Before he was the 45th & 47th President of the United States, and even before he was a notable New York real estate mogul and host of ‘The Apprentice’, Donald Trump was a young man in Queens. Here’s everything to know about President Trump’s childhood, schools, family, and upbringing.
Full Name: Donald John Trump
Birthdate: Jul 14, 1946 (Age 79)
High School: New York Military Academy
Yearbooks: 1964 High school yearbook photos of Donald Trump as a teeanger
Who is Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is currently serving as the 47th President of the United States. He served a previous term from 2017-2021 as the 45th President. But before Trump was president, he was a notable media personality and entrepreneur that ran businesses in a wide-range of industries, getting his start in New York real estate before delving into casinos, golf clubs, and various other companies leveraging the ‘Trump’ brand.
But where would Trump be without his upbringing in New York City, military school and Ivy League education, and notable rise to power as a real estate tycoon in New York in the 1980s? Here’s what to know about a young Donald Trump.
What to Know About Donald Trump
- New York Roots: Born in Jamaica, Queens, Trump attended The Kew-Forest School before his father enrolled him in the New York Military Academy (Class of ’64) to instill discipline.
- Ivy League Education: After two years at Fordham University, Trump transferred to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1968 with a degree in economics and a growing passion for real estate.
- Family: Trump was the fourth of five children born to Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod, and has one surviving sister, Elizabeth. He has five children: Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron.
- Real Estate Tycoon: Trump transformed his father’s local apartment business into the global Trump Organization, shifting focus to iconic Manhattan landmarks and expanding into international hotels, casinos, and golf courses.
- Media & Entertainment Icon: Before politics, Trump was a household name as the star of the hit reality show The Apprentice, which solidified his “business mogul” persona for millions of viewers.
- Historic Political Career: Trump is currently serving as the 47th U.S. President, and previously served as the 45th President. His presidencies are marked by significant tax reforms, the appointment of three Supreme Court justices, and a focus on “America First” trade and border policies.
Early Childhood
Donald J. Trump was born in Jamaica, Queens on July 14, 1946 to father Fred Trump and mother Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. He spent his childhood living in a 23-room mansion in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood in Queens, New York, New York.
Fred left Trump and all of his siblings $20,000 a year in his childhood, which is the 2024 equivalent of $265,000. Adjusting for inflation, Trump was a millionaire by the time he was 8.
Elementary & Middle School Education
Donald Trump attended the Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, Queens, from kindergarten until 7th grade. Trump was notably a difficult kid, and his father ultimately pulled him out of Kew-Forest to send him to military school.
In an interview conducted when Trump was first running for President in 2016, one of Trump’s elementary and middle school schoolmates, Onish, said the and Donald “played soccer together, ate dinner at each other’s houses, and even went to detention together… He still can’t believe the hair-pulling, spitball-throwing boy he grew up with was running for president.”
Trump himself has even shared stories about being a problematic student in elementary school. Here is a direct quote from Trump in his book Trump: The Art of the Deal stating that:
“Even in elementary school, 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. I’m not proud of that, but it’s clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way. The difference now is that I like to use my brain instead of my fists.”
High School Education
To deal with Donald’s problematic behavior at an early age, his Father signed him up to attend New York Military Academy in Cornwall on Hudson, New York at age 13 for his high school education.
As a teenager at the school, President Trump experienced tough love for the first time. Trump biographer Timothy O’Brien told PBS that, “He talks about [New York Military Academy] as almost this, you know, rite of passage. When he arrived at the military academy, for the first time in his life, someone slapped him in the face when he got out of line.”
Student life at the school was described as intense, with a lot of infighting within the dormitories of which Trump was often the one yelling at and fighting with schoolmates. Author of the Trumps, Gwenda Blair, stated that, “He loved all that stuff, because it was also really competitive. Other kids didn’t like him all that much. He wasn’t that popular because he was so competitive. … But it was an environment that he thrived in.”
Trump was a talented high school athlete as well, playing varsity soccer, baseball, and football. He also marched in uniform in the Columbus Day Parade in NYC in 1963 at age 17 and “was probably the third-highest-ranked cadet in the whole school” according to a schoolmate.
Collegiate Education
Fordham University
Donald started his collegiate career as a commuter student at Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, New York, where he studied economics.
According to Fordham’s school newspaper about one of its notable alumni, “the consensus among friends, acquaintances and observers of Donald Trump described him as an athletic and affable young man, even if he did keep his distance from other students. Most knew ‘the Donald’ from classes, playing golf or other sports with him or commuting to school.”
Trump played squash and tennis, and intramural football. It was at Fordham that he developed his passion for golf, which he continues to play today.
University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School Of Business (Trump’s Alma Mater)
ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Trump transferred to UPenn after 2 years at Fordham and continued to pursue a bachelors in economics at the Wharton School. He graduated from Penn in 1968 is the first and only alumni of the Ivy League school that has become the President of the United States.
While attending the Philadelphia-based university, Trump’s admiration for real estate deepened and he went home on weekends to be at his father Fred’s real estate business office.
Extensive Business & Political Career
Real Estate
As soon as he graduated, Trump received a $1 million dollar loan from his father and was employed at his family real estate business, Trump Management. His father’s business operated apartment complexes across Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn.
While his father’s long-term strategy had been investments in residential apartments for middle-class tenants, Donald was attracted to the glitz, glamour, and higher rental prices of Manhattan. In the ‘70s, he kicked off notable construction projects in Manhattan, which elevated his status as an NY real estate mogul and started earning his media notoriety from notable newspapers, TV stations and magazines.
Expansion Into Other Ventures
Donald leveraged the ‘Trump’ brand name to expand beyond New York, developing properties and licensing the Trump name for commercial properties around the world, opening Trump casinos, and even starting a professional football team, the New Jersey Generals, in the now defunct United States Football League.
While not all these businesses lasted, his continued notoriety as a business leader and the rising prominence of the Trump brand elevated his status as he became a mainstay in media (and eventually national politics.)
Media Personality
Even before he was President, Donald Trump has always managed to be in the spotlight since his early real estate days.
His first book (out of 19 total today), the Art of the Deal, came out in 1987 and was a New York Times Bestseller and solidified his reputation as an American business tycoon.
Trump has been commonplace in entertainment since the ‘80s and ‘90s too. Trump made regular appearances to give his two cents on a wide-range of topics on popular news stations from the ‘80s onward. He was a regular on the Howard Stern Show, made recurring appearances in the WWE (as is even a WWE Hall of Famer!), and had cameos in a variety of movies and TV shows like Home Alone 2, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Sex and the City.
He hosted the reality TV show The Apprentice from 2004 to 2015, in which contestants competed in business activities for the chance to work at one of Trump’s buildings. The show was highly successful, drawing over 20.7 million viewers in its first season and solidifying his reputation across the United States as a business mogul, which he would eventually capitalize on when running for President.
President
Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States in 2016. He served his first term from 2017 until 2021, when he lost to former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
In 2024, Donald Trump beat Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, and was reinstated as the 47th U.S. President in January, 2025.
Donald Trump’s Family
Parents
Donald was born to Fred Christ Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump on July 14, 1946. Mary Anne was born in Scotland, and migrated to the United States in 1930. His father was born to German immigrants in New York City. The two reportedly met at a party and were married in 1936 when Fred was starting to make a name for himself as a real estate developer.
By the time Donald was born, Fred Trump owned a highly successful real estate business that developed and rented apartments to middle-class families across Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. Donald and his siblings spent a lot of time on construction sites in their childhood, helping to solidify Donald’s passion for real estate.
Throughout Donald’s childhood, his mother was highly active in the Queens community in which Donald was raised, volunteering at a hospital and having direct involvement in charities, social clubs, and schools in their area.
Fred passed away in 1999 and Mary Anne passed away in 2000.
Siblings
Donald had 4 siblings, Maryanne, Freddy, Elizabeth, and Robert. He was the fourth child out of 5. His sister Elizabeth is the only one still living besides Donald.
- Maryanne Trump: his oldest sister, Maryanne, was born in 1937 and was an attorney, serving as a federal prosecutor and judge. She passed away at age 86 in 2023.
- Frederick “Freddy” Trump: Donald Trump’s older brother Freddy was born in 1938. While his father had hoped Freddy would follow in his footsteps and manage the family real estate business, Freddy had ambitions to be a pilot, which drove a wedge between him, his dad, and his younger brother Donald, who expressed interest in real estate even during his childhood. Freddy battled with alcoholism, which led to his untimely demise when he had a heart attack at age 42 in 1981.
- Elizabeth Trump: The middle child was Elizabeth, who was born in 1942. She attended college at Southern Seminary College in Virginia, and landed a gig at Chase Manhattan Bank as an administrative assistant before meeting her husband, James Grau, a television and film producer. The two are retired in Florida today.
- Robert Steward Trump: Donald’s youngest brother, Robert, was born in 1948. He attended Boston University, and began working on Wall Street after graduation before working alongside his brother and father at the Trump Organization. He passed away in 2020 at age 71.
Wives
Donald Trump has been married 3 times.
U.S. Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ivana Trump: Donald Trump’s first wife Ivana, was a Czechoslovakian model that met Trump through her modelling career. They met in 1976 and were married in 1977. Donald and Ivana had three children together, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric. She worked closely with Trump on various real estate projects, including Trump Tower and the Trump Taj Mahal casino. They got divorced in 1992 after 15-years, and she passed away in 2022 at age 73.
- Marla Maples: Donald met his second wife Marla while he was still married to Ivana, and the two got married in 1993 a few months after having their daughter Tiffany. The two were separated in 1997 and divorced in 1999.
- Melania Trump: Donald’s 3rd wife, the current First Lady, is Melania Trump. She was born in Yugoslavia and had an extensive modeling career, and met Donald Trump during Fashion Week in 1998. They were engaged in 2004 and tied the knot in 2005 at Mar-a-lago. They have one son together, Barron.
Children
U.S. Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Donald has 5 children. 3 (Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka) with Ivana, 1 (Tiffany) with Marla, and 1 (Barron) with Melania.
- Donald Trump Jr: Trump’s oldest child, Don Jr., was born in 1977. Like his father, Donald Jr. also attended UPenn, and lived in Aspen out of the back of his truck for a year after graduating before joining the Trump Organization. Today, he is an executive vice president at the family business.
- Ivana Marie “Ivanka” Trump: Donald’s oldest daughter Ivanka was born in 1981. She attended Georgetown University and UPenn before getting involved in a variety of her father’s businesses, including the Trump Organization, his reality show The Apprentice, and Miss Teen U.S.A. She successfully launched her own fashion line in 2014. She has been married to successful real estate mogul Jared Kushner since 2009.
- Eric Frederick Trump: Donald’s third child, Eric, is the last child of Donald and Ivana. He was born in 1984. He attended Georgetown University like his older sister, and began working for the Trump Organization upon graduation. He is married to TV producer Lara Yunaska.
- Tiffany Trump: Donald and Marla Maples’ only daughter, Tiffany, was born in 1993. She was raised by Marla in the privacy of Calabasas, California to keep her out of the spotlight after her parent’s public divorce. She has been married since 2022 to businessman Michael Boulous. She graduated from Penn for undergrad like her father, and went to Georgetown Law afterwards.
- Barron Trump: Donald’s youngest child, Barron, is his only child with Melania. Barron was born in 2006. Melania has prioritized putting Barron first, with his formative years being spent in the public eye as the son of a President. In 2024, Barron began attending New York University.
What is Donald Trump’s Ethnic Background?
Donald’s ethnic background is predominantly Scottish and German. His mother was born and raised in Scotland on a remote island on the Scottish Outer Hebrides. And while his father Fred was born in New York City, Donald Trump’s grandfather moved to the United States from Germany and married a woman from his hometown.
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