From reality TV to the White House: WHO IS DONALD J. TRUMP?

How the property developer and media celebrity from New York made it to the pinnacle of US politics

Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York, the fourth of five children of Frederick and Mary Trump.

Frederick Trump was a developer who specialized in building and operating middle-income apartments in New York City. At the age of 13, Donald was sent to the New York Military Academy, where he did well as a student leader and athlete.

Graduating in 1964, Trump entered Fordham University and two years later moved to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1968 with a degree in economics.

Trump then followed his father into the real estate business, where competition was stiff and profit margins thin.

In 1971, Donald Trump was handed control of his father's firm, renaming it the Trump Organization. Certain of New York City's potential, he got involved in large, high-profile projects in Manhattan, earning big profits, influential connections and public recognition.

His projects included Penn Central's Commodore Hotel in 1974, the Der Scutt-designed Grand Hyatt in 1980 and the monumental 58-story $200 million Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, which opened in 1982 and featured a six-story marble atrium with 24-meter waterfall.

At the same time, Trump was looking into the lucrative casino business and in 1980 acquired a piece of property in Atlantic City in partnership with the Holiday Inn Corporation. The $250 million Harrah's at Trump Plaza complex opened in 1984 as Harrah's at Trump Plaza. Trump bought out Holiday Inn soon thereafter and renamed the facility Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino.

Trump also took over a Hilton casino-hotel in Atlantic City and renamed the $320 million complex Trump's Castle and later the largest hotel-casino in the world while it was still under construction, the Trump Taj Mahal, which opened its doors in 1990.

That year, however, the real estate market declined and Trump required a massive infusion of loans to keep his empire from collapsing.

First bid

In 1999, he looked into a bid for the US presidency, but after a poor performance in the Reform Party's California primary, he pulled his hat out of the ring.

Five years later, Trump cashed in on his celebrity and began producing and starring in the NBC reality series The Apprentice, which was an instant hit and made the TV show's catchphrase - "You're fired"-a household term.

On June 16, 2015, Trump made his ambitions for the White House official when he announced he would join a crowded Republican field, boasting that "I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created".

Away from politics and business, in 1977 Trump married his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova Winklmayr, a New York fashion model who had been on the 1972 Czech Olympic ski team. The couple had three children-Donald John Trump Jr (born in 1977), Ivanka (1981) and Eric (1984) - and went through a highly publicized divorce, which was finalized in 1992.

In 1993 Trump married Marla Maples, an actress with whom he already had a daughter, Tiffany (born in 1993).The couple split in 1999.

In January 2005, Trump married Slovenian model Melania Knauss, who is more than 20 years his junior. Among the many celebrity guests at the wedding were Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.