A series of University of Maryland surveys find that large swaths of the American public believe the myth of Donald Trump being a self-made billionaire.
“Across three surveys of eligible voters from 2016 to 2018, we found that as many as half of all Americans do not know that he was born into a very wealthy family. And while Americans are divided along party lines in their assessment of Trump’s performance as president, misperceptions regarding his financial background are found among Democrats and Republicans.”
“The narrative of Trump as self-made is simply false. Throughout his life, the president has downplayed the role his father, real estate developer Fred Trump, played in his success, claiming it was ‘limited to a small loan of $1 million.’ That isn’t true, of course.”
