Before becoming the leader of one of the world’s most influential political movements, Trump was best known all over the world for being a world-class businessman and entrepreneur, even launching some rather unusual projects.
What many people don’t know, however, is that Trump dove into a variety of businesses, besides being a real estate magnate in New York City.
From the 1980s to the early 2000s, Trump’s name was almost everywhere and was an instantly recognizable brand. Donald Trump launched everything from stakes to a “University”, and once he even tried to rival the NFL with his own professional football league.
Trump used a mixed ownership strategy to launch his more unusual projects
Donald Trump used a mixed ownership strategy to launch some of his most unusual projects. Take Trump Steaks for example. To launch Trump Steaks, Trump licensed his name. He didn’t handle the production or distribution of this project, instead, he simply licensed his name for branding.
In contrast, Donald Trump did own Trump Ice, which was a water bottle brand made exclusively for his properties, like hotels and exclusive retail outlets.
It is also worth mentioning that this was more of a promotional item, rather than an actual project.
Some of the former president’s more unusual projects feature Vodka and bottled Water
Trump Steaks
In the late 2000s, more specifically in 2007, Donald Trump launched his own line of high-end meat steaks, which were primarily sold through Sharper Image outlets. This project ended in 2007, but the outlet revealed that the steaks didn’t sell well and therefore did not last long in stores.
One of the funniest Trump facts is that he sold ‘Trump Steaks’ and they were only available at the sharper image pic.twitter.com/cxqAYbW0ol
— Secular Talk
(@KyleKulinski) November 14, 2022
Trump Ice
Trump Ice was a bottled water brand, owned by Donald Trump. He initially launched the project in 2003, and it was sold at Trump casinos, hotels, and some retail stores.
There was never nationwide distribution for the project, and eventually faded from the market around 2010.
Trump Vodka
For this project, Trump licensed his name to Drinks Americas Holdings, who handled production and distributed the Vodka. The former president was not in charge of the day-to-day operations of this project.
Ironically, Trump has repeatedly stated that he has never drank alcohol in his life.
TIL Trump launched a vodka in 2005.
The tagline was "Success Distilled" and he originally predicted the brand would quickly outsell Grey Goose worldwide.
The company shut down in 2011. pic.twitter.com/5Kr0LFmzbD
— Noah Sanborn Friedman (@noahsfriedman) October 9, 2024
Trump University
Trump was directly involved with the launch and structure of this project.
Trump University was a for-profit education company launched in 2005, which focused on teaching people about real estate, business management, and entrepreneurship through online courses seminars, and workshops.
Five years after its launch, Trump had to rebrand the project to Trump Entrepreneur Initiative, to comply with government regulations.
.@BorowitzReport: More Than Three Hundred Million Americans Now Enrolled in Trump University https://t.co/wRzifqfESV pic.twitter.com/Gn13icll8t
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) January 20, 2017
Trump The Game
For this project, Trump struck a licensing deal with Milton Bradley to launch Trump: The Game, which was a board game released in 1989. This game was inspired by Monopoly and wasn’t very successful at launch.
However, as Trump regained popularity from his hit reality TV show, The Apprentice, the game was re-launched in 2004.
