History Of Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, television personality, politician, and the 45th President of the United States.He was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York City where he lived until the age of 13 when he enrolled in the New York Military Academy. Trump received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. In 1971, he took charge of his family's real estate and construction firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which was later renamed The Trump Organization. During his business career, Trump built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He has lent the use of his name in the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, a reality television series on NBC, from 2004 to 2015. As of 2016, Forbes listed him as the 324th wealthiest person in the world and 113th richest in the United States, with a net worth of $4.5 billion.
Trump sought the Reform Party's presidential nomination in 2000, but withdrew before voting began. He considered running as a Republican for the 2012 election, but ultimately decided against it. In June 2015, he announced his candidacy for the 2016 election, and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was formally nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention. Many of his statements in interviews, on social media, and at campaign rallies were controversial or false.
Trump won the general election on November 8, 2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He became the oldest and wealthiest person to assume the presidency, the first without prior military or government service, and the fifth elected with less than a plurality of the national popular vote.
Trump's platform emphasizes renegotiating U.S.–China relations and free trade agreements such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, strongly enforcing immigration laws, and building a new wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. His other positions include pursuing energy independence while opposing climate change regulations such as the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement, modernizing and expediting services for veterans, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, abolishing Common Core education standards, investing in infrastructure, simplifying the tax code while reducing taxes for all economic classes, and imposing tariffs on imports by companies offshoring jobs. He advocates a largely non-interventionist approach to foreign policy while increasing military spending, "extreme vetting" of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries to preempt domestic Islamic terrorism, and aggressive military action against ISIS. His positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, and nationalist.
Education
Trump attended Fordham University in the Bronx for two years, beginning in August 1964. He then transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which offered one of the few real estate studies departments in United States academia at the time.[18][19] While there, he worked at the family's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, named for his paternal grandmother.[20] He graduated from Penn in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.[19][21][22]
Trump was not drafted during the Vietnam War.[23] While in college from 1964 to 1968, he obtained four student deferments.[24] In 1966, he was deemed fit for service based upon a military medical examination, and in 1968 was briefly classified as fit by a local draft board, but was given a 1-Y medical deferment in October 1968.[25] In an interview for a 2015 biography, he attributed his medical deferment to heel spurs.[26] In 1969, he received a high number in the draft lottery, which would also have likely exempted him from service.[25][27][28]
Bankruptcies
Main article: Legal affairs of Donald Trump § Use of bankruptcy laws
Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but his hotel and casino businesses have been declared bankrupt six times between 1991 and 2009 in order to re-negotiate debt with banks and owners of stock and bonds.[160][161] Because the businesses used Chapter 11 bankruptcy, they were allowed to operate while negotiations proceeded. Trump was quoted by Newsweek in 2011 saying, "I do play with the bankruptcy laws – they're very good for me" as a tool for trimming debt.[119][162]The six bankruptcies were the result of over-leveraged hotel and casino businesses in Atlantic City and New York: Trump Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (1992), Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Castle Hotel and Casino (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009).[163][164][165] Trump said, "I've used the laws of this country to pare debt ... We'll have the company. We'll throw it into a chapter. We'll negotiate with the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on The Apprentice. It's not personal. It's just business."[166]
A 2016 analysis of Trump's business career by The Economist concluded that his "… performance [from 1985 to 2016] has been mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York", noting both his successes and bankruptcies.[167] A subsequent analysis by The Washington Post concluded that "Trump is a mix of braggadocio, business failures, and real success."[168]
Income and taxes
See also: § General election campaign
Pursuant to FEC
regulations, Trump published a 92-page financial disclosure form
listing all his assets, liabilities, income sources and hundreds of
business positions.[148] According to a July 2015 campaign press release, Trump's income for the year 2014 was $362 million.[169] However, Trump has repeatedly declined to publicly release any of his full tax returns, citing a pending IRS audit, despite such an audit not prohibiting him from releasing his current or past tax returns.[170][171]
In doing so, Trump broke nearly 45 years of precedent of candidates for
the general election releasing their tax returns to the American
public.[172]In October 2016, it was revealed that Trump had claimed a loss of $916 million on his 1995 tax returns. As net operating losses from one year can be applied to offset income from future years, this loss allowed him to reduce or eliminate his taxable income during the eighteen-year carry forward period.[173] Trump acknowledged using the deduction but declined to provide details such as the specific years it was applied.[174] When questioned during a presidential debate about such practices, he stated that avoiding paying income tax through such methods "makes me smart".[175]
The New York Times found that some accountants considered Trump's tax deduction methods in the early 1990s "legally dubious".[176] Independent tax experts stated that "Whatever loophole existed was not 'exploited' here, but stretched beyond any recognition" and that it involved "sleight of hand", further speculating that Trump's casino bankruptcies were probably related to Trump's 1995 reported loss.[177]
In January 2017, a We the People petition demanding Trump release his tax returns broke the White House record for number of signatures gathered.[178]
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