Trump's investing in real estate goes back three generations. His grandfather left Germany in his teens, became a barber in NYC. But after a few years, he moved to Seattle where he began buying and running hotels, restaurants, and bars in the red light district. Seattle is where he became a US citizen. From there he moved north during the Yukon gold rush, running similar businesses. He made a fortune. This doesn't make him a pimp. He just rented the rooms where whores plied their trade. In 1901, he sold out and moved back to Germany where he married his one time neighbor, Elizabeth Christ.
Frederick Trump saw that it was time to leave. If Major Wood actually enforced the laws regarding prostitution, gambling, and liquor, hotels and restaurants would be far less profitable. Not only that, the economic boom was bound to be short lived. There was not nearly enough solid economic development to absorb these newcomers in any long-term way; when the placer deposits were emptied, they would go back home. Without the umbrella of gold, other local industries would not be strong enough to keep going on their own and compete with cheaper sources farther south. The boom was over, Frederick Trump realized...
... Frederick Trump left just in time. He avoided the uproar when his erstwhile partner hit the skids, and he avoided the economic decline that would soon sweep over White Horse. Once again, in a situation that created many losers, he managed to emerge a winner. He had made money; perhaps even more unusual in the Yukon, he had also kept it and departed from White Horse with a substantial nest egg. He had accomplished this goal of making and saving enough money to marry. But he had no intention of doing so in America. For this important moment, he would have to return to Germany.
He returned to Germany just after he passed the age at which he could be drafted. Germany considered him a draft dodger and DEPORTED him. Thus he came back to NYC. His widow supplied $30K to get son, Fred, started building houses.
Info from The Trumps: Three Generations Of Builders And A Presidential Candidate, Gwenda Blair, 2001.
This and much more will be addressed in much more detail by the media should Trump get the Republican nomination. |
