Story highlights
- Donald Trump described a loan his father gave him for $1 million as a "small loan"
- Trump was answering a question from a voter who asked him "have you ever been told no?"
Atkinson, New Hampshire (CNN)Donald Trump on Monday said his climb to the top of the business world hasn't been an easy one and depicted a $1 million loan from his father as "small."
"My whole life really has been a 'no' and I fought through it," Trump said Monday at an NBC-sponsored town hall here. "It has not been easy for me, 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 was answering a question from a Republican voter who asked him "with the exception of your family, have you ever been told no?"
Pressed further, Trump conceded that getting a million dollar loan from his father might seem easy to most people, but said "a million dollars isn't very much compared to what I've built."
President-elect Donald Trump has been in the spotlight for years. From developing real estate and producing and starring in TV shows, he became a celebrity long before winning the White House.
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Trump at age 4. He was born in 1946 to Fred and Mary Trump in New York City. His father was a real estate developer.
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Trump, left, in a family photo. He was the second-youngest of five children.
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Trump, center, stands at attention during his senior year at the New York Military Academy in 1964.
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Trump, center, wears a baseball uniform at the New York Military Academy in 1964. After he graduated from the boarding school, he went to college. He started at Fordham University before transferring and later graduating from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania's business school.
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Trump stands with Alfred Eisenpreis, New York's economic development administrator, in 1976 while they look at a sketch of a new 1,400-room renovation project of the Commodore Hotel. After graduating college in 1968, Trump worked with his father on developments in Queens and Brooklyn before purchasing or building multiple properties in New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Those properties included Trump Tower in New York and Trump Plaza and multiple casinos in Atlantic City.
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Trump attends an event to mark the start of construction of the New York Convention Center in 1979.
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Trump wears a hard hat at the Trump Tower construction site in New York in 1980.
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Trump was married to Ivana Zelnicek Trump from 1977 to 1990, when they divorced. They had three children together: Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric.
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The Trump family, circa 1986.
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Trump uses his personal helicopter to get around New York in 1987.
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Trump stands in the atrium of the Trump Tower.
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Trump attends the opening of his new Atlantic City casino, the Taj Mahal, in 1989.
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Trump signs his second book, "Trump: Surviving at the Top," in 1990. Trump has published at least 16 other books, including "The Art of the Deal" and "The America We Deserve."
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Trump and singer Michael Jackson pose for a photo before traveling to visit Ryan White, a young child with AIDS, in 1990.
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Trump dips his second wife, Marla Maples, after the couple married in a private ceremony in New York in December 1993. The couple divorced in 1999 and had one daughter together, Tiffany.
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Trump putts a golf ball in his New York office in 1998.
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An advertisement for the television show "The Apprentice" hangs at Trump Tower in 2004. The show launched in January of that year. In January 2008, the show returned as "Celebrity Apprentice."
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A 12-inch talking Trump doll is on display at a toy store in New York in September 2004.
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Trump attends a news conference in 2005 that announced the establishment of Trump University. From 2005 until it closed in 2010, Trump University had about 10,000 people sign up for a program that promised success in real estate. Three separate lawsuits -- two class-action suits filed in California and one filed by New York's attorney general -- argued that the program was mired in fraud and deception. Trump's camp rejected the suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that the New York case against him is politically motivated.
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Trump attends the U.S. Open tennis tournament with his third wife, Melania Knauss-Trump, and their son, Barron, in 2006. Trump and Knauss married in 2005.
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Trump wrestles with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania in 2007. Trump has close ties with the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon.
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For "The Apprentice," Trump was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2007.
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Trump appears on the set of "The Celebrity Apprentice" with two of his children -- Donald Jr. and Ivanka -- in 2009.
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Trump poses with Miss Universe contestants in 2011. Trump had been executive producer of the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants since 1996.
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In 2012, Trump announces his endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Trump speaks in Sarasota, Florida, after accepting the Statesman of the Year Award at the Sarasota GOP dinner in August 2012. It was shortly before the Republican National Convention in nearby Tampa.
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Trump appears on stage with singer Nick Jonas and television personality Giuliana Rancic during the 2013 Miss USA pageant.
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In June 2015, during a speech from Trump Tower, Trump announced that he was running for President. He said he would give up "The Apprentice" to run.
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Trump -- flanked by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, left, and Ted Cruz -- speaks during a CNN debate in Miami on March 10. Trump dominated the GOP primaries and emerged as the presumptive nominee in May.
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The Trump family poses for a photo in New York in April.
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Trump speaks during a campaign event in Evansville, Indiana, on April 28. After Trump won the Indiana primary, his last two competitors dropped out of the GOP race.
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Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, accepting the party's nomination for President. "I have had a truly great life in business," he said. "But now, my sole and exclusive mission is to go to work for our country -- to go to work for you. It's time to deliver a victory for the American people."
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Trump faces Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate, which took place in Hempstead, New York, in September.
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Trump apologizes in a video, posted to his Twitter account in October, for vulgar and sexually aggressive remarks he made a decade ago regarding women. "I said it, I was wrong and I apologize," Trump said, referring to lewd comments he made during a previously unaired taping of "Access Hollywood." Multiple Republican leaders rescinded their endorsements of Trump after the footage was released.
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Trump walks on stage with his family after he was declared the election winner on November 9. "Ours was not a campaign, but rather, an incredible and great movement," he told his supporters in New York.
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Trump is joined by his family as he is sworn in as President on January 20.
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Trump has built up a multi-billion dollar net worth, expanding his father's lucrative real estate business to new heights.
But while much of Trump's success is a credit to his work, he was born into a successful, wealthy family, inheriting part of his father's more than $200 million net worth.
Trump said even his father told him his plans to delve into the Manhattan real estate business -- away from the Trump family's projects mostly in Queens and Brooklyn -- were a bad idea.
"Even my father he said you don't want to go to Manhattan. That's not our territory," Trump said.
Donald Trump's family money 01:42
Trump's campaign didn't respond to CNN's question about when his father gave him the $1 million loan -- though it appears to have happened before Trump entered the Manhattan real estate market in the early 1970s.
If Trump's father made the loan in 1968, the year his son graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, that $1 million would be worth $6.8 million in today's dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index inflation calculator.
The median household income in 1968 was $7,700; today it's $53,675. The median home price then was $25,000; today it's $269,000.
Trump took questions from a dozen voters Monday in a basement room at the Atkinson Resort & Country Club. Trump explained his positions on everything from the war with ISIS and how he would handle Russia to illegal immigration and the economy.
Attendees -- a mix of Trump supporters and undecided voters -- appeared to approve of most of Trump's answers. Two voters pressed Trump further with follow-up questions, telling him that he had not answered their questions which asked about his specific plans to deal with undocumented immigrants and the economy.
On illegal immigration, Trump didn't explain exactly how he would deport the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the U.S., simply pointing to his managerial skills.
Another voter pressed him on whether voters should simply believe that he will revive the economy based on his last name, or whether he has any specific plans to address economic challenges.
"I think they should," Trump said of voters electing him based on his name, adding that he would renegotiate trade deals involving the U.S. and bring jobs back.
"But how?" the 21-year-old college student and entrepreneur asked again.
Trump didn't get more specific beyond explaining that he plans to lower taxes and renegotiate trade deals.
Instead, Trump stressed the importance of "flexibility in dealmaking" and said there was no need for multi-point plans.
"It doesn't work that way because point two gets loused up and you have to go to a different point two," Trump said. "It doesn't mean anything."