98 Fun Facts About Donald Trump

In which New York City borough was Donald Trump born?

Donald Trump was born in Queens on June 14, 1946, the fourth of Fred and Mary Anne Trump's five children, and grew up in a 23-room house there.

Trump graduated in 1968 from the Wharton School, which is part of which Ivy League institution?

Wharton is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn); Trump transferred there and earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1968.

Which boarding school did Trump's father send him to from eighth through twelfth grade?

Trump entered New York Military Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson at 13 and graduated from it in 1964, after attending the private Kew-Forest School through seventh grade.

What new name did the family real-estate company get when Donald took over as its president in 1971?

Trump took over Elizabeth Trump & Son in 1971 and renamed it The Trump Organization, pushing his father's outer-borough apartment business into Manhattan.

Trump's first big Manhattan project, opened in 1980, was the renovation of which derelict hotel by Grand Central?

The Commodore, a rundown hotel beside Grand Central Terminal, reopened in 1980 as the Grand Hyatt after Trump's renovation with Hyatt, helped by a 40-year city tax abatement.

How many storeys tall is Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue?

Trump Tower has 58 storeys, though its floor numbers run up to 68; it opened in 1983 beside the Tiffany & Co. flagship on Fifth Avenue.

Who is credited as co-author of Trump's 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal?

Tony Schwartz ghostwrote The Art of the Deal and later said he regretted it; the 1987 book spent 48 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

How many separate Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings did Trump's businesses make between 1991 and 2009?

Six separate Chapter 11 filings, from the Taj Mahal casino in 1991 to Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009, involved Trump's businesses; he never filed for personal bankruptcy.

Which airline did Trump buy in 1988 and rename after himself?

Trump bought the Eastern Air Lines Shuttle's Boston–New York–Washington service and relaunched it as Trump Shuttle in June 1989; it never made a profit and passed to its bank lenders after he defaulted on the loans.

Which beauty pageant organisation did Trump buy in 1996?

Trump bought the Miss Universe Organization in 1996, which also runs Miss USA and Miss Teen USA; NBC cut ties in 2015 over his campaign-launch remarks about Mexican immigrants, and he sold it that year.

In which Florida town is Mar-a-Lago, the estate Trump bought in 1985?

Mar-a-Lago sits on the barrier island of Palm Beach, between the Atlantic and Lake Worth Lagoon; Trump bought it in 1985, made it a private club in 1995 and declared it his primary residence in 2019.

Which New Jersey resort town was home to Trump's casinos, including the Taj Mahal?

Atlantic City housed Trump Plaza, Trump's Castle and the Taj Mahal, which opened in 1990 financed with about $675 million in junk bonds and went bankrupt the next year.

Which reality-TV producer created The Apprentice, which Trump hosted from 2004?

Mark Burnett, who also produced Survivor, created The Apprentice for NBC in 2004; its winners received a one-year $250,000 contract with a Trump company.

What was Trump's catchphrase for eliminating contestants on The Apprentice?

'You're fired.' closed each boardroom segment of The Apprentice; Trump even filed to trademark the phrase in 2004.

Which former governor replaced Trump as host of The Apprentice after NBC cut ties in 2015?

Arnold Schwarzenegger hosted The New Celebrity Apprentice for one season in 2017 after NBC dropped Trump over his June 2015 campaign-launch remarks about Mexican immigrants.

In which 1992 Christmas film does Trump appear as himself, giving directions in a hotel lobby?

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York shot in the Plaza Hotel, which Trump then owned; director Chris Columbus said the cameo was Trump's condition for filming there.

At WrestleMania 23, what was at stake in the 'Battle of the Billionaires' between Trump and Vince McMahon?

The loser's head would be shaved: each billionaire backed a wrestler, and when Trump's man won, Trump and Stone Cold Steve Austin shaved Vince McMahon bald in the ring.

Which wrestler fought for Trump in the 'Battle of the Billionaires' at WrestleMania 23?

Bobby Lashley, then ECW champion, fought for Trump and beat Vince McMahon's pick Umaga, with Stone Cold Steve Austin as special guest referee.

Trump's first wife Ivana was the mother of which three children?

Donald Jr. (1977), Ivanka (1981) and Eric (1984) are Ivana's children; Tiffany is Trump's daughter with Marla Maples and Barron his son with Melania.

Melania Trump was born in which country?

Melania Trump was born Melanija Knavs in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1970; she began modelling at 16 and married Trump in January 2005.

Which Trump venture was renamed after New York said it was not an academic institution?

Trump University, launched in 2005, sold real-estate seminars costing up to $35,000; New York regulators objected to the 'university' label and it became the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative in 2010.

In 2000, Trump briefly ran for the presidential nomination of which movement founded by Ross Perot?

The Reform Party, founded by Ross Perot in 1995, was Trump's vehicle for a short 2000 exploratory run; he quit in February 2000 and later bounced between Democratic, Republican and no registration before settling as a Republican in 2012.

Which Republican nominee did Trump ask, via Lee Atwater in 1988, to make him his running mate?

George H. W. Bush, the 1988 nominee, wrote in his diary that Trump's request to be considered for running mate was 'strange and unbelievable'; Bush chose Dan Quayle instead.

How many electoral votes did Trump win in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton?

Trump received 304 electoral votes to Clinton's 227 once faithless electors were counted; he was the fifth president elected while losing the popular vote, trailing Clinton by about 2.87 million.

Trump was the first president to have done neither of which two things before he was inaugurated?

Trump was the first president who had neither served in the military nor held public office; every predecessor had at least one, and he campaigned explicitly as an outsider.

Who served as Trump's vice president during his first term?

Mike Pence, a former Indiana governor, was vice president from 2017 to 2021 and refused Trump's demand to reject electoral votes on January 6, 2021.

Trump's first impeachment in December 2019 arose from a phone call with the president of which country?

A July 2019 call with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump pressed for investigations of Joe and Hunter Biden, led to the impeachment; the Senate acquitted him in February 2020.

How many Republican senators voted to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial in February 2021?

Seven Republicans — Burr, Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse and Toomey — joined every Democrat and independent for a 57–43 vote, short of the 67 needed to convict on incitement of insurrection.

Roughly how many times did Trump post on Twitter between 2009 and his ban in January 2021?

Trump posted about 57,000 tweets from 2009 until Twitter permanently suspended him on January 8, 2021, two days after the Capitol attack; Twitter had begun fact-check labels on his posts in May 2020.

Which platform, owned by Trump Media & Technology Group, launched in February 2022?

Truth Social launched on February 21, 2022, under Trump Media & Technology Group as Trump's own outlet after Twitter and Facebook banned him following January 6, 2021.

On how many felony counts did a Manhattan jury convict Trump in the hush-money case?

The Manhattan jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush-money payment; the judge imposed an unconditional discharge in January 2025.

Near which Pennsylvania town was Trump shot in the ear at a rally on July 13, 2024?

The rally was at the Butler Farm Show grounds outside Butler, Pennsylvania; a bullet grazed Trump's right ear, and AP photographer Evan Vucci's picture of his raised fist became one of the campaign's defining images.

Who was Trump's running mate in the 2024 election?

JD Vance, an Ohio senator and author of Hillbilly Elegy, was named Trump's running mate on the Republican convention's opening day and became the first Marine Corps veteran to serve as vice president.

How many electoral votes did Trump win against Kamala Harris in 2024?

Trump won 312 electoral votes to Harris's 226, sweeping every battleground state, including Nevada for the first Republican win there since 2004.

Why was Trump's January 2025 inauguration held inside the Capitol Rotunda?

Freezing temperatures and high winds, with wind chills forecast near zero, moved the ceremony into the Rotunda, the first indoor inauguration since Reagan's in 1985; the parade shifted to Capital One Arena.

According to Trump, his career began with what from his father?

Trump told a 2015 town hall that his father gave him 'a small loan of a million dollars'; a 2018 investigation found he actually received at least $413 million in today's dollars from his father's business.

Under what pseudonym did Trump pose as his own spokesman when calling reporters?

John Barron was the name Trump used in the 1980s when phoning reporters as his own publicist; he later named his youngest son Barron. 'David Dennison' was his alias in the Stormy Daniels agreement.

How many golf courses did Trump own worldwide by 2016?

Trump owned seventeen courses by 2016, from his first, opened in Florida in 1999, to overseas resorts such as Doonbeg in Ireland, bought in 2014.

Which country was the birthplace of Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod?

Mary Anne MacLeod was born in 1912 in Tong on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, and emigrated to New York in 1930; Trump's paternal grandfather Friedrich came from Kallstadt in Germany.

Which university did Trump attend for two years from 1964 before transferring to Wharton?

Fordham University in the Bronx was where Trump spent two years from 1964 before transferring to Wharton; he had considered film school in California but stayed near home.

Which lawyer was Trump's fixer and mentor for 13 years in the 1970s and 1980s?

Cohn, earlier chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy, helped Trump countersue the federal government for $100 million over housing discrimination charges in 1973.

In which New York neighborhood did Trump grow up in a 23-room mansion?

Jamaica Estates, an affluent enclave of detached houses, held the 23-room house Fred Trump built on Midland Parkway; Donald lived there until leaving for military school at 13.

Trump was the first sitting US president to meet which foreign leader, three times in 2018-19?

Kim Jong Un met Trump in Singapore in June 2018, Hanoi in February 2019 and at the Korean DMZ in June 2019, the first meetings between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader; no denuclearization deal followed.

Which of these Supreme Court justices was appointed by Trump?

Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October 2020 to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joining Trump's earlier picks Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh; all three were in the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Mar-a-Lago was built in the 1920s for which cereal-fortune heiress?

Post willed the estate to the US government as a Winter White House, but upkeep costs were so high that it was handed back to her foundation.

Trump Tower was built on the Fifth Avenue site of which department store's flagship?

Bonwit Teller's 1929 flagship at 56th Street was demolished in 1980 for Trump Tower; Trump had promised its Art Deco limestone reliefs to the Metropolitan Museum but had them destroyed instead.

Trump's tallest building, the Trump International Hotel and Tower opened in 2008, is in which city?

The Trump International Hotel and Tower on the Chicago River later drew IRS scrutiny over losses Trump claimed on units he had declared worthless.

The 2020 Abraham Accords normalized Israel's relations with the UAE and which other state?

Bahrain joined the UAE in signing the Abraham Accords with Israel at the White House on September 15, 2020; Sudan and Morocco announced their own normalization deals later that year.

Trump was exempted from the Vietnam-era draft on the basis of what medical claim?

Bone spurs in his heels earned Trump a 1-Y medical deferment in October 1968, months after he graduated from Wharton, following four student deferments during college.

Trump's first-day 2025 order renamed the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of' what?

The 'Gulf of America' came from the January 20, 2025 executive order 'Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness', which also turned Denali back into Mount McKinley, its federal name from 1917 to 2015.

Which billionaire led Trump's Department of Government Efficiency in 2025?

Elon Musk ran the Department of Government Efficiency as a special government employee from January 2025, cutting agency staff and contracts, before leaving the role in May 2025.

In 2011 Trump became the leading promoter of the 'birther' theory about which president?

He finally acknowledged Obama's US birthplace in September 2016, while falsely claiming Hillary Clinton had started the rumor in 2008.

Trump has called which activity his 'primary form of exercise'?

Golf is the activity Trump has called his 'primary form of exercise', though he usually rides a cart; he has also likened the body to a battery whose energy exercise depletes.

Which new US military service was established in December 2019, in Trump's first term?

The Space Force became the sixth armed service on December 20, 2019, under that year's National Defense Authorization Act, with General Jay Raymond as its first member and chief of space operations.

Which Danish territory did Trump threaten to annex in 2025, even by military force?

Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, drew Trump's repeated 2025 demands that the US own it for security reasons; at a January 2025 press conference he refused to rule out military or economic coercion.

In Dec 2017 Trump recognized which city as Israel's capital, moving the US embassy there?

Jerusalem was recognized as Israel's capital on December 6, 2017, and the embassy opened there in the Arnona district on May 14, 2018, Israel's 70th anniversary, relocating from Tel Aviv.

What did Trump call April 2, 2025, when he unveiled sweeping tariffs in the Rose Garden?

'Liberation Day' was Trump's name for April 2, 2025, when he announced a 10% baseline tariff plus higher 'reciprocal' rates; markets plunged and on April 9 he paused the higher rates for 90 days.

Which climate accord did Trump pull the US out of in both his first and second terms?

The Paris Agreement withdrawal took effect in November 2020, Biden rejoined in February 2021, and Trump signed a second withdrawal order on January 20, 2025.

Which Iranian general died in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020?

Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, was killed by a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, as his convoy left Baghdad airport; Iran retaliated with missile strikes on two Iraqi bases.

Which FBI director did Trump fire in May 2017?

Days later Trump said he had been thinking about Comey's role in the Russia investigations; the FBI then opened a second inquiry into Trump himself.

Which city hosted the July 2024 Republican National Convention that nominated Trump?

Milwaukee hosted the convention at Fiserv Forum from July 15 to 18, having beaten Nashville for the bid; Trump accepted the nomination five days after surviving a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally.

What did Trump ride down at Trump Tower to launch his 2016 campaign on June 16, 2015?

The golden escalator ride into the Trump Tower atrium opened his June 16, 2015 announcement and became shorthand for the whole campaign launch; the speech focused on immigration, trade and the national debt.

Who beat Trump in the 2016 Iowa Republican caucuses, the first contest of the primary?

Cruz visited all 99 Iowa counties and won 27.6 percent, outperforming polls that predicted a narrow Trump win.

In 2019 Trump showed a Sharpie-altered map putting Alabama in which hurricane's path?

Hurricane Dorian's forecast cone did not include Alabama, but Trump's September 1, 2019 tweet said it did; after Alabamians flooded the Birmingham weather office with calls, it issued a correction, and he later displayed a Sharpie-extended map.

Who was Trump's first White House chief of staff, lasting six months in 2017?

Reince Priebus, a former RNC chairman, served from January to July 2017 and was replaced by John Kelly after communications director Anthony Scaramucci publicly accused him of leaking.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set a flat corporate tax rate of what?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed December 22, 2017, set a flat 21% corporate rate in place of a graduated schedule whose top rate was 35%, and shifted toward a territorial system for foreign profits.

The 2018–19 government shutdown over border-wall funding lasted how many days?

The shutdown ran 35 days, from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, the longest up to that point; it ended with no wall money, and Trump then declared a national emergency to divert about $6.1 billion.

In which city did Trump hold his July 2018 summit with Vladimir Putin?

Helsinki's Presidential Palace hosted the July 16, 2018 summit, where Trump and Putin met for two hours with only interpreters present; Trump then publicly doubted US intelligence on election interference.

Who was the first woman to manage a winning US presidential campaign, for Trump in 2016?

She was the campaign's third manager, taking over from Paul Manafort in August and serving just ten weeks before election day.

The 2005 hot-mic tape released in October 2016 caught Trump talking with which TV host?

Billy Bush, then an Access Hollywood host, was chatting with Trump on the show's bus at NBC Studios before a Days of Our Lives cameo; NBC dropped Bush from Today after the tape surfaced.

Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, had been CEO of which company?

ExxonMobil's chief executive from 2006 to 2016, Tillerson was an Eagle Scout who had served as national president of the Boy Scouts; Trump announced his firing on Twitter in March 2018.

Giuliani's Nov 2020 press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping was in which city?

Four Seasons Total Landscaping is in northeast Philadelphia, next to an adult bookstore and across from a crematorium; the November 7, 2020 event was widely assumed to be a mix-up with the city's Four Seasons hotel.

Which Georgia official did Trump ask to 'find 11,780 votes' in a January 2021 phone call?

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state, repeatedly told Trump in the January 2, 2021 call that there had been no error; the hour-long recording was published the next day.

What was the codename of the June 2025 US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites?

Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025 sent B-2 bombers to drop fourteen GBU-57 bunker busters on Fordow and Natanz while a submarine fired Tomahawk missiles at Isfahan.

In which Georgia county was Trump indicted on racketeering charges in August 2023?

Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis brought the August 2023 racketeering indictment, charging Trump and 18 others over efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 result; Trump faced 13 of its 41 counts.

Trump's midnight tweet of May 2017 read 'Despite the constant negative press' what?

'covfefe' appeared in the May 31, 2017 tweet posted at 12:06 a.m. and deleted later that morning; it was presumed a typo for 'coverage' and became an instant meme.

Which USFL team did Trump buy in 1983?

The New Jersey Generals, who played at Giants Stadium, were Trump's USFL team; he pushed the league to move to a fall schedule against the NFL, a strategy widely blamed for its collapse after 1985.

Trump was Time's Person of the Year in 2016 and again in which year?

Time named Trump Person of the Year for 2024 after his comeback win; in 2017 he claimed the magazine had said he would 'probably' win again if interviewed, which Time denied, naming him runner-up.

Which Florida judge dismissed the classified-documents case against Trump in July 2024?

Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed district judge in Fort Pierce, dismissed the case on July 15, ruling that Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional; the Espionage Act counts were never tried.

Which writer won $5 million and $83.3 million verdicts against Trump in 2023 and 2024?

E. Jean Carroll, a longtime Elle advice columnist, won $5 million in May 2023 for sexual abuse and defamation and $83.3 million the following January for further defamation; the $5 million award was later upheld by a federal appeals court.

Which Heisman-winning quarterback did Trump's USFL team sign in 1985 for $7 million?

Doug Flutie, the 1984 Heisman winner from Boston College, signed a five-year personal-services contract worth about $7 million that made him pro football's highest-paid player.

Which company released Trump: The Game in 1989?

Milton Bradley released Trump: The Game in 1989; it sold about 800,000 copies against a hoped-for two million, and Parker Brothers reissued it in 2004 to ride The Apprentice.

Trump won a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for a cameo in which 1989 Bo Derek film?

Ghosts Can't Do It, directed by John Derek, gave Trump a cameo as himself; it also took Worst Picture, Worst Actress and Worst Director at the 11th Golden Raspberry Awards.

Which 2000 Simpsons episode imagined Trump having been president?

'Bart to the Future', aired March 19, 2000, showed President Lisa Simpson inheriting 'quite a budget crunch from President Trump'; writer Dan Greaney called a Trump presidency 'the logical last stop before hitting bottom'.

Trump's D.C. hotel (2016–22) occupied which historic Pennsylvania Avenue building?

The Old Post Office, an 1899 Romanesque Revival landmark with a clock tower, was leased from the federal government for 60 years; Trump sold the lease to CGI Merchant Group in 2022 and it reopened as a Waldorf Astoria.

Which Central Park rink did Trump take over repairing in 1986 and finish in four months?

Wollman Rink, closed since 1980 while the city botched its repairs, reopened in November 1986 after Trump rebuilt it in about four months with a Canadian rink contractor, under his $3 million budget.

Trump says he avoids alcohol partly because of the death of which relative from drinking?

His older brother Fred Jr., a TWA pilot who had left the family business, died of a heart attack tied to alcoholism in 1981 at 42; Trump says Freddy warned him daily never to drink.

Trump's eldest sister Maryanne held what job until retiring in 2019?

Maryanne Trump Barry was a federal appeals judge on the Third Circuit, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1999; she took inactive status in 2017 and retired in 2019 as a misconduct inquiry into the family's tax practices ended.

What does TACO, a Wall Street term coined in 2025 about tariff reversals, stand for?

'Trump Always Chickens Out' was coined as the 'TACO trade' by Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong in May 2025, arguing markets had learned the administration backs off when tariffs bite.

What was the FBI codename for its 2016 investigation of Trump campaign–Russia links?

Crossfire Hurricane, opened by the FBI on July 31, 2016, was later absorbed into Robert Mueller's special counsel inquiry, whose 2019 report 'did not establish' a conspiracy between the campaign and Russia.

According to biographer Gwenda Blair, the Trump family's surname was originally what?

Drumpf was the family name until the 17th century; biographer Gwenda Blair traced the line to Hanns Drumpf, a lawyer who settled in Kallstadt in 1608, the spelling shifting to Trump during the Thirty Years' War.

Why did Bavaria strip Trump's grandfather Friedrich of citizenship in 1905?

He had left for the US at 16 without doing his mandatory service; ordered out, he returned to New York with his family, where Fred was born.

Trump's USFL won its antitrust case against the NFL but was awarded how much in damages?

The jury found the NFL an unlawful monopoly but set damages at a token $1, trebled under antitrust law to $3; the USFL never played its planned 1986 fall season.

Trump's 1980s yacht Trump Princess was originally built for which Saudi arms dealer?

Adnan Khashoggi had the Nabila built in 1980; it played the villain's ship in Never Say Never Again, and Trump bought it for $29 million from the Sultan of Brunei in 1987.

Trump's first investment, $70,000 in 1970, went into what?

A Broadway comedy, Paris Is Out!, was Trump's first investment: $70,000 in 1970 bought him billing as co-producer, and the play flopped.

Who signed Executive Order 11246, the federal-contractor affirmative-action order Trump rescinded in 2025?

Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 on September 24, 1965, requiring federal contractors to take affirmative action against discrimination; Trump revoked it on January 21, 2025, after nearly 60 years.

Trump paid a record $11 million site fee to stage Mike Tyson's 1988 fight against whom?

Michael Spinks, unbeaten and holding the lineal title, was knocked out by Tyson in 91 seconds on June 27, 1988, at Convention Hall beside Trump Plaza; Trump's $11 million site fee was a record.

What was the original name of Trump's 1985 plan for the West Side rail yards?

Television City, unveiled in 1985 for the old rail yards between 59th and 72nd Streets, proposed a 150-storey world's-tallest tower and a new NBC headquarters; it was renamed Trump City before becoming Riverside South.