In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and
the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical
psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the
dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became
the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security,
and social fabric.
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 currently occupies 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.