Before Donald Trump became president he worked as a hotel real estate developer, as well as many other ventures. Trump was not the first president with a "celebrity past" to be elected, Reagan, for example, was a famous television actor before becoming Amerca's 40th president. Trump was born into wealth being the fourth child of Fred Trump, a real estate developer in New York. However, despite his family's wealth, he was expected to work the lowest-tier jobs at his father's company and was sent to a military academy at age 13 since he was misbehaving in school. He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and even though he had two older sisters and an older brother, he was the one expected to succeed his father after his older brother chose to become a pilot. Trump got into the real estate business with the "small" $1m loan he received from his father before joining the company. He helped manage his father's extensive residential housing projects in New York City and took control of the company, which he renamed the Trump Organization, in 1971.
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Trump in Home Alone |
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Trump Energy Drink |
Trump later shifted his family's business from residential units in Brooklyn and Queens to more glitzy projects in Manhattan, transforming the rundown Commodore Hotel into the Grand Hyatt which is now the most famous Trump property. He also used to own the Plaza hotel which is the hotel in the Home Alone movies. I didn't know this before but there is Trump Towers in Mumbai, Istanbul, and the Philippines. Trump also developed hotels and casinos in which he was more unsuccessful considering they led o four bankruptcy filings (not personal bankruptcy. Trump not only built an empire in the real estate business but also in the entertainment business. From 1996-2015, he was an owner in the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants, I don't think this had anything to do with it but Steve Harvey's mistake of announcing the Miss Universe winner was in 2015. In 2003, he debuted an NBC reality television show called The Apprentice, in which contestants competed for a shot at a management job within Trump's organization. The show was quite successful and for 14 seasons! He has written several books, and owns a line of merchandise that sells everything from neckties to bottled water. According to Forbes, his net worth is $3.7billion, though he Trump repeatedly insists that he is worth $10billion.
Source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35318432
This was a really informative post on Donald Trump's celebrity past! I think this ties into a question about the connection(s) between celebrities and politics, and some people might even argue that Donald Trump has emboldened people with similar backgrounds to run for office. An example is Cynthia Nixon, an actress who is running for governor of New York--there is a lot of controversy over whether she is qualified to govern or brings fresh change to New York. Another example is Kid Rock, who is running for Senate this year.
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https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2018/03/29/can-cynthia-nixon-get-female-voters-to-break-up-with-cuomo-331090
Nice post Belen. I really liked that you decided to talk about Donald's Trump past since it is helpful to know everything you can about the person running our country. One of the major issues that people have with Trump is the fact that he refuses to release his tax returns. Doing some research, I found out that the last time a majority party candidate did not release such information to the public was in 1972 with Richard Nixon.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.biography.com/people/donald-trump-9511238
This was a really interesting post about the current President of America, Donald Trump. He has led a very privileged life but has nonetheless worked to keep and grow the wealth he was born into. Although a lot of people characterize him as "stupid" or "knowledgeable", he has to know something in order to have gotten himself this far. Despite him being an extremely controversial figure, he is the elected President and a successful businessman. His ideology is not the most modern nor the most progressive, but it is who was put in a position of power. This is not the first time this has happened. When Kennedy was president, he was a far more progressive president than those before him and most of those after him. Nixon was known to be sexist by today's definition, and anti-abortion. So was Ronald Reagan. Despite their controversial opinions and stands, they were elected for one reason or the other. There is proof that our current president shares a sexist view of women that is unacceptable by today's standards, but he gets away with it. Over all, presidents are elected for a variety of reasons, despite or in spite of other characteristics.
ReplyDeleteNice post Belen! I liked how you progressed through his life detailing his now so impressive rise to his current status. I researched some more into the bankruptcies and found out that he has filed chapter 11 six times! The first one was the Trump Taj Mahal, a luxury casino in Atlantic city were where personally he made 900 million but the casino was 3 billion in debt. The second one was the Trump castle, only a year after the first one. The third one was the Trump Plaza and casino If you would like to investigate some more look at the following link!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/21/hillary-clinton/yep-donald-trumps-companies-have-declared-bankrupt/
Very informative post about President Trump, Belen. An interesting fact that I have learned while scouring throughout the internet was that President Trump also had a reputation for not paying his bills on time. Although President Trump rose to fame with an early start he still faced many obstacles, one when his older brother, Freddy Trump, had died due to alcohol abuse. There was also point in his life that was filled with debts all around, almost filing for bankruptcy. Despite all of the obstacles that was thrown his way, he managed to be a billionaire and President of the United States, respected by the citizens of America.
ReplyDeleteBelen, thanks for such an insightful post about Donald Trump's past. It is interesting to see how Trump's past experiences and youth have influenced many of his presidential policies today. I think that Trump's celebrity past is similar to Ronald Reagan- as his acting career made him better able to reach out to the people and align with congress. Indeed, when Reagan was asked about his acting past, he responded: "There have been times in this office...when I wondered how you could do the job if you hadn't been an actor." Being an actor and thrust into the limelight allowed Reagan to develop skills to "broaden his appeal with the American people". Nicknamed the "Great Communicator", I believe that a lot of the verbal and presentation skills that Reagan had can be attributed to his celebrity past. Similarly, Trump's "reality show" past can be seen influencing his presidency- in positive and negative ways. While Trump is able to "spur the crowds" with passionate speeches, he also writes completely inappropriate tweets and a mainatins shameful media presence. Overall, I think that being in the public eye prior to their presidencies was in a way, a powerful asset for Trump and REagan in terms of being able to better express themselves and communicate with the people.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2017/08/30/politics/president-reagan-trump-acting-cnn-film/index.html