Donald Trump

By: iTopTopics Staff

Donald Trump: His life before the White House

Donald Trump Photo by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Birthday: Donald John Trump was born on June 14th, 1946.

Birth place: Trump was born in a middle-class neighborhood called Jamaica, in the New York City borough of Queens.

Ancestry: Trump is of paternal German ancestry and maternal Scottish ancestry.

Father: Frederick Christ Trump (Fred Trump), who was born in the Bronx and later became a New York City real estate developer. Fred Trump’s parents were immigrants from Kallstadt, Germany.

Mother: Mary Anne Trump, who was born in the village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. She came to America in 1930, a day after her 18th birthday. She worked as a maid for four years in Long Island. She was married to Fred Trump in January 1936 with the wedding reception for 25 guests held at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, New York.

Siblings: Maryanne (1937), Fredrick Jr. (1938–1981), Elizabeth (1942) and Robert (1948).

Children: Trump has five children by three marriages: Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump (with his wife Czech model Ivana Zelníčková), Tiffany Trump (with actress Marla Maples) and Barron Trump (with Slovene model Melania Knauss).

Education: Donald Trump graduated from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

Net Worth (2016): $4.5 billion

More facts on Trump’s personal life:

• Trump’s original family name was spelled Drumpf. It was changed to Trump in the 17th century. Donald Trump is proud of his German heritage. He served as the grand marshal of the 1999 German-American Steuben Parade in New York City.
• Trump's older brother Fred Jr. died in 1981 from alcoholism, which Trump says led him to abstain from alcohol and cigarettes.
• When Trump was 13 years old, he attended the New York Military Academy in Cornwall, New York, where he finished eighth grade and high school. In 1983, Fred Trump told an interviewer that Donald "was a pretty rough fellow when he was small". His parents hoped that the discipline at the military school would allow him to channel his energy in a positive manner.
• While in college from 1964 to 1968, Trump obtained four student deferments and was not drafted during the Vietnam War.
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 16, 2007.
• At age 70 at the time of his inauguration, Donald Trump is the oldest person elected to a first term as POTUS.
• Donald Trump is the first person elected as POTUS with no government or military experience.
• Donald Trump's wealth of $4.5 billion makes him the richest US President in history. His wealth is worth more than the wealth of the previous forty-four US Presidents all combined together.
• Trump turned down the $400,000 a year presidential salary and pledged to accept only a year as his salary during his presidency.

Donald Trump: His life on Twitter @realDonaldTrump. What its impacts on Trump’s presidency?

With 19.7 million followers on @realDonaldTrump, Trump knows how to tap in the power of social media to be his communication platform.

On January 2nd, 2017, Trump attacks China for its foreign policy. Mr. Trump scolded China for not doing enough to control the nuclear proliferation in North Korea.

Trump tweeted: “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the U.S. in totally one-sided trade, but won't help with North Korea. Nice!”

Responding to a series of attacking tweets from Trump, on Thursday January 4th, 2017, Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, warned US President-elect Donald Trump over his use of Twitter to conduct international diplomacy. A day later, Newsweek reported that South Korea’s government has appointed an official to monitor Mr. Trump’s Twitter account.

Sean Spicer, the soon-to-be White House press secretary, confirmed that Trump will continue to be active on Twitter during his presidency.

To Mr. Trump, social media is his way to fight back the press on inaccurate news and negative reflection on him.

If the press would cover me accurately & honorably, I would have far less reason to "tweet." Sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2016

Trump vs US Intelligence on Russian hacking claims, on Twitter:

In the first week of the new year, Trump was criticized for his tweets to cast doubts on US Intelligence agency.

A series of tweets coming from President-elect Trump show he has very little confidence in the US Intelligence community. He wants “to be sure” that the intelligence info presented the hacking charge against Russia is 100% error-proofed. Trump referred to the false intelligence that led to the Iraq war in 2003 as an example of the damage of its erroneous information.

Despite the testimony from senior intelligence officials at the Senate Armed Services Committee on January 5th, 2017, he still has doubts on the intelligence assessments on Russian hacking charge.

So how and why are they so sure about hacking if they never even requested an examination of the computer servers? What is going on?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

The next day, January 6th, 2017, Mr. Trump met with top officials like CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and others at his New York offices. He only revealed that he had learnt a lot from the discussion but declined to say whether he accepts the intelligence assessments or not.

During an interview with Judy Woodruff at PBS Newshour aired on January 5th, 2017, Vice President Joe Biden criticized President-elect Trump for his lack of confidence in the intelligence community. He directly addressed Donald Trump: “Grow up, Donald! Grow up! Time to be an adult. You’re the president. You’ve got to do something. Show us what you have.”

The United States 45th President, Donald Trump, is on his mission to make America great again by trying to keep jobs in US, threatening private companies on Twitter.

Mr. Trump has been using his Twitter account to threaten companies outsourcing jobs out of America. He promises to make America great again. One of his goals is to keep jobs in the country. Those companies who chose to bring jobs abroad would pay a steep tax hike, according to president-elect’s tweets.

Donald Trump called Boeing’s cost to build Air Force One “out of control” and put the giant aircraft maker to a tough negotiation position. By forcing Boeing in fair trade negotiation, Trump indirectly sent message to other government vendors like General Dynamics, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that he makes a high priority to keep the defense cost in check. The business mind in Trump helps him to put his budget plan on a good start.

Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016

Trump to Toyota:

Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017

Toyota responded to the rhetoric with calm and collective tone, providing with facts to prove that the Japanese auto manufacturers have had created tons of jobs in the United States.

Trump to General Motors:

General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017

GM responded to Trump’s tweet that Mr. Trump was wrong in this case: “General Motors manufacturers the Chevrolet Cruze sedan in Lordstown, Ohio. All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the U.S. are built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the U.S.”

Trump thanked Ford for cancelling the production plan in Mexico and instead, expanding a plant in Michigan, creating 700 jobs locally. Ford chief executive Mark Fields said on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017 that the decision came down to intellectual resources. US is a place of more “innovation and new product development” than Mexico.

More tweets to come from President-elect Donald Trump, we are sure of that.