It was reported last night that civil rights icon, John Lewis, has died. He was a man of true courage and integrity, the exact antithesis of Donald Trump. I wonder if Trump has the moral courage to pay John Lewis the kind of homage that he has earned. I seriously doubt it. It would be seriously out of character for Trump, which brings me to my comments on Mary Trump’s book.
I finished Mary Trump’s book, Too Much and Never Enough, last night. While John Bolton’s book was a compelling look at the inner workings of the White House, Mary Trump’s book is a compelling look at the inner workings of Donald Trump. (And don’t forget, this is Mary Trump, Ph.D., a trained clinical psychologist)
I have often said that ‘all families are dysfunctional, it’s just a matter of degree.’ And while I say that somewhat tongue in cheek, there is a ring of truth in it. After reading Mary Trump’s book, it is pretty apparent that the Trump family is way up on the spectrum of ‘dysfunctional family.’ Fred Trump, Donald Trump’s father, was a cold, ruthless, unempathetic man who viewed the world through the lens of ‘I win; you lose’ and tied virtually everything back to money. His self-worth was measured in terms of wealth.
Donald Trump ‘learned’ most his anti-social, unempathetic behavior from his father. Kindness was viewed as a weakness. You never took responsibility for errors or mistakes – you found someone to blame and you lied. Like father, like son. We are seeing the results of that in spades now that Trump is president.
Mary Trump shines a glaring light on the ‘myth’ that Trump is a ‘self-made’ man who got a ‘small’ loan from his father and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar empire. She shared 19 boxes of financial documents with the New York Times which they used as part of an investigative piece which was published October 2, 2018. This 14,000-word article provided information on potential fraudulent and criminal activities that her grandfather (Fred Trump), aunts and uncles (including Donald) had engaged in. This probably explains the reason why Trump is fighting so hard to keep his financial records under wraps.
The fact is, Donald Trump received more than $400 million from his father over several years, including multiple instances when Fred Trump had to prop up Donald’s failing business ventures like the three casinos in Atlantic City New Jersey that ultimately went bankrupt. Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is some self-made business whiz should read this book. Trump might be a great self-promoter but he is a terrible businessman and could not have gotten anywhere without his father’s immense wealth. And this is not just Mary Trump’s assessment, there is documentation to support this conclusion.
Trump’s true character is revealed in many instances throughout the book but my ‘favorite’ was when Donald Trump tried surreptitiously (and ultimately unsuccessfully) to change Fred Trump’s will to give himself sole control over the entire estate rather than share it with his four siblings! Keep in mind, that at this time, Fred Trump had amassed a fortune worth several hundred million dollars and Donald Trump wanted control over all of it. As it says in the title of this book ‘never enough.’
Mary also has harsh words for all of Donald Trump’s ‘enablers’ starting with her grandfather, Fred Trump, and those surrounding him today who continue to turn a blind eye to his aberrant behavior on the domestic and world stage. Donald Trump craves approval and, as I have stated in previous blogs, our adversaries are well aware of this and continue to use it to their advantage. Ironically, the approval that Trump craves so much, is almost always a one-way street. As Mary points out, the vast majority of people who raucously fill Trump rallies, are people that Trump would never associate with, let alone care about.
Mary writes, “Unlike my grandfather, Donald has always struggled for legitimacy – as an adequate replacement for Freddy (Mary’s father and Donald’s older brother), as a Manhattan real estate developer or casino tycoon, and now as the occupant of the Oval Office who can never escape the taint of being utterly without qualification or the sense that his “win” was illegitimate. Over Donald’s lifetime, as his failures mounted despite my grandfather’s repeated – and extravagant – interventions, his struggle for legitimacy, which could never be won, turned into a scheme to make sure nobody found out that he’s never been legitimate at all. This has never been more true than it is now, and it is exactly the conundrum our country finds itself in: the government as it is currently constituted, including the executive branch, half of Congress, and the majority of the Supreme Court, is entirely in the service of protecting Donald’s ego; that has become almost its entire purpose.”
In a subsequent passage she writes, “The lies may become true in his mind as soon as he utters them, but they’re still lies. It’s just another way for him to see what he can get away with. And so far, he’s gotten away with everything.”
Although the book confirms much of what I already believed, it only exacerbates the concern I have for this country if this man is elected to another four-year term. Just as Trump tried to wrest control of the entire Trump empire from his own siblings, I fear that he, supported by his enablers, will try to wrest control of our country from ‘we the people’. Trump’s siblings smelled something fishy and acted before it was too late. I hope the people of this country will do likewise.
Good review of Mary Trump’s book. I am starting to understand how people get brainwashed by cult leaders like Jim Jones and Charles Manson who were evil. I have had friends that their personalities drastically changed once they started supporting Trump. Before their support of Trump we had different views of political leaders and it was no big deal. Now the same people consider me a vile person if I have any criticism of Trump and start tongue lashing me with insults. They almost treat him as a deity. This is such a sad affair when we desperately need a good leader for our country in this pandemic.