Frederick Crist Trump Jr. (October 14, 1938 – September 26, 1981) was an American airplane pilot and maintenance worker. The eldest son of real-estate businessman Fred Trump Sr., he fell out of his father's favor when he chose to become an airline pilot, leading to his younger brother Donald (the 45th president of the United States) inheriting the family business.
Both Fred Sr. and Donald disparaged Fred Jr. for becoming a pilot. By the early 1970s, Fred Jr. could no longer function as a pilot due to his alcoholism, a condition which also contributed to his heart attack-induced death.
Early life
Frederick Crist Trump Jr. was born on October 14, 1938, as the first son of wealthy real-estate developer Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump in Queens, New York. In 1956 Fred Jr. graduated from St. Paul's School. In that same year his father Fred Sr. donated money to have the playing fields redone and in his honor were renamed Trump Field.
Fred Jr. attended Lehigh University and joined a historically Jewish fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu, although he was not Jewish. He became president of the fraternity and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in business, also completing Reserve Officers' Training Corps and entering the Air National Guard as a second lieutenant.
Pilot career
In 1958, Fred Jr. met Linda Clapp while vacationing in the Bahamas. She later became a flight attendant and asked him for help finding an apartment near Idlewild Airport; they soon began dating. He proposed to her in 1961. In early 1962, they were married in Florida, and she resigned from the airline, which did not allow its flight attendants to be married. They settled in Manhattan and had their first child, Frederick Crist Trump III, in November 1962. The next year, they moved into one of Fred Sr.'s apartments in Jamaica, Queens. During this time, Fred Jr. did maintenance jobs on his father's properties. Fred Sr. wanted his oldest son to be "invulnerable" so he could take over his real-estate business, E. Trump & Son, but Fred Jr. was the opposite in personality. In 1966, Fred Jr. was listed in newspapers as vice president of E. Trump & Son, but he had a difficult time working with his father. Fred Jr. left the company to pursue his dream of being a pilot, quickly being accepted at Trans World Airlines, which created tension with his father. According to Fred Jr.'s daughter, Mary L. Trump (born 1965), her grandfather "dismantled him by devaluing and degrading every aspect of his personality." Both Fred Sr. and Donald mocked him for his decision to become an airline pilot, comparing it to driving a bus or being a chauffeur.
Alcoholism and death
By 1970, after a series of domestic incidents, Clapp asked Fred Jr. to leave their home and arranged for Fred Sr. to change the locks. When his alcoholism prevented him from continuing to function as a pilot, Fred Jr. returned to work for his father's business. He eventually moved into the unfurnished attic of his parents' house, and once again did maintenance on Trump properties. On September 26, 1981, at the age of 42, he died from a heart attack caused by his alcohol use.
Aftermath
Donald Trump, who has spoken publicly of his own abstinence from alcohol since 1976, initially cited the formative influence of their father's teetotalism, but later shifted all credit to the adult experience with his brother, claiming:Every day he lectured me, "Look at the mess I'm in. If I ever catch you smoking, you'll be sorry, drinking even a glass of booze because you'll like it too much." ... Freddy did a good job.