10
During this period Fred came up with a brash, bold sales technique
that was unusual for the era. In July 1939 he launched a home market-
ing event called the Trump Boat Show using a 65-foot (20 m) yacht.
The ship sailed past hundreds of thousands
of Coney Island sunbathers on a swelter-
ing Sunday while recordings of “God Bless
America” and “The Star Spangled Ban-
ner” blared from the deck. Fifty-foot (15
m) banners that promoted Trump homes
fluttered on the side of the yacht. Fred gen-
erated further excitement by disbursing
thousands of swordfish-shaped balloons
with coupons for a $250 discount toward
the purchase of a Trump home. This caused
near riots as people pushed and shoved one
another to grab the coupons. As journalist Jason Horowitz observed in
2016, “As a salesman, competitor . . . and, above all, as a showboating
self-promoter, Fred Trump was the Donald Trump of his day.”
6
A Surly Student
Fred and Mary Trump had another daughter, Elizabeth, in 1942. By
the time Donald was born in 1946, Fred was one of the richest men in
the United States. He built a twenty-three-room mansion in a wealthy
Queens enclave called Jamaica Estates in 1948. Donald’s younger
brother, Robert, was born around this time.
The Trump residence stood out even in Jamaica Estates, where
homes owned by doctors, lawyers, and powerful politicians were sur-
rounded by giant oak trees and huge lawns. The Trump home, perched
on a hill, featured stately white columns like those found on southern
plantations. And unlike most of their neighbors, the Trumps had a
cook, a maid, and a chauffeur; a Cadillac limousine with the license
plate bearing Fred’s initials, FCT, was often parked in the driveway.
When Donald was five he attended kindergarten at the private
Kew-Forest School. Male students at Kew-Forest were required to
“[Donald] would sit
with his arms folded,
with this look on his
face—I would use the
word
surly
—almost
daring you to say one
thing or another that
didn’t settle with him.”
7
— Ann Trees, grade school
teacher
