All In The Family: Dissing Don!

It's time to Break It Down!

It has seemed for years now that, we are living in an alternate universe. However, taking nothing away from the last three years of the Twenty-teens (2017-2019), 2020 has been downright other worldly. When the House of Representatives voted on December 18, to impeach Donald Trump (230-197 on one Resolution accusing abuse of power, and 229-198 on another, alleging obstruction of Congress), no one I know imagined that in six months, for most Americans, impeachment would have virtually disappeared from the daily narrative of news cycles, not because we’d have returned to some sense of normalcy, at least as far as the Trump era is concerned, but because a pandemic, the likes of which the world hadn’t seen in more than a century (1918), had roiled our nation and the world.

There are folks, most notably Donald Trump and his loyalists, who will tell you full-throatedly, that the pandemic is over. Both he and they insist that he has navigated the currents of the pandemic expertly, and that he has been right on everything from asserting the prophylactic effects of hydroxychloroquine to lauding the curative powers of human ingestion and/or, injection of disinfectants. Keep in mind, that on February 26, Mr. Trump boasted, “You have 15 people, and the 15, within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. By April 28^th, there had been a million confirmed cases in the United States. Today, cases exceed three million, and over 130,000 have died from the disease. Moreover, through yesterday, the number of cases was rising in 37 states, and falling in only 4 states, all in New England.

But, as you were probably able to glean from the title, above, COVID-19 is not the focus of this post. No, it looks as though we are about to see another Trump centric book drop, this one courtesy of a family member. Mr. Trump’s niece, Mary Trump has written new book, entitled, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," It’s scheduled to hit the shelves next Tuesday.

As with a number of books about Donald Trump, Trump, or those close to him launched a series of legal gymnastics to halt publication of the book. Like John Bolton’s tome, last month, efforts to scuttle release of the book were unsuccessful. Bolton’s book dished about numerous insider details from the Trump administration. Ms. Trump’s insights also originate come from a proximate perspective, but one based not on political connections, but familial ties.

Mary Trump is the daughter of Donald Trump’s now deceased elder brother, Fred Trump, Jr. Ms. Trump has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and is a licensed clinical psychologist. She assails Trump in the book with scathing criticism on a number of fronts, including:

·      Labeling him a sociopath

·      Charging him with hubris and willful ignorance

·      Asserting he used complicity, silence and inaction to destroy her father

·      Accusing him of displaying a blatant sociopathic disregard for hum life in his response to the coronavirus, as well as throughout his business career, the handling of her father’s struggles with alcoholism, and dysfunction and infighting within the family

·      Comparing him to an unloved 3-year-old with a fragile ego, in constant need of bolstering because he knows he is not what he claims to be

·      Alleging that he enlisted and paid a smart kid (whom she names) to take his SAT, due to concerns about his grades

·      Claiming that Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, accused Trump of using the death of Fred, Jr. for political purposes, by citing it while addressing the Opioid crisis

·      Describing Trump’s rise in NY Real Estate as predicated on his father’s financial support, which was necessary due to Donald’s shortcomings

·      Citing Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn as the catalyst for some of his notable current behaviors, including dishonesty and lack of empathy

·      Characterizing Donald’s relationship with Fred, Sr., as akin to the border wall to Donald; a vanity project funded at the expense of more worthy pursuits

The ten items above are just a few of the nuggets included in Dr. Trump’s book. I’m not promoting the book, or, using this post as an occasion to get in any extra digs at Mr. Trump. Rather this piece is to elevate one more point of view regarding the phenomenon that is Donald Trump. Buy it, don’t buy it; the choice is yours. Obviously, I don’t get a red cent from the proceeds, so I really couldn’t care less. What I am vested it, is spreading the news from any available vantage point about the principal occupant of the White House.

As a counterpoint, White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Matthews, said of the book, “It’s clearly in the author’s own financial self-interest.” She added, of the allegation Trump had someone else take his SAT’s, that is was “absurd” and “completely false.” Considering the many self-aggrandizing references Mr. Trump makes to himself being a big-brained stable genius, this particular point must be one Donald Trump finds deeply irritating. As for Mary Trump’s personal financial interest being served, well, duh! That’s hardly an argument against the basic claims laid out by Ms. Trump.

The first link below will take you to a story that gives more detail about the Simon and Schuster book. Clearly, there are a lot of people who want you to know, what they know, about Donald Trump, as we head to November, and much ballyhooed most important election in our lives. There have been and will be lots of books written about Presidents. It’s fair to say there may never have been one quite like this; written by, not just a close associate of a sitting President, but by a close family member who has known the principal, up close and person, for decades. No matter what one thinks of Donald Trump, nor of Mary Trump’s motives, she has been privy to some of the most intimate long-term family dynamics of the Trump family. She has told her story, and from all pre-release accounts, it’s not a pretty tale. “All In The Family: Dissing Don!”

I’m done; holla back!

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Consult the links below for more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/politics/mary-trump-book-donald-trump/index.html

https://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2020/07/all-in-family-dissing-don.html