Donald Trump
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| Donald Trump | |
| Known for | 45th President of the United States |
|---|---|
| Birth | June 14, 1946 |
| Death | |
Donald John Trump is a third-generation real estate developer who was the forty-fifth president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
He was the first president to have never had any experience in public service or the military before being elected, the first president to be impeached twice, the first ex-president to be indicted of a state crime, and the first ex-president to be indicted of a federal crime.
Early life
Donald Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, New York to Fred and Mary Trump (née MacLeod).
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968.
Trump Organization
In 1971, Donald Trump became president of E. Trump & Son, the real-estate business that his father and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, founded in 1927.
Donald Trump renamed it the Trump Organization around 1973. He successfully expanded the business into building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, and golf courses, as well as licensing the use of the Trump brand.
On December 6, 2022, The Trump Organization was convicted on 17 criminal charges of financial fraud.
Donald J. Trump Foundation
Donald Trump founded a charitable organization, the Donald J. Trump Foundation.
Trump admitted he used the money donated to the foundation for his own personal use, and in November 2019, he reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against the charity. As a result of the settlement, Trump had to pay $2 million as restitution as well as reimburse $11,525 to the foundation. The foundation had to undergo court-ordered dissolution.
A total of $1809063.30 was in the foundation's bank account, including the reimbursement. This money was paid to eight charities in December 2019.
Failed ventures
Trump ventured into several failed businesses, which led to six bankruptcies. His casino businesses filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection five times, in 1991, 1992, 2004, 2009, and 2014. Plaza Hotel in New York City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on May 14, 1984.
In 1989, Trump paid $62 million to purchase the unfinished Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino. He kept the tower that had formerly been a Holiday Inn, which was renamed Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino East Tower. The remainder was demolished.
Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, along with Trump Castle, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
It closed on September 16, 2014, and the main hotel tower was imploded on February 17, 2021.
Trump Marina
Trump Castle opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 19, 1985.
Trump Castle, along with Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992.
Trump Castle was renamed Trump Marina in 1997. Landry's purchased Trump Marina in February 2011 and took control of the property on May 23, 2011. After the purchase, it was renamed Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
Trump's World's Fair at Trump Plaza
In June 1989, Trump spent $63 million to purchase the Atlantis casino hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which was formerly known as the Playboy Hotel from April 14, 1981, to 1984.
As it was only separated from Trump Plaza by the Atlantic City Convention Hall, after the purchase, it was renamed the Trump Regency at Trump Plaza.
In 1995, the ownership of the Trump Plaza was transferred to Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts. The company renamed the casino hotel as Trump's World's Fair at Trump Plaza on May 15, 1996.
It closed on October 3, 1999, and the land was sold at auction to Bruce Toll of Toll Brothers.
Trump Taj-Mahal
Trump purchased a controlling stake in Resorts International, the owner of Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for $79 million in July 1987. His intent was to own the company's unfinished Atlantic City casino hotel which was to be named Taj Mahal.
After Merv Griffin and Donald Trump both sought to control the company, the two reached an agreement in November 1988. Griffin purchased the company and Trump purchased the Taj Mahal from the company for $273 million.
Trump raised $675 million to complete the casino, mostly through junk bonds with a fourteen percent interest rate. The Trump Taj Mahal opened on April 2, 1990.
The total cost of opening the casino hotel was $1 billion, which led to the Trump Taj Mahal filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1991.
After On March 1, 2017, Hard Rock International purchased the Trump Taj Mahal. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Atlantic City opened on June 27, 2018.
Trump Entertainment Resorts
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts was founded as a publicly-traded company in 1995 as the operator of Trump Plaza and the unfinished floating casino, Trump Casino, in Gary, Indiana.
In 1996, it purchased the Trump Taj Mahal for $890 million and Trump Castle from the Trump Organization for $486 million. It also assumed $355 million in debt.
In March 2001, the company assumed control of the Indian casino, Spotlight 29 Casino, in Coachella, California.
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004, after which it was renamed Trump Entertainment Resorts.
Trump Entertainment Resorts filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two more times, in 2009 and 2014.
The company folded on October 10, 2016, the company's assets were acquired by Icahn Enterprises, and the company's websites were redirected to Donald Trump's.
Trump Casino
Trump Casino, a floating casino in Gary, Indiana, opened in 1996.
It was sold to Majestic Star Holdings, which operated the Majestic Star Casino. The casino was renamed Majestic Star II after the purchase. Both Majestic Star casinos were closed in April 2021.
Trump 29 Casino
In March 2001, Trump Entertainment Resorts assumed control of the management of Spotlight 29 Casino, which was originally founded on January 14, 1995, in Coachella, California, and was owned by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians of California.
The casino reopened on April 2, 2002, as the Trump 29 Casino. The casino's relationship with Donald Trump ended in 2006 when the casino management agreement was bought out for $6 million, and the casino reverted to its original name.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation
Donald Trump used Twitter and Facebook to spread misinformation. Misinformation stated by Donald Trump was also spread to other platforms by other users.
The false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, the first African-American president, was ineligible for the position due to being born in Africa, when he was in fact born in the US state of Hawaii, was spread by Donald Trump on Twitter. According to ABC News, Donald Trump tweeted or retweeted this conspiracy theory at least 67 times from 2011 until his ban from Twitter on January 8, 2021.
In 2015, Trump retweeted another false conspiracy about Barack Obama that was started by the anti-Democrat website Breitbart. The false conspiracy theory claimed Barack Obama supported the Islamist terrorist organization Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In 2016, during his ultimately successful campaign for President of the United States, Donald Trump promoted several conspiracies against his opponents.
Trump mentioned an unfounded conspiracy theory in a Fox News interview that was started by the National Enquirer. This conspiracy theory, which was further spread through Twitter, stated that US Senator Ted Cruz's father was involved in Lee Harvey Oswald's murder of US president John F. Kennedy.
Trump retweeted false conspiracy theories that Seth Rich, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, was murdered because he sent documents to WikiLeaks that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's ultimately unsuccessful campaign for President of the United States.
Trump revived a false conspiracy in an interview with The Washington Post that was started in the 1994 conspiracy film, The Clinton Chronicles. This conspiracy theory, which was further spread through Twitter, inferred that the July 1993 suicide of then-deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was actually a murder that was carried out by, or covered up by, then-President Bill Clinton and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton.
In 2017, the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory started when anonymous individual or individuals used the name "Q" to spread baseless conspiracies about a criminal cabal of Democrats and celebrities would be thwarted by President Trump. Donald Trump retweeted the conspiracy and alluded to it several times before fully embracing it at his rallies and on his Truth Social platform in 2022.
In 2019, Donald Trump tweeted the false conspiracy theory that sexual predator Jeffery Epstein didn't commit suicide in prison, but was instead murdered by Bill Clinton.
In 2020, Donald Trump ran his ultimately unsuccessful re-election campaign for President of the United States. As had done in 2016, Trump retweeted various conspiracy theories against his opponents.
A false conspiracy theory was pushed by Trump, which was further spread through Twitter at a press conference. As he had done with Barack Obama, who was the first African-American President of the United States, Donald Trump erroneously stated that Kamala Harris, who would become the first African-American and Asian-American Vice President of the United States, wasn't born in the United States and thus wasn't eligible to become vice president.
Also in 2020, Trump tweeted a false conspiracy theory that then-MSNBC host Joe Scarborough murdered Lori Klausutis, a woman who worked in Scarborough's Florida office when he served as a United States Representative for the first district of Florida.
First impeachment
Donald Trump held back military equipment that the United States Congress approved to be sent to Ukraine in their fight against invasion by Russia. He wanted the then-president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to give him information related to an unfounded conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory stated that when he was Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden pressured Ukraine. This pressure was supposedly meant to cause the firing of the top prosecutor of Ukraine to protect Biden's son Hunter, who worked for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, from being investigated.
When the news that Donald Trump held back Congress-approved equipment in an effort to get help from a foreign power to find information against his then-likely opponent in the upcoming election, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced articles of impeachment.
Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives but was acquitted by the Senate.
Second impeachment
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump told his supporters to peacefully march to the capitol and to fight like hell to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from doing his constitutional duty to approve the electoral college votes for Joe Biden.
His supporters then mounted an insurrection on the capitol where a hangman's noose was set up and people were shouting "Hang Mike Pence". They broke into the Capitol building and members of Congress were ushered to safety. Ultimately seven people died in connection with the insurrection, and one-hundred-thirty-eight police officers were injured.
Donald Trump waited one-hundred-eighty-seven minutes to tell the rioters to disperse. While the insurrection was happening, Trump used social media, including telling the rioters "You are loved". This led to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram banning him on their platforms over fears that he would incite more violence.
Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced articles of impeachment related to the failed insurrection by Donald Trump's supporters.
Like the first impeachment, Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives but was acquitted by the Senate.
Founding of Truth Social
Due to being banned from the major social media platforms, Donald Trump formed Trump Media & Technology Group with then-Representative Devin Nunes of California as its chief executive officer in February 2022.
Trump Media & Technology Group released Truth Social, a social network with a user base comprised mostly of people with a far-right political ideology, for iOS on February 21, 2022. On May 20, 2022, Truth Social was updated so that it could be used via the web. On August 30, 2022, Google stated that it would not approve Truth Social for release for Android on Google Play due to a violation of its policies prohibiting physical threats and incitement to violence. However, after stronger content moderation policies were implemented, Truth Social was approved by Google for release on Google Play on October 12, 2022.
Donald Trump's social media accounts were reinstated on Twitter on November 19, 2022, on Facebook and Instagram on January 25, 2023, and on YouTube on March 17, 2023. After his YouTube ban was lifted, Trump began posting on Facebook and YouTube again.
Appearance in video games
Donald Trump's name, appearance, and voice were licensed for the 2002 video game known as Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon.
Although Trump makes money from licensing his likeness, anything that is done in the official capacity of running for federal office, or while in federal office, in the United States is public domain. Because of this, the likeness of Donald Trump was included in the 2012 video game The Political Machine 2012, the 2016 video game The Political Machine 2016, and the 2020 video game The Political Machine 2020.
