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Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Kindle Edition
Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who occupied the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.
A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.
Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateJuly 14, 2020
- File size2173 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Mesmerizing beach reading and a memorable opposition research dump...It is salacious, venomous and well-sourced...Yet the narrative remains compelling." —The Guardian
"A delicious tell-all that does in fact tell all in a way one longs for a tell-all to do.” —Vogue
"Dripping with snideness, vibrating with rage, and gleaming with clarity—a deeply satisfying read." —Kirkus (starred review)
"Mary Trump’s compelling saga of one very unhappy family does more than just provide probing insights into her uncle’s disturbing inner world. It’s also a first-rate primer on the chaotic inner workings of an administration that has shocked the world by failing to take the basic steps required to keep Americans safe during the coronavirus pandemic. —Boston Globe
"After many, many Trump books, this is an essential one." —Vanity Fair
"[A] deftly written account of cross-generational trauma...Mary Trump brings to this account the insider perspective of a family member, the observational and analytical abilities of a clinical psychologist and the writing talent of a former graduate student in comparative literature." —Washington Post
Mary’s clarity, training, discipline and sharp eye help make her a reliable narrator, and she’s a fluid, witty writer to boot…She’s a true insider in an era when “insider” accounts of the president are a dime-a-dozen — and that what she’s written is likely to be indelible.—Bloomberg
"Mary L. Trump comes closer than anyone to describing the making of a seemingly heartless person who won his way to the White House...[A]n insightful, well-crafted memoir"—CNN
"You can see why President Trump doesn’t want anyone to read this thing. It gives the lie to many of his most cherished myths about himself."—Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Mary L. Trump holds a PhD from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies and taught graduate courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. She lives with her daughter in New York.
Product details
- ASIN : B0881YDNDD
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (July 14, 2020)
- Publication date : July 14, 2020
- Language : English
- File size : 2173 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 236 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #21,924 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #11 in Biographies of US Presidents
- #19 in Biographies of Political Leaders
- #103 in Memoirs (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book well-written, easy to read, and coherent. They say it provides a deeper understanding of Donald Trump and is profound, fascinating, and thought-provoking. Readers praise the writing quality as articulate, witty, and tightly summarized. They also describe the author as courageous and uncompromising. However, some find the narrative rambling, repetitive, and hollow. Opinions differ on the suspense, with some finding it scary and disturbing, while others say it's all too real and frightening.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book well-written, interesting, and easy to read. They say it presents a coherent story, view, and analysis of Donald Trump. Readers also mention the book comes across as honest and factual.
"...Everything that the author points out is accurate and timely! A very good explanation for DJT's behavior! I say blame his father!" Read more
"A quick interesting read. Well written. Great insight into Trump's immediate family and childhood...." Read more
"...It's proving to be an interesting read, and well-worth the 17 $ cost.There is NO 'Drama'..." Read more
"...I want to be done talking about him, but this book was fantastic and deserves the attention...." Read more
Customers find the book profound, fascinating, and informative. They say it presents everything objectively. Readers also mention that the author is scholarly and reflective.
"This is the most incredible insight into DJT! Everything that the author points out is accurate and timely!..." Read more
"...Unlike him she is kind and articulate. She unfolds facts with a patient hand without exaggerations but she's reluctantly forced in her telling, to..." Read more
"...It is an important addition, timely story that could not have been told by anybody other than Mary. You'll see why...." Read more
"...Positives:1. A well-written concise book.2. An interesting topic, insights into the family dysfunctions of Donald J. Trump.3...." Read more
Customers find the writing quality of the book very well-written and easy to read. They say the author is articulate, has an eye for telling details, and makes a clear study. Readers also mention the book is thorough and well-referenced.
"...Everything that the author points out is accurate and timely! A very good explanation for DJT's behavior! I say blame his father!" Read more
"...No, this is not a gossipy tell-all but a reasoned and thoughtful account of what she saw and heard growing up a Trump and what she saw and heard as..." Read more
"A quick interesting read. Well written. Great insight into Trump's immediate family and childhood...." Read more
"...Unlike him she is kind and articulate...." Read more
Customers find the book courageous, honest, and uncompromising. They appreciate the family anecdotes with insight and intimacy. Readers also mention the author adds enough personal details about family members.
"...fascinatingly fast read, Mary L.'s writing is to be admired for its honesty and lack of tawdry gossip and sensationalism...." Read more
"Congratulations to the bravery, honesty and professionalism of Mary L. Trump. This confirms what many of us have already suspected all along...." Read more
"...The reason being that it was well supported and tangible yet new information to me...." Read more
"...The author assails her uncle as a petty, pathetic little man—ignorant, incapable, out of his depth, and lost in his own delusional spin...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the suspenseful book. Some mention it's scary but informative, while others say it's disturbing and full of personal grievances.
"...The book is very readable and tells a sad but interesting story of a truly screwed up family." Read more
"...To use Donald Trump's favorite word, these are very nasty people--nasty, cold, cruel and criminal...." Read more
"No matter your political persuasion this fact checked biography is frightening...." Read more
"...What is most extraordinary, the author does not give in to hyperbole (unless quoting her Uncle), nor does she intrude on the story itself with the..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the empathy in the book. Some mention it's compassionate, human, and deeply sad. However, others say the author lacks empathy and is narcissistic.
"...a unique personality of emotional and verbal bullying, a complete lack of empathy, and a narcissistic personality rooted in never receiving the love..." Read more
"...Mary analyzes how Donald came to be the way he is: greedy, selfish, and mean.The story is, Donald’s father (Fred Trump Sr.)..." Read more
"...Perhaps most crucially, for Donald there is no value in empathy, no tangible upside to caring for other people...." Read more
"...Overall, this book is a nice blend of humor, psychology 101, sadness, and "cautionary tales" making it hard to put down...." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the value for money of the book. Some mention it's worth buying, while others say it's not worth the time and money.
"...It's proving to be an interesting read, and well-worth the 17 $ cost.There is NO 'Drama'..." Read more
"...for a $14... something for an electronic version of the book, it is overpriced...." Read more
"...Still, it shows the positive side of cheapness, the thrifty, resourceful, waste-not-want-not side...." Read more
"...it is not worth the time and money to buy in my opinion." Read more
Customers find the story repetitive, rambling, and boring at times. They also say the story doesn't flow properly and is hard to follow at times. Readers also mention the book is incomprehensible and unseemly.
"...The book reads like a lonely, hollow story in which no one connects with anyone else really...." Read more
"...Theirs is not an enviable tale...." Read more
"...It's not just that the narrative is sad and dreadful, it's that it has the epic scope of a Greek tragedy...." Read more
"...One concern to give pause to, is how damning this book is in its timing...." Read more
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Any American who cares about the state of our democracy today or the future of the country since Donald J. Trump stepped into the Oval Office should read Mary L. Trump's tale of a poster family of dysfunction – malignant family dysfunction.
A disheartening, but fascinatingly fast read, Mary L.'s writing is to be admired for its honesty and lack of tawdry gossip and sensationalism. Readers who expect any of that from this book will be sorely disappointed.
She's the no-nonsense narrator of a saga, just laying it all out for the world to see.
No doubt, it couldn't have been easy.
The outright villain of the story is Fred Trump, the pater familias. Mary portrays him as a ruthless businessman with a killer instinct who sought and took every advantage to achieve wealth, his only life’s ambition. He was the sole authority in his family of two daughters and three sons. The author shows him as a man whose wife counted for nothing and portrays her as not much of a parent either. There was obviously no love in this family.
Mary, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president's older brother, who died in 1981 at the age of 42. She was 16 years when her father died of an alcohol related illness.
It became time for the rise of Daddy's favorite, Donald, who Mary said has "the killer instinct that Fred Trump Sr. so much admired."
Donald was Fred’s clone in almost all respects, save for one big one. But when Freddy washed out as the logical heir to the Trump companies and fortune – his heart wasn’t in real estate, he wanted to fly planes -- Fred went to Donald, who was even meaner than Fred – they were both, at the very least, sociopaths (Mary Trump prefers the term “high functioning sociopaths” to the term so many writers use about the Trumps, “malignant sociopaths”) – and, irony of ironies, as it turned out, Donald was a terrible businessman skilled only at losing money, not making it. THAT was the big, glaring difference between Killer Don and Killer Fred.
But he was flamboyant, Donny was, and he garnered a lot of press. Fred Trump loved the media attention his next-to-youngest child got. Mary Trump writes that Fred collected every news clipping that mentioned Donald and piled it high on tables.
People asked Mary Trump why she didn't tell her story before the 2016 election, thinking it may have changed the outcome then. But she competently explains why.
The gist is that too many people – like Fred and his news clippings and viewers of the popular "The Apprentice" reality tv show – might not have believed one iota of what she had to say, and that others would probably have dismissed her as a disinherited and disgruntled family member devastated by the ugly treatment her father received.
Mary lays out some facts in her book, too: the Trumps got many breaks, from government loans and political connections. In fact Fred Trump depended very much on these two examples of largesse; there was always the rumor, too, of alleged mob connections; and then there was the media, a fawning press that thought Donald was a scream, such good, funny copy, and made much of everything Donald Trump’s touched and did in order to sell more newspapers. Mary Trump adds how important power/dominance was to Fred Trump, and the keystone to what he taught his children.
“The person with the power (no matter how arbitrarily that power was conferred or attained) got to decide what was right and wrong."
Additional revelations from Mary's book: the Trumps did not like paying taxes and there is still much, it is said, to be uncovered about their financial dealings/manipulations and about the alleged setting up of dummy companies that might have hidden their massive profits.
New York Times investigative reporters, who first broke the story of the Trump family financial shenanigans – and told it so well – got the help of Mary, who took it upon herself to share private financial documents with them in 2018. She had debated doing this when first approached by these reporters and then realized it was her duty to expose the dealings
The author happens to be a licensed clinical psychologist whose specialty is psychopathology. She readily concedes Donald Trump is a sociopath and a narcissist who could not think more highly of himself, but she stops there, saying that his personality is much more complex and unknowable than any of us realizes, as he would never sit down for the battery of tests that would reveal the true story of what he is and why he behaves the way he does.
Hers is a scathing assessment of her uncle, but she is always controlled in her writings and in what conclusions she draws, leaving the reader to decide for themselves. No, this is not a gossipy tell-all but a reasoned and thoughtful account of what she saw and heard growing up a Trump and what she saw and heard as an adult (with a PhD in psychology behind her) interacting with her family.
She writes that her uncle “understands nothing about history, constitutional principles, geopolitics, diplomacy (or anything else, really.)” She never actually believed he could be elected president, as many of did not. But the morning after the 2016 vote was in, she shares with us her shock at hearing her "awful uncle" is now President of the United States, with almost 63 million voters who “had chosen to turn this country into a macro version of my malignantly dysfunctional family.”
This is not a pleasant read – the citing of the taking away of medical insurance from a terribly ill baby is repellent, as is the lack of love, the utter nastiness, shown to Freddy Trump’s family -- his wife and children -- and how the remaining family members after Fred Trump Sr.’s death cheated those family members out of the trust fund Fred had set up that they should have inherited. Meanwhile, they – the four remaining siblings -- further enriched themselves.
But suffice it to say, that after the lawsuits trying to prevent this powerful book from publication, the deed is done and the awfulness of the Trump family is exposed as a matter of record. There is no talking back – no explanations that will wash – at how repellently and malignantly they behaved to family members not in step with them.
But maybe Mary Trump has the last laugh. In the past week, the new book, titled "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," has sold more than 1.35 million copies, according to publisher Simon and Schuster.
I think her take is too extreme, too black/white. Trump doesn't seem as dysfunctional as she implies.
(But first,..a quote from the book's beginning, because this pretty much sums up her reason for writing the book) :
"If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed.
The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.
~ Victor Hugo, 'Les Miserables'
.......................................................................................................................
It's proving to be an interesting read, and well-worth the 17 $ cost.
There is NO 'Drama'
She writes calmly pulls her reader into her world/trump world,... with a gentle hand.
She is not inclined to jab her finger accusingly or carelessly,... she simply walks ahead and acts as a guide,... her opinions are based on careful research and personal observations across the many years.
In the 75 pages I've read in the last two days, she merely seeks to explain the road her uncle has traveled and, as a trained psychologist, paint a clear picture of the world and PPL who shaped him to become what he's become. She's not really blaming him for his mixed-signal beginnings,... but she wants it known that we are shaped young by the world around us, primarily our parents, who were first of all shaped by their own,... So she provides a pretty amazing history going back a far as the beginnings of her grandparents,... especially on her father's/uncle's side. The man who shapes his son, who turns around and shapes his own. She explains that her uncle learned/was exposed to much that would twist his perception of the world and his future place in it.
Essentially she confirms a great deal about him that so many of us already believed, or at least suspected. Unlike him she is kind and articulate. She unfolds facts with a patient hand without exaggerations but she's reluctantly forced in her telling, to touch on the subject of his frequent cruelties and seemingly total lack of empathy or conscience.
I've seen where (before the book was released) a demand was made to know WHY she waited so long,... til NOW,... to write her book.
She explains that in the very Earliest of pages,... unlike him, she is not "doing it for the money" (which she's been accused by his camp of doing (I checked,... to date he supposedly has some (Google says 'At Least' 10) books in print,.. and he Has 'done-it-for-the-money' so That's a finger that shouldn't be pointed her way.
She's written it now because she is afraid of what will happen,... to our country and the PPL in it,... if he gets another term,.... she is terrified of what this cruel, un-feeling man will DO if he's allowed to do any more harm than he already has,...
It was the outbreak of the Covid Pandemic that finally forced her hand.
But back to the book's beginning (p.14)
She quotes lines from the 1994 film based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel, in which Dr. Frankenstein's (creation) says :
"I know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other"
She then adds a personal observation re. her uncle : " He doesn't plague himself with doubt about what he's creating around him. He is Proud of his (creature.)
He glories in it's anger and it's destruction and, while he cannot imagine its love, he believes with all his heart in it's rage. He is Frank. without conscience."







