Donald Trump's name has become synonymous with stacks of cash, skyscrapers, brazen self-aggrandisement and a very dodgy comb-over.
Now simply known as ‘The Donald’, Trump is one of America’s most notorious business executives.
By the 1980s he had become a successful dealmaker in New York, feeding off the decade’s power-frenzy, and persuading city government and banks to finance his flamboyant developments
Born in New York in 1946, Trump joined his father’s real estate business after attending the Wharton business school. By the 1980s he had become a successful dealmaker in New York, feeding off the decade’s power-frenzy, and persuading city government and banks to finance his flamboyant developments in real estate, casinos and travel.
Trump did well in the casino business in New Jersey and also set up his own ‘Trump Shuttle’ airline. In 1982 he built the outlandish Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue and went on to build many more skyscrapers in Manhattan – all, of course, bearing his name and riddled with giant ‘T’s inside.
The 90s, however, saw his empire fall as his kamikaze business style led to bankruptcy for over $2bn worth bank loans that he couldn’t pay. Unperturbed, he clawed his way back and by 2000 he was again worth over a billion dollars. He penned The Art of the Comeback in 1997 and his other books include The Art of the Deal, Surviving at the Top and How to get Rich.
His outspokenness and ‘eye for the ladies’ have made Trump regular tabloid fodder. He was married to model and shoe fetishist, Ivana Zelniek from 1977 to 1992 and Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999. He married his third wife, Slovenian model Melania Knauss, in January 2005.
Trump part owns and produces beauty competitions such as Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen and has become a TV celebrity, making cameos in numerous sitcoms. He is most recently famous for his hit show The Apprentice, in which he assesses candidates who compete for a job at one of Donald Trump’s companies. The UK’s version of the show featured Sir Alan Sugar who borrowed Trump’s brutal ‘You’re Fired’ eviction style in homage to a true business icon.
