13 Amazing Facts About Donald Trump
Love him or hate him, Donald Trump’s maverick and sometimes controversial personality makes him hard to ignore. Time and time again, he has proved those who had bet against him wrong. Most recently, he clinched the U.S. presidency, a feat not many thought he could pull off. And previously, the U.S. President-elect has managed to rise out of bankruptcy to become one of the richest people in the world. But those are just a few of the many amazing facts about the real estate tycoon.
- Trump is a party hopper.
As far back as the 80s, Trump had been considering running for political office. Initially, he registered as a Republican and his first phase as a conservative lasted between 1987 to the late 90s. He was to later switch allegiance to the Independence Party in 1999 because he was then considering running for president on the Reform Party ticket in 2000. A year later he switched to being a Democrat before reverting back to Republican in 2009.
“I wanted to decide which party best suited my philosophy,” was how Trump explained one of his many amazing facts.
2. The real estate tycoon has filed for bankruptcy four times
Despite claiming to be a great businessman, Trump has filed for bankruptcy four times in the course of his business career.
3. Trump is a germophobe
Trump is so fearful of germs that he avoids even pushing the elevator button and even shaking hands of teachers since they have touched kids. One other amazing fact about the U.S. President-elect is that he is even said to favor eating pizza with a knife and a fork to avoid getting his hands all dirty and messy.
4. Illegal immigrants constructed part of Trump Tower
In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, Trump railed against illegal immigrants who were stealing jobs from Americans. Ironically, the construction firm that Trump had hired to build Trump Tower had contracted 200 Polish workers who in the U.S. illegally at the time. Trump denied being aware of their existence but when they demanded to be paid, he threatened them with deportation.
5. He tried trademarking the ‘You’re fired!’ phrase.
Records at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show that Trump tried to trademark the phrase that he made famous on the hit reality show The Apprentice.
6. Trump was sent to military school in order to reform
During Trump’s elementary and middle school years, he showed signs of wayward behavior and was promptly sent away by his parents to the New York Military Academy in a bid to put him back on the straight and narrow.
7. Size matters to Trump
One amazing fact about Trump is that he will not let you take an inch away from him and has a problem with people who see him, or parts of him, shorter or smaller than he really is. When news organizations stated that he is 6-feet, 2-inches tall, Donald criticized the “biased” media and pointed out that his height is actually 6-feet, 3-inches. During the primary debates, he also took issue with allegations that he had small hands.
8. Preaches wine but drinks water
Despite being a teetotaler, one of Trump’s failed business ideas was a vodka brand. Trump’s reason for not drinking has been attributed to the death of his brother as a result of alcoholism.
9. Trump has never used an ATM
During an appearance on a show hosted by the comedian Conan O’Brien, the real estate tycoon claimed that he had never used an ATM. That’s probably true given that he grew up rich and has always had servants to run errands for him.
10. The U.S. President-elect has had an Honorary degree revoked
In recognition of his business success and achievements, the University of Scotland awarded an honorary degree to Trump. It was, however, revoked in 2015 because the university felt the would-be future president of the United States no longer represented the values and ethos of the university.
11. Trump the billionaire has even cashed a 13-cent check
As a satirical, magazine Spy conducted an experiment where it incorporated a company named National Refund Clearinghouse and sent checks of ridiculously low amounts beginning with $1.11 to $0.64 to $0.13.
“We could however, send them checks for minuscule sums of money—sums so small they couldn’t fund as much as a minute of the recipients’ existence—and see who would bother to bank these teensy amounts of money,” said Spy magazine.
Trump and a Saudi arms dealer were the only ones to cash the 13-cent check!
12. His hair is real
Allegations have been made that the U.S. President-elect wears a wig. But the billionaire has denied this. One of the amazing facts is that apparently, it’s his wife, Melania Trump, who cuts his hair.
13. Trump has sued for being branded a millionaire instead of a billionaire
In his book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being Donald, Timothy O’Brien estimated that Trump was worth between $150 million and $250 million. The real estate tycoon consequently filed a defamation lawsuit claiming he was worth approximately $7 billion. The court threw out the lawsuit, saying Trump failed to prove malice on the author’s part.
[Featured Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]
