Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American business magnate, investor, author, television personality and candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization, and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's career, branding efforts, lifestyle and outspoken manner helped make him a celebrity, a status amplified by the success of his NBC reality show, The Apprentice. Trump is a son of Fred Trump, a New York City real estate developer. He worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and officially joined the company in 1968. In 1971, he was given control of the company, renaming it The Trump Organization. Trump remains a major figure in American real estate. On June 16, 2015, Trump formally announced his candidacy for president in the 2016 election, seeking the nomination of the Republican Party. Trump's early campaigning drew intense media coverage and saw him rise to high levels of popular support. Since early July 2015, he has consistently been the front-runner in public opinion polls for the Republican Party nomination. Trump began his career at his father's real estate company,[27] Elizabeth Trump and Son,[28] which focused on middle-class rental housing in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. One of Trump's first projects, while he was still in college, was the revitalization of the foreclosed Swifton Village apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio, which his father had purchased for $5.7 million in 1962. The Trumps became involved in the project and with a $500,000 investment, turned the 1,200-unit complex's occupancy rate from 34% to 100%. In 1972, the Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million.[29][30] In 1971, Trump moved to Manhattan and became involved in larger building projects and used attractive architectural design to win public recognition.[31] Trump initially came to public attention in 1973, when he was accused by the Justice Department of violations of the Fair Housing Act in the operation of 39 buildings. Trump in turn accused the Justice Department of targeting his company because it was a large one, and to force it to rent to welfare recipients. Trump settled the charges in 1975, saying he was satisfied that the agreement did not "compel the Trump organization to accept persons on welfare as tenants unless as qualified as any other tenant."[32] Trump made plans to acquire and develop the old Penn Central for $60 million with no money down.[33] Later, with the help of a 40-year tax abatement from the New York City government, he turned the bankrupt Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt[34] and created The Trump Organization.[35] New York City had a plan to build the Javits Convention Center on property for which Trump held a right-to-buy option. Trump estimated his company could have completed the project for $110 million[36] but the city rejected his offer and Trump received a broker's fee on the sale of the property instead. Repairs on The Wollman Rink in Central Park (built in 1955) were started in 1980 with an expected 2½-year construction schedule but were nowhere near completion by 1986. Trump took over the management of the project, at no cost to the city, and completed it in three months for $1.95 million, which was $750,000 less than the initial budget.[37] In 1988, Trump acquired the Taj Mahal Casino in a transaction with Merv Griffin and Resorts International,[38] which led to mounting debt,[39] and by 1989, Trump was unable to meet loan payments. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, by 1991, increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy.[39] Banks and bond holders had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but opted to restructure the debt. The Taj Mahal emerged from bankruptcy on October 5, 1991, with Trump ceding 50 percent ownership in the casino to the original bondholders in exchange for lowered interest rates on the debt and more time to pay it off.[40] He also sold his financially challenged Trump Shuttle airline and his 282-foot megayacht, the Trump Princess.[41] The late 1990s saw a resurgence in Trump's financial situation. The will of Trump's father, who died in 1999, divided an estate estimated at $250–$300 million equally among his four surviving children. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump Image By Boss Tweed (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• published: 30 Nov 2015
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