The real story behind how Donald Trump got his wealth his successes and his failures

Everyone thinks they know Donald Trump Trump the real estate mogul Trump the reality TV personality Trump's and politician but do you know how it all started now Trump actually became Trump here's the real story behind how Donald Trump got his wealth his successes and his failures.

The story started well over a century ago with Donald's grandfather Fredrik Trump, you see real estate runs deep in the blood of the Trump family and Fredrik was actually the first Trump to own a hotel during the famous Klondike Gold Rush in Canada Fredrik owned an inn and restaurant that served gold miners when he passed away he left an estate worth just under five hundred thousand in today's dollars to his heirs his eldest son Fred Trump carried on the Trump legacy by going into business with his mother using his inheritance for seed money Fred became a very successful builder in New York City's

Outer boroughs he built single-family houses in Queens in The 1920s he helped pioneer the supermarket with the Trump market during the Great Depression he even built barracks for the Navy during World War two but Fred's real cash cow came in 1949 when he got a government loan to build Shore Haven Apartments in Brooklyn the Federal Housing Administration paid him ten point three million dollars but he was able to build the apartments for significantly less the government kept overpaying for houses in Brooklyn and Queens and Fred kept building them, Fred Trump was allegedly worth between 250 and 300 million dollars by the time of his death in 1999 according to Donald his father was one of the biggest landlords in New York's outer boroughs born in Queens Donald Trump would join his father's company early on in his career Donald had a different vision for the Trump name.

He envisioned the Trump brand as being synonymous with luxury worldwide using his dad's business connections and creditworthiness Donald went into real estate in Manhattan in the mid-1970s he borrowed a small sum of 1 million dollars to get started one of Trump's first moves was also one of his biggest wins in 1976 Donald Trump and Hyatt partnered to buy the rundown Commodore Hotel near Grand Central The station at the time the whole the neighborhood was in disarray with many nearby buildings on the verge of foreclosure Trump negotiated contracts with banks and the city in an effort to fund the hotel and rejuvenate the area the end result was the Grand Hyatt a 25 story hotel which Trump sold his share of for a hundred and forty-two million dollars in 1996 another big win for Trump was with 40 Wall Street which was once the tallest building in the world he bought it for 1 million dollars after years of vacancy today it's prime real estate in the financial district worth more than 500 million dollars The Apprentice was also a financial home run as the show's host and executive producer Trump raked in 1 million dollars per show for a whopping total of a hundred and eighty-five episodes but like many businessmen Trump's career also had its share of failures Donald's the biggest failure may be his ill-fated venture into casinos in Atlantic City the bleeding started in 1988 when he acquired the Taj Mahal casino funded primarily by junk bonds the massive casino would be three billion dollars in debt within just a year of opening Trump who racked up 900 million dollars in personal liabilities had the business declare bankruptcy to stay afloat he ditched many personal assets such as his airline a 282 foot mega yacht and half of his stake in the company things were dire and trump's dad chipped in with a 3.5 million dollar loan in the form of casino chips to help make a debt payment Trump's casino Holding Company would enter bankruptcy two additional times once in 2004 after accruing 1.8 billion in debt and again.

 In 2009 after missing a bond payment during the financial crisis each time Trump stake in the company fell while 3 of trumps four bankruptcies involved Atlantic City casinos he has also struggled in other ventures outside of real estate Trump airlines by Trump the game Trump magazine Trump steaks and Trump University were all destined for failure from mortgages was launched in 2006 right before the real estate crash and it was allotted according to Trump's campaign, he is worth in excess of ten billion dollars however, he has been accused of artificially inflating his net worth Forbes and Bloomberg News both have drastically different estimates of his wealth using the middle-of-the-road figure from Forbes here is how Trump's wealth breaks down about 7% of trumps net worth is in cash and liquid assets such as investments 8% is in golf courses and 4% is in his toys such as his helicopters penthouse or a Boeing 757 the majority however is in real estate with Manhattan properties alone making up about half of his total portfolios value now that you know the real story behind Donald Trump's wealth his successes and failures and the help he got along the way it's time to see how he actually did as an investor.