There’s a Dark History Behind the Family Fortune Donald Trump’s Grandfather Built

With the 2016 presidential election coming up, it may be interesting to learn the roots of some of the remaining candidates left running, particularly that of Republican candidate Donald Trump who has built a platform on his proven success as a ruthless businessman.

Donald Trump inherited his family’s philosophy on business along with his millions from the empire built by his grandfather Frederick Trump, a German-born American businessman. Grandfather Trump, arrived in the United States in 1885 in Manhattan, New York. He set out to make a life for himself and launched his first business, a seedy restaurant in the red-light district in Seattle at 22.

Attracted by the opportunity of striking his own wealth during the Gold Rush of the late 1800s, Frederick Trump used the little money he arrived in America with and hustled to become a proprietor for hotels and brothels. According to Politico, the restaurant originally called the Poodle Dog, was renamed the Dairy Restaurant and catered to the masses by providing food, booze and easily available sex.

Frederick Trump went on to expand his business operations in a small town north of Seattle called Monte Cristo. Without any legal claim to a plot of land, “Trump scoped out the best location there, secured it by filing a bogus mineral claim, built a hotel on the parcel even though it didn’t actually belong to him, and began giving the customers, once again, exactly what they wanted: plenty to eat, lots to drink and of course women.”

When things didn’t pan out as well, grandfather Trump sought new prospects in the Washington and Yukon Territory and opened the New Arctic Restaurant and Hotel. Trump upgraded his business by offering “private boxes” for women that included a bed and a scale for weighing gold dust that was often used in exchange for sexual services. By the time he was done, Frederick Trump had amassed his enormous wealth of about $500,000 in today’s dollars by “creating his own private gold rush by mining the would-be miners,” which was expanded on by his son, Fred Trump, through real estate investments.

Fred Trump helped make America great — by opportunistically selling food and sex in the rugged West, making a fortune and leaving a legacy that his now-grandson hopes to expand on.

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