Yet another book on Trump, but I liked the premise of this one, as it’s his own niece that wrote it. With a training as a psychologist, she can give a unique perspective on the guy, and het point of view is not the one of an angry betrayed Republican…
Discussion
There are four parts in the book, each containing 2 to 4 chapters. The first part tackles the childhood of the Trump family. From the death of the grandfather that started the fortune of the dynasty, we see how Trump’s older brother never was enough for Fred Trump. Even when issues arise that are outside his responsibilities, he would get blamed for it. The way he is described is fascinating, as a normal guy that is looking to get acknowledged by his father. Just your normal guy, but it’s already astonishing to see the rest of the dysfunctional family banding against him. Just amazing. But we see that the patriarch of the family hates any weakness, and that will shape Donal Trump.
The second part is about the late teens and early twenties for the two elder boys in the family. We can see how the system, fails to make Donald grow up and create a proper, grounded understanding of what a human being is. As his father is trusting him more and more, we also have hints about his cheating ways with the SAT story. The contrast is stark with Freddy who is never good enough, despite being a successful pilot, and the need for acknowledgement starts destroying him already.
In the third part, we see Donald true face even more. He gets the fame from others’ work, but he never gets the blame. I didn’t know he “wrote” books, but obviously someone else wrote them for him, lying about what really happened. But history is written by the victors, as they say, so even if he is a bad businessman (you don’t create businesses that kill your own business), he gets away with it. The New York Time story last week about this is a clear example. When his father dies, he manages to manipulate his siblings. Instead of keeping the Trump empire or making it grow, they sell it cheaply, and part of the family doesn’t even get their part (see the new lawsuit by Mary Trump on this, based on the content of this part). I can’t even understand how the rest of the siblings can agree with this.
In the last part, Mary Trump realizes how they got cheated during the inheritance as all the Trumps have dozens of million, except her and her side of the family. And we get to the election of 2016 and how she reacts to this. It takes some time, but she does get files to the New York Times. But that will never change what people think about Donal Trump. He is a liar, a cheat, but he fears showing weaknesses so much that people think that he is confident. But he is not.
Conclusion
As much as people want to believe Trump, facts show that he is the opposite of what you want in a politician and a leader. Religious leaders should be scared of such a guy, but white evangelical pastors seem to love him. Instead of listening to the Bible, which should be their reference, they forgot that one can’t serve two masters, Money and God, which means that their candidate is not what they should be betting on. Instead, there is a Catholic man, he may be old, sometimes have progressist ideas that don’t map to their own ideas and beliefs. So what? he’s still closer to their beliefs than Trump.
Well, this book was great. Mary Trump doesn’t condemn her uncle, she has all the empathy for him that he cannot give to anyone. The book shows the love that she has for her family but also the clear head that comes with a psychologist.