Trump, Donald J(ohn)

born 1946, New York, N.Y., U.S.

U.S. real-estate developer.

He joined his father's Trump Organization (1968) and expanded its holdings of rental housing. By the 1990s Trump's business empire encompassed a number of high-rises (including the Empire State Building), hotels, and condominiums, including Trump Tower; more than 25,000 rental and co-op apartment units in Queens and Brooklyn; and several hotel-casino complexes in the nearby gambling centre of Atlantic City, N.J. An economic slump in the late 1980s forced him to cede partial control of his properties to creditors, but his fortunes rebounded in the 1990s, and he embarked on a vast building project on New York's West Side. His political ambitions and enjoyment of publicity combined to keep him in the public eye.

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