MANCHESTER, United States (AFP) – Donald Trump is a billionaire real estate tycoon with bravado to spare, a former reality television star who says winning is everything.
The unlikely Republican presidential frontrunner now can claim his first victory in the political arena after notching up a win in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday – to the horror of the political establishment.
The 69-year-old New Yorker has upended the 2016 presidential election by casting a spell over grassroots conservatives and not shying away from talking tough.
To his fans, he is the definition of American success, the cut-throat tycoon who can magically fix all that’s wrong with a country no longer sure of its place in the world, and home to an increasingly frustrated white working and middle class.
To his critics, he is a racist demagogue or, at best, a buffoon with an orange perma-tan and an odd helmet of hair who would either hand Hillary Clinton the White House – or lead the world into unmitigated catastrophe.
What is clear is that Trump isn’t really interested in following the traditional political playbook.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters during a primary night rally in Manchester, NH. PHOTOS: AP
A man holds up signs supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Manchester, NH
He insults women, Mexicans, Muslims – virtually everyone who crosses his path and yet his say-it-how-it-is honesty, defiance of political correctness and disdain for the political class has struck a chord matched by almost no other candidate.
He promises to build a wall on the Mexican border, deport millions of illegal immigrants and stand up to China to “Make America Great Again.”
He also plays fast and loose with statistics, and has never unveiled detailed policies.
He jets from rally to rally in his Boeing 757 like a rock star, and sucks up roughly as much TV coverage as the other candidates combined, saving him tens of millions of dollars in paid advertising.
The big question is: Can he translate his poll numbers into votes? He’s now lost in Iowa and won in New Hampshire. What happens when the campaign shifts to South Carolina, Nevada and on along the long road to the November election?
The Donald, as he is nicknamed, was born on June 14, 1946 in Queens, New York City, the fourth of five children.
His father Fred was a wealthy real estate developer and the son of German immigrants. His mother Mary was from Scotland.
Boisterous and unruly, he was packed off to New York Military Academy, a private boarding school near West Point, and graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with an economics degree.
He then set to work for his father, who made money building and operating middle-income apartments in New York’s outer boroughs. But Queens and Brooklyn were never going to be enough for the young Donald.
He shot off to Manhattan and the big league, snapping up some of the flashiest real estate in the country, riding the wave of Reaganomics and coming to embody the swanky extravagance of the 1980s. His true wealth is up for dispute. Trump told the Federal Election Commission he has more than $10 billion. Forbes insists it is no more than $4.5 billion.
But there is barely a corner of Manhattan that the Trump Organisation hasn’t conquered with luxury buildings. Its portfolio of hotels, golf courses, casinos and luxury estates straddles the world, from California to Mumbai.
He has written a string of best-selling business books and cemented his fame by starring in NBC reality series ‘The Apprentice,’ which spawned ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ – until the network dumped him for offending Mexicans.
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