I just finished "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man by [Mary L. Trump]" It was more about the incredible toxic effect of Donald's father, Fred Trump, than Donald himself. I always wondered what kind of father Fred Trump was to have his oldest son die of despair and alcoholism and the age of 42, and his next son, Donald, be such a cruel, self centered, heartless monster. Well, she answers the question.
The main point of the book is that the father forced Donald to cut off all human feeling - sympathy, empathy, compassion, caring for the feelings or well being of others were a form of weakness. And it was clear that weakness was severely punished with ridicule, humiliation, disapproval, personal destruction. Indeed, the first son, Freddie, was too human to take on the legacy of his father's cruel real estate empire, failed continuously in his cruel father's eyes, and was a crushed human being who tried to escape the tyranny by becoming a pilot. It wasn't enough, he couldn't escape and disappeared into alcoholism and early death.
Next in line, was the second son, Donald. Donald knew just one thing, don't be like his older brother, Freddy. So Donald's only way of surviving his cruel father was to be like his father - fight back, be more cruel, be more heartless, be less a feeling human being, be more driven to expand the cruelty and greed of his father. He succeeded in becoming his father's path to conserving and extending his financial empire.
So, Donald went off into the real estate business, and became the personification of his father's mythology. The myth was that Donald was a brash entrepreneur who had giant visions and achieved great wealth. Well, the reality beneath the myth was that his father had the political and financial contacts that made the deals in New York real estate - connections, tax breaks, the entire hidden infrastructure that made it all possible.
And then, Donald made a dumb mistake. He believed the myth about himself and he went off to New Jersey and bought three casinos. But he was without the only thing that had given him any success in New York - his father's connections and management talent needed to make it work.
He went bankrupt. He failed, but his failure could be twisted in his childish mind into success because the people who suffered were his vendors, his workers, his bankers - other people. And what did he care about other people? He was formed by his cruel father to see other people as having no value other than how they could make him money, or in Donald's case, fame.
By the way, Mary Trump was the source of the huge trove of financial documents for the New York Times investigative article showing that Dondald inherited over $450 million from his father. His myth of being a self made man was just smoke and mirrors.
She doesn't go into Donald's other bankruptcies, but they are the true record of his inability to run anything:
1. Trump Steaks
2. GoTrump
3. Trump Airlines
4. Trump Vodka
5. Trump Mortgage
6. Trump: The Game
7. Trump Magazine
8. Trump University
9. Trump Ice
10. The New Jersey Generals
11. Tour de Trump
12. Trump Network
13. Trumped!
Trump companies that sought bankruptcy protection:
1. Trump Taj Mahal
2. Trump’s Castle
3. Trump Plaza Casinos
4. Trump Plaza Hotel
5. Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts
6. Trump Entertainment Resorts
So, what is her message from her book? She opened the book with a quote from Victor Hugo saying that one who is raised in loveless and cruel darkness is less responsible for the sins committed than the one who was the darkness in the first place. The villain of the book is Donald's father, Fred Trump. Donald is his victim. His older brother Freddie was the first son crushed by his father, and his second son, Donald, became a twisted monster of incompetence and cruelty as his second victim.
In the end, Donald is what he has always been, a terrified three year old. And everything he does, from blaming others, to his astonishing levels of grandiosity and over-hyping everything (the best, the greatest, the biggest, the grandest, the most historic, etc.)- it is delusional, and it is compensation to protect one of the most fragile and twisted egos in the country.
