16 Things You Didn't Know About Donald Trump's Father, Fred
16 Things You Didn't Know About Donald Trump's Father, Fred
President Donald Trump has referred to his father Fred as his hero, role model, and best friend. He followed in his dad's footsteps in many respects, joining his real-estate management company right after college and expanding on Fred's developments in New York City. His beloved father didn't live to see Donald's very successful first foray into politics; Fred passed away in 1999 at the age of 93. "I don't think I wanted to outdo him, but maybe psychologically I did," Donald has said. "You're always looking to do a little better than your parents… deep down inside, maybe I did."
1) Frederick C. Trump started his own business at just 15.
Fred founded a construction business in 1920, while he was still a teenager. He partnered with his mother Elizabeth and called it E. Trump & Son.
2) Fred's own father died when he was very young.
Frederick the elder, who made his fortune in the Alaska gold rush, passed away due to pneumonia when Fred was only 13 years old.
3) He revolutionized middle-class urban housing.
Fred started out building single-family homes in Queens, New York, then barracks for servicemen and their families in several cities during World War II, and finally yet more apartments in Brooklyn. Over the course of his career, he built 27,000 apartments in New York City.
4) He was called the "Henry Ford of the home-building industry."
Back in 1938, the local Brooklyn paper made the striking comparison.
5) His middle name was Christ.
And no, that's not an example of Trumpian ego inflation. His mother's maiden name was Christ, a common German appellation.
6) Fred was investigated by the Justice Department for racist policies.
Their Civil Rights Division filed suit against the Trumps in 1973 due to evidence that their company wasn't renting to black families. They reached a settlement in 1975 with the agreement that Trump Management would put out ads targeting minority families; the family admitted no wrongdoing.
7) He was arrested at a Klu Klux Klan parade in 1927.
Donald has denied this incedent vehemently, but the record of his father's arrest exists. That said, it's for failure to disperse at a rally—which doesn't explain whether he was participating or just watching.
Malcolm Forbes, Ivana Trump, and Fred Trump at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City in 1988.
8) He pretended to be Swedish most of his life.
During and after World War II, Fred worried that his German ancestry would hurt his businesses, particularly with his many Jewish tenants. He and Donald both maintained this lie until the 1980s.
9) Woody Guthrie wrote a song about him.
One of Fred's tenants was folk singer Woody Guthie, who immortalized him in song: "I suppose/Old Man Trump knows/Just how much/Racial Hate/he stirred upIn the bloodpot of human hearts/When he drawedThat color line/Here at his/Eighteen hundred family project."
Donald Trump, Mike Tyson, and Fred Trump pose in 1988.
10) He was intensely frugal.
"My father would go and he’d pick up the sawdust and he’d pick up the nails, the extra nails, and he’d pick up the scraps and he’d use whatever he could use and recycle it in some form or sell it," Donald shared in a 2016 campaign speech to the National Association of Home Builders. He also says Fred mixed up his own cleaning solution to save money on overhead costs for his buildings.
11) He had the same secretary for 59 years.
A creature of habit, Fred employed Amy Luerssen for nearly six decades. Despite his growing wealth, Fred and wife lived in the same middle-class house in Queens from 1951 onward.
12) Fred's the reason Donald set his sights on Manhattan.
In the interest of one-upping his famous dad, Donald's first major purchase (with the now-infamous $1 million loan from Fred) was a hotel in Manhattan. "You know, being the son of somebody, it could have been competition to me," Trump has said. "This way, I got Manhattan all to myself!''
13) He supported Donald's business ventures with hundreds of millions of dollars.
A landmark New York Times investigation uncovered that despite the President's claims to being self-made, Fred gave Donald at least $413 million from his own successful real estate business over the years. The Times also reported that Fred transferred some of this wealth through dubious tax schemes.
14) He lost his older son and namesake to alcoholism.
President Trump's older brother, Frederick Christ Trump, Jr., died in 1981 due to complications from his drinking problem. He was only 43 years old. (Donald also a younger brother, Robert, and two sisters, Maryanne and Elizabeth.)
15) He dyed his hair as he aged.
In her book The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President, author Gwenda Blair noted that he used a bright red, almost magenta, hair dye, and that he combed up and over in the very familiar Trump style.
16) Donald keeps a framed photo of Fred in the Oval Office.
In the early days of Trump's presidency, plenty of attention was paid to the manner in which he redecorated the nation's most important cubicle, but one switch-up was easy: adding a portrait of his father.
The family patriarch had an enormous influence on the future president.