.jpg) | ||
| Author | Mary L. Trump | |
|---|---|---|
| Country | United States | |
| Language | English | |
| Subject | Donald Trump and his family | |
| Published | July 14, 2020 | |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster | |
| Pages | 240 | |
| ISBN | 9781982141462 (Hardcover) | |
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man is a tell-all book written by Mary L. Trump, a niece of Donald Trump. It was published on July 14, 2020, by Simon & Schuster. The book provides an insider look to the Trump family dynamics, reveals details about financial dealings, including the author's work as the anonymous source who revealed the suspected tax fraud to The New York Times. The Trump family launched a lawsuit attempting but failing to stop its publication.
Background
The book's author, Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist, is a daughter of Fred Trump Jr., and a granddaughter of Fred Trump Sr. She has taught graduate students in the subjects of trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. She has written a dissertation on stalking victims, conducted research on schizophrenia, and written parts of the prominent medical manual Diagnosis: Schizophrenia. Mary's father died in 1981 at the age of 42 from a heart attack due to alcoholism.
Following the death of Fred Sr. in 1999, Mary and her brother, Fred III, contested Fred Sr.'s will in probate court, claiming that Fred Sr. was suffering from dementia, and the will was "procured by fraud and undue influence" by Fred Sr.'s other children, Donald, Maryanne, and Robert.
A week later, Donald, Maryanne, and Robert terminated health insurance
coverage for Fred III's son, William, an 18-month old with epileptic spasms. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Mary said that her "aunt and uncles should be ashamed of themselves. I'm sure they are not." The suit was settled, with William's health insurance reinstated. Donald in 2016 explained his actions: "I was angry because they sued."
After her uncle's presidential campaign, Mary Trump came into contact with The New York Times, and provided boxes of tax documents from the Trump family as an anonymous source. The documents were used for a 2018 article that detailed financial fraud by Trump that won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner.
Barstow pursued Mary Trump with an offer to ghostwrite a book for her. He introduced her to Andrew Wylie,
his agent, who offered her a multi-million dollar advance. Craig and
Buettner were angry to find out about this, and the editors of the Times forbade Barstow from writing the book due to its ethical guidelines. She ended up working with Jay Mandel of WME, and sold her book to Simon & Schuster at an auction.
Synopsis
The
book takes the form of a chronological biography; while Donald Trump is
the stated focal point of the book, significant volume is devoted to
various individuals in the Trump family so as to shed the light on their
dynamics and related financial dealings. Drawing on her skills as a
clinical psychologist, the author attempts to provide the inner familial
workings as a background upon which to analyze Donald, but has avoided outright diagnosis.
In Part One: The Cruelty is the Point, the author describes the character of Fred Trump Sr.,
the older patriarch of the family, and attempts to elucidate how his
treatment of his children has a lasting impact on his family. Based on
stories gathered from family members, Mary diagnoses Fred Sr. as a
high-functioning sociopath who sought to use those around him for his
benefit. Donald, while observing his brother Fred Jr.
being torn down over his perceived shortfall, would adopt his nature to
avoid display of any sadness, weakness or kindness towards others. Mary states Fred's influence ensures that Donald would have limited access to his range of emotions. Their mother Mary is described as physically and mentally challenged during the children’s formative years as a result of illness.
Later in her life, she would reveal to Mary that she was relieved when
Donald was sent to military school, as he has become belligerent and
disobedient towards her.
In Part Two: The Wrong Side of the Tracks, the author
chronicles the early career of Donald Trump. She observes that since
Fred never reached the fame he considers deserving of his business
acumen, he was happy to allow his son to play the public face while he
takes care of the actual work by heavily leaning on political and other
connections.
Meanwhile, Fred Jr. sees that after being unfairly blamed for the
collapse of large housing projects, he is sidelined by his brother
Donald and thus chose to leave the family business to pursue a career as
a commercial pilot.
The family's constant denigration of his chosen profession contributed
to his struggles with alcoholism and other issues, leading to both his
pilot career and marriage breaking down.
He eventually died due to a heart attack in a hospital away from
family, while his parents waited at home and his brother Donald was at a
movie theater.
In Part Three: Smoke and Mirrors, the author details how
as the influence of Fred Sr. waned, Donald Trump struggles to operate
his business without the knowledge and connections his father provides.
Mary describes Donald as an inept businessman that was able to keep up
appearances only due to his associates’ unwillingness to tear down the
facade, as they see his fame and notoriety as an asset. At one point Donald has to negotiate with his creditors for a monthly allowance of $450,000.
Mary also focuses on how the family turned on her after Fred Sr.’s
death, choosing to cut off the health insurance of her brother and her,
resulting in precarious conditions for her brother's child. Mary decides
to settle by allowing the rest of the family to buy out her partnership
of a family corporation at what she understands to be a significant
undervaluation. She eventually learned the true value of her family's then wealth by acting as an anonymous source in the Pulitzer-winning New York Times investigation.
In Part Four: The Worse Investment Ever Made, the author
provides her view during the period when Donald Trump mounted a
successful campaign for the US presidency. Mary again draws on her
psychologist training to claim that her grandfather Fred Sr. is the
beginning of a direct line to more power actors, all enabling Donald's
worst instincts to serve their respective needs.
She states that, due to Trump's psychological capacity being forcefully
stopped from fully developing since his young age, he remains extremely
susceptible to manipulation by more powerful local and foreign actors.
Allegations
The book reportedly covers how Mary provided The New York Times with confidential tax documents from the Trump family, resulting in the Times
alleging that Donald engaged in fraud, as well as reporting that Donald
transferred approximately $413 million from his father's real estate
businesses to aid his own struggling businesses during the 1990s. The book also accuses Donald of paying a friend, named Joe Shapiro, to take the SAT for him.
Mary says in the book that Donald and Fred Sr. neglected her father and
contributed to his death from alcoholism, and that Donald later
disparaged and disregarded Fred Sr. upon the onset of Fred Sr.'s Alzheimer's disease.
Release
Simon & Schuster initially set a release date of August 11, 2020, and gave the exclusive report about it to The Daily Beast, which published an article about the book on June 15. Two days later, the book reached No. 5 on Amazon's bestseller list. The response to the article led them to move the publication date up to July 28.
On July 6, Simon & Schuster announced that they had moved the
publication date to July 14 as a result of "high demand and
extraordinary interest", which had led it to surpass The Room Where It Happened as the No. 1 bestseller on Amazon. On July 17, 2020, Simon & Schuster announced that the book had sold more than 950,000 copies in pre-orders by its publication date, a new record for the publisher.
Donald Trump, according to The Daily Beast, discussed the possibility of taking legal action against Mary. Donald told Axios that Mary had previously signed a "very powerful" non-disclosure agreement that "covers everything", therefore according to Donald, she was "not allowed to write a book".
Robert Trump filed suit on June 23, attempting to secure a
preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order to block
publication, citing Mary's non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
In a hearing on June 25, Judge Peter J. Kelly of the Queens County
Surrogate Court in New York City dismissed the case over lack of
jurisdiction. Robert took his case to a general trial court, the New York Supreme Court in Dutchess County,
where on June 30, Justice Hal B. Greenwald ordered a temporary stay of
the release of the book, while setting a hearing for July 10 to decide
whether the book should be permanently blocked from publication.
A New York appellate justice, Alan D. Scheinkman, on July 1, reversed
the lower court’s decision, finding that Simon & Schuster was not a
party to the NDA, was not subject to prior restraint and pre-publication
injunction considering the First Amendment, ruling that Simon &
Schuster could proceed to publish the book pending a hearing on July 10,
leaving Mary enjoined from book sale activities, and leaving open the
question of whether Mary had violated the NDA.
On July 2, 2020, Mary filed a sworn affidavit alleging she was not
bound by the NDA clause in the Settlement Agreement for numerous
reasons, including that the asset "valuations...in...the Settlement
Agreement...were fraudulent."
On July 13, Justice Greenwald issued a ruling affirming Simon &
Schuster's right to continue to publish the book, and finding Mary,
under her contract with Simon & Schuster, had no ability to halt
publication, that it would have been “moot” to order her to stop
publication of a book that “has been published and distributed in great
quantities” already. The justice also suggested the case was
additionally weak because it was brought by Robert, while the book
focused largely on his brother Donald, the president. Robert could still
attempt to seek monetary damages from Mary, but as of the ruling date
it was uncertain if he intended to do so.
Reception
The
book received generally positive reviews. Critics praise the author for
drawing on both her clinical psychologist background and knowledge of
familial history to produce a standout work in the Trump tell-all genre. Jennifer Szalai of The New York Times praises the author's courage and determination, describing the book as "written from pain and is designed to hurt," the latter part of the characterization Mary later rejects. The LA Times
contrasts the book with other work on Trump's presidency, stating the
emphatic manner with which the author approached the subject makes for a
unique take. The Atlantic
agrees with the author's observation that Donald Trump has allowed for
similarly toxic family dynamics to be brought to the national stage. David Aaronovitch of The Times
notes the book is in large part a biography of Fred Trump Sr., and
notes that by shaping Donald definitively the old patriarch's presence
in some way looms largely over modern political history. Chris Taylor of Mashable is more critical, observing that the author makes sweeping claims while sometimes contradicting herself.
