Donald John Trump was born on June 14th, 1946 to Fred and Mary Anne Trump. His father, Fred, had started off making a successful carpentry business. However, during the Great Depression, this business was on the verge of bankruptcy, until he built one of the largest self serve supermarkets in New York and sold it for a large profit. He used the money to buy up a subsidiary of a bankrupt real estate company for pennies on the dollar, giving them access to a large number of properties that were bordering foreclosure. Fred bought them for a fraction of the price that he sold them at, making his company one of the most profitable and famous real estate companies in the city.
Donald was the fourth child of five. He had three older siblings, Maryanne, Fred Jr and Elizabeth, and had one younger brother, Robert. The Trump House was enormous, with 23 rooms in prime Queens Real Estate and a Chauffeur that drove the children to school every morning.
However, despite this lavish lifestyle, Fred was very tough on his children. Despite his vast wealth, Fred still forced Donald to do his local paper round. Donald became a notorious bully at school and with his younger brother.
I was a very assertive, aggressive kid. In the second grade I actually gave a teacher a black eye—I punched my music teacher because I didn’t think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled. […] As an adolescent I was mostly interested in creating mischief, because for some reason I liked to stir things up, and I liked to test people. I’d throw water balloons, shoot spitballs, and make a ruckus in the schoolyard and at birthday parties. It wasn’t malicious so much as it was aggressive.
Donald Trump’s writing in “The Art of the Deal”
Due to his unruly behaviour, Donald was sent, by his father, to New York Military Academy. NYMA was notorious for being incredibly tense, with physical and verbal abuse being actively encouraged, often times with hazing new students and physical assaults from teachers. However, Donald quickly learnt discipline and was Captain in his class, whilst being dubbed the Ladies Man of his yearbook. He was very well known in his school as being the baseball champion, often being incredibly successful in first base. Many teachers began to notice that Trump always had to be number one, and would do anything to be so. He then graduated the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in economics.
The Verrazano Narrows Bridge connected Brooklyn to Staten Island and had finished construction in 1964, being the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. Fred had invited Donald down to the opening and was in the crowd during the ceremony. He later told the New York Times that no-one mentioned the designer of the bridge, not even once.
I realised then and there that if you let people treat you how they want, you’ll be made a fool, […] I don’t want to be anyone’s sucker.
Donald Trump speaking to the New York Times
Due to him being in college, he managed to avoid the Vietnam draft 4 separate times. Once he left college, he was called up once again but it was claimed that he had a problem with his heel bone so could not be called up. It is worth noting however that the doctors who told this to the draft office either lived or worked in Trump Properties.