Looking at an old photograph of someone who later became one of the most recognizable public figures in the world can feel strangely intimate.
The child in the picture has no idea what is coming.
He has no idea that decades later, millions of people will know his name.
He has no idea that his face will appear on television screens, newspapers, campaign posters and official presidential photographs.
He certainly cannot know that photographs from his childhood will eventually be examined through the lens of everything that happened afterward.
And that is what makes childhood photographs of famous people so fascinating.
They show us a person before history had decided what that person would mean.
Before the Name Became a Political Symbol
Today, the name Donald Trump carries an enormous amount of political and cultural meaning.
People may encounter the name in connection with presidential elections, government policy, political arguments, business, television, courts, public speeches or decades of controversy.
