How will Donald Trump spend his first birthday as a convicted felon?
Palm Beach, Florida - Next week, Donald Trump will be celebrating his 78th birthday, and it will surely be unlike any he has ever had.
Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York.
In 1971, armed with a business degree from the University of Pennsylvania, he was tasked with taking over his father's real estate business in 1971, which he eventually renamed The Trump Organization.
Trump went on to spend decades trying a number of different business ventures, and eventually starred in the hit reality show The Apprentice, which cemented his status as an American pop culture icon.
His years spent fluffing up his public image led to him being elected as president of the United States in 2016, making him the first president that did not have any prior political or military experience.
As he has established a MAGA base that some critics have likened to a cult, Trump's birthday in recent years has become quite an event.
But this year's celebrations will be unlike any before, as it will be the first time Trump will mark the day as a recently convicted felon.
How does Donald Trump usually spend his birthday?
On May 30, the 12-person jury in his criminal hush money trial in New York found him guilty on all 34 felony charges, a ruling that made him the first former president in US history to be convicted of a crime and the first major party candidate with a felony to ever run for president.
Trump has since been on the warpath, desperately trying to mitigate the damage the bad press surrounding the conviction has done to his re-election campaign.
So this year's birthday will likely be a somber one, which shouldn't bother Trump too much, as his ex-wife Ivana Trump told PEOPLE in 2021 that "Donald hates his birthdays."
Throughout his short political career, Trump has found ways to make his birthday special. In 2017, only a few months after taking over the presidency, Trump celebrated his big day by officially proclaiming June 14 as Flag Day and the week it falls on as National Flag Week. And in 2018, in the days leading up to his birthday, Trump was nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
But the last few years have seen his birthdays getting worse and worse, as he began to get hit with countless legal issues which have caused a strain on his ability to campaign and on his relationship with his family.
How will Donald Trump spend his birthday this year?
So how does Trump plan to spend his birthday in 2024, his first as a newly convicted felon?
Trump is scheduled to headline The People's Convention, an event hosted by Turning Point Action, which will take place from June 14-16 at the Huntington Place Convention Center in downtown Detroit, Michigan.
General admission will cost attendees $100, and VIP tickets are being offered for as high as $650.
Guest speakers include the biggest MAGA Republicans in US politics, including conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Trump's son Don Jr., South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
While the event isn't being held specifically to celebrate Trump's birthday, Mlive reports that the Michigan Conservative Coalition is planning a "MAGA Boat Parade" for Saturday, June 15.
A spokesperson for the coalition said a fleet of boats will carry Trump supporters along the Detroit's coast to "celebrate President Trump's birthday weekend with a MAGA flotilla" in an effort to "make this day even more special" for the former president.
It's unclear if members of Trump's family, including his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, will participate in the festivities, as they didn't show up in court throughout the hush money trial.
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