by Mary L. Trump (Simon & Schuster 2020)
This expose by Donald Trump’s niece, the daughter of his elder brother Freddy, who died at age 42, is blunt in its assessment of Donald Trump’s character (lacking) and abilities (few). It’s the Donald Trump we all suspected, unmasked by someone in his own family. Mary Trump has a doctorate in clinical psychology, so she is well-positioned to analyze her uncle’s pathologies and weaknesses as well as to speculate as to their origin. That this may be unprofessional doesn’t make it less fascinating. But there was little I hadn’t already concluded from observing Trump’s (mis)behavior, and I am not one of those who needed convincing. Trump’s feckless “base” is never going to pick up this book, and even if they did, they would refuse to believe that their hero is in reality a frightened child still trying to gain his father’s love.
The father, Fred Trump, Sr., was a sociopath like his second son, incapable of love or kindness, intentionally turning his own children against one another. As dysfunctional families go, this one is a doozy. Fred Sr. was at least a savvy businessperson (if not an honest one), which is more than one can say about his son the president. According to Mary, Fred Sr. kept throwing money at Donald to compensate for his incompetence. Later, banks taken in by his over-confidence and brashness would do the same, in an effort to shore up the Trump empire; they inexplicably paid him a monthly “allowance” so that he could continue to fool the world into thinking he was a success.
Not surprisingly, Mary Trump devotes a significant portion of the book to her father, Freddy. Freddy did not have the killer instinct that Donald had/has, and he was quick to internalize his father’s criticism, which completely undermined his self-esteem. He was a naturally fun-loving, likable person, but he was unable to hold his own in the face of his father’s put-downs and cruelty. In an effort to escape the world of real estate, he joined the military and became a pilot. He even flew for TWA for a year (his father called him a “bus driver in the sky”), but due to his alcoholism, he was eventually forced to go back to Trump Management, Fred Sr.’s empire, where his father slowly destroyed him. He died a premature, lonely death, abandoned by his family, barely mentioned by his parents after his death, his children (Mary and her brother Fritz) cheated out of Freddy’s inheritance by their aunts and uncles. You couldn’t make this stuff up. If you read about this family in a novel, you would think it was too farfetched.
I wondered, when I started the book, if it might make me feel sorry for Donald Trump. Hardly. For his siblings, his mother, his nieces and nephews, possibly. But not for him. He grew up a spoiled brat and a bully, egged on by his unscrupulous and cruel father. Had the father been a normal human being, would Donald have grown up otherwise? Possibly. (Probably?) We will never know. We each get only one shot at life. Donald Trump used his father’s money, connections, and power to become the sorry specimen he is today. Mary Trump’s book must have taken courage to write and send out into the world. It will not endear her to her family.
Favorite quote:
Donald today is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in or synthesize information. (p.197)
Nina's Reading Blog 