Fred Trump

This article is about Donald Trump's father. For Fred Trump's father, see Frederick Trump. For his son, see Fred Trump Jr. For his grandson, see Fred Trump III. For the Arizona politician, see Fred Trump (politician).

Fred Trump
Photographic portrait of a balding blondish older man with a mustache. He is smiling, and his prominent eyebrows and lower eyelids nearly conceal his blue eyes. His right cheekbone is sunken in around the upper area of that side of the jawbone. His perfect teeth are just off-white. He is wearing a blue suit and tie.
Trump, c. 1986
Born
Frederick Christ Trump

(1905-10-11)October 11, 1905
New York City, U.S.
DiedJune 25, 1999(1999-06-25) (aged 93)
New Hyde Park, New York, U.S.
Burial placeLutheran All Faiths Cemetery, New York City
EducationPratt Institute
OccupationHead of The Trump Organization
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
​
(m. 1936)​
Children
Parent(s)Frederick Trump
Elizabeth Christ Trump
RelativesSee Trump family
AwardsHoratio Alger Award

Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real-estate developer and businessman. He was the father of the 45th and 47th (presumptive) U.S. president, Donald Trump.

Born in the Bronx in New York City to German immigrant parents, Trump began working in home construction and sales in the 1920s before heading the real-estate business started by his parents (later known as the Trump Organization).[a] His company rose to success, building and managing single-family houses in Queens, apartments for war workers on the East Coast during World War II, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York overall. Trump was investigated for profiteering by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 and again by New York State in 1966. Donald Trump became the president of his father's real-estate business in 1971. Two years later, they were sued by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for racial discrimination against black people.

Contradicting Donald Trump's claim that he built a multibillion-dollar company using "a small loan of a million dollars" from his father, in 2018 The New York Times reported that Fred and his wife, Mary Trump, provided over $1 billion (in 2018 currency) to their children overall, avoiding over $500 million in gift taxes. In 1992, Fred and Donald set up a subsidiary which was used to funnel Fred's finances to his surviving children; shortly before his death, Fred transferred the ownership of most of his apartment buildings to his children, who several years later sold them for over 16 times their previously declared worth.

In 1927, Trump was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan demonstration; there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization.[b][c] From World War II onwards, to avoid associations with Nazism, Trump denied his German ancestry and also supported Jewish causes.[d][e][f]

  1. ^ "Controller". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 23, 1951. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Ryan, Harry (February 11, 1961). "Real estate". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on October 5, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Trump Management Inc". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gerstein-2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference boing was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Horowitz, Jason (September 22, 2015). "In Interview, Donald Trump Denies Report of Father's Arrest in 1927". First Draft. The New York Times. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  7. ^ Adeyinka, Gem (March 4, 2024). "Donald Isn't The Only Trump With A Criminal History. Here's Why His Dad Fred Was Arrested". The List. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  8. ^ Rothman, Joshua D. (December 4, 2016). "When Bigotry Paraded Through the Streets". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  9. ^ Cohen, Rich (November 2007). "Becoming Adolf". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  10. ^ "How Donald Trump's father Fred built a billion-dollar property empire". Love Property. June 26, 2023. Retrieved September 5, 2023. Bizarrely, by 1950 he was sporting a Hitler toothbrush moustache, which had understandably become a major no-no.
  11. ^ "Does Donald Trump Have Jewish Roots?". Vos Iz Neias?. November 1, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  12. ^ Frank 2018, p. 64.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference why was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Germany was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Alone was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference kraut was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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