--- title: Trump Details His Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan description: Donald Trump gave a million-dollar answer to voters at an event, discussing the challenges and doubters he's faced throughout his life. canonical: https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-26T18:23:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:04:52.608Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Describes Hard Life, Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan og:description: Trump is "not impressed" by the other politicians on the trail. og:url: https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0b453dbffd66069/698869eacd1bba52bd6fdd1a/donald-trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Describes Hard Life, Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan twitter:description: Trump is "not impressed" by the other politicians on the trail. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0b453dbffd66069/698869eacd1bba52bd6fdd1a/donald-trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Describes His Hard Life and Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 26, 2015 6:23 PM UTC  Donald J. Trump on Oct. 23, 2015 in Doral, Fla. Donald J. Trump on Oct. 23, 2015 in Doral, Fla.Johnny Louis—FilmMagic/Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 26, 2015 6:23 PM UTC Donald Trump gave a million-dollar answer to voters at an event in New Hampshire on Monday, discussing the challenges and doubters he’s faced throughout his life. “It has not been easy for me. And you know I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars,” Trump said at an [NBC-sponsored town hall Monday](http://www.today.com/news/donald-trump-joins-today-town-hall-follow-it-live-t52111). Trump noted that he paid his self-made millionaire father back, with interest, but moderator Matt Lauer quickly followed up saying, “By the way, let’s just put this in perspective. You said it hasn’t been easy for you, but my dad gave me a million-dollar loan. That probably is going to seem pretty easy to a lot of people.” “You’re right, but a million dollars isn’t very much compared to what I’ve built,” Trump replied. “I mean, I’ve built one of the great companies, but it’s always been, you know, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” Trump added that many people have questioned his decision to run for president. “All my life I was told no, even for this,” he said. “They said ‘what do you want to do it for? don’t do it, don’t do it, you’re against professional politicians.’ So far I’m not impressed, I will tell you that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/"},"headline":"Trump Describes His Hard Life and Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan","datePublished":"2015-10-26T18:23:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:04:52.608Z","description":"After turning his million into a billion, Trump is \"not impressed\" by the other politicians on the trail.","url":"https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0b453dbffd66069/698869eacd1bba52bd6fdd1a/donald-trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0b453dbffd66069/698869eacd1bba52bd6fdd1a/donald-trump9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Johnny Louis—FilmMagic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4087344/trump-small-loan/","name":"Trump Describes His Hard Life and Father's 'Small' $1 Million Loan"}}]}] ```