Donald Trump

Donald Trump, the founder of The Trump Organization

Biography

Donald John Trump, Sr. was born on June 14, 1946. Trump is a son of Fred Trump a wealthy New York City real-estate developer and his wife, Mary Anne MacLeod, who married in 1936. His mother was born on the Isle of Lewis, off the west coast of Scotland. Donald was one of five children. Trump is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice. Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics. He worked for his father's firm, Elizabeth Trump & Son, while attending the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Career

Trump began his career at his father's company, Elizabeth Trump and Son and initially concentrated on his father's preferred field of middle-class rental housing in 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. Trump became intimately involved in the project, personally flying in for a few days at a time to carry out landscaping and other low-level tasks. After $500,000 investment, Trump successfully turned a 1200-unit complex with a 66 percent vacancy rate to 100 percent occupancy within two years. The Trump Organization sold Swifton Village for $6.75 million in 1972. Trump renovated the Commodore Hotel and created the Grand Hyatt with the Pritzker family. He also renovated the Trump Tower in New York City and several other residential projects. He later bought the Eastern Shuttle routes, and Atlantic City casino business, including acquiring the Taj Mahal Casino in a transaction with Merv Griffin and Resorts International. The late 1990s saw a resurgence in his financial situation and fame. In 2001, he completed Trump World Tower, a 72-story residential tower across from the United Nations Headquarters. Also, he began construction on Trump Place, a multi-building development along the Hudson River. Trump owns commercial space in Trump International Hotel and Tower, a 44-story mixed-use (hotel and condominium) tower on Columbus Circle. By 1989, the effects of the recession left Trump unable to meet loan payments. Trump financed the construction of his third casino, the $1 billion Taj Mahal, primarily with high-interest junk bonds. Although he shored up his businesses with additional loans and postponed interest payments, by 1991 increasing debt brought Trump to business bankruptcy and the brink of personal bankruptcy. On November 2, 1992, the Trump Plaza Hotel was forced to file a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection plan after being unable to make its debt payments. Under the plan, Trump agreed to give up a 49 percent stake in the luxury hotel to Citibank and five other lenders. In return Trump would receive more favourable terms on the remaining $550+ million owed to the lenders, and retain his position as chief executive, though he would not be paid and would not have a role in day-to-day operations. By 1994, Trump had eliminated a large portion of his $900 million personal debt and reduced significantly his nearly $3.5 billion in business debt. In May 2005 the company re-emerged from bankruptcy as Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings.