All You Need to Know About Donald Trump

From major highlights to background context, get a complete picture of All You Need to Know About Donald Trump with our comprehensive overview.

Donald Trump was officially a millionaire on paper in 1954, when he was just 8 years old, thanks to stakes in his father’s company set aside for each kid at various ages.

Fred Trump established a $1 million trust fund for each of his three grandkids and three great-grandchildren in 1976. In today’s dollars, that equates to about $5 million. The trusts distributed annual dividends from revenues generated by Elizabeth Trump & Son’s rental income and property sales.

Donald and Fred were co-featured on the first Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans in 1982, with a combined net worth of $200 million, which is almost $500 million today. After adjusted for inflation, each Trump brother got around $413 million in inheritance and earnings from Fred Trump by the time he died in 1999.

Donald set out on his own in 1976, with his newly established trust money and an additional loan from his father, to take the family company away from the boroughs and into Manhattan. Over the next two decades, Fred would lend at least $60 million to Donald for various ventures, the majority of which were never repaid.

The 1976 refurbishment of the Commodore Hotel into today’s Grand Hyatt New York was one of his early independent achievements. New York was in the grip of a severe economic downturn at the time. The Commodore lost more than $1.5 million on its operations the previous year.

Under Donald’s leadership, the Trump Organization spent $100 million upgrading the property over the next four years. It was widely regarded as a highly effective and favorable refurbishment for both the building and the city as a whole. In 1996, Donald sold his half-stake in the skyscraper to his partners, the Pritzker family, for $142 million.

Donald began building on what would become Trump Tower, a 58-story skyscraper on Fifth Avenue, in 1982. The Trump Tower contains 238 residential units, three restaurants, and a number of first-floor retail companies. The top three levels are a triplex flat that has been Donald’s personal New York City residence for decades.

Forbes evaluated Trump Tower at $318 million in 2006, or $288 million after subtracting Trump’s $30 million mortgage on the building. The building’s worth has almost risen to $600 million in 2015, mainly to the flagship luxury shop Gucci. With a modest drop in NYC real estate values and a $100 million debt, the property is likely worth $400-$500 million now.

He also owns Trump World Tower, Trump Place, and Trump International in New York City. He used to own The Plaza Hotel. Many of the hotels and condo complexes that use the Trump name now are licensing agreements in which other owners pay the Trump Organization a fee to use the Trump name and frequently run the leasing/sales/operations of the building.

Donald expanded his portfolio to Atlantic City in the late 1980s, when he developed a number of casino sites. In 1990, his flagship Trump Taj Mahal Casino debuted. The casinos were continuously losing money, necessitating financial bailouts from Fred Trump. Between 1991 and 2009, the Trump casino and resort operations declared bankruptcy many times.

Donald was entitled to a $400,000 annual compensation as President. During his presidency, he donated all but $1 of his income to charity every year. He will receive a $211,000 annual pension as an ex-president. Ex-Presidents also earn up to $1 million in travel expense reimbursements every year, Secret Service protection for life, $150,000 in staff expense reimbursement, and an office space reimbursement. The annual office space reimbursement for Bill Clinton costs US taxpayers more than $500,000 per year.