Donald Trump
A New York property developer and television host with a Wharton economics degree, elected in 2016 and again in 2024 to non-consecutive terms.
Biography
Trump grew up in Queens, was sent to a military boarding school at thirteen, and finished his economics degree at the Wharton School in 1968. He took over his father’s outer-borough property business, moved it into Manhattan hotels and towers, expanded into Atlantic City casinos, licensed his name widely, and from 2004 hosted the reality series “The Apprentice”.
He entered the 2016 Republican primaries as one of seventeen candidates and won the presidency that November, losing the popular vote and carrying the electoral college. He took office in 2017 without ever having held public office or served in the military.
His first term covered the 2017 tax act, a large programme of deregulation, three Supreme Court appointments, tariffs on China and a renegotiation of NAFTA, the longest government shutdown on record, the first of his two impeachments by the House and acquittals by the Senate, and the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergency spending and unemployment spike that came with it. He lost the 2020 election, disputed the result, was impeached a second time after the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021, and was acquitted again. He won the 2024 election and returned to office in January 2025 for a second, non-consecutive term, which is ongoing — so the figures on this site for it cover only the months published so far.
Education
- New York Military Academy, Cornwall-on-Hudson, Graduated (1964)
- Fordham University (1964–1966)
- University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, B.S. in economics (1968)
Offices held before the presidency
- None before 2017: the first president to take office without having held elected or appointed public office or served in the military