Trump family


The Trump family is a prominent wealthy American family. The most well-known member is Donald Trump, the 45th and current 47th president of the United States, which makes them the First family of the United States. The family is of German and Scottish descent. They are active in business, entertainment, politics, and real estate. Other prominent members include Donald Trump's father Fred Trump, and his grandfather Frederick Trump.

Immediate family

Wives

Ivana Trump

Ivana Marie Trump, the first wife of Donald Trump, was born on February 20, 1949, in Zlín, Czechoslovakia. She was a fashion model and businesswoman who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1988. They were married from 1977 until 1990. Ivana died in 2022 of blunt impact injuries to the torso after falling down stairs at her home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Ivana was a senior executive of the Trump Organization for seven years, including executive vice president for interior design. She led the interior design of Trump Tower with its signature pink marble. Ivana was appointed CEO and president of the Trump Castle Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and later became the manager of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Marla Maples

Marla Ann Maples, the second wife of Donald Trump, was born on October 27, 1963, in Cohutta, Georgia, U.S. She was an actress, television personality, model, singer and presenter. They married in December 1993, two months after the birth of their daughter Tiffany, separated in 1997 and divorced in 1999.

Melania Trump

Melania Trump, the third and current wife of Donald Trump, was born on April 26, 1970, in Novo Mesto, Yugoslavia. She had a lengthy modeling career and is the second foreign-born first lady of the United States, the first being Louisa Adams. They were married in 2005. Melania became a naturalized U.S. citizen on July 28, 2006. She did not immediately move into the White House when her husband became president, but remained at Trump Tower with their son Barron Trump until the end of the 2016–2017 school year. Melania and her son moved to the White House on June 11, 2017.

Children

Trump has five children from three marriages: DonJr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump with Ivana Trump; Tiffany Trump with Marla Maples; and Barron with Melania Trump.

First marriage

Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric are Trump's three eldest children, from his first marriage with Ivana Trump.
Prior to the election, each of the siblings held the title of executive vice president at the Trump Organization. During the campaign, they served as surrogates for their father on national news programs. Following Trump's election victory, all three were named to the presidential transition team.
Following the inauguration, DonaldJr. and Eric took charge of the family's real estate empire. Ivanka moved to Washington, D.C., with her husband Jared Kushner, who was appointed to a senior White House advisory position.

Second marriage

Tiffany Ariana Trump is Donald Trump's only child with Marla Maples. In 2016, she participated little in her father's campaign because she was studying sociology and urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after graduating, she made a supportive speech for her father at the Republican National Convention at age 22. She was awarded a J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., in May 2020.

Third marriage

Barron William Trump is Trump's youngest child and his only child with Melania Trump. In May 2006, Barron was baptized at the Episcopal church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. He attended the Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in Manhattan and Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida. Currently, he attends Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University in Manhattan. In addition to English, Barron is fluent in Slovene.
Trump was an apolitical figure during his father's presidencies, attracting media attention despite attempts by Melania to distance her son from politics. Following the end of his father's first term, he moved to Florida and graduated in May 2024 from Oxbridge Academy in West Palm Beach. Trump was invited to become an at-large delegate for Florida at the 2024 Republican National Convention, but he declined.

Grandchildren

Trump has 11 grandchildren. Son Donald Trump Jr. and his former wife Vanessa have five children, the eldest of whom is Kai; daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have three; son Eric Trump and his wife Lara have two; and daughter Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos have one.

Ancestry

According to biographer Gwenda Blair, the family descended from an itinerant lawyer, Hanns Drumpf, who settled in Kallstadt, a village in the Electoral Palatinate of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1608, and whose descendants changed their name from Drumpf to Trump during the Thirty Years' War. The last name Trump is on record in Kallstadt since the 18th century. Journalist Kate Connolly, visiting Kallstadt, found several variations in spelling of the surname in the village archives, including Drumb, Tromb, Tromp, Trum, Trumpff, and Dromb.
Johannes Trump, born in the nearby village of Bobenheim am Berg in 1789, had established himself by the early 1830s as a winegrower in Kallstadt, which had then become part of Kingdom of Bavaria, where his grandson, Friedrich Trump, the grandfather of Donald Trump, was born in 1869. Several of his descendants also were vintners in Kallstadt, one of many villages in the famous wine-growing region of the Palatinate. Johannes Trump's sister Charlotte Louisa married Johann Georg Heinz. They were grandparents of Heinz company founder Henry J. Heinz.
This German heritage was long concealed by Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump, who had grown up in a mainly German-speaking environment until he was ten years old; after World War II and until the 1980s, he told people he was of Swedish ancestry. Donald Trump repeated this version in The Art of the Deal but later said he is "proud" of his German heritage, and served as grand marshal of the 1999 German-American Steuben Parade in New York City.
The Trump family in Germany were Lutheran. Donald Trump's parents attended First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, where Trump was confirmed in 1959.

Family tree

Fred Trump

Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump, born in New York, was a successful real estate developer in New York City. Using their inheritance, Fred Trump and his mother Elizabeth founded E. Trump & Son in 1927. The company grew to build and manage single-family houses in Queens, barracks and garden apartments for U.S. Navy personnel near major shipyards along the East Coast, and more than 27,000 apartments in New York City. Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee for profiteering in 1954, and again by the State of New York in 1966.
Donald Trump became the president of his father's real estate business in 1971, and renamed it the Trump Organization around 1973. That year, Donald and his father were sued by the United States [Department of Justice Civil Rights Division|U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division] for violating the Fair Housing Act. In the mid-1970s, Donald received loans from his father exceeding $14million. Donald served as the Trump Organization's chairman and president until assuming the office of U.S. president.

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump

Born as Mary Anne MacLeod in Tong, a small village near Stornoway, in the Western Isles of Scotland, she was a daughter of fisherman Malcolm MacLeod and Mary MacLeod. At age 17, she immigrated to the United States with $50, and moved in with a sister before starting work as a maid in New York. Mary and Fred Trump met in New York and married in 1936, settling together in Queens. Mary became a U.S. citizen in 1942. While visiting Scotland in June 2008, Donald Trump said in part, "I think I do feel Scottish."

Grandparents

Frederick Trump

In 1885, Donald Trump's grandfather, Friedrich Trump, emigrated from Kallstadt, Palatinate, to the United States at age 16. He anglicized his name to Frederick in 1892 when he became a U.S. citizen. During the Klondike Gold Rush, he amassed a fortune by opening a restaurant and hotel in Bennett and later Whitehorse, serving gold seekers on their way to the region; one biographer wrote that the business included a brothel, a portrayal Donald Trump has said was "totally false". On attempting to return, Frederick was exiled by Germany in 1905 for his lack of mandatory military service and not giving authorities notice before his 1885 departure; an appeal was denied. He died in the first wave of the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918. After his death, his fortune was passed on to his wife and son.

Elizabeth Christ Trump

Donald Trump's grandmother, Elizabeth Christ Trump, was born in 1880 and died on June 6, 1966. She married Frederick Trump in 1902 and moved to the United States with him. Like her husband, she was a native of Kallstadt, born as the daughter of Philipp and Marie Christ. Philipp Christ was descended from Johannes Christ of Flörsheim, Hesse. Elizabeth Christ Trump was a descendant of organ builder Johann Michael Hartung through her paternal grandmother Sabina Christ.

Siblings

Maryanne Trump Barry

Maryanne Trump Barry was Donald Trump's eldest sister. She was a senior federal judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, became inactive in 2017 after her brother took office, and retired in 2019.

Fred Trump Jr.

Frederick "Freddy" Crist TrumpJr. was Donald Trump's older brother. On September 26, 1981, at the age of 42, he died from a heart attack.

Elizabeth Trump Grau

Elizabeth Joan Trump Grau is an older sister of Donald Trump. In 1989, she married film producer James Grau. She worked as an administrative assistant for Chase Manhattan Bank, before retiring to Florida. As of 2026, she is the only living sibling of Donald Trump.

Robert Trump

Robert Stewart Trump was Donald Trump's younger brother. He was a business executive who managed Trump Management Inc, the Trump Organization's real estate holdings outside Manhattan. He was an investor in SHiRT LLC, one of two owners of Virginia-based CertiPathx which was awarded a $33-million government contract in 2019.
Robert Trump married Blaine Beard in 1980. They were divorced in 2009 after he had left his wife for Trump Organization employee Ann Marie Pallan. He married Pallan in early 2020. Robert died on August 15, 2020, at the age of 71. According to The New York Times, he had been having brain bleeds after a recent fall.

Other relatives

John G. Trump

Donald Trump's paternal uncle, John George Trump, was an electrical engineer, inventor and physicist who developed rotational radiation therapy, and, together with Robert J. Van de Graaff, one of the first million-volt X-ray generators. He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ronald Reagan and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

John W. Walter

Donald Trump's first cousin John W. Walter was a son of father Fred's sister Elizabeth Trump and William Walter. He worked for the Trump Organization for most of his life and was executive vice president of Trump Management, Inc. He shared ownership of All County Building Supply & Maintenance Corp with Donald Trump, Maryanne Trump Barry, Elizabeth Trump Grau, and Robert Trump. Walter also served as the mayor of Flower Hill, New York, between 1988 and 1996, and as its historian from 1996 until his death in 2018.

Mary L. Trump

Donald Trump's niece, Mary L. Trump, is a clinical psychologist, businessperson, and author. She has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, and wrote a book about him and the family titled Too Much and Never Enough.

Fred Trump III

Donald Trump's nephew, Fred Trump III, is a businessperson, author, and advocate for people with disabilities. He criticized Donald Trump in a 2024 memoir and has been a vocal critic of him since its publication.

Summary table

Heraldry

, third husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post and a former U.S. ambassador of Welsh origins, was granted a coat of arms, bearing the motto Integritas, by British heraldic authorities in 1939. After Donald Trump purchased Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate built by Merriweather Post, in 1985, the Trump Organization started using a modified version of Davies's coat of arms at Trump golf courses and estates across the country. It was also registered with the U.S. patent and trademark office.In 2008, Trump attempted to establish the American logo at his new Trump International Golf Links in Balmedie, Scotland, but was warned by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the highest authority for Scottish heraldry, that an act of the Scottish Parliament from 1672 disallows people using unregistered arms. In January 2012, shortly after the inauguration of the golf course, Trump unveiled the new coat of arms that had been granted to "The Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd" by the Lord Lyon in 2011.
Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of "The Trump International Golf Links, Scotland", said that "the coat of arms brings together visual elements that signify different aspects of the Trump family heritage , the Lion Rampant makes reference to Scotland and the stars to America. Three chevronels are used to denote the sky, sand dunes and sea – the essential components of the site, and the double- Eagle represents the dual nature and nationality of Trump's heritage. The Eagle clutches golf balls making reference to the great name of golf, and the motto Numquam Concedere is Latin for Never Give Up – Trump's philosophy."
From 2014, Trump used the same logo for the Trump International Golf Links, Ireland, the golf resort built from his acquisition of Doonbeg Golf Club.

Works cited

*
Category:Business families of the United States
Category:First families of the United States
Category:German-American history
Category:Families by person