The billionaire founder of Jimmy John's donated $100,000 to Trump's reelection campaign and once hunted elephants — meet the controversial man behind one of America's favorite sandwich chains

Born in 1964 in suburban Arlington Heights, Illinois, Liautaud was the second of four children born to serial entrepreneur and Army veteran James Liautaud and elementary school teacher Gina Liautaud, according to his autobiography on the Jimmy John's website.

"My early years in life were an utter failure," Liautaud told Forbes in January 2019. "I graduated second-to-last in my class in high school, and I was a fat kid."

James Liautaud wanted his son to continue the family tradition of military service after high school, according to Liautaud's autobiography. But Liautaud dreamed of opening a business, so he convinced his father to loan him $25,000 to start one, on the condition that if the new venture didn't become profitable in a year, Liautaud would enlist.

He originally wanted to open a Chicago-inspired hot dog stand but decided against it after discovering how expensive the equipment was, Liautaud said in an interview with IdeaMensch.com. Liautaud eventually settled on a sandwich shop because the only equipment required — a refrigerator and meat slicer — fit within his $25,000 budget. The summer after he graduated from high school, Liautaud taught himself how to bake bread and make sandwiches.

The first Jimmy John's was in a garage in an alleyway near bars frequented by Eastern Illinois University in Charleston students, Liautaud told IdeaMensch.com. The menu, he said, only had four types of subs and Cokes served without ice that sold for 25 cents.

According to Liautaud's biography on the Jimmy John's website, the shop made a $40,000 profit in its first year. Within three years, he opened secondary locations in two other Illinois college towns, Macomb and Champaign.

Liautaud began to sell Jimmy John's franchises in 1993, according to Entrepreneur. The chain opened its 2,000th location in 2014, according to the Jimmy John's website. The sandwich chain now says it has over 2,800 stores.

Same-store sales began to slip in 2014, and have fallen every year since as the brand has faced increasing competition for its signature delivery service, Forbes reported. The coronavirus crisis dealt another blow.

"Well, with this particular industry, with the restaurant industry, I think that we're the first ones to be affected. And I think that we're going to be the last ones that are going to get back to normal," Liautaud said in a statement released by the Liautaud Family Foundation. "The coronavirus poses a threat to the future of the food service industry which employs more than 15 million Americans."

Jimmy John's is still ranked among the best franchise opportunities in the country at No. 23, according to Entrepreneur.

The sale valued Jimmy John's at $3 billion, according to Forbes. Liautaud initially held on to 35% of the company, but he sold his remaining stake to Roark in October 2019, Forbes reported. The sandwich chain is now owned by Roark subsidiary and Arby's owner Inspire Brands, the holding company announced in a statement. Inspire also owns Sonic Drive-In and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Liautaud retired as the chairman of Jimmy John's after the sale, and now works as an adviser to the brand, the company said in a press release.

"I'm a workaholic," Liautaud told IdeaMensch.com. "It's genetic."

Liautaud told IdeaMensch.com that he finishes his morning workout before 7 a.m. so he can get to work. Once in the office, Liautaud requires that all emails he receives are short enough to fit onto a single sheet of paper and that meetings are shorter than half an hour for maximum productivity, according to IdeaMensch.com.

He said he initially "sold stores to the wrong people" when he began franchising Jimmy John's, noting that only the franchisees who "accepted the hard truth about the restaurant business" ended up succeeding.

"I told [the franchisees] it's a 24/7/365 business – no weekends, no evenings, no birthdays — it's a lifestyle and it's very, very hard," Liautaud told IdeaMensch.com.

Forbes added Liautaud to its annual Billionaires List in March 2019, estimating his net worth to be $1.7 billion. He now lives what Forbes' Noah Kirsch described as a "full-throttle lifestyle."

Liautaud also owns farmland in Illinois and several homes, including one property in Key Largo, Florida, according to Forbes.

He also believes in the importance of tipping well, telling IdeaMensch.com that when he attended the Super Bowl in 2020, he tipped his server $100 because the server "was freaky fast and always had a can-do attitude."

The yacht has been spotted in Wisconsin, Ibiza, and Monaco, Forbes reported.

Rock.It isn't Liautaud's only motorized toy. He also has a 50 vehicle car collection, including Porsches, a $300,000 McLaren, and a $2.2 million black Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, Forbes reported.

"When there's a super-rare car, I always try to buy two," Liautaud told Forbes.

The billionaire and his wife launched the Liautaud Family Foundation in 2017 to coordinate their philanthropic efforts, Inside Philanthropy reported in December. The Foundation, which Inside Philanthropy described as "low-profile" and which does not appear to have a public website, gave away $2.3 million during the 2018 fiscal year to various organizations geared towards public health, education, veterans issues, and the arts.

Liautaud has also donated $1 million to his alma mater, private Illinois prep school Elgin Academy, in 2008 and to the Horatio Alger Association, according to Inside Philanthropy.

The gift, which was made in Leslie Liautaud's name, went to the president's fundraising committees, according to Forbes.

Leslie made multiple donations to Hillary Clinton in 2016 however, federal campaign records published by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Leslie Liautaud is a professional writer, Inside Philanthropy reported. Donation records from earlier this year alternately list her occupation as "retired" and "homemaker."

Liautaud himself also has a relationship with the president. He serves on the president's Great American Economic Revival Industry Group for Food and Beverage, advising him about the federal response to the coronavirus crisis alongside Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, chef Wolfgang Puck, and McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski, the White House announced in April.

"So thrilled to join this group of industry leaders to help America recover," Liautaud told The News-Gazette in April.

Although Liautaud says the photos in question are over a decade old, #BoycottJimmyJohns trended on Twitter as recently as August 2019, USA Today reported.

"I choose to hunt and I choose to fish," Liautaud told the Chicago Tribune about his hobby in November 2015. "Everything I've done has been totally legal. And the meat has been eaten, if not by me then by someone I'm with. I don't hunt big African game anymore."

Liautaud told Crain's Chicago Business in 2017 that he and his three kids hunt "90% of the meat and fish" they eat themselves: "Doesn't get more organic than that."

When he does engage with the public, Liautaud has a tendency to speak his mind, Forbes reported. Liautaud personally "loves the limelight," but signed a nondisclosure agreement after selling Jimmy John's. Liautaud reportedly speaks exclusively in a "near-yell" and "swears profusely," according to Forbes.

"I wear my heart on my shirtsleeve," Liautaud told Forbes.