Trump's AmericaDonald Trump is a business mogul and one of the most entertaining people in modern media. In 2020, he's also one of the most polarizing—and potentially dangerous—figures in world history.
Have you ever wondered what was Donald Trump's childhood like? If so, then this is the list for you. Donald Trump childhood facts are not all that easy to find. For a man so often in the public spotlight, and with so many books written about him, there are aspects of Donald Trump as a kid that we just don't know all that much about.
What we do know is that Donald Trump's childhood was better than many kids' who were born in the 1940s and 1950s. His father was a wealthy man who took Donald under his wing and taught him how to be successful in life. His mother, though quiet and reserved in public, was also a source of inspiration during Trump's formative years.
While there were certainly some hi-jinks and missteps along the way, it is easy to see from these facts how Trump became the man he is today.
He Punched His Second-Grade Music Teacher in the Face
In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Trump writes about how, even as a child, he had strong convictions.
"In the second grade I actually gave a teacher a black eye — I punched my music teacher because I didn't think he knew anything about music and I almost got expelled. I'm not proud of that, but it's clear evidence that even early on I had a tendency to stand up and make my opinions known in a very forceful way. The difference now is that I use my brain instead of my fists."
At the New York Military Academy, Donald Trump was a star on the diamond, the field, and the pitch. He was a varsity player on the baseball, football, and soccer teams at the academy. Former classmate Ted Levine told Business Insider:
"He was just the best, a good athlete, a great athlete. He could have probably played pro ball as a pitcher. I think he threw 80 miles an hour. I was the catcher. He made my hand black and blue every day … Could he play football? Could he play soccer? He could do anything he wanted. He was physically and mentally gifted.”
In middle school, Trump was quite the thespian. He was in a number of school plays and musicals, including playing one of the sailors in a production of the musical HMS Pinafore.
Trump attended the Kew-Forest School until the end of eighth grade. His friends there called him Donnie. Somehow, it's just difficult to imagine "The Donald" as "The Donnie."
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II Was an Important Moment For Him
Trump may have got his business acumen from his father, but his sense of showmanship and flair comes directly from his mother. Trump recalls watching the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with his mother, a Scottish immigrant housewife, and the pomp and circumstance of the occasion was important to them both.
In The Art of the Deal, he wrote, "Looking back, I realize now that I got some of my sense of showmanship from my mother. She always had a flair for the dramatic and the grand. She was a very traditional housewife, but she also had a sense of the world beyond her."
It is pretty common for successful and driven people, especially at a young age, to be loners. This applies to Donald Trump as well, who was too busy learning about his father's business and too goal-oriented to make time for people his age.
It wasn't that Trump didn't like other kids, he just didn't have the time to bother forming those close social relationships most people crave.
