Fred Trump
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Frederick Christ Trump Sr., born October 11, 1905, and passing on 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, New York City, to German immigrant parents, Trump began working in home construction and sales in the 1920s. He eventually led the real-estate business his parents had started, which became known as the Trump Organization. His company found success, building and managing single-family homes in Queens, apartments for war workers on the East Coast during World War II, and over 27,000 apartments across New York. Trump faced scrutiny, investigated for profiteering by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 and again by New York State in 1966. His son, Donald Trump, became 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 a billion dollars, in 2018 value, to their children, avoiding over $500 million in gift taxes. In 1992, Fred and Donald established a subsidiary used to funnel Fred's fortune to his progeny. Shortly before his death, Fred transferred ownership of most of his buildings to his surviving children, who years later sold them for over 16 times their previously declared worth.
In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration, though conclusive evidence of his support for the organization is absent. From World War II onward, to distance himself from Nazism, Trump denied his German ancestry and actively supported Jewish causes.
**Early Life and Career**
Trump's father, Frederick Trump, originally Friedrich, amassed considerable wealth during the Klondike Gold Rush by operating a restaurant and brothel for miners. Friedrich returned to Kallstadt in 1901 and married Elizabeth Christ the following year. They moved to New York City, where their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1904. The family later returned to Kallstadt. Fred was conceived in Bavaria, where his parents intended to re-establish residency, but Friedrich was banished for dodging the draft. The family returned to New York on July 1, 1905, settling in the Bronx, where Frederick Christ Trump was born on October 11. Fred's younger brother, John G. Trump, was born in 1907. All three children were raised speaking German at home. In September 1908, the family moved to Woodhaven, Queens.
Many details of Trump's childhood stem from autobiographical accounts that emphasize independence, learning, and particularly hard work, to a degree that may be somewhat fictionalized. At age 10, Trump worked as a delivery boy for a butcher. About two years later, on Memorial Day, his father died suddenly during the 1918 flu pandemic. From 1918 to 1923, Fred attended Richmond Hill High School in Queens, while working as a caddy, curb whitewasher, delivery boy, and newspaper hawker. Meanwhile, his mother continued the real-estate business Friedrich had begun. Aspiring to be a builder, Fred constructed a garage for a neighbor and took night classes in carpentry and blueprint reading. He reportedly studied plumbing, masonry, and electrical wiring through correspondence courses, though other biographical sources limit his construction education to the period after high school, when he was also working in the field.
After graduating in January 1923, Trump found full-time work pulling lumber to construction sites. He studied carpentry and became a carpenter's assistant. Trump's mother held the business in her name until he turned 21, the age of majority. The company name "E. Trump & Son" appeared in advertising by 1924. By then, Trump ostensibly used an $800 loan from his mother to complete and sell his first house. Public records, however, do not support him building until 1927, the year the company was incorporated and following Trump's 21st birthday. Trump purportedly built 19 more homes by 1926 in Hollis, Queens, selling some before completion to finance others. Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett suggests Trump exaggerated the length of his career while arguing in federal court in 1934 that he deserved a dissolved company's mortgage servicer.
In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration, though there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization.
**Rise to Success**
In 1933, Trump constructed one of New York City's first modern supermarkets, Trump Market, in Woodhaven, Queens. It was modeled after King Kullen, a self-service supermarket chain on Long Island. Trump's store advertised "Serve Yourself and Save!" and quickly gained popularity. After six months, Trump sold it to King Kullen.
In federal court in 1934, Trump and a partner acquired the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss Corporation, which had gone bankrupt and been broken up. This provided Trump access to titles of many properties nearing foreclosure, which he purchased at low cost and sold for a profit. This and similar real-estate ventures rapidly established him as one of New York City's most successful businessmen.
Trump utilized loan subsidies created by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) shortly after the program's inception via the National Housing Act of 1934, which also facilitated the discriminatory practice of redlining. By 1936, Trump employed 400 workers digging foundations for houses priced between $3,000 and $6,250. Trump employed his father's psychological tactic of pricing properties ending in "...9.99". In the late 1930s, he used a boat off Coney Island's shore to advertise, playing patriotic music and releasing swordfish-shaped balloons redeemable for $25 or $250 towards his properties. In 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Trump as "the Henry Ford of the home building industry." During this period, Trump anticipated profiting from World War II. By 1942, he had built 2,000 homes in Brooklyn using FHA funds.
During the war, the federal Office of Production Management, established in 1941, permitted FHA funding for defense housing in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, due to its proximity to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Trump planned to build 700 houses there, which would have been his and the state FHA office's largest project to date. However, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. declaration of war on Japan, the project was shifted to defense housing at the East Coast's naval hub, Hampton Roads near Norfolk, Virginia, where Trump was already developing an apartment complex. Congress amended the National Housing Act to provide mortgage insurance for defense apartments, allowing Trump to own the properties he built for war workers. By 1944, he had constructed 1,360 wartime apartments, nearly 10% of those built in Norfolk. 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.
Post-war, Trump expanded into middle-income housing for returning veterans' families. From 1947 to 1949, he built Shore Haven in Bensonhurst, comprising 32 six-story buildings and a shopping center, covering approximately 30 acres and securing $9 million in FHA funding. In 1950, he constructed the 23-building Beach Haven Apartments on over 40 acres near Coney Island, obtaining $16 million in FHA funds. These projects collectively included more than 2,700 apartments.
Decades after hiring PR man Howard Rubenstein to generate publicity about his life story, mirroring the rags-to-riches novels of 19th-century author Horatio Alger, Fred was awarded the Horatio Alger Award in 1985 for "distinguished Americans." Radio and television personality Art Linkletter introduced Trump at the ceremony, with Ruth Peale, wife of Norman Vincent Peale and a previous award recipient, presenting him the award. During his speech, Trump attributed his success to enthusiasm for his work and stated 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) attributed to William Shakespeare the saying, "Never follow an empty wagon because," pointing to his head, "nothing ever falls off." He concluded by introducing his surviving nuclear family.
**Further Enterprises**
In early 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and other federal leaders began criticizing real-estate profiteers. That June, The New York Times listed Trump among 35 city builders accused of profiteering from government contracts. He and others were investigated by a U.S. Senate banking committee for windfall gains. Trump and his partner William Tomasello were cited as examples of how builders profited using the FHA. The two paid $34,200 for a parcel of land they leased to their corporation for $76,960 annually on a 99-year lease, ensuring that if the apartment they built on it defaulted, the FHA would owe them $1.924 million. Trump and Tomasello evidently secured loans for $3.5 million more than Beach Haven Apartments had cost. Trump argued that since he hadn't withdrawn the money, he hadn't literally pocketed the profits. He further contended that due to rising costs, he would have had to invest more than the 10% of the mortgage loan not covered by the FHA, thus incurring a loss if he built under those conditions.
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. The project was built in 1963–64 for $70 million. It was one of Trump's largest and final major projects, and the only one to bear his name. He constructed over 27,000 low-income apartments and row houses in the New York area, including Brooklyn (in Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Flatbush, and Brighton Beach) and Queens (in Flushing and Jamaica Estates).
In 1966, Trump was again investigated for windfall profiteering, this time by New York State investigators. After Trump overestimated building costs supported by a state program, he profited $598,000 on equipment rentals during the construction of Trump Village, which was then allocated to other projects. Under testimony on January 27, 1966, Trump asserted he had personally done nothing wrong and praised the success of his building project. The commission described Trump as "a pretty shrewd character" with a "talent for getting every ounce of profit out of his housing project," but no indictments were issued. Instead, it was suggested that the state's housing program needed tighter administrative protocols and accountability. A deputy attorney general corresponded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regarding any reports it had on Trump before his deposition was scheduled for March 31, 1966.
**Steeplechase Park**
On July 1, 1965, Trump purchased the recently closed Steeplechase Park in Coney Island for $2.3 million, intending to build luxury apartments. The following year, he unveiled plans for a 160-foot-high enclosed dome featuring recreational facilities and a convention center. At a highly publicized ceremony in September 1966, Trump demolished the park's Pavilion of Fun, a large glass-enclosed amusement center. He reportedly sold bricks to ceremony guests to smash the remaining glass panels, which included an iconic depiction of the park's mascot, the "Funny Face." The next month, New York City announced plans to acquire the former park grounds for recreational use. Trump filed a series of lawsuits related to the proposed rezoning, ultimately winning $1.3 million. After the site remained vacant for several years, Trump began subleasing it to a manager of fairground amusement park rides. Over another decade, the city eventually succeeded in reclaiming the property.
In July 2016, the Coney Island History Project hosted a special exhibit for the "50th Anniversary of Fred Trump's Demolition of Steeplechase Pavilion."
**Son Becomes Company President**
Fred's son Donald joined his father's real-estate business around 1968, initially working in Brooklyn. 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. In 1971, Donald became president of the company, with Fred assuming the role of chairman. Donald began referring to the company as 'the Trump Organization' around 1973. The younger Trump focused on real estate in Manhattan, while his father primarily operated in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. 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." Fred reputedly remarked, "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."
According to some sources, Fred himself planned the expansion into Manhattan. His granddaughter Mary L. Trump asserts he was "intimately involved in all aspects of Donald's early forays into the Manhattan market." Louise Sunshine, an organization vice president from 1973 to 1985, claims Fred was "behind [Donald] in every way, shape and form [including] financing." Another source indicates Fred came to work "every day until ... he went to the hospital."
In the mid-1970s, Donald received loans from his father exceeding $14 million. In 2015–16, during his campaign for U.S. president, Donald claimed 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." An October 2018 New York Times exposé on Fred and Donald Trump's finances revealed that Fred created 295 income streams for Donald and concluded that the latter "was a millionaire by age 8," receiving $413 million (adjusted for inflation; $483.6 million in 2023 currency) from Fred's business empire over his lifetime, including over $60.7 million (unadjusted for inflation; $163.9 million in 2023 currency) in loans, which were largely unreimbursed.
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 would be forced to face the sun.
**Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit**
Minority applicants who were denied apartments complained to the New York City Commission on Human Rights and the Urban League, prompting these groups to send test applicants to Trump-owned complexes in July 1972. They found that while white individuals were offered apartments, Black individuals were generally turned away, often told there were no vacancies. According to the superintendent of Beach Haven Apartments, this was directed by his superior. Both advocacy organizations then escalated the issue to the Justice Department. 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 violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In response, Trump attorney Roy Cohn countersued for $100 million in damages, accusing the DoJ of false accusations.
The FBI interviewed approximately three dozen former Trump employees. Some testified that they had no knowledge of any racial profiling practices and that a small percentage of their apartments were rented to Black or Puerto Rican individuals. A former doorman testified that his supervisor had instructed him to inform prospective Black tenants that the rent was double its actual amount. Four landlords or rental agents confirmed that applications sent to the Trump organization's head office for approval were coded based on the applicant's race. One former employee testified that a code – which he believed was used throughout the Brooklyn branch of the company – referred 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 signified the applicant was Black; Black individuals were also falsely told there were no vacancies. A rental agent who had worked with the company for two weeks stated that when he asked Fred Trump if he should rent to Black people, he was told it was "absolutely against the law to discriminate," but after asking again, he was instructed "not to rent to blacks," and was further advised to:
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.
Meanwhile, Trump acquired up to 20% of Brooklyn's Starrett City, a large, federally subsidized housing complex that opened in 1974 with the stated desegregation goal of renting 70% of its units to white people and the remainder to minorities.
A consent decree between the DoJ and the Trump Organization was signed on June 10, 1975. Both sides claimed victory: the Trump Organization because the settlement did not require them "to accept persons on welfare as tenants," and the head of the DoJ's housing division because the decree was "one of the most far-reaching ever negotiated." 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." Finally, it mandated that the Trumps "thoroughly acquaint themselves personally on a detailed basis with ... the Fair Housing Act of 1968."
**Later Legal Trespasses**
In 1975, tenants of two of Trump's Norfolk tower complexes initiated a monthlong rent strike due to rodent and insect infestations, as well as issues with water heating, air conditioning, and elevator service. In early 1976, Trump was ordered by a county judge to rectify 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. Following 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. Trump was released on $1,000 bail.
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, thereby appearing to evade millions of dollars in gift taxes by concealing a donation and also benefiting from a legally questionable tax write-off. In late 1990, when an $18.4 million bond payment for Atlantic City's Trump's Castle was due, Fred sent a bookkeeper to purchase $3.5 million in casino chips, which were not used. Trump's Castle promptly made its bond payment. The state's Casino Control Commission deemed the transaction an illegal loan and fined the casino $65,000.
In 1992, Fred and Donald established a subsidiary company in which each of Fred's living children held a 20% stake. As detailed in 2018 by The New York Times, the business entity lacked any apparent legitimate purpose and was evidently used to commit tax fraud by channeling millions of dollars of Fred's wealth to his progeny without incurring gift taxes. This was achieved by billing Fred significantly more than the actual cost of maintenance work and goods such as boilers.
**Wealth and Death**
In 1976, Trump set up trust funds of $1 million ($5.3 million in 2023) for each of his five children and three grandchildren, which paid out yearly dividends. Trump appeared on the inaugural Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1982 with an estimated $200 million fortune, shared with his son Donald. 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 held power of attorney, the notes were transferred to limited liability companies linked to Trump Organization subsidiaries.
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." The Washington Post reported that this "was designed to protect Donald Trump's inheritance from efforts to seize it by creditors and Ivana," whom he divorced that month. Fred rejected the proposal and, in 1991, drafted his own final will, appointing his children Donald, Maryanne, and Robert Trump as co-executors of his estate. Trump's lawyer noted that Fred Jr.'s children, Fred III and Mary L. Trump, would be treated unequally as they would not receive their deceased father's share: "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." 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," among other difficulties. 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. 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. Donald claimed he first noticed his father exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's in the mid-1990s.
In 1993, the anticipated shares of Trump's estate were estimated at $35 million for each surviving child. Most of his buildings were transferred to two grantor-retained annuity trusts under his and his wife's names, which were utilized to distribute about two-thirds of the assets to their four surviving children, who purchased the remaining third via annuity payments between 1995 and November 1997. The collective assets had a declared value of only $41.4 million, but in 2004 were sold for over 16 times this value, thereby avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in gift taxes.
Trump ultimately fell ill with pneumonia and was admitted to Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) for a few weeks. He passed away at age 93 on June 25, 1999. A wake was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel preceding his funeral at the Marble Collegiate Church, which was attended by over 600 people. His body was interred in a family plot at the Lutheran-Christian All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. Upon his death, Trump's estate was estimated by his family at $250 million to $300 million, though he only possessed $1.9 million in cash. His will distributed over $20 million after taxes among his surviving children and grandchildren. His widow, Mary, died on August 7, 2000, at age 88, also at LIJMC. Their combined estate was then valued at $51.8 million.
Following Trump's death, Fred Jr.'s children contested their grandfather's will, citing his dementia and claiming the will was "procured by fraud and undue influence" by Donald, Maryanne, and Robert Trump. These three had asserted in their legal depositions that Fred Trump was "sharp as a tack" until shortly before his death, while simultaneously acknowledging his cognitive decline. According to Mary L. Trump, Donald denigrated his father after Fred began showing Alzheimer's symptoms.
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, for $600 million; the sale was completed in May 2004. The 2016 leak of Donald Trump's tax information from 2005, which revealed an income of $153 million, prompted The New York Times to investigate, leading to the 2018 exposé. The Times reported that the properties sold in 2004 were valued at over 16 times their previously declared worth. Fred and Mary reportedly provided their children with over $1 billion in total, which should have been taxed at a rate of 55% for gifts and inheritances exceeding $550 million, but records indicate only $52.2 million (approximately 5%) was paid. Under New York State law, individuals can face prosecution for intentional tax evasion if fraudulent return forms are presented as evidence; the statute of limitations does not apply in such cases. By February 1, 2019, Maryanne Trump Barry was under investigation for possible judicial misconduct concerning these schemes, but this was rendered moot later that month due to her retirement.
**Personal Life**
In May 1927, over 1,000 robed Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members and 400 non-robed supporters infiltrated a Memorial Day parade in Queens, leading to stern police intervention. Eight men were arrested, including the 21-year-old Trump, whose charge of "refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so" was dismissed. Another man, arrested on the same charge, was released on the grounds of being a bystander (whose foot was injured by a police car). Some newspaper articles about the incident list Trump's address (in Jamaica, Queens), where he is recorded as residing on various documents from 1928 to 1940. Despite this arrest, there is no incontrovertible evidence that Trump supported the KKK.
Trump met his future wife, Mary Anne MacLeod, an immigrant from Tong, Lewis, Scotland, at a dance party in the early to mid-1930s. Trump informed his mother that evening that he had met his future wife. Trump, a Lutheran, married Mary, a Presbyterian, on January 11, 1936, at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, with George Arthur Buttrick officiating. A wedding reception was held at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, and they had a one-night honeymoon in Atlantic City. The couple settled in Jamaica, Queens, and had five children: Maryanne Trump Barry (1937–2023), Fred Trump Jr. (1938–1981; an airline pilot with Trans World Airlines), Elizabeth Trump Grau (born 1942; a retired executive of Chase Manhattan Bank), Donald Trump (born 1946), and Robert Trump (1948–2020; a top executive at his father's property management company until his retirement).
During World War II, Trump began to conceal his German ancestry. Despite his German accent (which later shifted to a New York one), he denied speaking the language. Partly due to the prominence of Jewish people in New York, he supported Jewish causes, making contributions (apparently starting in 1941, two weeks after the U.S. entered the war) that convinced some that he practiced Judaism. He also omitted the "h" from his middle name (avoiding the potential implication of being anti-Semitic as a Christian). Trump later falsely claimed to be of Swedish descent and in 1973 incorrectly stated that he was born in New Jersey; these deceptions were perpetuated in the 1980s by Donald Trump and the author of Donald's first biography. During the 1980s, Fred became friends with the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu, who later became prime minister of Israel.
After Elizabeth's birth, and as the U.S. became more involved in the war, Trump moved his family to Virginia Beach, in Hampton Roads. In 1944, as Trump's FHA funding dwindled, they returned to Jamaica Estates, Queens, where Mary suffered a miscarriage. By 1946, they were residing in a five-bedroom Tudor-style house Trump had built in Jamaica Estates, and Trump purchased an adjacent 0.5-acre lot, where he constructed a 23-room, 9-bathroom mansion. The family moved in during 1950–1951, and Fred and Mary remained there until their deaths. The couple was also provided an apartment on the 55th (labeled the 63rd) floor of Donald's Trump Tower (circa 1983), which they rarely, if ever, used.
Trump was a teetotaler and an authoritarian parent, enforcing strict table manners and curfews, and forbidding cursing, lipstick, and snacking between meals. At the end of his day, Trump would receive a report from Mary on the children's actions and, if necessary, decide on disciplinary measures. Additionally, the mansion featured a surveillance system and an intercom, which Trump used to admonish his children. He took his children to building sites to collect empty bottles for their deposits. The boys had paper routes, and in inclement weather, he would allow them to make their deliveries in a limousine. Trump discouraged interests such as playing music. According to Fred Jr.'s daughter, Mary L. Trump, Fred Sr. wanted his eldest son to be "invulnerable" in personality so he could take over the family business, but Fred Jr. was the opposite. Trump instead coached Donald to become his business heir, telling him to "be a killer" and "You are a king." 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. In 1981, Fred Jr. died at age 42 from complications of alcoholism.
According to Donald Trump, while his mother was watching the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II on television, Fred remarked while pacing, "For Christ's sake, Mary. Enough is enough, turn it off. They're all a bunch of con artists." Also in the 1950s, Fred became an admirer of Protestant minister Norman Vincent Peale, author of *The Power of Positive Thinking* (1952), due to his businesslike approach to life and Christianity. Trump and his family attended sermons by Peale at Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church. Trump also supported Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, taking his family to see Graham speak at Yankee Stadium (circa 1957).
**Philanthropy**
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; Fred also served as a trustee of the hospital. The couple donated a two-building complex in Brooklyn as a residence for "functionally retarded adults," a New Jersey building valued at $4.75 million to United Cerebral Palsy (which Donald took credit for), and other buildings to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). 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 on his 1992 tax return as $34 million.
Particularly after the U.S. entered World War II in late 1941, Trump supported both Jewish and Israeli causes. This included Israel Bonds, donating the land for the Beach Haven Jewish Center, a synagogue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and in 1952 serving as the treasurer of an Israel benefit concert featuring American easy-listening performers.
Fred supported the private Kew-Forest School, where his children attended and he served on the board of directors. The Trumps were active in The Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Lighthouse for the Blind. Fred reportedly also supported the Long Island Jewish Hospital and Manhattan's Hospital for Special Surgery; at the latter, he was a patient of orthopedist Philip D. Wilson Jr., the hospital's lead surgeon from 1972 to 1989.
Although registered as a Republican Party voter, Trump developed ties with the Democratic Party in New York, contributing to city politicians (including $2,500 to Mayor Wagner's 1961 campaign, which facilitated the construction of Trump Village). 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.
In October 2018, The New York Times reported in an exposé on Trump's financial records that they had found no evidence of significant financial contributions to charities.
**Legacy**
Folk singer Woody Guthrie was a tenant of Beach Haven Apartments from 1950 to 1951. In his unrecorded song "Old Man Trump," he complained about the rent and accused Trump of inciting racial hatred "in the bloodpot of human hearts." Similarly, in an unreleased version of "Ain't Got No Home," Guthrie states:
Trump was indirectly claimed as a relative of Republican politician Fred J. Trump, a candidate in the 1956 Arizona gubernatorial election and a correspondent of Richard Nixon during his 1960 presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy.
Jerome Tuccille's 1985 biography of Donald Trump repeats Fred's fabricated claim of being born in New Jersey and erroneously states his middle name was Charles (not Christ). Donald's *The Art of the Deal* (1987) also claims Fred was born in New Jersey as the son of an immigrant from Sweden (not Germany). The New York Post repeated the latter claim in its eulogy for Fred. As U.S. president, Donald incorrectly stated at least three times that his father was born in Germany. According to a 2021 book about the final year of Donald's first presidency, 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."
In his 1993 biography of Donald Trump, Harry Hurt III asserts that Fred was a philanderer, with his alleged affairs in Florida leading him to be known as the "King of Miami Beach." In 1989 (while Donald was married to Ivana but tabloids had begun reporting on his affair with future wife Marla Maples), Fred reputedly lectured Donald that he could "have a thousand mistresses" but should not get caught in a single specific extramarital affair. According to Hurt, after Donald decided to accompany Ivana to her father's funeral in Czechoslovakia (amidst their pending divorce), Fred told a longtime secretary and personal confidant, "I hope their plane crashes. Then all my problems will be solved."
During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, his father's 1927 arrest at a KKK march resurfaced. 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. Three days later, the FBI declassified 389 pages from its early 1970s investigation into alleged racial discrimination by the Trump Organization. In his 2018 psychological profile of Donald, Justin A. Frank asserts that Fred was anti-Semitic. In 2020, Mary L. Trump supported this claim and stated Fred could have been sympathetic to the KKK.
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. In October 2016, in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, the FBI released a small file it had on Fred, including a 1986 news article concerning political donations by Trump Management, a highly redacted 1991 memo regarding rumors of ties to organized crime, and a background report on Trump Construction Corp. 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.
In mid-2020, the liberal political action committee (PAC) MeidasTouch cited the "empty wagon" quote from Trump's Horatio Alger Association speech in arguing that Donald had squandered both the fortune he inherited from his father and the "booming economy" left to him by the Obama administration. The ghostwriter of *The Art of the Deal*, Tony Schwartz, stated in 2020 that the "brutal
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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). 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 dollar value) 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 fortune 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, but there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization. From World War II onward, to avoid associations with Nazism, Trump denied his German ancestry and also supported Jewish causes.
== Early life and career ==
Trump's father, the German-born Frederick Trump (originally Friedrich), 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. They moved to New York City, where their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1904. Later that year, the family returned to Kallstadt. Fred was conceived in Bavaria, where his parents wished to re-establish residency, but Friedrich was banished for dodging the draft. The family returned to New York on July 1, 1905, and moved to the Bronx, where Frederick Christ Trump was born on October 11. Fred's younger brother, John G. Trump, was born in 1907. All three children were raised speaking German at home. In September 1908, the family moved to Woodhaven, Queens.
Many details of Trump's childhood come from autobiographical accounts and emphasize independence, learning and especially hard work – to the point of being somewhat fictionalized. At the age of 10, Trump worked as a delivery boy for a butcher. About two years later, on Memorial Day, his father died in the 1918 flu pandemic, quite suddenly according to Fred. From 1918 to 1923, Fred attended Richmond Hill High School in Queens, while working as a caddy, curb whitewasher, delivery boy, and newspaper hawker. 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, although other biographical sources limit his construction education to the period after high school when he was also working in the field.
After graduating in January 1923, Trump obtained full-time work pulling lumber to construction sites. He studied carpentry and became a carpenter's assistant. Trump's mother held the business in her name until he reached 21, the age of majority. The company name "E. Trump & Son" appeared in advertising by 1924, by which year Trump ostensibly used an $800 loan from his mother to complete and sell his first house. Public records, however, do not support him building until 1927, the year the company was incorporated (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. Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett posits that Trump exaggerated the length of his career while arguing in federal court in 1934 that he should deserve a dissolved company's mortgage servicer.
In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration, although there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization.
=== Rise to success ===
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.
In federal court in 1934, Trump and a partner acquired the mortgage-servicing subsidiary of Brooklyn's J. Lehrenkrauss Corporation, 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.
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, which also enabled the discriminatory practice of redlining. By 1936, Trump had 400 workers digging foundations for houses that would be sold at prices ranging from $3,000 to $6,250. Trump used his father's psychological tactic of listing properties at prices ending in "... 9.99". 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. In 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred to Trump as "the Henry Ford of the home building industry". During this period, Trump predicted that he would profit from World War II. By 1942, he had built 2,000 homes in Brooklyn using FHA funds.
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 by Norfolk, Virginia, where Trump was already working on an apartment complex. 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. 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.
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 30 acres (12 hectares) and procuring him $9 million in FHA funding. In 1950, he built the 23-building Beach Haven Apartments over 40 acres (16 ha) near Coney Island, procuring him $16 million in FHA funds. The total number of apartments included in these projects exceeded 2,700.
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, in 1985, Fred was awarded the Horatio Alger Award (for "distinguished Americans"). 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. 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) 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.
== Further enterprises ==
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. He and others were investigated by a U.S. Senate banking committee for windfall gains. Trump and his partner William Tomasello were cited as examples of how profits were made by builders using the FHA. 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. Trump argued that because he had not withdrawn the money, he had not literally pocketed the profits. 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.
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. The project was constructed in 1963–64 for $70 million. It was one of Trump's biggest and last major projects, and the only one to bear his name. 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).
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. 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. 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.
=== Steeplechase Park ===
On July 1, 1965, Trump purchased Coney Island's recently closed Steeplechase Park for $2.3 million, intending to build luxury apartments. The next year, he announced plans for a 160-foot-high (49-meter) enclosed dome with recreational facilities and a convention center. At a highly publicized ceremony in September 1966, Trump demolished the park's Pavilion of Fun, a large glass-enclosed amusement center. 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". The next month, New York City announced plans to acquire the former park grounds for recreational use. Trump filed a series of court cases related to the proposed rezoning, ultimately winning $1.3 million. After the site sat vacant for several years, Trump started subleasing it to a manager of fairground amusement park rides. Over another decade, the city eventually succeeded in reclaiming the property.
In July 2016, the Coney Island History Project held a special exhibit for the "50th Anniversary of Fred Trump's Demolition of Steeplechase Pavilion".
=== Son becomes company president ===
Fred's son Donald joined his father's real-estate business around 1968, initially working in Brooklyn. 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. In 1971, Donald became president of the company, with Fred becoming chairman. Donald began calling the company 'the Trump Organization' around 1973. The younger Trump entered the real-estate business in Manhattan, while his father operated primarily in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. 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." 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."
According to some sources, Fred himself planned the expansion to Manhattan. His granddaughter Mary L. Trump states that he was "intimately involved in all aspects of Donald's early forays into the Manhattan market". Louise Sunshine (organization vice president from 1973 to 1985) claims Fred was "behind [Donald] in every way, shape and form [including] financing". According to another source, Fred came to work "every day until ... he went to the hospital".
In the mid-1970s, Donald received loans from his father exceeding $14 million. 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". 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) from Fred's business empire over his lifetime, including over $60.7 million (unadjusted for inflation; $163.9 million in 2023 currency) in loans, which were largely unreimbursed.
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.
=== Federal civil rights lawsuit ===
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); according to the superintendent of Beach Haven Apartments, this was at the direction of his boss. Both of the aforementioned advocacy organizations then raised the issue with the Justice Department. 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. In response, Trump attorney Roy Cohn countersued for $100 million in damages, accusing the DoJ of false accusations.
The FBI interviewed about three dozen former Trump employees. 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. A former doorman testified that his supervisor had instructed him to tell prospective black tenants that the rent was double its actual amount. 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. One former employee testified that a code – which he believed was used throughout the Brooklyn branch of the company – referred 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. 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", but after asking again, he was instructed "not to rent to blacks", and was further advised to:
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.
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.
A consent decree between the DoJ and the Trump Organization was signed on June 10, 1975, with both sides claiming victory – the 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". 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". Finally, it ordered the Trumps to "thoroughly acquaint themselves personally on a detailed basis with ... the Fair Housing Act of 1968".
=== Later legal trespasses ===
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. 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. 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. Trump was released on $1,000 bail.
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. 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.
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.
== Wealth and death ==
In 1976, Trump set up trust funds of $1 million ($5.3 million in 2023) for each of his five children and three grandchildren, which paid out yearly dividends. Trump appeared on the initial Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1982 with an estimated $200 million fortune split with his son Donald. 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.
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". 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. Fred rejected the proposal, and in 1991, composed his own final will, which made his children Donald, Maryanne, and Robert Trump co-executors of his estate. 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: "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." 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. 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. 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. Donald claimed that he first noticed his father exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's in the mid-1990s.
In 1993, the anticipated shares of Trump's estate amounted to $35 million for each surviving child. 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. The collective assets had a declared value of only $41.4 million, but in 2004 were sold for over 16 times this value, avoiding hundreds of millions of dollars in gift taxes.
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. A wake was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel ahead of his funeral at the Marble Collegiate Church, which was attended by over 600 people. His body was buried in a family plot at the Lutheran-Christian All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens. Upon his death, Trump's estate was estimated by his family at $250 million to $300 million, though he had only $1.9 million in cash. His will divided over $20 million after taxes among his surviving children and grandchildren. His widow, Mary, died on August 7, 2000, at age 88, also at LIJMC. Her and Fred's combined estate was then valued at $51.8 million.
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. These three had claimed in their legal depositions that Fred Trump was "sharp as a tack" until just before his death, but otherwise stated that they were aware of his cognitive decline. According to Mary L. Trump, Donald denigrated his father after Fred began demonstrating Alzheimer's symptoms.
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; 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. The Times reported that the properties sold in 2004 were valued over 16 times their previously declared worth. 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. 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. 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.
== Personal life ==
In May 1927, over 1,000 robed members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and 400 non-robed KKK supporters infiltrated a Memorial Day parade in Queens, prompting stern police intervention. Eight men were arrested, including the 21-year old Trump, whose charge of "refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so" was dismissed. 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). Some newspaper articles on the incident list Trump's address (in Jamaica, Queens), which he is recorded as living at on various documents from 1928 to 1940. Despite this arrest, there is no incontrovertible evidence that Trump was a supporter of the KKK.
Trump met his future wife, Mary Anne MacLeod, an immigrant from Tong, Lewis, Scotland, at a dance party in the early to mid-1930s. Trump told his mother the same evening that he had met his future wife. Trump, a Lutheran, married Mary, a Presbyterian, on January 11, 1936, at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church with George Arthur Buttrick officiating. A wedding reception was held at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, and they had a single-night honeymoon in Atlantic City. The couple settled in Jamaica, Queens, and had five children: Maryanne Trump Barry (1937–2023), Fred Trump Jr. (1938–1981; an airline pilot with Trans World Airlines), Elizabeth Trump Grau (born 1942; a retired executive of Chase Manhattan Bank), Donald Trump (born 1946), and Robert Trump (1948–2020; a top executive of his father's property management company until his retirement).
During World War II, Trump began concealing his German ancestry. Notwithstanding his German accent (later replaced by a New York one), he denied that he spoke the language. 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. He also omitted the "h" from his middle name (sidestepping the potential implication he could be anti-Semitic as a Christian). Trump later falsely claimed that he was of Swedish descent and in 1973 wrongly stated that he was born in New Jersey; these deceptions were sustained in the 1980s by Donald Trump and the author of Donald's first biography. During the 1980s, Fred became friends with the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu, later the prime minister of Israel.
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. In 1944, as Trump's FHA funding lulled, they returned to Jamaica Estates, Queens, where Mary suffered a miscarriage. By 1946, they were living in a five-bedroom Tudor-style house Trump built in Jamaica Estates, and Trump purchased a neighboring 0.5-acre (0.2 ha) lot, 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. The couple was also given an apartment on the 55th (labelled the 63rd) floor of Donald's Trump Tower (c. 1983), which they rarely if ever used.
Trump was a teetotaler and an authoritarian parent, imposing strict table manners and curfews, as well as forbidding cursing, lipstick, and snacking between meals. 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. Additionally, the mansion featured a surveillance system and an intercom, which Trump used to censure his children. He took his children to building sites to collect empty bottles to return for the deposits. The boys had paper routes, and in bad weather he would let them make their deliveries in a limousine. Trump discouraged interests such as playing music. 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. Trump instead coached Donald to become his business heir, telling him to "be a killer" and "You are a king." 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. In 1981, Fred Jr. died at age 42 from complications of alcoholism.
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." 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. Trump and his family attended sermons by Peale at Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church. Trump was also a supporter of Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, taking his family to see Graham speak at Yankee Stadium (c. 1957).
=== Philanthropy ===
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; Fred was also a trustee of the hospital. 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), and other buildings to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). 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.
Particularly after U.S. entry into World War II in late 1941, Trump backed both Jewish and Israeli causes. This included Israel Bonds, donating the land for the Beach Haven Jewish Center, a synagogue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and in 1952 serving as the treasurer of an Israel benefit concert featuring American easy-listening performers.
Fred supported the private Kew-Forest School, where his children attended and he served on the board of directors. The Trumps were active in The Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Lighthouse for the Blind. Fred reportedly also supported the Long Island Jewish Hospital and Manhattan's Hospital for Special Surgery; at the latter, he was a patient of orthopedist Philip D. Wilson Jr., the hospital's lead surgeon from 1972 to 1989.
Although he was registered as a Republican Party voter, Trump developed ties with the Democratic Party in New York, contributing to city politicians (including $2,500 to Mayor Wagner's 1961 campaign, enabling the construction of Trump Village). 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.
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.
== Legacy ==
Folk singer Woody Guthrie was a tenant of Beach Haven Apartments from 1950 to 1951. 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". Similarly, in an unreleased version of "Ain't Got No Home", Guthrie states:
Trump was indirectly claimed as a relative of Republican politician Fred J. Trump, a candidate in the 1956 Arizona gubernatorial election and correspondent of Richard Nixon during his 1960 presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy.
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). Donald's The Art of the Deal (1987) also claims that Fred was born in New Jersey as the son of an immigrant from Sweden (not Germany). The New York Post repeated the latter claim in its eulogy for Fred. As U.S. president, Donald incorrectly stated at least three times that his father was born in Germany. According to a 2021 book about the last year of Donald's first presidency, 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."
In his 1993 biography of Donald Trump, Harry Hurt III asserts that Fred was a philanderer, with his alleged affairs in Florida 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. 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."
During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, his father's 1927 arrest at a KKK march resurfaced. 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. Three days later, the FBI declassified 389 pages from its early 1970s investigation of alleged racial discrimination by the Trump Organization. In his 2018 psychological profile of Donald, Justin A. Frank asserts that Fred was anti-Semitic. In 2020, Mary L. Trump supported this claim and said Fred could have been sympathetic to the KKK.
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. 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, a highly redacted 1991 memo concerning rumors of ties to organized crime, and a background report on Trump Construction Corp. 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.
In mid-2020, liberal political action committee (PAC) MeidasTouch cited the "empty wagon" quote from Trump's Horatio Alger Association speech in arguing that Donald both squandered the fortune he inherited from his father and the "booming economy" left to him by the Obama administration. The Art of the Deal ghostwriter Tony Schwartz stated in 2020 that the "brutal" Fred lacked emotional intelligence, which affected his sons. In her 2020 book, Too Much and Never Enough, Mary L. Trump (a clinical psychologist) asserts that Fred was a high-functioning sociopath who impaired Donald's emotional development. According to a 2024 article in the psychohistorical journal Clio's Psyche, the "cruel" and deceptive Fred deprived Donald of "basic, life-affirming emotional nourishment" (while calling him a "killer", etc.), resulting in Donald's "absence of moral responsibility".
Following Donald Trump's arrest in New York in 2023, some media outlets pointed out that his father had been arrested twice.
=== In popular culture ===
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.
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. After asking for directions, Scovell was elusively jawboned by the cemetery president.
In 2018, Nylon.com invoked a photograph of the elderly Trump with a pronounced depression behind one cheek (from a mandibulectomy) 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". Since 2018, Trump has been portrayed in various media.
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. In mid-2020, fact-checking company Logically concluded that there was a lack of clear evidence that Trump was a Nazi supporter. 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.
== Notes ==
== References ==
=== Sources ===
"Hearings Before the Committee on Banking and Currency" (PDF). United States Senate: Eighty-third Congress. July 20, 1954 – via The Washington Post.
Baker, Peter; Glasser, Susan (2022). The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021. Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-54654-6.
Barrett, Wayne (1992). Trump: The Deals and the Downfall. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-016704-2.
Bernstein, Andrea (2020). American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power. W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-54130-4.
Blair, Gwenda (2015) [1st pub. in 2000]. The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a Presidential Candidate. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1501139369.
Frank, Justin A. (2018). Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-0-7352-2032-4.
Hurt III, Harry (1993). Lost Tycoon: The Many Lives of Donald J. Trump. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0393030297.
Kranish, Michael; Fisher, Marc (2016). Trump Revealed: An American Journey of Ambition, Ego, Money, and Power. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-5011-5578-9.
Trump III, Fred C. (2024). All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. New York: Gallery Books. ISBN 978-1-6680-7217-2.
Trump, Mary L. (2020). Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-4146-2. OCLC 1164093746.
Tuccille, Jerome (1985). Trump: The Saga of America's Most Powerful Real Estate Baron. Beard Books. ISBN 978-1587982231.
== External links ==
Levin, Bess (October 2, 2018). "Trump's One Weird Trick to Getting Rich, Revealed!: 'Outright Fraud,' Deceptive Tax Schemes, and a Lifetime Allowance from Daddy". Vanity Fair.
Petski, Denise (April 2, 2019). "Donald Trump Says His Father Was Born In Germany (He Wasn't)". Deadline.com.
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