'I couldn't do any wrong with my mother.' Donald Trump opens up about his parents on Mother's Day and twice-divorced father-of-five says not being brought up in a 'single family' is a 'tremendous advantage' (18 Pics)
President Donald Trump opened up about his mother on Friday, saying she believed he could do no wrong, adding 'which is maybe why I ended up the way I ended up.'
Ahead of Mother's Day on Sunday, Trump paid tribute to his mother, Mary Anne Trump, who was born in Scotland, emigrated to the U.S. at 17, married Fred Trump in 1936, raised five children, and died in 2000.
'I had a great mom. I love my mom and she loved me,' Trump told the hosts of 'Fox & Friends' during a nearly hour-long interview, adding 'which is I must tell you, is probably not easy to do but she was so good to me. I couldn't do any wrong, which is a big problem, which is maybe why I ended up the way I ended up.'
Donald Trump had fond memories of his mom Mary Anne Trump ahead of Mother's Day; he's seen here with his dad Fred and mom Mary Anne in New York in 1992
President Trump with his mother in 1977; Mary Anne Trump died in 2000 before he became president but after he was a celebrity businessman
Mary Anne Trump was slight of build but had an elaborate hairstyle, described as a 'dynamic orange swirl.' President Trump said in the past he got 'my sense of showmanship from my mother.'
Trump's father Fred died a year before his mother. Both missed out on seeing Trump elected to the White House but did live to see him become a celebrity businessman.
The president, in a rare of introspection, talked about the qualities his parents had an instilled in himself.
'My mother was somebody that gave me a lot of confidence and she believed in me,' Trump, 73, noted. 'My father was the same. I mean, he was a strong guy but he was a good man, very good human being, very good person. And he always had confidence in me so. And in our family.'
Trump, who has been divorced twice and is the father of five children via three wives, also said he was at an advantage for having grown up in a two-parent household.
'I had really, really good parents and it's such an advantage in life. You know, you see so much with the single families and the children growing up without a mother or father or whatever it may be. It's a very tough situation for people - a very very tough situation,' he noted.
'If you're lucky - and there's a lot of luck involved - if you're lucky enough to have one great parent or ideally two great parents, what a tremendous advantage it is in life. It's just a tremendous thing,' he said.
In 2016, the U.S. Census found that a majority of America's children - 73.7 million or 69 per cent - live with two parents. The second most common arrangement was children living with a single mother, at 23 per cent.
Trump concluded his reflection on his family with: 'I miss my parents.'
Trump's parents met at a dance in the 1930s. Fred Trump started a construction business that would eventually be worth millions and some of that money went on to fund Donald Trump's start in the New York business world.
Trump was married to Ivana Trump from 1977 to 1992 and had children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric (seen here in 2015)
Donald Trump with Ivana, Ivanka and Eric in 1998 at Mar-a-Lago
Trump was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999 and they have daughter Tiffany (seen here in 1994)
Tiffany Trump, seen with mom Marla in 2019, is a student at Georgetown Law School
Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005 and they have 14-year-old Barron
Barron Trump was born in 2006 and is seen with his parents at FAO Schwartz in New York City in 2008
Trump himself has had three wives.
He was married to Ivana Trump from 1977 to 1992 and had children Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.
He was married to Marla Maples from 1993 to 1999 and they have daughter Tiffany.
Ivana Trump and Marla Maples got solo custody of their children in their divorces.
Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005 and they have 14-year-old Barron.
Trump praised Melania's parenting skills during his 'Fox & Friends' interview.
'Melania has been a great mother to Barron. I will tell you that Barron is growing up, really beautifully and she's been a great mother to Barron,' he said.
Most of the children are involved in the Trump family business. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric run the Trump Organization while Ivanka Trump serves as an adviser to the president in the White House. Tiffany Trump attends Georgetown Law School and Barron Trump goes to school in the Washington D.C. area.
The president is headed to Camp David this weekend to meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff but should return on Sunday in time to celebrate Mother's Day.
Donald Trump's mother WAS an immigrant chasing the American dream: Documents reveal penniless Scot purposely traveled to America for better life rather than overstaying vacation as the tycoon claims
A penniless, low-earning worker seeking America's promised lands is exactly the type of immigrant Donald Trump's campaign is seeking to control.
And yet it has been revealed that Trump's very own mother was one such migrant.
Less than ninety years ago, Mary Anne Trump née Macleod arrived in New York from the desolate Scottish Isle of Lewis, with just $50 to her name, to pursue work as a 'domestic'.
Immigration documents seen by The National reveal that Mary Anne's true story was one of deliberate migration, and was not simply in America 'on holiday' as Trump purposes
It is not clear how the pair met, but Fred Trump, seven years her senior, was already an established builder and developer at that time and may have been introduced to Macleod by her sister, Catherine. Pictured: Mary Anne, Donald and Fred Trump in 1994
Contrary to Trump's well-told line, that his mother had traveled to America 'on holiday' and ended up never leaving, immigration documents seen by The National reveal that her true story was one of deliberate migration.
An uncomfortable truth perhaps, for the Republican's presumptive nominee whose campaign website declares: 'The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working-class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle-class wage.'
Now, the mystery that has previously clouded the story of Trump's mother's migration to America is made clear.
But Macleod was not only leaving abject poverty in Scotland in search of a better life, she was also fleeing from a family scandal: The sister who first hosted her in New York, Mrs Catherine Reid, had given birth out of wedlock in her home country in 1920, according to the paper.
A devastating situation that forced Reid and three other sisters out of their hometown of Tong to America.
The youngest of ten children, Macleod was born to a fisherman and crofter father, Malcom Macleod, and mother Mary Macleod, née Smith.
The youngest of ten children, Macleod was born to a fisherman and crofter father, Malcom Macleod, and mother Mary Macleod, née Smith. Pictured: The census return from the Trump household in 1940
In January 1936, Mary Anne wed Fred at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York but her naturalization didn't come until some 12 years after she immigrated, and six years after she married. Pictured: Her certificate
Macleod's second language was English, which she learned at Tong school. Her immigration form indicates that she likely left there aged 14.
With three of her sisters having gone before her, and all married or working by the time Macleod was 17, the prospect of America must have seemed a glittering one.
Her future husband, Fred Trump, was himself the son of German immigrants, who had migrated when rules were less strict.
But she made the journey in 1930, six years after Congress passed laws restricting immigration.
Her twin-propeller liner set sail from Glasgow on May of that year and she arrived, nine days later, the day after she turned 18.
The passenger list on this journey makes her intentions clear. In the section asking 'whether alien intends to return to country whence he (sic) came', her answer is 'no'.
On those same documents she gives her occupation as 'domestic' - either servant or maid - a position she held for at least four years upon her arrival into America, according to the paper.
Macleod migrated legally and permanently and in the document declared she wished to be a citizen of America and would be staying permanently in the USA.
And as a May 1930 edition of her local paper The Stornoway Gazette writes: 'There is quite an exodus of young people, male and female, from this parish for Canada and the United States...
'They leave home with a determination to succeed and because of their courage, endurance and reliability they are generally successful.'
And successful she certainly was.
Macleod (right and center left) was not only leaving abject poverty in Scotland in search of a better life, she was also fleeing from a family scandal: He sister Catherine had fallen pregnant out of wedlock. Pictured left with her husband Fred and son Donald
Fred and Mary Anne Trump had five children, (pictured) though their second Fred Jr died aged 42, following a life blighted by alcoholism
It is not clear how the pair met, but Fred Trump, seven years her senior, was already an established builder and developer at that time and may have been introduced to Macleod by her sister, Catherine.
By April 1935, Macleod was a resident at the Trump family home on 175/24 Devonshire Road in Jamaica, the middle-class area of Long Island, Queens, according to the 1940 census.
In January 1936, they wed at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, officiated by the Rev Dr George Buttrick, after which a wedding reception was held for 25 guests at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan.
Curiously, her naturalization didn't come until some 12 years after she immigrated, and six years after she married.
Though strange, it is not unusual for there to be a delay. Indeed Donald Trump's first wife Ivana did not become naturalized until 11 years after they wed.
Macleod's husband was on the make, and she was described as 'charming, vivacious and shrewd' - a perfect companion to Fred Trump, who at that time was building, selling or renting tens of thousands of houses across New York.
Trump's beloved mother (pictured right) died aged 88 at the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in New Hyde Park in 2000, just over a year after her husband Fred died, aged 93. Left, Donald Trump with then wife Ivana Trump in 1987
A family affair: Trump's family - including his mother and father center - gather for his wedding to Marla Maples in 1993
Her role was one of homemaker, hostess and partner - and she became the definition of upwardly mobile. Once a domestic help herself, she was to oversaw a large family household with her very own maid - an Irish woman, named Jane Cassidy, herself a naturalized citizen.
She can now add mother of a potential future president of the United States to that list.
Fred and Mary Anne Trump had five children, though their second Fred Jr died aged 42, following a life blighted by alcoholism.
Donald Trump was a middle child. One sister Maryanne Barry, 79, is a much-respected federal judge, while his other sister, Elizabeth, worked in banking.
His younger brother, Robert, was born two years after Trump and was later president of their father's firm.
Trump's beloved mother died aged 88 at the Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in New Hyde Park in 2000, just over a year after her husband Fred died, aged 93.
Her death notice in the Stornoway Gazette reads: 'Peacefully in New York on 7th August, Mary Ann Trump, aged 88 years. Daughter of the late Malcolm and Mary Macleod, 5 Tong. Much missed.'
'I couldn't do any wrong with my mother.' Donald Trump opens up about his parents on Mother's Day and twice-divorced father-of-five says not being brought up in a 'single family' is a 'tremendous advantage' (18 Pics)
!['I couldn't do any wrong with my mother.' Donald Trump opens up about his parents on Mother's Day and twice-divorced father-of-five says not being brought up in a 'single family' is a 'tremendous advantage' (18 Pics)]()
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