Have you noticed that the American public seems especially hungry for any tell-all book which spills stale tea on Donald Trump? It’s happened time and time again, especially with former members of the Trump administration, all of whom knew what they were getting into and all of whom claim that they eventually “lost faith” with Trump months or years later. None of those people are heroic in the least. I kind of feel the same way about Mary Trump, Donald Trump’s niece (daughter of Trump’s older brother Fred Jr.). Mary has written a tell-all book about their family called Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.. The book is already a massive success, like all anti-Trump books, and within the first week, more than 950,000 books were sold. As I said, I don’t think Mary Trump is a hero, and maybe she doesn’t think of herself that way either. Her brand seems to be “telling it like it is.” I guess? Mary sat down with the Washington Post to talk about her family, the book and why she didn’t come out in 2016. Some highlights:
The Trump family soap opera, writ large: She says watching the country’s leadership devolve into “a macro version of my incredibly dysfunctional family” was one of the factors that compelled her to write her book. Much like in her extended family, Mary Trump said, a similar dynamic [to how Fred Trump, “a sociopath,” terrorized his family] is now playing out on the national stage, with Trump simultaneously possessing “an unerring instinct for finding people who are weaker than he is,” while also being “eminently usable by people who are stronger and savvier than he is” and eager to exploit him.
On Trump’s racism: Assessing the current moment, in which Trump has amplified racism and stoked the flames of white grievance and resentment, Mary Trump said that the president is “clearly racist,” but that his behavior stems from a combination of upbringing and political cynicism. “It comes easily to him and he thinks it’s going to score him points with the only people who are continuing to support him,” she said. Mary Trump said that growing up in her family, her experience was one of “a knee-jerk anti-Semitism, a knee-jerk racism…Growing up, it was sort of normal to hear them use the n-word or use anti-Semitic expressions.”
Who she blames: Within the Trump family, Fred Trump was the chief enabler. But now in the White House, Mary Trump said, the blame starts with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner — both senior advisers — but expands more broadly to include his “chiefs of staff who went along thinking that they could have some kind of influence, only to find that they didn’t.” Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is “perfectly willing to put up with all sorts of egregious behavior to get his own agenda through,” she said.
On Ivanka in particular: Asked about the perception by some that Ivanka Trump is in some ways a steadying force on her father, Mary Trump said that was not her assessment of her cousin in the slightest. “I think she’s the one who disproves that on an almost-daily basis. She doesn’t do anything. She spouts bromides on social media, but either she tries to have an impact and fails, or just isn’t interested in having an impact. I can’t think of one thing she’s done to show that she’s moderate or a moderating influence.”
Why she didn’t come forward in 2016: Mary Trump writes that she considered coming forward to try to stop Trump’s election during the summer of 2016, and ultimately decided against doing so — a decision she doesn’t regret, in part because she believes nothing could have prevented his election then. “I’d seen enough in the last few years to know that no one thing is going to make a bit of difference. This is going to be — using the expression loosely — death by a thousand lashes, right, and maybe in this case it’s going take a million lashes, so it’s more about adding to the record of egregious things that have happened and for which there has been no accountability. But more than that, I also felt a responsibility to make sure that people are as informed as possible when November comes, because I do not believe that was the case in 2016 at all.”
I mean… she’s right? She tells a story of being at dinner with the extended Trump family back in 2017, months after Trump’s election, and it feels kind of clear that the reason she didn’t come forward in 2016 was because she was still on the “inside” of the family. So that’s questionable. But everything else she says feels true. Especially the “death by a thousand lashes” – there will be no silver bullet, clearly, to getting Trump and his cronies out of power. There is no one turning point, no one story. It will have to be the accumulation of death, destruction, racism, misogyny, hate, white supremacy, baby cages, and all of these tell-all books. And yes, Ivanka is the f–king worst.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I just keep hoping the stress of the office is really REALLY getting to him.
I hope he will be voted out, but I worry.
It’s going to come down to the Republicans who aren’t trumpers to vote for Biden. So maybe this book will help that.
Nagini as “moderating force” was nothing more than a marketing ploy she handed to Maggie Haberman to help sell Orange Voldemort to white women and moderate men and people bought it because, to quote John Oliver, she looks like she smells nice. She supports everything he does fully and she loves sending the shrillest dog whistles to his racist base. Meanwhile, she is robbing our Treasury and using her office and our tax money to set up lucrative deals for herself in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, India, Brazil, and yes, China
Eh, she looks like she smells like cloying perfume and poor taste.
LP – never change, never surrender!!
She put out the image of being a more liberal, moderating force backed up by the Jackie O. couture and styling in the beginning. When she saw her public support from the more liberally minded going up in flames, she simply changed her image like she changes her clothes. Now she styles herself to resemble a sister wife as she panders to the right. She is looking to be president too. She and her father are so much alike–they have no allegiance to anything but themselves.
LP,why do you call her Nagini? I missed that one.
I believe her as well. This book is hitting a hell of a lot more different that those other idiots that worked and then left thinking we were interested in them.
I watched her interview on Maddow and the excerpts really are something else. I mean, we knew but to get first hand context from someone literally inside the family was all the more damning. Mary is not sour grapes. I don’t buy that for a minute.
Also, remember when this clown announced his run and who came out of the woodwork and was talking to any and everyone not to vote for this man, Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer of The Art of The Deal. That man told us everyday for 18 months not to vote for this man.
If no one listed to the man, why would they have listened to Mary.
Right? If they didn’t believe his ghost writer, why would they believe his previously disinherited relative?
She hasn’t said as much, but as someone who’s had to cut off toxic family members, I have to believe that at least one of the reasons she didn’t come forward in 2016 is that doing so would have required her to engage with a level of toxicity unheard of outside of Chernobyl. You do what you have to do to protect yourself and your sanity. I’m glad for her, that she’s no longer part of that family.
I like Mary Trump and agree that releasing this book in 2016 would not have mattered. His supporters are like him, and enough people, especially Democrats and media people, didn’t take Trump’s candidacy seriously enough. And people like Susan Sarandon and Rosario Dawson and their ilk threw their support behind candidates who were just splitting the vote and had no chance of winning. Bernie Sanders may have won, but he wasn’t a real Democrat, so the party leaders didn’t want to support him. And his supporters tend to say that they will vote Trump rather than follow a democrat.
Our populace doesn’t care about how representative government works. Nobody gets everything that they want in representative government, and white male leadership wins because their people vote. We could change it, but enough liberals don’t vote. Now, that everything is gerrymandered into pieces, it will be hard to get back the gains made by the civil rights movement and the women’s movement. The civil rights movement brought a lot of voters, but the people who remember are dying off. It’s up to young people, so I hope that they accept the responsibility.
I may read this book. Hmmm
Kaiser, I agree with you that these tell-all books are not heroic. Don’t we know enough about this idiot family by now? That said, points to Mary for at least speaking out. I won’t be buying the book, so I’m not sure if she goes into any detail on how Fred Trump made his living–is she just presenting him as a “real estate guy?” I’d like to know if she admits the family wealth is based on criminal activity.
She does discuss a bit about the family business but the book is really about the family dynamics and how they were passed down to Trump and to a lesser degree his siblings. She also wrote about her father so that people could understand who he was and the demons he dealt with. She is a psychologist so that is what she really focused on.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why she went into her profession. He dad seemed like he just got ground down by that toxic family machine. It’s telling that Donald doesn’t drink because of his brother but embraces the forces that helped drive him into a fatal addiction.
I just hope we can survive to November 3….
Bromides. Lmao.
I read the book and I think what really got her to write this book is that Trump used her father in his public discussions on opioid abuse (once he was in office). Donald and his father were terrible to Mary’s father his whole life. When he died the family wouldn’t even speak his name. Donald wanted Mary and her brother disinherited (not what the grandfather wanted) and he pushed for that when his dad died. She wasn’t really considered part of the family since their grandfather died and she dared to question the inheritance so I don’t think she was not on the “inside”. She grew up in an abusive family (you can be rich and still experience abuse) so no one should demand that she speak out about her experiences on their timeline. She felt ready to share now. I have a few friends I have recommended this book to because I see the same sort of toxic family dynamic as Mary experienced where it’s bad but because they were wealthy (with the best of the best) they feel they don’t have the right speak out about the abuse
I think she’s right about it not mattering. I knew the story of him threatening to kick off his nephew from the foundation health insurance if he didn’t play ball. Despite the fact the nephew’s kid had serious illnesses. That was published years before the election. I never understood why it wasn’t at least emphasized by HC given that healthcare is always a big issue. That and how much he screwed over contractors. It could’ve swayed enough blue collar voters in the three states it mattered in. But without it being emphasized by the DNC and Clinton it didn’t matter. It’s like Weinstein. The stories were there but it took certain voices to really push it to the forefront. I don’t think Mary doing it would’ve mattered.
Weinstein went to great lengths to prevent those stories coming out. Scary lengths, both legal and illegal. Take a look at Ronan Farrow’s book or listen to some of his podcasts, which are free. The girl who accused Trump of raping her, dropped her lawsuit because she got death threats. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this was also part of the reason she didn’t publish the book when he was going strong.
Ivanka and daddy are getting people to look that one up for them as we type, lol.
Ivanka and Jared have no intention of leaving. This is very serious, they have to go. On top of all the hell we are paying because of Trump they have every intention of Ivanka being the first female president. No, just no. Vote blue all the way through. We must get the Senate back, take the house and oust this family en masse. Or they will be our legacy, and that would be shameful! Take care, and here’s hoping to better times for us all.
I still feel you should separate Mary Trump from the clowns who willingly took a job and knew what they were getting themselves into. As opposed to someone who is born in the Trump family not by choice. I haven’t read Mary’s book but i feel it’s personal. Standing up to the abuse in that family, standing up and calling out for the mistreatment of her father and his family.