{"id":1039,"date":"2020-07-18T14:03:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T14:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2020-07-18T14:03:30","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T14:03:30","slug":"july-18-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/?p=1039","title":{"rendered":"July 18, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I finished Mary Trump\u2019s book, Too Much and Never Enough<\/span>, last night.\u00a0 While John Bolton\u2019s book was a compelling look at the inner workings of the White House, Mary Trump\u2019s book is a compelling look at the inner workings of Donald Trump. \u00a0(And don\u2019t forget, this is Mary Trump, Ph.D., a trained clinical psychologist)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have often said that \u2018all families are dysfunctional, it\u2019s just a matter of degree.\u2019\u00a0 And while I say that somewhat tongue in cheek, there is a ring of truth in it.\u00a0 After reading Mary Trump\u2019s book, it is pretty apparent that the Trump family is way up on the spectrum of \u2018dysfunctional family.\u2019\u00a0 Fred Trump, Donald Trump\u2019s father, was a cold, ruthless, unempathetic man who viewed the world through the lens of \u2018I win; you lose\u2019 and tied virtually everything back to money.\u00a0 His self-worth was measured in terms of wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump \u2018learned\u2019 most his anti-social, unempathetic behavior from his father.\u00a0 Kindness was viewed as a weakness.\u00a0 You never took responsibility for errors or mistakes \u2013 you found someone to blame and you lied.\u00a0\u00a0 Like father, like son.\u00a0 We are seeing the results of that in spades now that Trump is president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Trump shines a glaring light on the \u2018myth\u2019 that Trump is a \u2018self-made\u2019 man who got a \u2018small\u2019 loan from his father and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar empire.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This probably explains the reason why Trump is fighting so hard to keep his financial records under wraps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s failing business ventures like the three casinos in Atlantic City New Jersey that ultimately went bankrupt.\u00a0 Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is some self-made business whiz should read this book.\u00a0 Trump might be a great self-promoter but he is a terrible businessman and could not have gotten anywhere without his father\u2019s immense wealth.\u00a0 And this is not just Mary Trump\u2019s assessment, there is documentation to support this conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s true character is revealed in many instances throughout the book but my \u2018favorite\u2019 was when Donald Trump tried surreptitiously (and ultimately unsuccessfully) to change Fred Trump\u2019s will to give himself sole control over the entire estate rather than share it with his four siblings!\u00a0 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. \u00a0As it says in the title of this book \u2018never enough.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary also has harsh words for all of Donald Trump\u2019s \u2018enablers\u2019 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0Ironically, the approval that Trump craves so much, is almost always a one-way street.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary writes, \u201cUnlike my grandfather, Donald has always struggled for legitimacy \u2013 as an adequate replacement for Freddy (Mary\u2019s father and Donald\u2019s 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 \u201cwin\u201d was illegitimate.\u00a0 Over Donald\u2019s lifetime, as his failures mounted despite my grandfather\u2019s repeated \u2013 and extravagant \u2013 interventions, his struggle for legitimacy, which could never be won, turned into a scheme to make sure nobody found out that he\u2019s never been legitimate at all.\u00a0 This has never been more true than it is now, and it is exactly the conundrum our country finds itself in:\u00a0 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\u2019s ego; that has become almost its entire purpose.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a subsequent passage she writes, \u201cThe lies may become true in his mind as soon as he utters them, but they\u2019re still lies.\u00a0 It\u2019s just another way for him to see what he can get away with.\u00a0 And so far, he\u2019s gotten away with everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0 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 \u2018we the people\u2019.\u00a0 Trump\u2019s siblings smelled something fishy and acted before it was too late.\u00a0 I hope the people of this country will do likewise.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"