant and brothel for miners. Friedrich returned to Kallstadt in 1901, and, by the next year, met and married Elizabeth Christ.Template:Sfn They moved to New York City, where their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1904.Template:Sfn Later that year, the family returned to Kallstadt.Template:Sfn Fred was conceived in Bavaria, where his parents wished to Template:Nowrap residency, but Friedrich was banished for dodging the draft.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn The family returned to New York on July 1, 1905, and moved to the Bronx, where Frederick Christ Trump was born on October 11.Template:Sfn Fred's younger brother, John G. Trump, was born in 1907. All three children were raised speaking German.Template:Sfn In September 1908, the family moved to Woodhaven, Queens.Template:Sfn
Many details of Trump's childhood come from autobiographical accounts and emphasize independence, learning and especially hard workTemplate:Sndto the point of being somewhat fictionalized.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn At the age of 10, Trump worked as a delivery boy for a butcher.<ref name="Horowitz-2016">Template:Cite news</ref> About two years later, on Memorial Day, his father died in the 1918 flu pandemic,<ref name="nyt">Template:Cite news</ref> according to Fred quite suddenly.Template:Sfn<ref>NYC Municipal Archives Historical Vital Records, Department of Records and Information Services. Accessed December 2, 2023. "[A doctor] attended the deceased from May 23 ... to May 30, 1918."</ref> From 1918 to 1923, Fred attended Richmond Hill High School in Queens,Template:Sfn while working as a caddy, curb whitewasher, delivery boy, and newspaper hawker.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Meanwhile, his mother continued the real-estate business Friedrich had begun. Interested in becoming a builder, Fred put up a garage for a neighbor and took night classes in carpentry and reading blueprints; he reputedly studied plumbing, masonry, and electrical wiring via correspondence courses,Template:Sfn although other biographical sources limit his construction education to the period after high school when he was also working in the field.<ref name="aces" /><ref name="whitman" />Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
After graduating in January 1923, Trump obtained full-time work pulling lumber to construction sites.Template:Sfn He studied carpentry and became a carpenter's assistant.Template:Efn Trump's mother held the business in her name until he reached 21, the age of majority.<ref name="whitman" /> The company name "E. Trump & Son" appeared in advertising by 1924,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> by which year Trump ostensibly used an $800 loan from his mother to complete and sell his first house.<ref name="bridgeportmillionaire">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="whitman">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Public records, however, do not support him building until 1927,Template:Sfn the year the company was incorporated<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (and following Trump's 21st birthday). Trump purportedly built 19 more homes by 1926 in Hollis, Queens, selling some before they were finished to finance others.Template:Sfn Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett posits that Trump exaggerated the length of his career in 1934 while arguing in federal court why he should deserve a dissolved company's mortgage servicer.Template:Sfn In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration, although there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization.Template:Efn
Rise to successEdit
In 1933, Trump built one of New York City's first modern supermarkets, called Trump Market, in Woodhaven, Queens. It was modeled on Long Island's King Kullen, a self-service supermarket chain. Trump's store advertised "Serve Yourself and Save!" and quickly became popular. After six months, Trump sold it to King Kullen.<ref name="bridgeportmillionaire" />Template:Sfn
In federal court in 1934, Trump and a partner acquired the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss Corporation,Template:Sfn which had gone bankrupt and had subsequently been broken up. This gave Trump access to the titles of many properties nearing foreclosure, which he bought at low cost and sold at a profit. This and similar real-estate ventures quickly brought him fame as one of New York City's most successful businessmen.Template:Sfn<ref name="aces">Template:Cite news</ref>
Trump made use of loan subsidies created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) not long after the program was initiated via the National Housing Act of 1934,<ref name="Horowitz-2016" /> which also enabled the discriminatory practice of redlining.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By 1936, Trump had 400 workersTemplate:Efn digging foundations for houses that would be sold at prices ranging from $3,000 to $6,250.Template:Sfn Trump used his father's psychological tactic of listing properties at prices ending in "... 9.99".<ref name="Horowitz-2016" /> In the late 1930s, he used a boat to advertise off Coney Island's shore; it played patriotic music and floated out swordfish-shaped balloons which could be redeemed for $25 or $250 towards one of his properties.<ref name="Horowitz-2016" /> In 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Trump as "the Henry Ford of the home building industry".<ref name="Horowitz-2016" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During this period, Trump predicted that he would profit from World War II.Template:Sfn By 1942, he had built 2,000 homes in Brooklyn using FHA funds.Template:Sfn
During the war, the federal Office of Production Management (established in 1941) allowed the use of FHA funding for defense housing in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, owing to the proximity of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Trump planned to build 700 houses there, which would have been both his and the state FHA office's biggest project to date, but following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States's declaration of war on Japan, the project was dissolved in favor of defense housing at the East Coast's naval nexus, Hampton Roads's Norfolk, Virginia, where Trump was already working on an apartment complex.Template:Sfn Congress added a provision to the National Housing Act generating mortgage insurance for defense apartments, through which Trump was allowed to own the properties he built for war workers. By 1944, he had constructed 1,360 wartime apartments, almost 10% of the total created in Norfolk.Template:Sfn He also built barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards in Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, as well as Chester, Pennsylvania.<ref name="nyt" />
Following the war, Trump expanded into middle-income housing for the families of returning veterans. From 1947 to 1949, he built Shore Haven in Bensonhurst, which included 32 six-story buildings and a shopping center, covering some Template:Convert and procuring him $9 million in FHA funding.Template:Sfn In 1950, he built the 23-building Beach Haven Apartments over Template:Convert near Coney Island, procuring him $16 million in FHA funds.Template:Sfn The total number of apartments included in these projects exceeded 2,700.<ref name="nyt" />Template:Efn
Decades after hiring PR man Howard Rubenstein to generate press about his life story mirroring the rags-to-riches novels of 19th-century author Horatio Alger,<ref name="Belkin-2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in 1985, Fred was awarded the Horatio Alger Award (for "distinguished Americans").<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Radio and television personality Art Linkletter introduced Trump at the ceremony, with Peale's wife (and previous award recipient), Ruth Peale, presenting him the award.<ref name="Horatio Alger Association">Template:Cite AV media</ref> During his speech, Trump stated that the key to his success was enthusiasm for his work and that he "used to watch other successful people ... that did good and that did bad and ... followed the good qualities that they had". He then (apparently erroneously)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> attributed to William Shakespeare the saying "Never follow an empty wagon because", pointing to his cranium, "nothing ever falls off". He went on to introduce his surviving nuclear family.<ref name="Horatio Alger Association" />
Further enterprisesEdit
In early 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other federal leaders began denouncing real-estate profiteers. That June, The New York Times included Trump on a list of 35 city builders accused of profiteering from government contracts.Template:Sfn He and others were investigated by a U.S. Senate banking committee for windfall gains. Trump and his partner William TomaselloTemplate:Efn were cited as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA.Template:Sfn The two paid $34,200 for a piece of land which they rented to their corporation for $76,960 annually in a 99-year lease, so that if the apartment they built on it ever defaulted, the FHA would owe them $1.924 million. Trump and Tomasello evidently obtained loans for $3.5 million more than Beach Haven Apartments had cost.<ref name="unbelievable" />Template:Sfn Trump argued that because he had not withdrawn the money, he had not literally pocketed the profits.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn He further argued that due to rising costs, he would have had to invest more than the 10% of the mortgage loan not provided by the FHA, and therefore suffer a loss if he built under those conditions.Template:Sfn
In 1961, Trump donated $2,500 to the re-election campaign of New York mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr., helping him gain favor for the construction of Trump Village, a large apartment complex in Coney Island.<ref name="Blair-2018">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The project was constructed in 1963–64 for $70 million. It was one of Trump's biggest and last major projects,<ref name="bridgeportmillionaire" /><ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> and the only one to bear his name.<ref name="Blair-2018" /> He built more than 27,000 low-income apartments and row houses in the New York area altogether, including Brooklyn (in Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Flatbush, and Brighton Beach) and Queens (in Flushing and Jamaica Estates).<ref name="nyt" />Template:Sfn
In 1966, Trump was again investigated for windfall profiteering, this time by New York State investigators. After Trump overestimated building costs sponsored by a state program, he profited $598,000 on equipment rentals in the construction of Trump Village, which was then spent on other projects. Under testimony on January 27, 1966, Trump said that he had personally done nothing wrong and praised the success of his building project.Template:Sfn The commission called Trump "a pretty shrewd character" with a "talent for getting every ounce of profit out of his housing project", but no indictments were made. It was suggested instead that the state's housing program was in need of tighter administration protocols and accountability.Template:Sfn A deputy attorney general corresponded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding any reports it had about Trump before he was set to be deposed on March 31, 1966.<ref name="Gerstein-2016" />
Steeplechase ParkEdit
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On July 1, 1965, Trump purchased Coney Island's recently closed Steeplechase Park for $2.3 million, intending to build luxury apartments.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Fowler 1979">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The next year, he announced plans for a Template:Convert enclosed dome with recreational facilities and a convention center.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At a highly publicized ceremony in September 1966, Trump demolished the park's Pavilion of Fun, a large glass-enclosed amusement center.<ref name="Immerso2002">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He reportedly sold bricks to ceremony guests to smash the remaining glass panels, which included an iconic representation of the park's mascot, the "Funny Face".<ref name="The Telegraph 2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BP-Remembering-2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The next month, New York City announced plans to acquire the former park grounds for recreational use.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Trump filed a series of court cases related to the proposed rezoning, ultimately winning $1.3 million.<ref name="Fowler 1979" /> After the site sat vacant for several years, Trump started subleasing it to a manager of fairground amusement park rides.<ref name="Immerso2002" /><ref name="Fowler 1979" /> Over another decade, the city eventually succeeded in reclaiming the property.<ref name="Chambers 1977">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Mirabella 1985">Template:Cite news</ref>
In July 2016, the Coney Island History Project held a special exhibit for the "50th Anniversary of Fred Trump's Demolition of Steeplechase Pavilion".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Son becomes company presidentEdit
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Fred's son Donald joined his father's real-estate business around 1968, initially working in Brooklyn.Template:Sfn That year, Fred reputedly secured Donald a deferment from the Vietnam War by prioritizing maintenance for a tenant who (ostensibly in exchange) diagnosed Donald with bone spurs.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn In 1971, Donald became president of the company,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with Fred becoming chairman.<ref name="KranishOHarrowWP160123" /> Donald began calling the company 'the Trump Organization' around 1973.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Efn The younger Trump entered the real-estate business in Manhattan, while his father operated primarily in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.<ref name="whitman" /> Donald stated, "It was good for me. You know, being the son of somebody, it could have been competition to me. This way, I got Manhattan all to myself."<ref name="nyt" /> Fred reputedly said, "I gave Donald free rein. He has great vision and everything he touches seems to turn to gold. ... [He] is the smartest person I know."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
According to some sources, Fred himself planned the expansion to Manhattan.<ref name="whitman" /><ref>Template:Cite interview</ref><ref>Template:Harvnb. "Fred had long harbored aspirations to expand his empire across the river into Manhattan."</ref> His granddaughter Mary L. Trump states that he was "intimately involved in all aspects of Donald's early forays into the Manhattan market".Template:Sfn Louise Sunshine (organization vice president from 1973 to 1985) claims Fred was "behind [Donald] in every way, shape and form [including] financing".<ref>Template:Cite interview</ref> According to another source, Fred came to work "every day until ... he went to the hospital".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In the mid-1970s, Donald received loans from his father exceeding $14 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2015–16, during his campaign for U.S. president, Donald claimed that his father had given him "a small loan of a million dollars" which he used to build "a company that's worth more than $10 billion".<ref name=howmuch>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kessler160303">Template:Cite news</ref> An October 2018 New York Times exposé on Fred and Donald Trump's finances revealed that Fred created 295 income streams for Donald and concludes that the latter "was a millionaire by age 8", receiving $413 million (adjusted for inflation; $483.6 million in 2023 currency)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> from Fred's business empire over his lifetime, including over $60.7 million (unadjusted for inflation; $163.9 million in 2023 currency)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in loans, which were largely unreimbursed.<ref name="tax schemes">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn
According to Trump construction vice president Barbara Res, Fred seated business guests in an off-balance chair and advised Donald to arrange his office so that adversaries could be forced to face the sun.Template:Sfn
Federal civil rights lawsuitEdit
Minority applicants turned away from renting apartments complained to the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the Urban League, leading these groups to send test applicants to Trump-owned complexes in July 1972. They found that white people were offered apartments, while black people were generally turned away (by being told there were no vacancies);Template:Efn according to the superintendent of Beach Haven Apartments, this was at the direction of his boss.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> Both of the aforementioned advocacy organizations then raised the issue with the Justice Department.<ref name="KranishOHarrowWP160123">Template:Cite news</ref> In October 1973, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Trump Organization (Fred Trump, chair, and Donald Trump, president) for infringing the Fair Housing Act of 1968.<ref name=KranishOHarrowWP160123/> In response, Trump attorney Roy Cohn countersued for $100 million in damages, accusing the DoJ of false accusations.<ref name="KranishOHarrowWP160123" /><ref name="fbi3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The FBI interviewed about three dozen former Trump employees.<ref name="fbi3"/> Some testified that they had no knowledge of any racial profiling practices and that a small percentage of their apartments were rented to blacks or Puerto Ricans.Template:Efn A former doorman testified that his supervisor had instructed him to tell prospective black tenants that the rent was double its actual amount.<ref name="fbi2" /> Four landlords or rental agents confirmed that applications sent to the Trump organization's head office for approval were coded by the race of the applicant.<ref name="BarrettVV790115">Template:Cite news</ref> One former employee testified that a codeTemplate:Sndwhich he believed was used throughout the Brooklyn branch of the companyTemplate:Sndreferred to "low lifes" such as "blacks, Puerto Ricans, apparent drug users, or any other type of undesirable applicant", and nine times out of ten it meant the applicant was black; blacks were also falsely told there were no vacancies.<ref name="fbi3" /> A rental agent who had worked with the company for two weeks said that when he asked Fred Trump if he should rent to blacks, he was told that it was "absolutely against the law to discriminate",<ref name="Choi-2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but after asking again, he was instructed "not to rent to blacks", and was further advised to:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
get rid of the blacks that were in the building by telling them cheap housing was available for them at only $500 down payment, which Trump would offer to pay himself. Trump didn't tell me where this housing was located. He advised me not to rent to persons on welfare.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
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Meanwhile, Trump acquired up to 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City, a large, federally subsidized housing complex which opened in 1974 with the stated desegregation goal of renting 70% of its units to white people and the rest to minorities.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A consent decree between the DoJ and the Trump Organization was signed on June 10, 1975, with both sides claiming victoryTemplate:Sndthe Trump Organization because the settlement did not require them "to accept persons on welfare as tenants", and the head of DoJ's housing division for the decree being "one of the most far-reaching ever negotiated".<ref name="KranishOHarrowWP160123" /><ref name="BarrettVV790115" /> It personally and corporately prohibited the Trumps from "discriminating against any person in the ... sale or rental of a dwelling", and "required Trump to advertise vacancies in minority papers [for two years], promote minorities to professional jobs, and list vacancies on a preferential basis".<ref name="BarrettVV790115" /> Finally, it ordered the Trumps to "thoroughly acquaint themselves personally on a detailed basis with ... the Fair Housing Act of 1968".<ref name="KranishOHarrowWP160123" /><ref>Template:Cite court</ref>
Later legal trespassesEdit
In 1975, tenants of two of Trump's Norfolk tower complexes held a monthlong rent strike due to rodent and insect infestations, as well as problems with water heating, air conditioning, and elevator service.<ref name="Pierceall-2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In early 1976, Trump was ordered by a county judge to correct code violations in a 504-unit property in Seat Pleasant, Maryland. According to the county's housing department investigator, violations included broken windows, dilapidated gutters, and missing fire extinguishers.Template:Efn After a court date and a series of phone calls with Trump, he was invited to the property to meet with county officials in September 1976 and arrested on site.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Trump was released on $1,000 bail.<ref name="pgunits">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 1987, when Donald's loan debt to his father exceeded $11 million, Fred invested $15.5 million in Trump Palace Condominiums; in 1991, he sold these shares to his son for $10,000, thus appearing to evade millions of dollars in gift taxes by masking a hidden donation, and also benefiting from a legally questionable write-off.<ref name="tax schemes" /> In late 1990, when an $18.4 million bond payment for Atlantic City's Trump's Castle was due, Fred sent a bookkeeper to buy $3.5 million in casino chips, which were not used. Trump's Castle quickly made its bond payment. The state's Casino Control Commission found the transaction to constitute an illegal loan and fined the casino $65,000.<ref name="tax schemes" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn
In 1992, Fred and Donald set up a subsidiary company in which each of Fred's living children owned a 20% stake. As detailed in 2018 by The New York Times, the business entity had no apparent legitimate purpose and was evidently used to conduct tax fraud by funneling millions of dollars of Fred's wealth to his progeny without paying gift taxes. This was accomplished by billing Fred much more than the actual cost of maintenance work and goods such as boilers.<ref name="tax schemes"/><ref name=fambiz/>
Wealth and deathEdit
In 1976, Trump set up trust funds of $1 million ($5.3 million in 2023)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> for each of his five children and three grandchildren, which paid out yearly dividends.<ref name="Kessler160303" /> Trump appeared on the initial Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1982 with an estimated $200 million fortune split with his son Donald.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> That same year, Fred sold two Norfolk towers and some Hampton Roads military housing, the latter for $8–9 million, with perhaps $6.6 million pledged in promissory notes (which were apparently outstanding as of 2019). In 1998, a year before Fred's death, while he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and his son Robert had power of attorney, the notes were transferred to limited liability companies connected to Trump Organization subsidiaries.<ref name="Pierceall-2016" />
In December 1990, Donald Trump sought to amend his father's will, which according to Fred's daughter Maryanne Trump Barry, "was basically taking the whole estate and giving it to Donald", allowing him to "sell, do anything he wants ... with the properties".<ref name="Kranish-2020" /> The Washington Post wrote that this "was designed to protect Donald Trump's inheritance from efforts to seize it by creditors and Ivana", whom he divorced that month.<ref name="Kranish-2020" /> Fred rejected the proposal, and in 1991, composed his own final will, which made Donald, Maryanne, and Robert Trump Template:Nowrap of his estate.<ref name="Evans-2000">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Lessons">Template:Cite news</ref> Trump's lawyer noted that Fred Jr.'s children, Fred III and Mary L. Trump, would be treated unequally because they would not receive their deceased father's share, and wrote to Trump that "Given the size of your estate, this is tantamount to disinheriting them. You may wish to increase their participation in your estate to avoid ill will in the future."<ref name="Evans-2000" />Template:Efn In October 1991, Trump was diagnosed with "mild senile dementia", with his physician citing symptoms of "obvious memory decline in recent years" and "significant memory impairment". A few months later, another physician reported that Trump "did not know his birth date [or] age", amongst other difficulties.<ref name="Kranish-2020">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kranish-2024">Template:Cite news</ref> Mary L. Trump recounted that as her grandfather's dementia progressed, he failed to recognize people he had known for decades, including her and Donald.Template:Sfn<ref name="Kranish-2024" /> According to Fred III, his grandfather needed to be reminded why he was at Donald's 1993 wedding (to Marla Maples) despite being designated the best man.Template:Sfn Donald claimed that he first noticed his father exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's in the mid-1990s.<ref name=weiss>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kranish-2024" />
In 1993, the anticipated shares of Trump's estate amounted to $35 million for each surviving child.<ref name="Kessler160303" /><ref name="OBrien2005Oct">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn Most of his buildings were transferred to two grantor-retained annuity trusts under his and his wife's names, which were used to give about two-thirds of the assets to their four surviving children, who bought the remaining third via annuity payments between 1995 and November 1997.Template:Sfn<ref name="tax schemes" /> The collective assets were valued at $41.4 million and in 2004 were sold for over 16 times this value, avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in gift taxes.<ref name="tax schemes" />
Trump finally fell ill with pneumonia and was admitted to Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) for a few weeks, where he died at age 93 on June 25, 1999.<ref name="NYP" /> A wake was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel ahead of his funeral at the Marble Collegiate Church,<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="NYP">Template:Cite journal</ref> which was attended by over 600 people.<ref name="lets">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn His body was buried in a family plot at the Lutheran-Christian All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Upon his death, Trump's estate was estimated by his family at $250 million to $300 million,<ref name="nyt" /> though he had only $1.9 million in cash.Template:Sfn His will divided over $20 million after taxes among his surviving children and grandchildren.<ref name="Kessler160303" /><ref name="Lessons" /> His widow, Mary, died on August 7, 2000, at age 88, also at LIJMC.<ref name="NYTstaffObit000809" /> Her and Fred's combined estate was then valued at $51.8 million.Template:Sfn
Following Trump's death, Fred Jr.'s children contested their grandfather's will, citing his dementia and claiming that the will was "procured by fraud and undue influence" by Donald, Maryanne, and Robert Trump.<ref name="Lessons" /><ref name="Evans-2000" /> These three had claimed in their legal depositions that Fred Trump was "sharp as a tack" until just before his death,Template:Sfn but otherwise stated that they were aware of his cognitive decline.<ref name="Kranish-2020" /><ref name="Kranish-2024" /><ref name="weiss" />
In December 2003, it was reported that Trump's four surviving children would sell the apartments they acquired in 1997 to an investment group led by Rubin Schron, priced at $600 million;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the sale occurred in May 2004. The 2016 leak of Donald Trump's tax information from 2005, which showed an income of $153 million, prompted The New York Times to investigate, leading to the 2018 exposé.<ref name=fambiz>Template:Cite AV media</ref>Template:Efn The Times reported that the properties sold in 2004 were valued over 16 times their previously declared worth.<ref name="tax schemes" /> Fred and Mary reportedly provided their children with over $1 billion altogether, which should have been taxed at the rate of 55% for gifts and inheritances (over $550 million), but records show that a total of only $52.2 million (about 5%) was paid.<ref name="tax schemes" /> According to New York State law, individuals can be prosecuted on the basis of intentional tax evasion if a fraudulent return form can be produced as evidence; the statute of limitations does not apply in such cases.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By February 1, 2019, Maryanne Trump Barry was being investigated for possible judicial misconduct regarding the schemes, but this was mooted later in the month due to her retirement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal lifeEdit
In May 1927, over 1,000 robed members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)Template:Efn and 400 non-robed KKK supporters infiltrated a Memorial Day parade in Queens, prompting stern police intervention.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Eight men were arrested,<ref name=":0" /> including the 21-year old Trump, whose charge of "refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so" was dismissed.<ref name="boing">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="vice.com">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="washingtonpost.com">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="The New York Times-1927">Template:Cite news</ref> Another man, arrested on the same charge, was released on the basis of having been a bystander (whose foot was injured by a police car).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="vice.com" /><ref name=":0" /> Some newspaper articles on the incident list Trump's address (in Jamaica, Queens),<ref name="vice.com" /><ref name="The New York Times-1927" /> which he is recorded as living at on various documents from 1928 to 1940.<ref name="washingtonpost.com" /><ref name="vice.com" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Ancestry.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn Despite this arrest, there is no incontrovertible evidence that Trump was a supporter of the KKK.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Trump met his future wife, Mary Anne MacLeod, an immigrant from Tong, Lewis, Scotland, at a dance party in the early to mid-1930s.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Trump told his mother the same evening that he had met his future wife.Template:Sfn Trump, a Lutheran, married Mary, a Presbyterian, on January 11, 1936,Template:Sfn at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church with George Arthur Buttrick officiating.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A wedding reception was held at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, and they had a single-night honeymoon in Atlantic City.Template:Sfn The couple settled in Jamaica, Queens,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and had five children: Maryanne Trump Barry (1937–2023),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Fred Trump Jr. (1938–1981; an airline pilot with Trans World Airlines),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Elizabeth Trump Grau (born 1942; a retired executive of Chase Manhattan Bank),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Donald Trump (born 1946), and Robert Trump (1948–2020;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a top executive of his father's property management company until his retirement).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During World War II, Trump began concealing his German ancestry.<ref name="Brighton" />Template:Efn Notwithstanding his German accent (later replaced by a New York one),<ref name="Horatio Alger Association" /> he denied that he spoke the language.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Partly due to the prominence of Jews in New York, he supported Jewish causes, with contributions (apparently starting in 1941 two weeks after the U.S. entered the war) convincing some he practiced Judaism.Template:SfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn He also omitted the "h" from his middle name (sidestepping the potential implication he could be anti-Semitic as a Christian).Template:Sfn Trump later falsely claimed that he was of Swedish (Northern European) descent,Template:Sfn<ref name="nyt" /> and in 1973 wrongly stated that he was born in New Jersey;<ref name="whitman" /> these deceptions were sustained in the 1980s by Donald Trump and the author of Donald's first biography.<ref name="CNN-2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn During the 1980s, Fred became friends with the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu, later the prime minister of Israel.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
After Elizabeth's birth, and with the U.S. becoming more involved in the war, Trump moved his family to Hampton Roads's Virginia Beach.<ref name="Horowitz-2016" />Template:Sfn In 1944, as Trump's FHA funding lulled, they returned to Jamaica Estates, Queens, where Mary suffered a miscarriage.Template:Sfn By 1946, they were living in a five-bedroom Tudor-style house Trump built in Jamaica Estates,Template:Sfn and Trump purchased a neighboring Template:Convert lot,Template:Sfn where he built a 23-room, 9-bathroom mansion. The family moved in during 1950–1951, and Fred and Mary remained there until their deaths.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Menza-2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn The couple was also given an apartment on the 55th (labelled the 63rd)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> floor of Donald's Trump Tower (Template:Circa), which they rarely if ever used.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Belkin-2016" />
Trump was a teetotalerTemplate:Efn and an authoritarian parent, imposing strict table manners and curfews, as well as forbidding cursing, lipstick, and snacking between meals.<ref name="OBrien">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn At the end of his day, Trump would receive a report from Mary on the children's actions and, if necessary, decide upon disciplinary actions.Template:Sfn Additionally, the mansion featured a surveillance system and an intercom, which Trump used to censure his children.Template:Sfn He took his children to building sites to collect empty bottles to return for the deposits.Template:Sfn The boys had paper routes, and when weather conditions were poor, their father would let them make their deliveries in a limousine.Template:Sfn According to Fred Jr.'s daughter, Mary L. Trump, Fred Sr. wanted his oldest son to be "invulnerable" in personality so he could take over the family business, but Fred Jr. was the opposite.Template:Sfn Trump instead elevated Donald to become his business heir, teaching him to "be a killer", and telling him, "You are a king."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="D'Antonio-2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mary L. Trump states that Fred Sr. "dismantled [Fred Jr.] by devaluing and degrading every aspect of his personality" and mocked him for his decision to become an airline pilot.<ref name="Lozada-2020">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1981, Fred Jr. died at age 42 from complications due to his alcoholism.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref>Template:Sfn
According to Donald Trump, while his mother was watching the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II on television, Fred said while pacing around, "For Christ's sake, Mary. Enough is enough, turn it off. They're all a bunch of con artists."Template:Sfn Also in the 1950s, Fred became an admirer of Protestant minister Norman Vincent Peale, the author of The Power of Positive Thinking (1952), due to his businesslike approach to life and Christianity.<ref name="peale">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Trump and his family attended sermons by Peale at Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church.<ref name="peale" /> Trump was also a supporter of Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, whom he took his family to see speak at Yankee Stadium (Template:Circa).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
PhilanthropyEdit
Fred and Mary Trump supported medical charities by donating buildings. After Mary received medical care at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, they donated the Trump Pavilion rehabilitation building;<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="NYTstaffObit000809">Template:Cite journal</ref> Fred was also a trustee of the hospital.Template:Sfn The couple donated a two-building complex in Brooklyn as a home for "functionally retarded adults", a New Jersey building valued at $4.75 million to United Cerebral Palsy (which Donald took credit for),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and other buildings to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF).<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="NYTstaffObit000809" /> Trump donated one of his least profitable properties to the NKF, which according to The New York Times was "one of the largest charitable donations he ever made", with a deduction proportional to its stated value, claimed in his 1992 tax return as $34 million.<ref name="tax schemes"/>
Particularly after U.S. entry into World War II in late 1941, Trump backed both Jewish and Israeli causes.Template:SfnTemplate:EfnTemplate:Efn This included Israel Bonds,Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> donating the land for the Beach Haven Jewish Center, a synagogue in Flatbush, Brooklyn,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in 1952 serving as the treasurer of an Israel benefit concert featuring American easy-listening performers.Template:Sfn
Fred supported the private Kew-Forest School,<ref name="nyt" /> where his children attended and he served on the board of directors.Template:Sfn The Trumps were active in The Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Lighthouse for the Blind.<ref name="NYTstaffObit000809" /> Fred reportedly also supported the Long Island Jewish Hospital and Manhattan's Hospital for Special Surgery;<ref name="nyt" /> at the latter, he was a patient of orthopedist Philip D. Wilson Jr., the hospital's lead surgeon from 1972 to 1989.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Although he was registered as a Republican Party voter, Trump developed ties with the Democratic Party in New York,<ref name="Belkin-2016" />Template:Sfn contributing to city politicians (including $2,500 to Mayor Wagner's 1961 campaign, enabling the construction of Trump Village).<ref name="Blair-2018" /> Together with Donald in the 1980s, Fred provided over $350,000 to city politicians including Mayor Ed Koch, Council president Andrew Stein, Controller Harrison J. Goldin, and four of the five borough presidents.<ref name="Gerstein-2016" />
In October 2018, The New York Times reported in an exposé on Trump's financial records that they had found no evidence that he had made any significant financial contributions to charities.<ref name="tax schemes" />
LegacyEdit
Folk singer Woody Guthrie was a tenant of Beach Haven Apartments from 1950 to 1951.<ref name="unbelievable">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kaufman-2021">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In his unrecorded song "Old Man Trump", he complains about the rent and accused Trump of stirring up racial hate "in the bloodpot of human hearts".<ref name="nytguthrie">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Kaufman-2021" /> Similarly, in an unreleased version of "Ain't Got No Home", Guthrie states:<ref name="Kaufman-2021" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Trump was indirectly claimed as a relative of Republican politician Fred J. Trump, a candidate in the 1956 Arizona gubernatorial election<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and correspondent of Richard Nixon during his 1960 presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy.<ref>Trump, Fred (September 30, 1960). Letter to Richard Nixon – via the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Box 764. "Please refer to Sen. K, not by name, but as the 'Junior Senator from Massachusetts'!"</ref>
Jerome Tuccille's 1985 biography of Donald Trump repeats Fred's fabrication that he was born in New Jersey and erroneously states that his middle name was Charles (not Christ).Template:Sfn Donald's The Art of the Deal (1987) also alleges that Fred was born in New Jersey and further that he was the son of an immigrant from Sweden (not Germany).<ref name="CNN-2019" /> The New York Post repeated the latter claim in its eulogy for Fred.Template:Sfn As U.S. president, Donald falsely stated at least three times that his father was born in Germany.<ref name="Germany">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to a 2021 book about Donald's last year as president, he once spoke disparagingly of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stating, "I know the fucking krauts," and pointing to his father's portrait, continued, "I was raised by the biggest kraut of them all."<ref name="Alone">Template:Cite book</ref> Kraut is an ethnic slur for a German (particularly a soldier of either world war).<ref name="kraut">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
In his 1993 biography of Donald Trump, Harry Hurt III asserts that Fred was a philanderer, with his alleged Floridian affairs leading him to be known as the "King of Miami Beach". In 1989 (while Donald was married to Ivana but tabloids had begun reporting about his affair with future wife Marla Maples), Fred reputedly lectured Donald that he could "have a thousand mistresses" but not to get caught in a single specific extramarital affair.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to Hurt, after Donald decided to accompany Ivana to her father's funeral in Czechoslovakia (amid their pending divorce), Fred told a longtime secretary and personal confidant, "I hope their plane crashes. Then all my problems will be solved."<ref name="D'Antonio-2020" />Template:Sfn<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, his father's 1927 arrest at a KKK march resurfaced.Template:Efn In mid-February 2017, a liberal Israeli newspaper asserted that both Donald Trump (who had called Fred his only 'hero') and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had learned racism from their fathers, Trump against brown people and Netanyahu against Arabs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Three days later, the FBI declassified 389 pages from its early 1970s investigation of alleged racial discrimination by the Trump Organization.<ref name="Choi-2017" /> In his 2018 psychological profile of Donald, Justin A. Frank asserts that Fred was anti-Semitic.Template:Sfn In 2020, Mary L. Trump supported this claim and said Fred could have been sympathetic to the KKK.<ref name="why">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In May 2016, in an article about Donald Trump's pseudonyms, Fortune reported that his father had used the false name "Mr. Green" to anonymously inquire about property values.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In October 2016, in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, the FBI released a small file it had on Fred; it includes a 1986 news article concerning political donations by Trump Management, an amply redacted 1991 memo implying the bureau received intel regarding ties to organized crime, and a background report on Trump Construction Corp.<ref name="Gerstein-2016">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2018, writing for New York magazine in response to the New York Times exposé, Jonathan Chait opined that many of Fred's contributions to Donald were by definition criminal in nature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In mid-2020, liberal political action committee (PAC) MeidasTouch cited the "empty wagon" quote from Trump's Horatio Alger Association speech in arguing that Trump both squandered the fortune he inherited from his father and the "booming economy" left to him by the Obama administration.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mary L. Trump, in her 2020 book, Too Much and Never Enough, claims that "Donald, Fred Trump's favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer's".<ref name="D'Antonio-2020" /> In the book, Mary, a clinical psychologist, asserts that Fred was a high-functioning sociopath.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A 2024 article in the psychohistorical journal Clio's Psyche claims that the "cruel" and "mendacious" Fred denied Donald of "basic, life-affirming emotional nourishment" (while repeating that he was a "killer" and a "king"), resulting in Donald's "absence of moral responsibility".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Following Donald Trump's arrest in New York in 2023, some media outlets pointed out that his father had been arrested twice.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In popular cultureEdit
In the 2011 Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump, the American comedian Seth MacFarlane credited Donald's fortune to his father, mocking the former's "self-starter bullshit" and comparing their relationship to that of Jaden and Will Smith.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In late 2016, Nell Scovell wrote about an unsuccessful attempt to visit Trump's grave in Esquire, noting that an online photograph implied it to be surprisingly modest.Template:Efn After asking for directions, Scovell was elusively jawboned by the cemetery president.<ref name="scov">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2018, Nylon.com invoked a photograph of the elderly Trump with a pronounced depression behind one cheek (from a mandibulectomy)Template:Sfn to opine that the New York Times exposé "led people to know, perhaps for the first time, what Fred Trump looks like—and it turns out he bears resemblance to no shortage of fictional villains".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since 2018, Trump has been portrayed in various media.Template:Efn
In 2019, the American journalist and conspiracy theorist Wayne Madsen accused Fred of being a Nazi sympathizer on the basis of the German American Bund's presence in New York.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In mid-2020, fact-checking company Logically concluded that there was a lack of clear evidence that Trump was a Nazi supporter.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During his 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, Donald Trump said that his father had told him never to say the word "Nazi" or mention Adolf Hitler.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Efn
NotesEdit
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