US Politics
Donald Trump’s childhood NYC home goes on the market – after it was overrun by feral cats
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Donald Trump’s childhood home in New York City has hit the market, despite being temporarily infested by a horde of feral cats.
The home has become a pilgrimage site for Trump fans and a site of protest for his political opponents over the years.
Built in Jamaica Estates in Queens, the Tudor-style house is now on sale for $2.3 million. Fred Trump, the president’s father, commissioned the home in 1940 but eventually sold it when the family moved to a larger home.
Trump lived in the two-story, five-bedroom home for four years before he moved to the larger property with his parents.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a burst pipe left the interior of the property coated in mold with the house’s future buyer, forcing its buyer, Michael Davis, to heavily redevelop the home.
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Davis, a founding partner of a Manhattan-based private equity firm, purchased the property for $1.39 million hours before Trump became president. Despite the polls projecting a landslide in Hillary Clinton’s direction, Davis’ bid paid off.
He flipped the home for $2.14 million and decked it out with bizarre Trump memorabilia, including a plaque in one of the bedrooms.
“In this bedroom, President Donald J. Trump was likely conceived by his parents, Fred and Mary Trump,” the plaque read, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The home was furnished using pieces from the Waldorf Astoria, and Davis told reporters that “the only thing to read in the house was ‘The Art of the Deal.’”
However, Davis’ plans to rent out the property as an Airbnb were cut short after he unknowingly rented it to the Oxfam America charity. The group invited refugees and the press to the house as a publicity stunt during the United Nations General Assembly, aiming to draw attention to the unfolding refugee crisis.
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Real-estate developer Tommy Lin took over the house after Davis and told reporters that “there was no water in the house, no power,” when he first began renovating it.
Lin claimed that he was also forced to battle with mold, due to a broken pipe in the basement, with the developer describing it as “not livable” at the time. The dire state of the property meant that he snapped it up for a bargain price of $835,000, although he spent $500,000 on renovating it.
Trump is often reticent when it comes to talking about his childhood, but told Jimmy Fallon in 2016 that the house’s state of disrepair made him “sad.”
“That is where I was born,” the future president said when comedian Jimmy Fallon showed him an image of the property. “I had a really good childhood; oh, that’s sad to look at that, I want to buy it.”
The Independent has contacted the Trump Organization for comment.