Donald Trump: From TV celebrity to 45th President of the US

In a 1984 New York Time Magazine cover article, Donald Trump had said he would not wish to run for the office of the President of the United States. A little over 30 years later, the Republican candidate has just pulled off a historic upset against Hillary Clinton to win the bitterly contested election.

Of course, that was not the only time that the real estate mogul was asked whether he would ever consider running for President. During an interview in 1988 on David Letterman's show, Trump would respond to the question with a characteristic “I don’t know... Do you want to see the United States become a winner?” (Watch below)


 

It is too early to say whether America came out a "winner" in this election or not, but Trump has made it to the Oval Office despite most polls and projections pointing to the contrary.

The fourth child of Fred Trump, a New York real estate tycoon, Trump attended the New York Military Academy, which he was sent to at the age of 13. Media reports on Trump reveal that he was sent to the military academy because of behaviour problems at his previous school. 

After the academy, he would go on to attend the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. However, a 2011 Salon magazine piece reveals that Trump was not enrolled in Wharton’s prestigious MBA programme. Instead, he transferred from Fordham University in Bronx, New York, to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied economics for two years. 

With the Vietnam war raging and drafting in effect, Trump would secure education deferments for himself during his college years and ultimately a 1-Y medical deferment after graduating.

With his education behind him, and decades before he would find his true calling as a TV celebrity, Trump followed his father into the real estate business.

In 1971, Trump was given control of his father's company, Elizabeth Trump & Son, which he later renamed The Trump Organization. Trump also moved his base of operations to Manhattan.

His first big real estate deal would come in 1978, when he would take over a 2,000-room hotel, the Commodore, and remodel it into a Hyatt hotel. It would be the opening of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in 1980 that would catapult Trump to public prominence for the first time.

While Trump inherited his father's company, his older brother, Fred Trump Jr, died from alcoholism in 1981. Speaking to People magazine, Trump has cited his brother's death as the reason why he does not consume drugs, cigarettes or alcohol.

In 1979, Trump leased a site on New York's Fifth Avenue and built a $200-million apartment-retail complex, which was opened in 1982 and dubbed the Trump Tower. To date, the building serves as the headquarters of The Trump Organization.

With his share of successes came failures, the latter of which Trump has always been ready to gloss over. Trump's first bankruptcy came in 1991 over the Trump Taj Mahal, the second in 1992 over the Trump Castle, the third and the fourth also came the same year over the Plaza Hotel in New York and the Trump Plaza and Casino in Atlantic City, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts would file for bankruptcy in 2004, and, finally, Trump Entertainment Resorts would file for bankruptcy in 2009.

Trump would also go on to appear on the World Wrestling Entertainment’s popular wrestling show. Further, from 1996 to 2015, Trump had a stake in the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA beauty pageants.

But Trump found his true calling as a TV celebrity when, in 2003, he starred in the NBC's reality TV show The Apprentice. This was perhaps his real break. Trump, a regular guest on TV shows and segments, finally had a regular spot on the silver screen. The show was successful and Trump came away with his trademark catchphrase: "You're fired". Trump was also the executive producer for the show.

Trump's association with the show formally ended in 2015, when in reaction to his Presidential campaign announcement, NBC ended its business relationship with Trump.

While Trump enjoyed his larger-then-ever celebrity status which stemmed from the show, he was making headlines for another reason altogether. In 2011, Trump came out openly and questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship and eligibility to hold the office. Trump demanded to see Obama’s birth certificate, which the President had already released in 2008. Trump had tapped into a body of conspiracies which had emerged during the 2008 election and held that Obama was either born in Kenya, instead of Hawaii as stated by his birth certificate, or had become an Indonesian citizen as a child, thereby losing his US citizenship. Obama would subsequently release a long-form birth certificate.

In 2013, he would defend his actions, in an ABC news interview, saying: "I don't think I went overboard. Actually, I think it made me very popular... I do think I know what I'm doing."

Trump's political activism precedes any serious bid on his part for the country's top office. 

In 1987, Trump reportedly spent close to $100,000 on an advertisement criticising US foreign policy. "There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure,” the ad’s headline proclaimed. The ad was "an open letter from Donald J Trump" and addressed "To The American People" — "on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves."

Who was the President of the US at that time? The Republican Party's patron saint, Ronald Reagan. 

His comments back in those days, in the 80s and the 90s, would build the base of his proposed policies in the 2016 election campaign. Even in the add, Trump had argued that other nations were taking advantage of America, only back then his ire was reserved for Japan in stead of his favourite whipping boys today — China and Mexico. Even then he had argued that America was expending the lives of its people and billions of dollars to protect the interests of other nations.

During his Presidential campaign, Trump again took on Obama and his flagship programmes and vowed to end them if he became President, which he eventually became. Trump indeed knew what he was doing.