Fred Trump

Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real-estate developer and businessman. He was the father of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States.

Born in the Bronx to German immigrants, Fred began working in home construction and sales in the 1920s before heading the real-estate business started by his parents (later known as the Trump Organization). Utilizing federal aid, Fred's company rose to success, building and managing single-family houses in Queens, apartments for war workers on the East Coast during World War II, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York City overall.

Trump was investigated for profiteering by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 and again by New York State in 1966. Donald Trump became the president of his father's real-estate business in 1971, and they were sued by the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division for violating the Fair Housing Act in 1973; in the case settlement, the Trumps were ordered to take several measures to curb racial discrimination.

From World War II onwards, to avoid associations with Nazism, Trump denied his German ancestry and also supported Jewish causes. During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, reports of Fred's arrest at a 1927 Ku Klux Klan parade gained publicity, although there is no conclusive evidence that he supported the organization. Additionally, as president, Donald repeatedly and falsely claimed that his father was born in Germany.Contradicting Donald Trump's campaign claim that he built a multi-billion-dollar company using "a small loan of a million dollars" from his father, in 2018 The New York Times reported that Trump and his wife provided over $1 billion (in 2018 currency) to their progeny overall, avoiding over $500 million in gift taxes; e.g. in 1987, Trump bought $15.5 million in shares in Trump Palace Condominiums, which he later sold to Donald for $10,000; in 1992 these two set up a subsidiary which was evidently used to funnel Fred's money to his surviving children; shortly before his death, Fred transferred the bulk of his apartment buildings to his children, who several years later sold them for over 16 times their previously declared worth.