Freidrich Trump

Meet Freidrich—
Pimp, Profiteer and

Patriarch of the
Trump Line
EXCERPT
Exploiting the poor, draft-dodging and busty blondes turn out to be family
traditions.
David Cay Johnston
Updated Jul. 12, 2017 8:02PM EDT / Published Aug. 02, 2016 11:38AM EDT
Wikipedia; public domain
The Trump family’s deep roots in Germany stretch back to

the war-ravaged seventeenth century, when the family name
was Drumpf. In 1648, they simplified the name to one that
would prove to be a powerful brand for their latter-day
descendants.
Looking back from the twenty-first century, it turns out to

have been an interesting choice. Donald no doubt enjoys the
bridge player’s definition of trump: a winning play by a card
that outranks all others. But other definitions include “a
thing of small value, a trifle” and “to deceive or cheat” as
well as “to blow or sound a trumpet.” As a verb, trump
means “to devise in an unscrupulous way” and “to forge,
fabricate or invent,” as in “trumped-up” charges.
Donald Trump never knew his grandfather, Friedrich, who

died when Donald’s father, Fred, was only twelve years old.
As a rogue entrepreneur, however, Friedrich cast a century-
long shadow over the Trump family with his passion for
money and the flouting of legal niceties—such as erecting
buildings on land he did not own.
Friedrich Trump grew up in the winemaking region of

southwest Germany, in the town of Kallstadt, where hard
work meant a roof over one’s head, not riches. His father
had died when Friedrich was only eight years old. In 1885, at
the age of sixteen and facing mandatory military service,
Friedrich left his mother a note and did what millions of
other Europeans with few prospects at home were doing:
fled Germany for the United States.
Enduring a surely difficult North Atlantic crossing in a

packed steamship, Friedrich eventually landed in New York,
where he moved in with an older sister, Katherine, and her
husband, both of whom had immigrated earlier.
Before long, the young man decided to go west, eventually

settling in Seattle, where he opened The Dairy Restaurant. It
also had a curtained-off area that most likely served as a low-
rent whorehouse, according to Gwenda Blair, who had the
family’s cooperation in her history of the Trumps.
In 1892, Friedrich became a citizen, lying about his age in
the process by saying he’d landed in New York two years
before he actually had. Two friends accompanied him to the
proceedings to attest to his good character. One was a
laborer, the other a man whose occupations included
providing accommodations for what Blair politely called
“female boarding.”
Friedrich was the genesis of many Trump family traditions in
America, but voting was not among them. In fact, his
grandson Donald would run for president after failing to vote
in the 2002 general election and, as records indicate, in any
Republican primary from 1989 until he voted for himself in
2016. Friedrich’s great-grandchildren were even less
diligent in their civic duties. When Donald Trump’s name
appeared on the New York State primary ballot in 2016, his
daughter Ivanka and son Eric, both in their thirties, could
not cast ballots because they had neglected to register as
Republicans.
They blamed the government, saying they should have been

allowed to change from independent to Republican at the
last minute. But the primary voting rules, however
outmoded, had been law in the Empire State for many years.
The siblings had months in which to change their
registration so they could vote for their father.
A family tradition Friedrich Trump did start in America,

however, was the art of prospering but wanting more.
Friedrich sold his restaurant/bordello and set up a new
business about thirty miles north. Rumor had it that the oil-
rich Rockefellers planned a big mining operation in the area.
On a piece of land he didn’t own, right across from the train
station, Friedrich built a hotel of sorts—one intended mostly
for, shall we say, active short stays, not overnight visits.
Building on land he did not own foreshadowed the terms
under which his grandson Donald would acquire the Florida
mansion Mar-a-Lago: with a mortgage that Chase Bank
agreed in writing not to record at the courthouse.
In the end, the mining project fizzled and only a few got out
better off than they were when they arrived. Among them
was Friedrich Trump, who had, by that point, Americanized
his name to Frederick. He went by Fred. Hearing about the
Klondike gold rush, Frederick headed for Canada’s Yukon
Territory. He had no interest in the hard physical labor of
panning for gold in frigid streams; Frederick mined the
miners. He built a sort of bar and grill, calling the joint The
Arctic. It offered hard liquor and “sporting ladies,” as the
prostitutes were called. Again his timing was impeccable.
He arrived when the gold rush was at its height. By the time
the gold was running out and the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police were riding in, Fred Trump had made a small fortune
to take with him as he skedaddled back to America.
In 1901, at age thirty-two, Frederick Trump returned to

Germany, where his mother introduced her now-rich son to
eligible young ladies. Frederick, however, took a liking to a
woman his mother did not care for, a twenty-year-old blonde
named Elizabeth Christ. Just six years old when her husband-
to-be had slipped away to America to avoid the German
draft, Elizabeth had grown into a well-endowed adulthood.
Trump men favoring busty blondes would become a family
pattern.
Frederick took his new bride to America and scouted for

opportunities to increase his fortune, by then worth a half
million dollars or so in today’s money. But Elizabeth had no
love for bustling New York and its stark contrasts between
wealth and want. She desperately wanted to go home. In
1904, Frederick, with his young wife and their infant
daughter, sailed back to Germany.
Once there, however, he had to convince the authorities to
overlook his draft dodging. Hoping the fortune he brought
into the country would impress the authorities, in September
1904 he explained his absence to the government in writing:
“I did not immigrate to America in order to avoid military
service, but to establish for myself a profitable livelihood and
to enable myself to support my mother” in Kallstadt. German
authorities didn’t buy it; they ordered him to leave.
Donald Trump has not yet been asked whether this episode
of family history plays any role in his unconstitutional
proposals to deport an estimated eleven million immigrants
who entered the country illegally, including those whose
children are American citizens, or if he thinks of it when
suggesting that the United States block soldiers and sailors
who are Muslim from returning to America.
Excerpted from The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay

Johnston, published by Melville House, and reprinted here
with the permission of the publisher and the author, who
retain all rights.
Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of an IRE medal and the

George Polk Award, David Cay Johnston is author of five
books and the upcoming The Prosperity Tax: A New Federal
Tax Code for the 21st Century Economy. He is a
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at Syracuse University
College of Law and Whitman School of Management, and a
columnist for The Daily Beast and Investopedia.
David Cay Johnston
Meet Freidrich—Pimp, Profiteer and Patriarch of the Trump Line (thedailybeast.com)

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Meet Freidrich—

Pimp, Profiteer and

David Cay Johnston

The Trump family’s deep roots in Germany stretch back to

Looking back from the twenty-first century, it turns out to

Donald Trump never knew his grandfather, Friedrich, who

Friedrich Trump grew up in the winemaking region of

Enduring a surely difficult North Atlantic crossing in a

Before long, the young man decided to go west, eventually

They blamed the government, saying they should have been

A family tradition Friedrich Trump did start in America,

In 1901, at age thirty-two, Frederick Trump returned to

Frederick took his new bride to America and scouted for

Excerpted from The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay

Pulitzer Prize winner and recipient of an IRE medal and the

Meet Freidrich—Pimp, Profiteer and Patriarch of the Trump Line (thedailybeast.com)

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