wealthier, Trump was not intimidated. He stood out among his class-
mates as someone with huge dreams. He often bragged that one day
he would be the biggest real estate developer Manhattan had ever seen.
The Trump Organization
After college Trump went to work full-time for his father’s real estate
company, which focused on renting homes and apartments to middle-
class residents of Staten Island, Brooklyn, and Queens. In 1971 Donald
took control of the company and renamed it the Trump Organization,
the name that is still used today.
Soon after Trump took over the family business, it became the fo-
cus of a racial discrimination investigation. In 1972 the Urban League,
a civil rights group, sent out undercover investigators, called testers, to
Trump-owned apartments in Brooklyn. When African American tes-
ters tried to rent Trump apartments, they were either refused or steered
to other properties where people of color lived. When white Urban
League testers tried to rent the same apartments, they were immediate-
ly offered leases. When caught in the act of discrimination, apartment
managers who oversaw leasing said they were following orders given by
the Trumps. Once the Urban League felt it had proof of a pattern of
Trump and the Military Draft
Trump graduated from college in 1968, the year that the US military drafted three hundred
thousand men to ght in Vietnam. Although Trump lost his draft deferment upon gradua-
tion, he was able to avoid the draft. An army physical disquali ed him for medical reasons.
Although the military does not specify what the medical condition was, Trump later said
it was because he had bone spurs on both heels. Bone spurs are protrusions on the heel
that can cause pain when walking long distances. This problem earned Trump the military
classi cation of 1-Y; this meant he was medically disquali ed except in cases of national
emergency. The classi cation remained in effect until 1972, when it was changed for un-
known reasons to 4-F, not quali ed for service. He later said the bone spurs healed and
never caused him any more problems.
