Rise to Fame
His six corporate bankruptcies didn't stop him from becoming America's idea of a business winner. Mark Burnett came to Trump in the early 2000s when the real estate empire was on the ropes and pitched a show where Trump would play the boss. The first season of The Apprentice premiered in January 2004 and drew 28 million viewers for the finale. He ad-libbed 'You're fired.' The show reportedly paid him over $200 million across 14 seasons and, more importantly, reached the Middle America audience that New York tabloid coverage never had.
In the Spotlight
A New York jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts in the hush-money case in May 2024. He won the 2024 presidential election anyway, 312 electoral votes to 226, becoming the first convicted felon elected to the presidency and the first with non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland. His second term has moved fast: the U.S. pulled out of the WHO and Paris Climate Accords on day one, he ordered a joint military strike on Iran in February 2026, and federal courts have repeatedly blocked his executive actions as unconstitutional. The conviction didn't cost him a single swing state.
Side Notes
He doesn't drink, smoke, or do drugs. His older brother Fred Jr. died of alcoholism at 42, and Trump has said that's why he stays away. His father made him a millionaire in inflation-adjusted dollars by age 8 and sent him to military school at 13 after finding a stash of knives in his room. The 2004 bankruptcy stripped him of his CEO title and majority control after years of losses, and bondholders later argued in court that his name was associated with 'failure to pay one's debts.'