Donald Trump
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| Donald Trump | |
| Known for | 45th President of the United States |
|---|---|
| Birth | June 14, 1946 |
| Death | |
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) 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 U.S. president to have never had any experience in public service or the military before being elected, the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, and the first ex-president of the U.S. to be indicted of a crime.
Trump was indicted four times in 2023 on a total of ninety-one felony counts. He was indicted by the U.S. state of New York, by the U.S. state of Georgia, and by the U.S. federal government twice.
Donald Trump was preceded as President by Barack Obama and succeeded by Joe Biden.
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.
The 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 to The Trump Organization around 1973. He expanded the business into building and renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, 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.
The Art of the Deal and Trump: The Game
The Art of the Deal, a book that described how he made deals in his business was credited to Donald Trump and written by the journalist Tony Schwartz. It was released in 1984. The latter was paid $250,000 USD and half of the $1.1 million USD of sales of the book. Schwartz said in July 2016 that Trump's only contribution to the book was to remove a few critical moments that criticized his business colleagues.
Trump: The Game, a 1989 Milton Bradley board game, was produced as a result of the sales of the book. It sold eight hundred thousand units for total sales of $20 million USD, although only forty percent of the expected two million units were sold. After the success of The Apprentice, Parker Brothers re-released the game in 2004 with changes to match the aesthetic of the television series.
Donald Trump stated the year Trump: The Game was released that he would give his portion of the sales of the board game to charity. An article written by the journalist Christina Wilkie, published by The Huffington Post in 2016, stated that none of the $1 million USD Donald Trump stated by Trump could be substantiated as having been given to charity.
Donald J. Trump Foundation
Donald Trump founded a charitable organization, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, in 1988.
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 $1.8 million USD was in the foundation's bank account, including the reimbursement. This money was paid to eight charities in December 2019.
Film and television appearances and The Apprentice
Donald Trump became a familiar face in the United States as he appeared as himself in several film and television productions as well as in advertisements from the 1980s to the 2000s.
Television producer Mark Burnett approached Trump to host a reality television series, and in 2004, The Apprentice first aired. It was a reality series wherein people apply to ostensibly work for the Trump Organization. Five more yearly television seasons were produced before the show was retooled with celebrity contestants. The Celebrity Apprentice, hosted by Trump, aired for seven seasons.
Donald Trump's final The Celebrity Apprentice season aired in 2015 as he was running for President of the United States. Due to the racist statements he made during his campaign, Trump was fired from the series. Trump was replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger and it continued for one more season as The New Celebrity Apprentice in 2017.
A tabletop game version, The Apprentice Game, was released by Parker Brothers in 2004.
Appearances in video games
Trump Casino was licensed for use in the 1989 video game, The Ultimate Casino Gambling Simulation. It was billed by the developer and publisher, Capstone Software, as "the official Trump Castle simulation". Capstone Software also published two sequels. Trump Castle II was developed by Brian A. Rice, Inc. and was published in 1991. Capstone Software developed the final game in the series, Trump Castle 3, which was published in 1993.
Donald Trump's name, appearance, and voice were licensed for the 2002 video game Donald Trump's Real Estate Tycoon.
The Apprentice was licensed for video game adaptations which were published by Legacy Interactive. The 2005 video game The Apprentice was developed by Big Top Games and the 2007 video game The Apprentice: Los Angeles was developed by Aliasworlds Entertainment.
Although Trump makes money from licensing his name and likeness, anything performed in the official capacity of running for federal office, or while in federal office, in the United States is in the public domain. Because of this, Stardock was able to include Donald Trump in their political campaign simulators The Political Machine 2012, The Political Machine 2016, and The Political Machine 2020.
Bankruptcies
Trump ventured into several unsuccessful 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 and 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.
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel, which was opened on October 1, 1907, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, was purchased by Trump at auction in 1988 for either $390 million USD or $407.5 million USD.
The hotel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1992. Trump sold the Plaza Hotel at a loss in 1995 for $325 million USD.
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 opened as the Playboy Hotel on April 14, 1981, and was renamed in 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 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 the Trump Castle casino and hotel 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 closed on October 10, 2016. The company's assets were acquired by Icahn Enterprises, and the company's websites were redirected to Donald Trump's website.
Trump Casino
Trump Casino, a floating casino in Gary, Indiana, opened in 1996.
In 2005, 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 a website that regularly posted conspiracy theories and misleading content, Breitbart News Network. 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 false 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.
Presidency
Donald Trump was sworn in as the President of the United States on January 21, 2017.
Use of the Internet to spread misinformation while in office
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 the 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 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 held a rally where he told his supporters to prevent Vice President Mike Pence from doing his constitutional duty to approve the electoral college votes for Joe Biden.
Although he had a single line in his speech about marching "peacefully and patriotically", the rest of his speech, and those of other speakers at the rally, told the Trump supporters to be angry, fight, and prevent President-elect Joe Biden from taking office.
After the rally, Donald Trump's supporters attempted an insurrection on the United States Capitol building where a hangman's noose was set up and people were shouting "Hang Mike Pence". A riot broke out when the Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building and members of Congress, along with Vice President Mike Pence and his family, were ushered to safety. Ultimately seven people died in connection with the riot, 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 riot 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 riot by Donald Trump's supporters.
Like the first impeachment, Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives but was acquitted by the Senate.
Post-presidency
After losing to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Donald Trump falsely claimed that widespread election fraud caused the election to be stolen from him.
He continued to spread this false conspiracy theory post-presidency.
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.
Criminal charges
First indictment
Donald Trump was indicted by the state of New York on March 30, 2023, on thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. It related to a $130,000 payment that was made in 2016 while running for President to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, to prevent her from selling her story about an alleged affair with Trump.
Second indictment
Trump received his second indictment, and his first federal indictment, on June 9, 2023. It charged the former president with thirty-seven felony counts related to illegally keeping classified documents, showing classified documents to people without security clearances, and instructing a staffer of Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, to destroy evidence by deleting video footage at the estate. Three more felony counts, for a total of forty, were added to the indictment on July 27, 2023, related to classified documents Trump showed people without security clearances at his Bedminster, New Jersey resort.
Third indictment
Trump was indicted for a third time, and for a second time federally, on August 3, 2023. The former president was charged with four felony counts related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which led to the deadly attempted insurrection of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Fourth indictment
Trump was indicted for a fourth time, and for the second time by a U.S. state, on August 14, 2023. He was one of the nineteen people charged in an indictment by the state of Georgia with forty-one felony counts related to attempts to coerce Georgia officials to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Civil charges
2019 E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
On June 21, 2019, a journalist named E. Jean Carroll published an article in New York magazine claiming that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City in late 1995 or early 1996. On July 2, 2019, a book she wrote titled What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal was published which also included the sexual assault accusation against Trump.
On November 4, 2019, E. Jean Carroll filed a civil lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Trump for damaging her reputation by claiming that she only published the book for publicity as well as insulting her appearance.
2022 E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit
The Adult Survivors Act was enacted in the U.S. state of New York in May 2022. It allowed people who were sexually abused to file civil charges, from November 24, 2022, to November 24, 2023, against the alleged offender who committed the act during a period in which the statute of limitations had expired.
On November 24, 2022, E. Jean Carroll filed a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Donald Trump. Due to the Adult Survivors Act, she was able to sue Trump for the sexual abuse she had claimed he committed against her in the New York City Bergdorf Goodman department store. The lawsuit also included defamation charges against Trump for statements he made against her in October 2022 on Truth Social.
The jury reached a unanimous decision on May 9, 2023, that found that Donald Trump did not rape Carroll, but that he did sexually abuse and defame her. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million USD.
Additional defamation against E. Jean Carroll
On May 10, 2023, the day after the jury found Trump that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, the former appeared on the cable news network, CNN, and continued to insult Carroll by calling her a "whack job" and that he doesn't "know who the hell she is". This led her to file a third lawsuit against Donald Trump for defamation.
