4 Ways Fred Trump Made Donald Trump and His Siblings Rich - The New York Times

In Donald J. Trump’s version of how he got rich, he was the master dealmaker who parlayed an initial $1 million loan from his father into a $10 billion empire. It was his guts and gumption that overcame setbacks, and his father, Fred C. Trump, was simply a cheerleader.

But an investigation by The New York Times shows that by age 3, Donald Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after he graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s.

In all, financial records reveal, Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire.

Here are four ways that Fred Trump made his children rich.

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Additional production Russ Buettner, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold and Greg Chen for The New York Times

Fred Trump made his son not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, consultant and banker.

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Additional production by Susanne Craig, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold and Greg Chen for The New York Times

Fred Trump provided money for Donald Trump’s car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings. He also gave him trust funds that were used to transfer a majority of Fred Trump’s empire to Donald Trump and his living siblings.

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Additional production by Grant Gold, Greg Chen and Jamie Collazo for The New York Times

The biggest payday Donald Trump ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump’s death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Donald Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family.

Donald Trump’s cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today’s dollars.

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Additional production by Natalie Reneau, Aaron Byrd, Brad Fisher, Andy Mills and Grant Gold