Who were Donald Trump’s parents? Fred Trump was an American construction mogul who began his career as a teen, while Mary Anne MacLeod was a Scottish immigrant who worked as a ‘domestic servant’
Fred Trump began his career building garages before turning to residential real estate after WWII, while Mary once worked in the home of a wealthy family – they went on to have 5 children
Born to construction mogul Fred Trump and Scottish immigrant Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, Donald Trump is one of five children.
Here’s the story of the Trumps.
Fred Trump: the patriarch
Frederick Christ Trump Sr was born in New York in 1905. He was just 15 and still at school when he started his own construction company. According to The New York Times, he focused on building car garages and his mother, Elizabeth, acted as his business partner, since he was legally too young to sign business documents.
Money moves
Fred turned his attention to building low- to medium-income housing in Queens and Brooklyn after World War II. His meteoric rise in the construction world saw him build more than 27,000 apartments in the two boroughs, with The New York Times calling him “one of New York City’s major postwar builders”.
Despite his enormous wealth, Fred was described as a “frugal” man by those who knew him. His one luxury was his car: a navy blue Cadillac that was meticulously maintained and replaced every three years. At the time of his death his estate was estimated to be worth US$300 million.