Donald Trump
Donald Trump was born on 14 June 1946 in New York.
Donald Trump had mixed fortunes as a property tycoon but in his new guise as executive producer and host of The Apprentice, Trump can claim to have been very successful.
That is, until 2007, when the ratings dipped significantly.
In 2008 The Apprentice hosted by Donald Trump featured celebrities including Carol Alt, Trace Adkins, Stephen Baldwin, Piers Morgan and Gene Simmons.
The Apprentice had proved a huge ratings hit in the USA and spawned shows elsewhere, for example, the BBC's Apprentice presented by Sir Alan Sugar in the UK.
Donald Trump graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and started business in the construction industry sharing an office with his father.
Trump went on to own some of the most renowned real estate in New York, much of it hosting eponymous buildings, for example, the Fifth Avenue skyscraper, Trump Tower, Trump Parc, Trump Palace, Trump Plaza, The Trump World Tower and Trump Park Avenue.
The Trump Organization is also involved in the gaming area and operates hotels and casinos.
Trump's early autobiographical books, 'The Art of the Deal' and 'Surviving at the Top' reflected his personal financial fortune. The 1990s, however, brought financial troubles, debt and the break up of his marriage to Ivana, whom he had married in 1977.
Donald Trump's second marriage to Marla Maples in 1993 lasted just five years. On January 22, 2005 Donald Trump married again, this time to a Slovenian model, Melania Knauss.
Trump has three children with his first wife, Ivana, one from his second marriage (to Marla Maples), and, in March 2006, Melania Knauss Trump gave birth to a boy, Barron William Trump.
In 2000, Donald Trump was considering standing for Ross Perot's Reform Party. It does not sound as if Trump would have been well suited by the campaign trail. He told NBC:
"I'm not a big fan of the handshake ... I think it's barbaric, shaking hands, you catch colds, you catch the flu, you catch this, you catch all sorts of things."