Donald Trump is a street fighter Donald Trump TR Donald Trump learned a crucial lesson as a child do whatever you have to do you say whatever you have to say Winning is Everything Donald Trump is a major dealmaker and he has made his money mainly from Manhattan real estate Trump Trump trump Trump trump his name is his power we realized what Americans really loved was celebrity if you were a celebrity everything was possible you're Fired you're fired you're fired and if people mocked him Donald Trump is here tonight he certainly would bring some change to
the White House he should fight back I am officially running for president of the United States Here Comes The War of the trumps it was war and they were determined to win it you don't know what he's going to do next you don't know what's going to happen to him next this isn't another video about Donald Trump's time as president there Are hundreds of those over the years I've surprised a lot of people the biggest surprise is yet to come this is the story of how Donald became Trump of all the men who've influenced Donald
Trump none have had a bigger influence than his father Fred Trump was born in the Bronx to German immigrants Fredrick and Elizabeth after he finished high school he took a job as a carpenter's assistant he liked the work but he wanted to be the boss so when he Turned 21 Fred Incorporated a company e Trump and son named for his mother who started the company before Fred was old enough to run it during the Depression Fred almost went out of business but before he did he got his big break Fred built one of New York
City's first modern self-served supermarkets and sold it for a profit he and his business partner used the profits to buy a subsidiary of a bankrupt real estate company for pennies on the dollar that Subsidiary gave them easy access to a bunch of properties that were nearing foreclosure Fred bought them low sold them high and made enough money to turn e Trump and son into to one of New York's biggest real estate companies he passed his success on to his children Donald and his siblings grew up in a house that had 23 rooms and the family
chauffeur drove them to school every morning Fred also passed on his ruthless streak throughout Donald's childhood his Father always gave him the same advice work hard don't be weak be a killer Donald took it to heart he bullied his classmates he even bullied his younger brother one day he threw an eraser at his teacher Fred immediately took action and sent Donald to a military boarding school Upstate it was a tough competitive environment but surprisingly for a rich kid Donald thrived he excelled at several Sports and was named captain his senior year in the yearbook He
was named ladies man years later Donald would credit his time at boarding school with teaching him the discipline he needed to Succeed in Business and politics but he knew that discipline by itself wasn't enough so he went to college 2 years at forom University before transfer to the University of Pennsylvania's business school after graduating in 1968 Donald Trump joined his father's company the first few years weren't glamorous Donald and Fred had to Roll up their sleeves and turn around some housing projects which were losing money for Donald it was an early lesson just because he'd
been given lots of advantages he still needed to work for his success after a three-year apprenticeship Donald became president of the company the torch had been passed from father to son one of his first moves was to Rebrand e Trump and Sons sounded stale and old-fashioned a modern real estate business led by a dynamic Young entrepreneur needed a glamorous name so trump rebranded it to the Trump organization it was an early step in the evolution from Donald to [Applause] [Music] Trump trump moved into an upper east side apartment and started going to some of Manhattan's
Elite nightclubs usually with a beautiful woman on his arm it didn't look like it to most people but Trump was working he was marketing his Most important commodity himself it was right around this time that he made his debut in another high-profile local institution the New York Times the times embodied the elite establishment that decades later Trump would build a political career upon opposing but in the early 1970s he was anxious for their attention and approval the first time the New York Times mentioned Donald Trump it wasn't for good reason the headline said it all
Major landlord accused of anti-black bias in City the story concerned a Department of Justice lawsuit filed against Donald Trump and his father which alleged that the Trump organization discriminated against African-Americans even for someone who believed all publicity was good publicity it was tough reading most of the lawyers Trump talked to urged him to settle but that just wasn't who he was Trump met Roy con at a swanky Manhattan nightclub in the early 1970s Trump was complaining to anyone who'd listen that he couldn't find a lawyer who believed he could win the Discrimination lawsuit con offered
his Services he filed a $100 million counter suit against the Department of Justice although it was unsuccessful the final settlement ultimately allowed the Trump organization to get away without admitting any wrongdoing it was a win for Trump and a lesson he'd carry with Him for the rest of his life never admit your mistakes Roy con was Donald Trump's lawyer for 15 years this is a picture of Donald and me in which he says uh Roy is my greatest friend Trump soon set his sights on something that could make his career the old Penn Central Railroad
had gone broke a few years earlier and left behind three prime real estate assets the Commodore Hotel and two Rail Yards on New York's West Side The Rail Yards were the largest undeveloped tracks of land left in Manhattan if Trump could get his hands on those assets he' proved to everyone including his father that he could succeed as a developer in his own right he knew that if he played his cards right he had a chance he whined and DED the development agency's lead official he held press conferences where he outlined his vision for the
site and thanks to his father's political Connections he met face to face with the mayor after pulling strings for weeks Trump got what he wanted the right to develop the sites Trump turned the Commodore into the Grand Hyatt the Grand Hyatt held its Grand opening today probably the most successful Hotel one of them in the country we feel he knew that just winning the development rights wasn't enough it wasn't going to silence his critics who said he was only in that Position because of his father's money and connections and it wasn't enough to satisfy his
own Ambitions if he truly wanted to be the King of New York real estate he had to build and not just anything something big so Trump swung for the fences he promised to build 20,000 apartments on the site more than his father had built in his entire career all along from 72nd all the way down to 59th we're going to have magnificent marinas shopping restaurants Everything all over the Hudson River the local community hated the idea they thought the proposal just didn't fit with the character of the neighborhood and they were politically influential enough to
block the development Trump raged but there wasn't much he could do full scale attack wouldn't work the situation required deaft diplomacy that Trump just didn't have in his toolkit so when the option came up in 1979 9 he had no choice but to let it lapse it was the Biggest and most bitter disappointment of his career to date but in Trump's mind defeat was only ever temporary so he made a vow that next time he wouldn't let it slip out of his grasp in the meantime he had other things occupying his mind Ivana Marie zelikova
was a tall striking blonde with an exotic backstory a competitive skier and child actor she married a childhood friend so she could use his Austrian citizenship to escape The Eastern block after they divorced she moved to Canada where she met Trump a few months after they started dating they got married at a church on fth Avenue on April 9th 1977 their first son Don Jr was born about 9 months later Fifth Avenue wasn't just home to the church where Donald Trump got married he also wanted it to be the new headquarters of the Trump organization
Trump had dreamed of building a tower on Fifth Avenue since He was a kid to him it represented the the peak of Glamour and power the site he wanted was occupied by a luxury department store in order to press his case he kept calling and calling the parent company asking if they were interested in selling the site they thought he was joking but he was serious and he wasn't going to give up finally after a couple years the parent company's new chairman who was looking to pay down some debts said yes Bon witz Is being
sold to Donald Trump trump secured the site but that was only half the battle he still had to persuade the approval commiss comme which was made up of the same sorts of people who' blocked his plans for the Rail Yards just a couple years earlier Trump needed a different approach so this time instead of aggression he pointed to the fact that reputable Architects liked his plan designed not everyone was persuaded the media class hated It the construction of Trump Tower marked another big step in the journey from Donald to Trump this is the greatest Skyline
in the world so this is a great addition to New York skyline the completion of the tallest concrete building and it marked the beginning of what would prove to be a highly successful decade hello welcome to the 80s Ronald Reagan the next president of the United States introducing Macintosh we have a New formula for Coke that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life hi di Frances take the Charles George the murder of John Lennon one of the most influential people of his time GB teared down this wall [Applause] the 1980s were tailor made
for Donald Trump greed was good and Ronald Reagan proved you didn't need to be a career politician to become president only in the 1980s could Trump go from being a Real estate developer to a national celebrity who bridged the worlds of Finance entertainment and politics well there's a lot of coverage in there the newspapers and magazines which had made fun of him were forced to cover his rise he became a frequent guest on talk shows whose host liked his Charisma and his willingness to talk about all sorts of topics opening a casino added to Trump's
opulent glamour to many Americans Trump Who had a tower with his name on it and a glamorous European wife embodied the 1980s hyper capitalist version of the American dream you'll walk down the street sometimes and people will touch you just for the good luck it's a strange phenomena that's been taking place but even though he had almost everything anyone could ever want there was still one thing Trump wanted but didn't have the Westside rail [Music] Yard after Trump was forced to give up the option half a decade earlier it had been taken over by a
friend of his fathers a man named Abe herfield although the Redevelopment plan was approved hershfield couldn't Finance the project it was partly because he had made too many concessions to the local government but mainly it was because Donald Trump was working hard behind the scenes to make sure he didn't get the money he needed when field eventually Walked away in frustration Trump bought the development rights and a second chance to move out of his father's Shadow once and for all the week before Thanksgiving in 1985 he announced his plans the site would has nearly 8,000
apartments and condos and about 600 football fields worth of TV and movie studio space Trump wanted to call it television City Donald Trump would like NBC to move to the site on the west side of Manhattan why is it so important that NBC stay in New York thousands of jobs hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and perhaps almost as unimportantly and maybe more importantly NBC has a name and image of prestige that you really just don't get with another company once again the local community stood in his way but Trump soon realized that his
most formidable opponent wouldn't be local residents it was the mayor Ed cotch was Trump's mere image each man Wanted the same thing they wanted New York City to be the greatest in the world and they wanted to be the main character but they went about it in very different ways kotch was a Democrat who described himself as a liberal with sanity he despised the way Trump constantly tried to Strongarm the state into giving him tax breaks while turning the city into a playground for the ultra rich but he was growing increasingly dependent on the tax
revenues that Trump And other Rich developers brought in Trump meanwhile hated anyone who stood in his way I hope that New York City has a different mayor at some point because I think edot is a disaster he's been a very bad man for the city the two men had already fought a long battle over the tax status of Trump Tower television city was the next Battlefront how have you the Huts to say that this government has been anti-development that's an outrageous Comment on your part and I can prove that you're wrong cotch refused to give
Trump the tax breaks he wanted I would say he's got no talent and and only moderate intelligence if I've done anything I've gotten NBC focused on by the city of New York and I think that's very important I think it's vital Trump again found himself in the uncomfortable position of being powerless he couldn't overcome the combined resistance of Ed cotch and the Community activists the dream of Television city was dead and the rail yard site remained frustratingly Out Of Reach at least for now Trump turned his frustration into speculation he bought a fleet of planes
from a bankrupt Airline and started his own Airline Trump shuttle I never thought I'd be doing this I have to tell you so just everybody have a good time and for many years enjoy the Trump shuttle he plowed money into Expanding his casinos in Atlantic City but in hindsight the most important thing he did was release a book The Art of the deal was about Trump's life career and business strategy it was a big success and it was his gateway to what would become his future career if you lost your fortune today what would you
do tomorrow tomorrow maybe I'd run for president 30 years before he ran for president Donald Trump was talking about the same issues United States is systematically being ripped off by many of the wealthiest countries of the world the fact is that the world is ripping off this country Germany is ripping us off Big League Saudi Arabia is ripping us off Big League everybody's taken advantage of the United States we're defending Japan and the Japanese folks who I respect greatly but they're not they're not treating us fairly Trump didn't just talk about politics on TV he
spent nearly $100,000 on a full-page ad Where he criticized US foreign policy I find those uh ads uh ridiculous he spent $100,000 for self-advertisements who's really interested in his foreign policy anybody maybe Mrs Trump Trump's politics were shaped by his fear of weakness and by the Zero Sum environment of Manhattan real estate we're going to have a war through weakness because this country is acting so weak toward Iran it's pathetic in Real estate at least the kind of real estate that excited Trump there was no such thing as a permanent Ally or a win-win situation
everything was temporary and transactional Foreign Affairs worked differently after the success of the art of the deal and the positive reaction from some quarters to his political statements Trump realized the public wanted to hear what he had to say even about issues outside his wheelhouse you have said that if you ran For president you'd win I think I'd have a very good chance I mean I like to win when I do something I like to win I like to I like to do well and I think I probably would have a pretty good chance Trump
enjoyed Moonlighting as a political commentator but events would soon drag him back to his Core Business a pair of Forbes journalists were sent a leas copy of a financial disclosure statement that Trump had to file with New Jersey's Casino Control Commission the report revealed something which no amount of bluffing could hide Donald Trump was drowning in death he fought hard to keep the story from being published but it went to print with just one last minute edit his net worth was bumped up from zero to 500 million by now being seen as rich and successful
was an important part of Trump's business strategy so the accusation that he wasn't actually as rich as he claimed to be was a big blow especially when it Was made by a media that was itching to bring him down a peg there's no reason to expose yourself to millions of people there's no but you know why you do it why you love the publicity oh I hate the publicity oh come on get out I'm telling you I hate the pleas the Revelation that Trump and his businesses were struggling financially marked the end of peak Trump
and the beginning of the hardest period of his entire career if the 1980s were the boom then the 1990s were the crash So what happened it was a combination of both the micro and the macro the micro was well that he was Donald Trump he didn't pursue what you'd call a disciplined personal investment strategy instead he leveraged against what was be his biggest asset his personal brand but Brands can lose their appeal the macro was slightly more complicated when Trump began his career New York City was experiencing a major Economic and social crisis he took
advantage of historically low property prices and frankly a government that was desperate for extra Revenue when the economy rebounded his fortune grew rapidly his entry into the casino business followed a similar pattern he got in soon after New Jersey legitimized casino gambling most of Trump's Acquisitions were funded by debt and that wasn't necessarily a problem so long as the economy stayed strong but That's not what happened right at the beginning of the 1990s the US economy slipped into recession Trump's businesses were all dependent on high levels of consumer spending when the economy slowed down they
stopped spending money and Trump started hemorrhaging cash at one point Trump was more than $3 billion in debt in exchange for an emergency loan that kept the Trump organization afloat Trump had to sell his yacht Airline and part of the Brand hayatt one of his first ever real estate projects his three casinos declared bankruptcy he was even put on an allowance Trump's high-profile problems weren't limited to his career either his marriage was collapsing Trump had started an affair with an aspiring actress Mara Maples the affair was splashed across tabloid headlines in full view of the
public Iana and the couple's three children Don Jr Eric and Ivanka best sex I've ever had this is The best one Ian a better deal when they divorced in 1991 Iana got 14 million the 45 room Connecticut mansion and an apartment in Trump Plaza Trump's critics greeted his Downfall with Shaden fraud to them his problems proved that the image he portrayed of being a self-made man who won by taking bigger risks than anyone else was fake instead he only got to where he was because he received the sort of help other people didn't have access
to generous tax breaks from the Government and millions of dollars worth of gifts and lowest loans from his father Trump took big risks because he knew he had a safety net and it was those risky high-profile Investments that had created the Trump Legend just when it looked like Trump had hit rock bottom he was forced to finally admit defeat on the project he'd been chasing for years the Westside Rail Yards the community activists he'd fought for so long Drew strength from Trump's Struggles they developed their own plans for the 76 acre lot once he'd accepted
the proposal brought by the local activists all the political opposition he'd been facing suddenly melted away he eventually sold the development rights to a Consortium of businessmen from Hong Kong it saved him from the ultimate indignity filing for personal bankruptcy and it marked the beginning of one of the most famous and controversial comebacks in History the turmoil that destroyed Donald Trump's marriage and almost destroyed his career was a major inflection point in his life from now on he wasn't going to be the biggest developer in New York City he had to become something else but
if Trump was going to reinvent himself first he needed a comeback comebacks are a key part of Trump's psychology they're his way of telling himself and the whole world that even though it looked like he Might be losing he actually just wasn't winning yet and comebacks are the transition from the about to be winning state to The Winning State the other thing to know about a trump comeback is that the facts come second to the story that's not to say the comeback wasn't real it was Trump made a good deal when he sold the development
rights to the Westside Rail Yard site taking the Trump Plaza Casino public on the New York Stock Exchange helped him solve his Immediate cash flow problems and convincing the banks that they didn't want to get involved in the casino business took a lot of courage and Instinct all up Trump went from a net worth of negative 900 million to positive 700 million in 5 years but he was never content to let the numbers speak for themselves in word and deed he told America that he was back he started splashing out on high-profile assets like the
Miss Universe missusa and Miss Teen USA pageants as well as a 70 story officer building at 40 Wall Street which he renamed the Trump building he released the art of the comeback a book length announcement that he was back and that he remembered the names of everyone who deserted him in tough times telling everyone that he was back generated business opportunities positive media stories and a sense of momentum that was impossible to resist Mr Trump here wrote The Art of the deal then he wrote a new Bestseller the art of the comeback two books wow
it was genius and it taught Trump a lesson people love a comeback story he filed it away for future reference over the years I've surprised a lot of people the biggest surprise is yet to come now that he had a comeback story to sell Trump became curious about another potential Run for the presidency a political consultant he' started working with by the name of Roger Stone Commissioned some polling more than three qus of respondents said they'd never vote for him but despite that there was good raw material to work with he was one of the
most famous people in America just 17% of respondents basically one in six had no opinion about Trump and people loved his story they saw a successful businessman who embodied the American dream they saw him as someone who got things done I sort of love and hate him at the same time I Mean I think he has you know a Monumental ego he comes off as being very uh what's the word I'm looking for arrogant yeah he's he's he's arrogant I like him man got him made got everything perhaps the most interesting result was that more
people about a quarter of all respondents saw Trump as liberal more than the share of people that saw him as a conservative Trump's political identity had long been a mystery perhaps even to himself he was a rich guy at a Time when being rich almost automatically meant being Republican but his social life the parties the girlfriends the Tabloid stories made him seem more like a Democrat remember this was a time when the Democratic president happened to be a well-known womanizer I did not have sexual relations with that woman the results bolstered Trump's belief that if
he put his mind to it he could be president they say a job like President requires a big ego now do you Think you think you can handle it I'm not sure my ego is big enough that's one of the things would take really can I write that down you can write but before he could make any decisions about what to do next tragedy struck in June of 1999 his father Fred Trump died he'd been suffering from dementia for years and when he contracted pneumonia he couldn't fight it off privately Donald was heartbroken but publicly
he used the occasion to Reminisce about his favorite subject himself he began his eulogy to his father by saying that it was the toughest day of his own life it was ironic he said to have learned of his death right after reading a New York Times story front page about one of his own successful developments Marla Maples didn't attend Fred Trump's funeral her and Donald had divorced 17 days before his death instead Trump was accompanied by Melania na a Slovenian model who he'd Been dating since the previous year how did you two meet uh we
met in New York um 1998 you like him right away it was a great chemistry and energy after the funeral and a drawn out fight over his father's Will trump turned his Focus back to the question he'd been mulling over since before his father's death should he run for president this time he come closer than ever before but it wouldn't be as a Republican or a Democrat instead he Almost ran for the party that out of nowhere had emerged as a real force in American politics before Donald Trump there was another successful businessman who'd made
a massive impact on us politics his name was Ross perau the founder of a successful data company perau ran for president in 1992 and 1996 do you want a government that comes at you from Washington or do you want a government that comes from you okay who do the people in Washington Work for who pays their salaries I want to be your president although he didn't win a single electoral vote either time he introduced Americans to a new kind of politics his views didn't fit neatly into either the Republican or Democrat columns he was skeptical
about free trade at a time when both major parties supported it and he supported a balanced federal budget while also wanting to Raise taxes on the wealthy lots of people especially those who didn't support him called perau a populist whatever he was he struck a chord with voters perau won almost 18% of the popular vote running as an independent in the 1992 election the highest share won by a third party candidate for 80 years 4 years later he won 8% of the vote as the Reform Party candidate from his Penthouse Donald Trump was watchingg closely
a successful CEO with experience Running a big company had just shaken up American politics perau demonstrated that there were votes in challenging the consensus on mainstream issues like free trade and besides Trump had way more name recognition if he ran why couldn't he win acting on the advice of his friend Jesse Ventura a former professional wrestler who'd been elected governor of Minnesota Trump joined the Reform Party he formed an exploratory committee went on talk shows took a High-profile campaign swing to California and vowed to spend $100 million to win not just the Reform Party nomination
but the presidency he rushed out a book outlining his policy proposals he even talked about having Oprah as his running mate Trump won the reform party's California primary it looked like he'd win the entire nomination he could have been up on stage with George W bush and Al Gore two guys who weren't exactly known for their Charisma and then just as quickly as he entered the race Trump dropped out I'm not going to be running the party is as you know self-destructing the Reform Party was being consumed by infighting Trump believed it wasn't in a
position to give him the support he needed but that was a smoke screen even after the Reform Party collapsed he could have just run as a self-funded independent Trump didn't run in 2000 because he knew that if he ran and didn't win he'd look Like a loser that was his biggest nightmare I would run if I thought I could win and in order to win not only the nomination but the presidency the whole thing I don't want to get 20% of the vote think I could and I know I could get the nominations but I
always said and I said to you if I could win the whole thing you can only win the whole thing with a totally unified PL but Trump didn't close the door on a future run when asked by a reporter if He'd consider running again for real he said he'd consider it in a few years it's it's a real possibility we're back to the flirtation here well I always flirt 6 months after the 9911 Terror attacks a man named Mark Bernette came to see Donald Trump with an idea he just finished producing a popular Prime Time
TV show called Survivor and he wanted to remake it only this time instead of being set in the jungle it would be set in the boardroom and he was wondering if Donald Trump would be interested in being one of the hosts Trump thought it over for a while before agreeing a couple of years later the debut episode of The Apprentice went to air New York my city where the wheels of the global economy never stop turning more than 20 million people tuned in on average every week to see contestants face off in various business related
challenges but the real star was Donald Trump NBC quickly sheld plans to have rotating Hosts and built the entire show around him in the intro to the very first episode Trump invoked his comeback of a few years earlier I was seriously in trouble I was billions of dollars in debt but I fought back and I won big league and as the master I want to pass along my knowledge to somebody else I'm looking for the The Apprentice The Apprentice was one of the best things that ever happened to him over the 14 Seasons he was
host Trump Made close to half a billion dollars from his salary licensing and other residuals and it did wonders for his reputation by the 2000s real estate had been overtaken in the cool Stakes by Industries like Tech Trump by virtue of his personality was partly immune to that effect but by beaming him into millions of homes every week Trump was also reminding people that he was a successful businessman with a lifestyle worth emulating The Apprentice was a Major step in the transformation of trump from being primarily a real estate developer to being someone whose main
business was selling his own name you seize opportunity you get a hit TV show and uh and the show isn't even on that long and you're thinking fragrance board game books suits and you get all that out there I've been on the air for 11 coming up on 12 years not one product most of these products failed some after a few years others almost immediately But that was almost beside the point they were all possible because of the success of The Apprentice it was 2009 and Trump was about to release his latest book Think Like
A Champion the US was facing major upheaval on two fronts the collapse of the Investment Bank Leman Brothers triggered a wholesale Financial meltdown and recession and just months after the country elected its first ever non-white president the combination of those two Seismic events was fundamentally altering the country's politics for Donald Trump who by now was a republican again this transformation looked like bad news in 2010 he was introduced to the director of a documentary about the financial crisis his name was Steve Bannon Bannon was a microcosm of the evolution of conservative politics he'd been an
investment banker for Goldman Sachs from there he pivoted into media where he ended up becoming the executive Chairman of Breitbart News a bomb thrwing right-wing news organization at Trump's luxury Penthouse apartment at top of the tower that bore his name the two men talked about how China was ripping off the United States it was just like Trump's old di tribes against Japan updated for a new age and a new rival in the United States a majority of Americans say the country is on the wrong track and no segment of the electorate is more frustrated with
the US government and President Barack Obama than the folks driving the Tea Party Movement the Tea Party is hard to Define because it doesn't want to it's anti-big government anti- liberal anti Barack Obama but after that the lines blur the Tea Party Movement was partly inspired by a backlash to Barack Obama but it was also an eruption of anger about issues that had been bubbling up under the surface for years Federal bailouts corporate welfare and Government overreach dozens of tea party activists ran against establishment Republicans in primaries and some even went on to become senators
and members of Congress despite the massive amounts of energy generated by the Tea Party Movement and major gains in the 2010 midterms Republicans didn't have a candidate who could channel that energy lots of Republicans wanted to vote for someone who wasn't afraid to throw a punch someone they knew and liked and Someone who wasn't afraid to say some pretty outrageous things who would be their champion [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh we're going to win we're going to win so big thank you very much [Applause] [Music] every in early 2011 Trump spoke at CPAC a high-profile Republican
Congress Conference he walked out to the abong money money money called Republican candidates losers quoted a magazine story about what a great entrepreneur he was and promised to repeal Obamacare it was classic Trump what was new at least for him was his claim that Obama came out of nowhere our current president came out of nowhere came out of nowhere if the audience didn't take the bait he'd probably have dropped it but they bet Trump gave the most popular speech Of the entire conference asking questions about where Obama was borne was a strategy modeled directly on
his campaign against the Central Park 5 more than 20 years earlier Trump happily exploited people's racial biases because doing so helped generate publicity I want him to show his birth certificate there's something on that birth certificate that he does it oh my God thanks mainly to the birther claims Trump surged to the top of early polls For the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination in a crowded field full of eccentric candidates Trump applied the skills he'd learned from years in the bare knuckle world of Manhattan real estate eventually Obama was forced to produce his long form birth
certificate and just to be clear I know where my birth certificate is but a lot of people don't a few weeks later he got his revenge when he roasted Trump at the White House Correspondence Dinner no one Is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald and that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter like did we fake the moon landing Trump responded to the humiliation by pulling out of the race in the end despite the excitement created by candidates who were on board with the
tea party's agenda the Republican nomination Was Won by Mitt Romney a polite Mormon who'd founded a private Equity Firm but Romney couldn't Inspire enough Republicans to vote for him in the general election everyone expected Trump's interest in politics to fade and for him to move on to other interests if anything his interest deepened to people who made a career out of following trump it actually wasn't a surprise Trump had a short attention span for things he didn't really care About but when it came to things he did care about like the Westside Rail Yards he
could be very determined during this time America was changing news had become more and more polarized and a Spate of alternative news sources had begun popping up such as Breitbart News Trump took notice of the void that these organizations were filling and had begun really pushing the same narrative atives on his now blossoming Twitter account large swaths of the country were Becoming redpilled and so was the Republican Party Republicans won big in the 2014 midterms winning the Senate and expanding their majority in the house and they'd won by talking about crime border security and the
threat from countries like China pollsters couldn't remember the last time so many candidates won despite having net negative approval ratings Trump had always believed he could become president but he'd never had the support From a major party he needed to actually win suddenly the stars were aligning Americans especially Republicans were willing to listen to increasingly radical solutions to the problems they faced but no one on either side of the political aisle had Trump's Charisma or name recognition if he could put it together it could be a potent [Music] combination on June 16th 2015 Donald Trump
descended down an escalator at Trump Tower with his wife Melania by his side and Neil Young's Rocking In The Free World playing and change the world ladies and gentlemen I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again he opened his speech by lamenting that the United States didn't have victories anymore the country had become a Dumping Ground for everyone's problem problems billions of Dollars had been spent on overseas Wars with nothing to show for it except dead and mained Soldiers the economy was weak and
being made weaker by Obamacare and trade deals that were offshoring jobs to places like China and Mexico and Republicans weren't serious about tackling the problems facing the nation Trump's candidacy was a comeback narrative he engineered one of the most famous comebacks in history he could do the same for his country the mainstream Media which had never really taken him seriously treated Trump's speech largely is a joke I will personally write you a campaign check now does anybody seriously think that Donald Trump is serious about running for president but his campaign wasn't a joke in fact
Trump had been planning it for months he'd hired a staff and kept guys like Stone and Bannon close contrary to the public perception of trump as scattered they maintained a laser-like focus on issues Where they knew that Trump's views resonated with voters like trade and immigration a few months before Trump went down the escalator his advisers suggested that he start talking about a physical wall on the US border with Mexico they actually intended it mostly as a metaphor that would remind him to talk about immigration but Trump took it literally and his instincts were correct
the wall became one of the most enduring images of his entire presidential Campaign and it ensured that Trump was always taken seriously on immigration the mainstream media might have treated Trump as a joke but Republican leaders didn't Trump was their worst nightmare remember remember they wanted to extend an olive branch to minority voters meanwhile Trump was on stage talking about how Mexican immigrants were rapists but establishment Republicans would soon learn that they couldn't do anything to stop him the 2016 Republican Primaries became the Trump show you've called women you don't like fat pigs dogs slobs
and disgusting animals your Twitter account only roson he turned politics into must-watch TV and voters love did he hit my hands nobody has ever hit my hands I've never heard of this one look at those hands are they small hands and he referred to my hands if there small something else must be small I guarantee you there's no problem I Guarantee Trump quickly Rose to the top of the polls in private he didn't think he'd stay there but his campaign just kept Gathering momentum and events overseas ensured it would stay that way December 12th 2015
a Muslim couple killed 14 people at a work Christmas party Trump who' made headlines the previous month after terrorists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris quickly called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States it Was a significant escalation of his anti-muslim rhetoric in the campaign Trump's opponents latched on to the remark finally they thought we can nail him but they couldn't land a blow Trump said something which should have by the usual rules of presidential politics made him lose support but instead he would gain support voters didn't care about
convention instead they rewarded him for talking about issues in a way they perceived as true Trump himself Recognized that he was wearing plot armor and could get away with saying some pretty crazy things my people are so smart and you know what else they say about my people the polls they say I have the most loyal people did you ever see that where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters okay it's like incredible two months after the shooting in San Bernardino Trump's name appeared on
a Ballot for the first time as an active candidate at the Iowa caucuses which marked the start of voting in the Republican primaries despite leading the polls Trump actually finished second in Iowa behind Ted Cruz lots of people including most of the mainstream media breathed a sigh of relief surely they thought the madness was about to end the adults were about to take over but Trump was just getting started he won in New Hampshire Nevada and South Carolina a State where more than a quarter of people were African-American soon Trump's opponents were forced to admit
something to have any chance of stopping him from winning the nomination they had to work together the field was soon whittel down to just three candidates Trump Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich people who were desperate to see Trump fail thought he might stumble under the pressure of being closer to the Finish Line especially as questions began being Asked about his tax returns before 2016 it was customary for serious candidates to release their tax returns as part of the public vetting process I'm not really saying the tax returns cuz as you know they're under audit
you know the only one that cares about my tax returns of the reporter but Trump simply chose to play by a different set of rules he knew his tax returns would be full of compromising details like big debts and business dealings in places like Russia So instead of releasing them he concocted an excuse about how he wasn't legally allowed to because he was being audited by the IRS it was yet another example of how he was able to run rings around both his opponents and a critical media as the Republican convention the event where a
nominee would be formally selected approached Trump had a huge lead in the delegate count he won 41 of the 56 primary contests it looked like a formality Ted Cruz made a last ditch Attempt to get delegates to change their mind but just like every other attempt Republicans made to stop trump it failed I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States something which for years had seemed totally impossible had in truth been inevitable for months Donald Trump had concocted a hostile takeover of the Republican party and made it look easy
he' done it by tapping into a well of Genuine grievances about American society and the economy and having the Charisma to say what other people weren't willing to and now almost 30 years after he first flirted with the idea of running he was the nominee of a major party set to run against a highly experienced and well-known opponent Hillary Clinton you couldn't imagine two more different people Trump was the Brash real estate developer from Jamaica Estates who bulldozed his way into the National Consciousness through sheer force of will Clinton was the Secretary of State and
former first lady who' been preparing to run for president since she was in college serious people expected Clinton to win pretty easily in November the establishment wanted her to win but it wouldn't be so simple Clinton's campaign found itself fighting allegations and answering for thousands of private emails sent to and from its chair John P esta that were hacked and Published by Wikileaks and the Clinton campaign knows this could be a problem for them every day until election day in the leaked emails leading Democrats talked about how to undermine Bernie Sanders the DNC hack could
not have come at a better time for Republicans they've been trying to make the Democrats sloppy information security an election issue ever since the FBI opened an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of private email server while she was Secretary of State the leaks gave them an opening to attack Clinton for her personal ethic and they looked like great fodder for Trump her criminal action was willful deliberate intentional and purposeful but despite first appearances the leaked emails weren't all good news for Trump in fact they brought up an issue that he'd been trying desperately to avoid
why did Donald Trump seem to like Vladimir Putin So much the relationship between the two men dated back to at least 2013 when Trump wrote a tweet asking if Putin would attend the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and whether he'd become his new best friend that was weird but at the time no one really paid much attention but since then Putin had sent Russian troops to Annex Crimea and destabilize the democratically elected government in Ukraine a US Ally and long Before then his disregard for the rule of law had turned him into one of the
United States main geopolitical adversaries Trump seemed to genuinely like Putin and admire his strongman political style but people also wondered if there was something deeper did Trump have business interests in the country did the Russians have compromising material on him and why was Trump acting so weird about it do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin I do Have a relationship what exactly is your relationship with Vladimir Putin I have no relationship with Putin Trump's reluctance to criticize Putin cut against a core part of his pitch to American voters that he would use the negotiation
skills he'd honed over a long business career to stop the US from being ripped off by other countries but he saw things a different way if Russia was willing to interfere in the US election on his behalf why should he Stop them besides Trump was confident that after 40 years in the spotlight Americans knew who he was for better or worse as the campaign neared its conclusion Clinton had established a small but clear polling lead if it held up on Election night she'd become the country's first female president but there were still two more surprises
in store a month before the election The Washington Post published a video of a conversation Trump had had with the host Of a TV show called Access Hollywood where he' made degrading remarks about women I got to use some Tic Tacs just in case they start kissing her and when you st they let you do it you can do anything whatever you want grab him by the do anything the tape was large caliber ammunition for Trump's critics it showed he was crude misogynistic and not fit for the office he was seeking Trump knew it was
bad because For the First Time in His campaign and maybe for one of the first times in his adult life he apologized I've never said I'm a perfect person nor pretended to be someone that I'm not I've said and done things I regret and the words released today on this more than a decade old video are one of them the campaign briefly went into lockdown some people even told Trump to drop out but he had no intention of doing anything like that instead he used the time to plan his Counterattack I've said some foolish things
but there's a big difference between the words and actions of other people Bill Clinton has actually Abused Women and Hillary has bullied attacked shamed and intimidated his victims Donald Trump's decision to appear before the second presidential debate with the women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault was a move straight from the Playbook of New York real estate instead of graveling or pulling out of the race He went on the offensive it was a reminder that Trump was willing to do whatever it took to to win and that despite his own flaws his opponents weren't
spotless either Mr Trump may have said some bad words but Bill Clinton raped me the tactic worked instead of the Access Hollywood tape people started talking about Trump's audacity and Bill Clinton's past the Access Hollywood experience hardened Trump's belief that He would be rewarded by his supporters for standing up to what they saw as the politically correct establishment if the mainstream media and Democrats and even some Republicans wanted him to drop out that was like a badge of honor he was happy to wear but an eventful campaign still had one twist left the FBI reopening
the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email use director James Comey explaining in a letter to Congress in connection with an unrelated case the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation James comey's decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server was a shocking last minute surprise still it looked like it was too little too late on Election night Trump wasn't expecting to win he enjoyed how close he'd come and enjoyed a campaign which had been built around indulging him he settled in for the night at his
Trump Tower Penthouse Clinton meanwhile had booked out the Javit Center a convention center with a glass ceiling she thought she'd be breaking through which just happened to be built on a site which Donald Trump used to own back in the 1970s and then over the course of the night and into the early hours of the morning history was made Clinton or Trump it's time for America to decide we will of course retain the White House with the election of Hillary Clinton America will vote Trump we have a projection it is a big one it is
the state of Florida 29 electoral votes they go to Donald Trump we have already called Ohio for Donald Trump and in modern times the way Ohio goes has been the way the country has gone both Clinton and Trump are putting a ton of attention in one particular Battleground State nor North Carolina Donald Trump has won the state of North Carolina Donald Trump wins Wisconsin surpassing The 270 electoral votes huge news actually the AP now projecting that Donald Trump has won the state of Pennsylvania there's just no path forward for Hillary Clinton that's 20 electoral votes
from Pennsylvania this is CNN breaking news the American people have spoken Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States despite getting almost 3 million fewer total votes Trump won the states he needed to and pulled off an incredible Upset the man almost no one thought would actually run who no one thought would last the distance who no one thought would win the nomination and who almost no one thought would win the election had triumphed it didn't matter that almost no one thought Trump could do it he always believed he could 2 and
1 half months later on a cold January day he was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States for the first time the 45th president of the United States of America Donald J Trump throughout his career his candidacy and then his presidency Donald Trump changed the United States in profound ways he grabbed hold of the fault lines in American society and ripped them wide open there's just one question left why did he run for president wouldn't it have been easier just to keep tweeting and doing The Apprentice the answer is that Trump has always
had a burning desire to prove People wrong sometimes they're people he loves like his father but more often he's spurred on by the thought of shutting up his critics the mainstream media who never took him seriously The Establishment who considered him Unworthy of higher office and the people who deserted him when he was at Rock Bottom in the 1990s I TR TR believe that Trump decided to run for president after being humiliated by Barack Obama at the White House Correspondence Dinner what better way to stick it to all those Coastal Elites than by taking over
the office they cared so much about and what better way to prove to his father that he was a killer I don't think people change very much I don't like to analyze myself because I might not like what I see to learn more about the man who defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election Joe Biden just watch this video next thanks for watching
