 "Presidents of the United States: Donald Trump, the chaos candidate and divider-in-chief")
Editor’s Note: This is the second of a series of profiles taking a closer look at US presidents ahead of the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump, while running for office, was dubbed the chaos candidate by his opponents.
As 45th President of the United States, critics gave him the moniker of divider-in-chief.
America has never had a president like Trump.
Ever since he came down that golden escalator in June 2015 to announce his candidacy for president, US politics has been defined by Trump. No candidate has ever taken over a major political party so quickly – or quite so ruthlessly.
It would be no stretch to say today that Trump is the Republican Party – and the Republican Party is Trump.
Early life
Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 to builder Fred Trump and Mary Anne Macleod Trump. Trump was, by all accounts, a difficult child.
“He was a pretty rough fellow when he was small,” Fred Trump recalled.
Those who have been excommunicated from the Trump family have painted them as a dysfunctional bunch.
The Trumps family, particularly Fred, took pains to hide their German ancestry in the aftermath of World War II. For years, they pretended they were Swedish.
Donald’s niece Mary Trump says her grandfather, who she described as a ‘sociopath who treated his children with contempt’, is key to understanding the man Donald is today.
Donald was perhaps most influenced by his father.
Journalist Tim O’Brien, who has written multiple biographies on Trump, said he was “profoundly shaped by Fred.”
“Fred looms over his emotions and psyche in a very distinct way.”
Trump’s parents, trying to instill some discipline in the unruly teen, enrolled him in military school as a teenager. It didn’t take.
Trump later got a degree from Penn’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce and joined his father in the real estate business.
Unlike many other young men of his generation, Trump did not serve in Vietnam. His father managed to obtain a certificate saying that the youth had ‘bone spurs’ to get out of going. Trump would later boast that his personal Vietnam was trying to avoid all sexually transmitted diseases while dating.
Early career
Trump’s business career got off to a rocky start. He was sued by the US Justice Department for refusing to rent to Black people. The lawsuit was later settled without admission of guilt.
Perhaps the other person who most influenced Trump in his early years was Roy Cohn.
The brash lawyer with the reputation of a street brawler took the young real estate developer under his wing. His advice? Never apologise. Never admit wrongdoing. Attack, attack, attack.
Trump would make good use of these skills throughout his life. As president, he would look around the Oval Office and ask, “Where is my Roy Cohn?”
But that would come later.
Trump, the developer and businessman
The 1980s saw Trump at his peak as a developer. He built Trump Plaza and Trump Tower Avenue and made a foray into the casino business in Atlantic City.
In 1990, he built the Trump Taj Mahal – which he dubbed the ‘eighth wonder of the world.’
However, Trump’s casinos kept losing money at unimaginable rates. Trump famously had to be bailed out by his father at one point, who purchased around $3 million worth of chips. Both the Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza would later declare bankruptcy.
Trump’s debt also grew to unfathomable levels during this period.
At one point, Trump, walking on the street, told his daughter Ivanka he was a billion dollars poorer than the homeless man they just saw.
By 2004, the Trump Organisation had declared bankruptcy and Trump’s days as a real estate developer were behind him.
By then, Trump had moved into a different business altogether licensing his name at home and abroad. Despite his repeated failures at business, Trump had branded himself a success – and the branding stuck. The NBC TV show, The Apprentice would only boost his brand as a businessman.
Trump also published a number of books including The Art of the Deal.
Tony Schwart, who ghost wrote the book, would later express regret at having made Trump ‘appealing to the public.’
Trump and politics
Trump’s political origin story goes back to the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner where he bore the brunt of then-president Barack Obama’s jokes. It was then that Trump, who had openly questioned whether Obama was actually a citizen, decided to run for president.
Trump had toyed with running for president repeatedly.
It was only in 2015 that he decided to actually run. His first speech was about how Mexico was sending rapists and murderers across the border. Trump also doubled down on birtherism against the first Black president.
Though his candidacy was widely considered a joke at first, Trump proceeded to wipe the floor with the 16 Republican candidates including heavyweights such as Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and rising GOP stars Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
The general election looked like it was going Hillary Clinton’s way – until a letter from then FBI chief James Comey about reopening an investigation into her emails upended the race.
Trump, against all expectations, won.
Trump’s controversial term as president
His term as president would get off to a rocky start with his press secretary falsely claiming Trump had the biggest inauguration crowd in history.
Trump’s biggest accomplishment in office was The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – the biggest giveaway to the rich in history. He also appointed 200 federal judges and, more importantly, three Conservative Supreme Court justices, which paved the way for overturning Roe vs Wade.
Trump was also impeached in 2019 over asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for dirt on his opponent Joe Biden in exchange for foreign aid.
However, Trump also presided over growing divisions in the country and failed to meet his biggest challenge in the COVID-19 pandemic – despite being warned by his advisors about the threat to his presidency.
His final act in office came on January 6, 2021 when he urged his supporters at the US Capitol to “fight like hell.”
That exhortation caused all hell to break loose in Washington. Trump spend the next few hours watching proceedings on TV as those inside the Capitol, including Republicans, begged for help.
That led to his second impeachment – a record for a US president – just a week before he left office.
Back in the race
Trump, who was acquitted yet again by the Republicans, left for the solace of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
He also faces multiple legal cases with regards to the 2020 elections. Many in the Republican party thought, or at least hoped, that the Trump era was over.
They were wrong.
Trump captured the Republican nomination yet again without barely breaking a sweat and in the process, took over the party.
How will the Trump show end? That history is yet to be written.
With inputs from agencies
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