9
Elizabeth Trump & Son
After Friedrich’s death his wife, Elizabeth, took over the family’s real
estate business. Although Fred Trump was only thirteen years old,
he had developed a strong interest in the
building trades. This prompted his mother
to form a new real estate company that she
called Elizabeth Trump & Son. Fred took
an active role and built and sold his first
home when he was only seventeen. He used
the profits to buy, build, and sell a num-
ber of homes, increasing his wealth as the
population of Queens more than doubled
between 1920 and 1930. Many years later,
Donald described his father this way: “My dad, Fred Trump, was the
smartest and hardest working man I ever knew. . . . He was a guy
most comfortable in the company of bricklayers, carpenters, and elec-
tricians and I have a lot of that in me also.”
5
In 1935, thirty-year-old Fred
Trump met Mary Anne MacLeod at
a party in Queens. MacLeod, who
was from a small village in the Out-
er Hebrides in the far north of Scot-
land, was twenty-three years old and
working as a maid. Trump andMac-
Leod fell in love and were married
in January 1936. In 1937Mary gave
birth to their first child, Maryanne,
followed by Frederick Jr. in 1938.
“My dad, Fred Trump
. . . was a guy most
comfortable in the
company of bricklay-
ers, carpenters, and
electricians.”
5
— Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s father, Frederick
“Fred” Trump (pictured in 1987),
amassed a fortune in real estate. He
developed sales techniques that were
considered both brash and bold.
