Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. Trump
Rating: 3.0 / 5 · Read · Finished 2021-02-14
I read this after Trump was banned from Twitter and Biden had moved in to the white house. I guess I missed hearing about Trump every day (like that SNL skit “What are we going to talk about?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bII8AH5t6zI). But about a third of the way through this book, I had to ask myself if I care enough about this family to learn all about their history.
I think my main takeaway s that Donald Trump was mainly successful by appearing successful. Summed up by this quote:
“Ironically, as Donald’s failures in real estate grew, so did my grandfather’s need for him to appear successful. Fred surrounded Donal with people who knew what they were doing while giving him the credit; who propped him up and lied for him; who knew who the family business worked. The more money my grandfather threw at Donald, the more confidence Donald had, which led him to pursue bigger and riskier projects, which led to greater failures, forcing Fred to step in with more help. By continuing to enable Donald, my grandfather kept making him worse: more needy for media attention and free money, more self-aggrandizing and delusional about his ‘greatness.’”