Book: Too Much and Never Enough

My brother-in-law offered to lend me Mary Trump's book, I wouldn't have bought it for myself.  As expected it's full of catty little stories about Donald being a spoiled brat growing up, his mother didn't love him, his father encouraged his bullying, Donny hid his brother's Tonka trucks making him cry.  Yeah.

She writes with a huge grain of bitterness, never missing an opportunity to take swipes at her uncle, even when the facts contradict her narrative.  "Fair and balanced" it ain't. Yeah.

The trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional rich family.  Chauffeurs and weekends in the Bahamas don't make up for the lack of love and empathy.  Mary was "regifted" an expensive designer handbag, but it had a used Kleenex inside. Boo-hoo. Yeah.

The book is not helped by the family's lack of imagination in naming.  Mary Trump's grandmother (Donald's mother) is named Mary Trump, her father and grandfather and brother are all named Fred Trump, her sister and aunt are both Elizabeth Trump, Maryanne's husband (whose real name is Mary Anne) and son are both Davids.  Donald named his son Donald. Sometimes it gets hard to follow.

It's only a couple hundred pages and it's easy reading.

Donald is doing a lot more damage to himself than this book will.

In the book, Donald's daddy, Fred Trump, bailed him out every time he got in over his head.  Fred was a stern authoritarian, but he encouraged his son to take wild risks.

Fred Trump died June 25, 1999.

Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister of Russia on August 9, 1999.  He was a stern authoritarian, but encouraged Donald Trump by underwriting his immense losses and encouraging his extravagant excesses.

It's a classic case of "who's your daddy."

The one overwhelming takeaway from the book, a couple months after reading it, and after seeing Mary several times on MSNBC, is this:

Donald Trump has no friends.  He has business associates, he has employees, he has people who depend on him for their jobs (appointees).  But he has no friends.

And the people who know him the best are the most critical of him (if they're not in one of the above categories). The more you get to know him, the less you like him.