2016 nomination for President, but quickly building a substantial lead in the polls.

So who exactly is Donald Trump?

Donald John Trump was born in 1946 in Queens, New York. He’s been wealthy his entire life.

His father, Fred Trump built a very successful real estate development business in the New

York area, allowing he and his wife, the Scottish immigrant Mary MacLeod, to settle their family

in the upscale Jamaica Estates neighborhood. There, Donald attended the private Kew-Forest

school before his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy when he was 13 years

old. Donald did well and eventually earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from

the University of Pennsylvania.

When he was 25 Donald moved to Manhattan and took a bigger role in the family business,

but within two years he and the company were in hot water, as Trump Management was accused

by the Justice Department of violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing to rent or negotiate

rentals ‘because of race and color.’ Though Trump eventually settled the charges out of

court, the company was still blasted as ‘antiblack’ on the front page of the New York Times.

Donald became president of the company in 1974 and, after an investment from his father,

took on bigger projects in Manhattan with some notable successes including selling the

property to the City of New York that became the Javits Convention Center.

Around this time he began his 15 year marriage to the Czech-born athlete and model Ivana

Zelníčková. They became fixtures on the New York social circuit and their 1992 divorce

played out in the tabloids.

In 1993, Donald married the actress Marla Maples, the woman he had been cheating on

his first wife Ivana with for six years.

Meanwhile, bad business decisions -- like his acquisition of the Taj Mahal Atlantic

City hotel and casino -- had him deep in the red by the end of the 80’s, forcing him

to declare several businesses bankrupt, costing his investors hundreds of millions of dollars.

But “The Donald” doesn’t stay down and out for long. With the help of about $75 million

in inheritance after his father’s death, his fortunes were buoyed once again. By the

early 2000’s Trump’s name began appearing on developments and towers all over the country

-- and world -- including across the street from the United Nations Headquarters and towers

in Chicago, Honolulu, and Toronto--though projects in Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans,

and Dubai failed to reach completion.

In 2005, Donald married his third and current wife, the Slovenian model Melania Knauss.

But what really put Trump on the map of American consciousness is his role as executive producer

and host of the popular NBC reality tv show ‘The Apprentice’ and its spinoff, ‘Celebrity

Apprentice,’ in which contestants engage in competitive business endeavors before final

meetings in a boardroom set across the table from The Donald and some of his most trusted

associates, like daughter Ivanka. Trump has made out like a bandit from his involvement

in the show, earning more than $200 million over its 11 year run.

This year, Donald declared his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination in

a long-winded, completely off-the-cuff speech that was widely mocked by the American media.

Building on his xenophobic hatred of President Obama and unsubstantiated claims that the

Commander-In-Chief was actually born in Kenya, Trump’s main campaign pledge has been that

he would build a massive wall along the entire length of the US-Mexico border to keep Mexico

from sending its “criminals” to the United States, despite the numerous documented cases

of Trump employing undocumented workers in many of his building projects and hotels.

Trump’s unconventional approach to politics and brash statements have quickly established

him as the clear frontrunner of the nearly 20 major candidates vying for the Republican

nomination, even though he’s never been elected to public office and used to hold

fairly progressive political political positions like being pro-abortion and supporting the

establishment of a Universal Healthcare system.

After declaring his candidacy, federal election regulators released new details of Trump’s

wealth and financial holdings that strongly contradict his claims that his “net worth

is in excess of ten billion dollars.” In fact, the government says Trump’s assets

are worth far less, at about $1.4 billion.

Thanks for watching. Like this video if it helped you learn a thing or two about “The

Donald,” and subscribe if you haven’t yet to join the conversation.