Recently, I’ve been thinking about the figure of Donald Trump. His story is actually quite worth discussing. Many people know he was the 45th President of the United States, but few have delved deeply into his educational background and early life experiences.

Born in 1946 in Queens, New York, his parents were one a descendant of German immigrants and the other Scottish. Interestingly, when he was a child, he was restless and couldn’t settle down to study, so at age 13, his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy. This decision changed the course of his life. During his years at the military school, he actually did very well—earning excellent grades, excelling in sports, and becoming a student leader in his senior years. It seems that strict military training still helped him.

After graduating from the military academy in 1964, he first attended Fordham University in New York for two years, and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where he specialized in real estate. This educational background laid the foundation for his later business empire. While in college, every summer he would help his father manage the real estate company’s business—something like combining studying with an internship. After graduating from Wharton in 1968, he formally entered the real estate company founded by his father.

What’s truly interesting is his next business adventure. After taking over the company in 1971, he renamed it the “Trump Organization” and began working full steam ahead on real estate development. In 1974, the New York Central Railroad Company went bankrupt; he immediately bought up properties and even advised the government to build a city conference center. In 1975, he spent $10 million to buy a run-down hotel next to Central Train Station. With extremely low-cost loans and a 40-year tax incentive, the Hyatt Hotel was built within five years. That deal succeeded and became an important milestone in his real estate career.

After that, he began diversifying his investments, venturing into multiple industries including casinos, shipping, sports, and entertainment. In 1984, he spent $200 million to build Trump Tower in Manhattan, and in 1985, he bought Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Everything seemed to be on an upward track.

But in early 1990, the U.S. economy fell into a recession and the real estate market cooled. His assets dropped from $1.7 billion to $500 million, and he carried nearly $4 billion in debt. The casinos in New Jersey were also ruled bankrupt. This was the darkest moment of his life. However, he didn’t give up. While handling his debts, he kept investing in his plans. By 1994, he had paid off $900 million in debt, lowering his commercial liabilities by divesting airlines and other ways. That’s how his comeback story unfolded.

Starting in 2000, he began running for U.S. president multiple times, until in June 2015 he officially announced his candidacy as a Republican. In November 2016, he was elected the 45th President, and on January 20, 2017, he was sworn in. During his time in office, he rolled out the “America First” policy, making progress in areas such as tax cuts, trade policy, and military deployments. He failed to win re-election in 2020. In 2024, he ran again, and in July he formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination.

What’s interesting is that in March 2024, his “Trump Media & Technology Group” went public on NASDAQ, and his net worth immediately jumped by nearly $5 billion, placing him in the Bloomberg Top 400 Global Billionaires list for the first time. From a military academy student to a real estate tycoon, then to the presidency, and finally back to the business stage again—this man’s life really does feel like a blockbuster business film.