Donald Trump was born June 14, 1946 in New York City. He is 78 years old. Trump’s father was real estate developer Frederick Christ Trump. Frederick’s parents were German immigrants. His mother, Mary Macleod, immigrated from Scotland in 1930 and became a U.S. citizen in 1942. 

Trump went to a private boarding school, the New York Military Academy from 1964-1966 and then attended college at Fordham University for two years. He then graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. 

After college, he worked for his father’s business full-time. He soon became president of the Trump Organization, which he named himself, and was made up of many trump-owned corporations and partnerships. 

He ran for president and won 2016. He also ran for presidency in 2020 but lost to Joe Biden, even though he denies to this day that he lost the election. He is running again in 2024 against presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Donald Trump is the first president to be impeached twice and the first sitting president to meet with a leader of North Korea. 

Trump expanded his father’s business and soon started investing in properties in Manhattan, New Jersey and casinos in Atlantic City. Following the recession of 1990, Trump declared bankruptcy in 1991 but rebounded when Deutsche Bank gave Trump millions of dollars in credit for him to build the Trump World Tower in New York and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. In 1996 Trump bought the Miss Universe Organization (which included the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants). 

In 2004 he starred in the TV Show The Apprentice, where the iconic line, “You’re fired!” is from. Contestants of the show would compete in contests to become a Trump employee for one year. Trump was also the co-author of the books Trump: The Art of the Deal (1987), The America We Deserve (2000), Why We Want You to Be Rich (2006), Trump 101: The Way to Success (2006), Trump Never Give Up: How I Turned My Biggest Challenges into Success (2008) and Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again (2015). 

Trump then went into politics and ran for president for the republican party in 2016 with running mate Mike Pence and won. As president, Trump achieved the biggest tax cuts for corporations recorded, withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement (an agreement formed by the UN to reduce the risk and impact of climate change), and started charging tariffs in foreign aluminum, steel as well as other goods. He also increased military budgets and reduced the cost of prescription drugs and according to The White House, took an “aggressive” approach on border and immigration control. 

In fact, immediately after becoming president, he started taking action against immigration. He issued an executive order that blocked people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from coming to the U.S. He also blocked refugees for four months until he was forced to revise the orders because of legal reasons. 

He also promised to build a wall between Mexico and the United States that Mexico would pay for when he became president. Although Mexico did not pay for it, Congress provided $1.375 billion dollars for him to build the wall. From 2017-2021, steel bollard wall segments were built throughout 450 miles out of the 2,000 miles that make up the border between the U.S. and Mexico. He introduced the “family separation” and “zero tolerance” policies that separated families, including children, from each other when they crossed the border. He reversed the policy later that year. 

In 2020, the coronavirus, or COVID-19, hit the U.S. This was Trump’s last year as president. He often called the virus the “China Virus” or even the “Kung Flu”. Trump signed the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act that provided $2.2 trillion for American citizens. The Trump Administration “Operation Warp Speed” also helped the development of the two vaccines. 

Donald Trump was also impeached twice. He was impeached the first time for trying to convince the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to interfere and help him win the 2020 election and for obstruction of Congress. Obstruction of Congress is when someone interferes with the work of Congress or a congressional committee. 

The second time Trump was impeached was for “incitement to insurrection” when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and broke in, claiming that Trump had won the 2020 election and deserved the presidency. 

The Senate acquitted him for both impeachments, meaning he was found not guilty. Trump is only the third president to ever be impeached and will go down in history as the first to be impeached twice. 

Trump was also part of many lawsuits in his career. In 1973 Trump and his father were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating the Fair Housing Act, a legal proceeding that protects people from discrimination in housing

In 1997, Trump was accused of sexual harassment and assault by a woman named Jill Harth. A woman named E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, and he was found guilty for sexually abusing her. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

In 2019, almost three years into his presidency, he settled yet another lawsuit for $2 million dollars for illegally using money for his Trump Foundation charity for his presidential campaign. The charity was dissolved.

He has been involved in over 4,000 lawsuits. Many of his lawsuits are linked here. In this coming election, Donald Trump has promised to “make America great again”. In his website, he has said that he will not let other nations “take advantage of us on trade, borders, foreign policy, and national defense.”

All information was sourced from BBC, Biography- Britannica, Business- Britannica, NY Times and The Miller Center- UVA.