Background and Education

He was the son of Fred Christ Trump (Woodhaven, New York, 11 October 1905 – 25 June 1999) and wife, married in 1936, Mary A. MacLeod (Stornoway, Scotland, 10 May 1912 – 7 August 2000). His paternal grandparents were German immigrants Frederick Trump (Kallstadt, Rheinland-Pfalz, 14 March 1869 – 30 March 1918), who immigrated to the United States in 1885 and naturalized US Citizen in 1892, and wife, married at Kallstadt, Rheinland-Pfalz, in 1902, Elisabeth Christ (10 October 1880 – 6 June 1966).^[7]

He attended The Kew-Forest School in Forest Hills, Queens, but after trouble there when he was thirteen, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy hoping to direct his energy and assertiveness in a positive manner.^[8] It worked reasonably well: while at NYMA, in upstate NY, Trump earned academic honors, played varsity football in 1962, varsity soccer in 1963, and varsity baseball from '62-64 (baseball captain '64). The baseball coach, Ted Dobias, a local celebrity for his unselfish work with area youth, awarded him the Coach's Award in '64. Promoted to Cadet Captain-S4 (Cadet Battalion Logistics Officer) his Senior Year, Trump, and Cadet First Sergeant Jeff Donaldson, '65, (West Point '69) formed a composite company of cadets, taught them advanced close-order drill, and marched them all down Fifth Avenue on Memorial Day, 1964.

Trump attended Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics and concentration in finance, he joined his father's real estate company.

In his book, Trump: The Art of the Deal, Trump discusses his undergraduate career:

"After I graduated from the New York Military Academy in 1964, I flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school...but in the end I decided real estate was a much better business. I began by attending Fordham University...but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in...I was also very glad to get finished. I immediately moved back home and went to work full time with my father."