16 Things You Didn't Know About Donald Trump's Father, Fred
The family patriarch had an enormous influence on the future president.
Donald Trump has referred to his father Fred as his hero, role model, and best friend. The President followed in his dad's footsteps in many respects, joining his real estate management company and eventually expanding the family footprint into Manhattan, with more than a little help from dad.
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."
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.
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.
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.
He was called the "Henry Ford of the home-building industry."
Back in 1938, the local Brooklyn paper made the striking comparison.
In order to become a real estate juggernaut, Trump took full advantage of Federal Housing Authority subsidies, and was also known for ingratiating himself with local politicians to help his projects.
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.
Fred was investigated by the Justice Department for racist policies.
The government agency's 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.
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.
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.
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 up/In the bloodpot of human hearts/When he drawed/That color line/Here at his/Eighteen hundred family project."
(Here, Fred and Donald pose with Mike Tyson.)
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.
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.
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!''
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.
He lost his oldest 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 had a younger brother, Robert, who passed away in 2020, and two sisters, Maryanne and Elizabeth.)
His will became the subject of a well-publicized legal battle.
After Fred Trump's death in 1999, the family became embroiled in a legal fight over the patriarch's will. The two children of his late elder son, Mary Trump (of Too Much and Never Enough fame) and Fred Trump III, were shocked to learn that they were receiving the same as Fred Sr.'s other grandchildren, feeling their late father had essentially been written out of the will. They filed a lawsuit, alleging that Donald had pressured Fred Sr. to change his will while he was suffering from dementia. In response, Donald, Maryanne, and Robert dropped Mary and Fred III from the family health insurance plan, despite the fact that Fred III had recently had a son with medical issues that required expensive care. The suit was eventually settled confidentially.
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.
Kaitlin Menza is a freelance features writer. She lives in New York. You can see more of her writing at kaitlinmenza.com.
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