After a junior career that included winning the English Under-13 and Under-15 titles, and reaching the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals aged 14, Trump turned professional in 2005.

He also reached the last-48 stage at the China Open, losing 4–5 to Michael Holt, although this was designated the final qualifying round and was actually played in Prestatyn, Wales.

[16] He defeated James Wattana 10–5 in the final round of qualifying at the 2007 World Championship, to become the third-youngest player ever at the time to reach the main stage of the tournament, after champions Stephen Hendry and Ronnie O'Sullivan, who had both been younger when they made their Crucible debuts.

Trump is one of only five players to make their first appearance at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre at the age of 17, along with Hendry, O'Sullivan, China's Liu Chuang and Belgium's Luca Brecel.

At the end of the snooker year, Trump failed again to reach the main stage of the World Championship, losing 8–10 to Stephen Lee in the final qualifying round, having led 6–3.

[23] Trump defeated former world champions Peter Ebdon and Shaun Murphy at the 2011 China Open, to reach his first professional ranking event final.

[26] Trump had already qualified for the 2011 World Championship when he won the China Open, and was drawn against reigning champion Neil Robertson in the first round, whom he defeated 10–8.

[30] This disappointment did not last long as he won the second PTC event of the season, beating Ding Junhui 4–0 in the final at a virtual home venue of the South West Snooker Academy.

The semi-final match was a tight and nervy affair, with Trump stating afterwards that he believed Robertson was trying to stifle his natural game by "slowing it down" and "making things awkward", but nevertheless the Bristolian triumphed 9–7 to reach his first UK final.

[43] Trump met Robertson in the semi-finals for the second successive major event, and it was the Australian who exacted his revenge for the defeat suffered in York a month earlier, as he triumphed 6–3.

[47] Trump's first tournament this year was the Wuxi Classic in China, where he lost to Robert Milkins 3–5 in the second round, having beaten Dominic Dale 5–1 in the opener.

[50] Trump thrashed Peter Ebdon 9–1 in the semi-finals to become snooker's tenth world number one,[51] and recovered from 6–8 down in the final against Neil Robertson to triumph 10–8.

[58] At the World Open, Trump gained revenge over Joyce by dispatching him 5–0, and he beat Nigel Bond 5–1, before Matthew Stevens won their quarter-final match 5–3.

[61] He also lost in the first round of the China Open to good friend Jack Lisowski 3–5,[62] surrendering his world number one ranking to Mark Selby again in the process.

He began the season poorly as he lost in the first rounds of the Wuxi Classic, the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship, as well as failing to qualify for the Indian Open.

[77] Trump received criticism for not acknowledging the fact that during the match, Robertson had become the first player to make 100 centuries in a single season, choosing to walk out of the arena instead.

[80] Trump was thrashed 0–5 by Stephen Maguire in the third round of the Wuxi Classic, but responded a week later by claiming his fourth ranking title, and his first for 20 months, at the Australian Goldfields Open,[81] by defeating home favourite Neil Robertson 9–5 in the final.

[94] Trump scored 278 points to nil in taking the first three frames of his third round UK Championship match with Liang Wenbo, but eventually lost 4–6.

[104] Trump edged past Shaun Murphy 6–5 on the final black to reach the semi-finals of the International Championship where he was knocked out 4–9 by Ding Junhui.

[112] In the third round of the China Open, Trump made his first televised 147 as he defeated Tian Pengfei 5–3,[113] but he suffered a surprise 3–5 loss to Hossein Vafaei in the quarter-finals.

[118] He made semi-final appearances at three other ranking events this season: at the Scottish Open, he lost 4–6 to Cao Yupeng[119] whom he had defeated two months earlier in the semi-finals of the European Masters; at the German Masters, he was beaten 1–6 by Mark Williams,[120] after making the highest break of the tournament (140) in his quarter-final clash with Ding Junhui; and in defending his title at the Players Championship,[121] he was narrowly defeated by Ronnie O'Sullivan 5–6.

[122] At the 2018 World Championship, Trump came close to suffering a first-round defeat by Crucible debutant Chris Wakelin who took the match to a deciding frame.

[127] In January, Trump won his first Masters title, beating Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby and Neil Robertson en route to the final, where his opponent was Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Trailing 4–5 in the early stages, Trump dominated the second session, winning eight consecutive frames to lead 12–5 overnight, a display which Steve Davis described as the "controlled annihilation of a great player".

He won the tournament by defeating Shaun Murphy 10–3 in the final,[135] regaining the number one position in the snooker world rankings ahead of Ronnie O'Sullivan.

[142] With this victory, he became the fifth player to win five ranking events in a single season, after Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby and Ronnie O'Sullivan.

[187] During the final of the tournament, Trump made his seventh maximum break,[188] then within less than a month he completed his eighth in the second round of the 2022 Scottish Open, against Mitchell Mann.

[210] At the following 2024 German Masters, Trump claimed both the title and the BetVictor European Series bonus for the third time, defeating another first-time ranking finalist, Si Jiahui 10–5.

[212] In the next event, the 2024 World Masters of Snooker, Trump was a semi-finalist, but he lost, for the fifth time in a row, to Ronnie O'Sullivan, the tournament's ultimate winner.

[219] Trump then went on and became the first champion of the newly added Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters tournament in the inaugural 2024 edition next week, by beating Mark Williams 10–9.