The Good Mother of Donald Trump

As a poor Scottish immigrant, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump probably never would have thought that one day her son would be President of the United States. But Donald Trump's mother was lucky enough to live the American dream and give her son many chances she didn't have as a child.

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump grew up on a remote Scottish island where money was very tight. She lived a life that her son could never understand. When she came to America at age 18 in 1930, she didn't know much and didn't have much money. But with help from her sister, who already lived in the country, she was able to start a new chapter.

Even though Mary Anne MacLeod Trump would become a socialite in New York City, she wasn't all that interested in being famous. Instead, she was a real giver who loved to help out at hospitals, even when she didn't have to.

How Mary Anne MacLeod Trump Got Started

In 1930, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump moved to New York City from Scotland. She was eighteen. She was born on May 10, 1912, just a few weeks after the Titanic sank. MacLeod was raised by a fisherman and a housewife on Scotland's Isle of Lewis; she was the youngest of 10 children.

Gaelic was MacLeod's first language, but in school she learned English as a second language. MacLeod grew up in a simple gray house while the local economy was hurt by World War I. She began to dream of a better life. In 1930, these visions became clearer, and the 18-year-old got on a ship to go to New York City. Her job was listed as "maid" or "domestic" on the ship's manifest.

Even though the stock market in the U.S. was in bad shape, MacLeod was still determined to move there to find work. When she got there, she told the police she was going to live with one of her sisters in Astoria, Queens, and work as a "domestic." MacLeod arrived with only $50 in her pocket, but her sister, who had come before her, took her in and helped her start a good job.

The American Dream and Donald Trump's Mother

  MacLeod worked as a nanny for a wealthy family in New York before she became Donald Trump's mother. But during the Great Depression, she lost her job. MacLeod went back to Scotland for a short time in 1934, but she didn't stay there for long. When she met Frederick "Fred" Trump, an up-and-coming businessman in the early 1930s, everything changed.

Trump was an entrepreneur who had started his own construction business when he was in high school. He was already selling single-family homes in Queens for $3,990 each. MacLeod reportedly fell in love with Trump after he charmed her at a dance.

Trump and MacLeod were married at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York, in January 1936. The wedding party for 25 people was held at the nearby Carlyle Hotel. After that, the couple went on their honeymoon to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Once they were settled in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens, they started a family. Maryanne Trump was born on April 5, 1937.

The following year, her brother Fred Jr. was born. By 1940, MacLeod Trump was a well-off housewife who had her own Scottish maid. Her husband, on the other hand, made $5,000 a year, which was about $86,000 in 2016. MacLeod Trump became an American citizen on March 10, 1942. This was the same year that her third child, Elizabeth, was born. Four years later, Donald was born. The birth of her last child, Robert, in 1948 almost killed MacLeod Trump.

What changed in Mary Anne MacLeod Trump's life?

During the birth of Robert, MacLeod Trump had so many problems that she needed an emergency hysterectomy and a bunch of other surgeries.

Still, MacLeod Trump lived, and her family started to do better than ever before. During the real estate boom after World War II, her husband made a lot of money. And the family matriarch's newfound wealth was clear right away because of how her travels had changed.

The Scottish immigrant, who once got on steamships with nothing but hopes, was now going to places like the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and Cuba on cruise ships and planes. As the wife of a real estate developer who was getting richer, she became a socialite in New York City. Mary Anne MacLeod Trump wore expensive jewelry and wore fur coats, but she never stopped helping people.

Donald Trump's mother showed that the American dream could come true, at least for some lucky people. She was determined to share her wealth, so she spent a lot of time helping people with cerebral palsy and intellectually disabled adults. Her son, on the other hand, would have other plans.

Trump's Relationship With His Mother

It's possible that Donald Trump's mother was the first person in her family to have a dramatic hairstyle. She was the first person to do a swirl with her hair. Later, her Celebrity Apprentice host son did the same thing.

In his 1987 book The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump said, "Looking back, I see that my mother taught me a little bit about how to put on a show." "She always liked things that were big and grand. She was a traditional housewife, but she also knew what was going on in the rest of the world."

Donald Trump talks about his mother rarely, but when he does, he always says nice things about her.  He even gave her the name of a room at his Mar-a-Lago resort. And the president says that most of his problems with women come from "having to compare them" to his mother.

In 1997, he wrote in his book The Art of the Comeback, "One of the problems I've had with women is that I have to compare them to my amazing mother, Mary Trump." "My mom is as smart as hell." Even though Donald Trump's mother was wealthy and wore jewelry and fur coats to stay warm, she never stopped helping other people.

She was one of the most important people in the Women's Auxiliary of Jamaica Hospital and the Jamaica Day Nursery. She also helped a lot of other charities.

Even though she passed away before her son was elected president, she was able to see him become a star in the 1990s. At the beginning of that decade, Trump was getting a divorce from his first wife, Ivana, because of his public relationship with model Marla Maples, who would later become his second wife.

In the end, osteoporosis made MacLeod Trump's last years very hard. She died at the age of 88 in New York in 2000, one year after her husband. She was buried in New Hyde Park, New York, next to her husband, her mother and father-in-law, and her son Fred Jr., who died in 1981 from problems related to his drinking. 

Even after Donald Trump's mother became famous, she never forgot where she came from. She went back to her home country often, and when she did, she spoke Gaelic, the language of her people. But Donald Trump's relationship with Scotland has become worse over the past few years.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, when he was building a golf course there, politicians and people who lived there didn't agree with his plans.

As a candidate for president in 2016, he said racist and anti-immigrant things that made things even worse. When he said that people from countries where most people are Muslim shouldn't be allowed to come to America, the Scottish government was shocked. In response, the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, took away Trump's title as a "Global Scot," which means he is no longer a business ambassador for Scotland on the world stage.

He also lost an honorary degree from the Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen because his comments were "wholly incompatible" with the university's mission and values. But even though Donald Trump had a rocky relationship with the country where his mother was born, it was clear that his mother was important to him.

During his 2017 inauguration, he used a Bible that she had given him, and her picture hangs in the Oval Office. But his mother had an effect on a lot of other people besides her own family, especially through the work she did to help others. So, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump's life can be remembered as an inspiring story of an immigrant who used her money for good.