Donald John Trump ( New York , 14 of June of 1946 ) is a businessman and politician who since 2017 is the 45th (forty – fifth) President of the United States. He was a Democrat until 1987, then a Republican (1987-1999), then he passed through the Reform Party (1999-2001), to return to the Democratic Party (2001-2009) and arrive as a renewed Republican in the 2016 elections.
He is the first president in history to enter the White House without any political experience and without holding any elective office. Amid massive demonstrations against him, he took office on January 20 , 2017 .
Biographical synthesis
He was one of the five children of the marriage between Mary Anne Mac Leod (a Scottish immigrant born on the Isle of Lewis) and Fred Trump (the son of German immigrants, who enriched himself in the real estate sector of the city building houses for the middle class) , who had married in 1936.
His four siblings are Fred Jr. (deceased), Robert, Maryanne, and Elizabeth.
With a normal childhood in Jamaica Estates, he attended the Kew-Forest School in the Forest Hills neighborhood, in the district of Queens (within New York), along with some of his brothers until, at age 13, due to having problems of conduct, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy.
Later he went to Fordham University (in the Bronx neighborhood ) for two years, and continued his studies at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, because the latter had one of the few study programs dedicated to real estate, where he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics.
He has been married three times and has five children; in 2020 he has eight grandchildren. In 1977 he married Ivana Zelníčková, with whom he had three children: Donald Jr. (b. 1977), Ivanka (b. 1981) and Eric (b. 1984). He divorced in 1992 and a year later, in 1993, he married Marla Maples, with whom he had a daughter, Tiffany (born 1993). They divorced on June 8, 1999. On January 22, 2005, he married Melania Knauss (a Slovenian immigrant ), and had Barron William (b. 2006), the fifth of his descendants.
Business career
After obtaining his academic degree, he began to work in the world of construction in 1974 as a continuation of the real estate businesses of his father, Elizabeth Trump and Son , focused on the leasing of middle-class housing in New York.
His assets grew progressively under the aegis of the Trump Organization, in ups and downs, until he became the owner of more than 500 business companies, a score of golf courses, and an endless number of commercial products with his brand: perfumery, furniture, clothes and books, among others.
From there he turned to the hotel sector, having more than twenty hotels with the Trump brand around the world, he began by acquiring an old property next to Grand Central Station that he turned into one of the best establishments in New York. In a great acquisition race he bought a large number of homes in the city, especially luxury apartment towers like the Trump Tower in which he resides. It also acquired other hotels such as the historic Plaza Hotel, the Saint Moritz, and the Grand Hyatt.
His great business empire was not consolidated in New York, but in Atlantic City , New Jersey City , near Philadelphia, where he became the owner of the three main casinos: Trump Castle, Trump Plaza and the Taj Mahal. In 1990, Forbes magazine considered Trump to have the 19th largest fortune in the world, more than a billion dollars.
In addition to conglomerates of construction companies, clubs, hotels, casinos, golf courses and many others, it bought shares in the Miss Universe, Miss United States and Miss United States Adolescent female beauty pageants in partnership with the television network NBC.
From there he began to sell his image as a public man or “showman” , and to participate in “reality shows” or television programs such as The apprentice (‘the apprentice’), in which 16 to 18 entrepreneurs competing for a $ 250,000 prize and a contract to run one of his companies.
He also owns a soccer team in New Jersey, sponsors professional boxing matches, and a bicycle race called the Trump Tour .
In June 2015, Business Insider magazine published a financial statement supplied by Trump himself, the latest that is publicly known, dated June 30, 2014. The document stated that his fortune is 8700 million dollars. Of that amount, 3.3 billion correspond to “Real estate, brand and brand-based development licensing businesses.” His net worth is estimated at about $ 4.1 billion, leaving a property equity of over $ 4.6 billion.
Publications
He is the author of more than 17 books, mostly on financial and self-help aspects, including the book The Art of Returning , where he narrates, from his point of view, his experiences during the economic debacle he suffered in the 1990s and the way that he managed to overcome. He is also the co-author of a book called Because We Want You To Be Rich , written in partnership with his friend Robert Kiyosaki, author of financial aid books; although he published what he considers his masterpiece at the end of 2007 under the title: Think big and kick butt in business and life .
Political career
Since the 1980s, he financially supported various candidacies, almost always from the right, from Ronald Reagan to Mitt Romney in the 2012 elections.
At the end of 1980 he began to acquire spaces in the main newspapers of the country to criticize some aspects of the foreign policy of the United States, he remained oblivious to these issues.
After a long impasse in the 90s in which he had to deal with some financial problems derived from his controversial business projects, he renewed his interest in politics assuming a conservative, racist, xenophobic and macho discourse.
In 2000 he participated in the presidential candidacy of the Reform Party, and won the primaries of that party in California, but until then he did not advance further.
His candidacy for president of the United States was handled in the years 2004 and 2012 and in 2006 and 2014 there was talk of a possible aspiration for governor of New York, however in neither case was it materialized. Some years before in 2000 he had participated in the candidacy of the Reform Party, and won the primaries of that group in the state of California .
Since January 2013, he deepened his leanings to the right and released a video backing the prime minister of Israel , Benjamin Netanyahu during the parliamentary elections of that year, openly stating that “a strong prime minister is a strong Israel.”
In that same year, he was a keynote speaker at the low-turnout Conservative Political Action Conference where he spent more than a million dollars trying to explore an eventual presidential nomination. Also, several New York Republicans circulated a document suggesting that he would run for governor of the state in 2014 against Andrew Cuomo, to which he replied that he was not interested, but continued with his critical and hard line against the Democratic administration. of Barack Obama.
He was a Democrat until 1987, then a Republican (1987-1999), then he passed through the Reform Party (1999-2001), to return to the Democratic Party (2001-2009) and arrive as a renewed Republican in the 2016 elections.
Republican candidate (2016)
In February 2015, he did not renew his contract on The Apprentice program , which generated speculation about a possible presidential candidacy, and on June 16, 2015, in the United States city of New York, he announced his candidacy for the 2016 elections, for the Republican Party, under the slogan “We are going to make our country great again” (‘we will make our country great again’), competing with 17 other Republican candidates who aspired to the party’s nomination to compete in the elections.
Although he started in the preliminary polls as one of the weakest candidates and in some cases he was even considered an anti-party candidate, Trump’s populist discourse, together with his xenophobic and racist language, was gaining sympathy among the most conservative elements of the electorate, as well as in some sectors of the population dissatisfied with traditional American politicians. In the end, Trump managed to impose himself on all his opponents within the party and, with the reluctance of many of his coreligionists, and heavyweights of the Republican Party, on Super Tuesday of March 1, 2016, he left behind his main competitor the senator for Texas , Ted Cruzin almost a hundred delegates. On July 21, 2016, after some dabbling, the Republican National Convention finally designated him as a candidate for the presidency of the Republican Party with his running mate Mike Pence.
In the elections of November 8, 2016, he faced the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton , wife of former President Bill Clinton , who had been a senator and secretary of state; a woman representative of the establishment that all the polls gave as the virtual winner of the electoral contest until the day of the presidential elections. However, Trump prevailed over Clinton, winning the swing states and wrestling from Hillary some others that had historically been Democratic strongholds. Trump prevailed in the states of Texas , Kansas , South Dakota , Wyoming , North Dakota , Mississippi, Alabama , Tennessee , Kentucky , Indiana , Montana , West Virginia , South Carolina , Oklahoma , Arkansas , Louisiana , Nebraska , Idaho , Ohio , North Carolina , Florida , Utah , Pennsylvania , Georgia , Iowa , Alaska , Wisconsin, and Missouri and was defeated by Hillary inIllinois , New York , Maryland , Delaware , Nevada , New Jersey , Massachusetts , Connecticut , Colorado , California , Vermont , Oregon , Washington and New Mexico On the night of November 8 to 9 and the result of In some undecided states, Donald Trump won the necessary electoral votes and thus became the 45th president-elect of the United States.
During the election campaign, she not only had to overcome her constant scandals, including a recording with offensive comments towards women, but also the lack of support from important Republican figures who distanced themselves from her campaign and a strong offensive from the main newspapers and television channels from the United States.
Despite being a well-known billionaire, he was able to capitalize on the widening gap that exists between the ruling class and the citizens of the United States, mobilizing millions of citizens, mainly whites and from suburban areas, who traditionally do not attend. to the polls.
At the level of the political map and the complicated electoral system of the country, the Republicans managed to overcome the barrier of 270 electoral college votes thanks to their ability to break the so-called “blue wall”, a grouping of 18 states that traditionally vote Democratic in the Northeast and the West Coast, which put Clinton at an advantage.
The Democrat’s campaign dedicated effort and money to states that she did not need to win, such as North Carolina and Ohio, instead of focusing on propping up the regions that have been giving victory to her party since her husband Bill Clinton won the elections in 1992.
Trump, with the help of white working-class voters, partially demolished that wall by winning Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the latter state that had not voted Republican since 1984.
Several of the members of the “blue wall” also make up the so-called rust belt or “oxide belt”, a traditionally manufacturing region with large industries that has not been able to lift itself from successive economic crises since the 80s of the last century.
Hundreds of thousands of middle-class workers lost their jobs when companies began moving their factories to nations with less expensive labor forces. That would have been the breeding ground in which Trump’s protectionist speech and his call for corporations to create jobs in the country took hold.
It was also surprising in the so-called “pendulum states”, which are those that in recent decades have changed their political color depending on the candidates. He triumphed in North Carolina and Ohio, a key state that some believe holds the key to the White House. He also won in Florida despite the fact that millions of Latinos and immigrants came out to vote and forecasts indicated that Hillary would benefit.
In addition to the resounding lack of wisdom of the pollsters and the media when it comes to predicting the state of opinion among the population, the Republican candidate was immune to strong news and opinion works against his campaign.
The real electoral scenario was settled on the internet. It did not matter that 229 American newspapers and 131 weeklies called to vote for Hillary Clinton. Trump emerged as the social media mogul, capable of shaking up the news and traditional media with tweets and Facebook slogans.
70% of the voters were white. Of them, 58% voted for his candidacy. Eight out of 10 white evangelicals voted for Trump, while Clinton only captured 16%. It conquered 53% of the masculine vote in all the country; and it was surprising that, despite the scandals with various women and their vulgar statements about women, they took 42% of the female vote; only slightly lower than the results of the last two Republican candidates: John MacCain (45% in 2008) and Mitt Romney (44% in 2012).
He was not the most voted candidate in the elections because he only had the effective support of 27% of all Americans of election age, Hillary Clinton obtained almost 390 thousand votes more than the president-elect. It is the fifth time in US electoral history that this has happened and the second time in 16 years. It is the result of the indirect method of election in which the so-called electoral votes decide and not the popular vote. He will be the first president in history to enter the White House without any political experience and without holding any elective office.
Presidential inauguration
Trump’s Presidential Inauguration Committee raised more than $ 90 million in private donations, a record figure and far higher than the two inaugurations of Barack Obama , who raised $ 55 million in 2009 and $ 43 million in 2013. According to estimates, the act will exceed $ 100 million.
Amid protests and demonstrations organized by civil rights activists and community organizations, as well as the attitude of 50 Democratic congressmen who decided not to attend the ceremony, Trump took office on January 20 , 2017 in a ceremony held in the Capitol, the seat of Congress, where the assistants witnessed a brief oath of the president before Magistrate John Robert, of the Supreme Court, and a speech of the governor. The associate judge of that highest court, Clarence Thomas, was sworn in by the vice president-elect, Michael Pence, who later accompanied Trump on a walk to the White House.
On the same Bible that President Abraham Lincoln used to take office in 1861, Trump spoke the following words:I, Donald Trump, solemnly swear that I will serve faithfully as President of the United States, using my abilities to the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.
Government project
The intention and policy of his government is reflected by the election of his presidential cabinet, made up of billionaire businessmen and decorated military men, considered hard-line and conservative.
Despite the uncertainty of North American society and the rest of the world about core aspects of his future management and due to his incendiary electoral promises, his government is emerging as pragmatic, protectionist, focused on the economy and finance, and with a strong right-wing nationalist sentiment.
He announced that he would dissociate himself from the management of his conglomerates of companies while he is in the presidency, to avoid conflicts of interest, and will group them in a company that his sons Donald and Eric will run. Although the president is not obliged to abandon his business activities, he will do so and will not launch new business projects abroad, but will maintain those he already has and in the United States his companies will continue with their normal expansion plans. It will also donate to the United States Treasury what it collects for the use of its hotels as a form of payment for foreign countries and not to violate the Constitution.
Terrible management of the pandemic in the United States
According to American philosopher and political scientist Noam Chomsky , Donald Trump is stabbing average Americans in the back, while pretending to be the country’s savior during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic , the worst health crisis in at least a century. Trump – who will seek reelection in late 2020 – has cut government funding for healthcare and infectious disease research to benefit multinational corporations.That’s something Trump has been doing every year of his tenure, cutting it down even further. So [his plan is] let’s keep reducing it, let’s keep making sure that the population is as vulnerable as we can, that it can suffer as much as possible, but that of course it increases the profits for its main constituents in wealth and corporate power. […]
Trump has abandoned his duties by forcing individual state governors to take responsibility for fighting the virus. That is a great strategy to kill a lot of people and improve your electoral politics. […]
To try to cover up his criminal attacks on the American people, which have been going on all this time, he is trying to find scapegoats.
Noam Chomsky