, Columnist
Trump Even Inherited His Self-Made Myth
His wealth had everything to do with his father, including the fable of how it happened.
Fred was his son’s savior.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“I had zero borrowings from the estate,” Donald Trump told me back in 2004. “I give you my word.”
The estate the future president was referring to was the lucrative collection of housing and commercial properties his father Fred had assembled over decades, making the Trump family wealthy. Based on reporting I had done for a biography, “TrumpNation,” it was my understanding that Trump had turned to his siblings for a pair of loans totaling $30 million so he could avoid plunging into personal bankruptcy in the early 1990s.