Alex Henderson

Here Are 5 of the Most Stunning Details from Mary Trump’s Tell-All Book

      

 ALEX HENDERSON, ALTERNET, July 8, 2020 

As hard as her uncle, Robert Trump, fought to prevent its release, Mary L. Trump’s new tell-all book is on track for a July 14 release. And although the release of “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” is still a week away, more and more details about its content are emerging from reporters who have received copies of the memoir.

In her book, Mary Trump speaks candidly not only about her uncle, President Donald Trump, but about other members of her family as well — including her grandfather Fred Trump, Sr. and her father Fred Trump, Jr.

Here are five of the most stunning details from the new book by the president’s 55-year-old niece.

1. Mary Trump leaked ‘hordes of’ financial information about her family to the New York Times

 “President Trump’s niece reveals how she leaked hordes of confidential Trump family financial documents to the New York Times in an effort to expose her uncle, whom she portrays as a dangerous sociopath,” According to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan.

Swan reports that when Times reporter Susanne Craig showed up at her door, Mary Trump “initially turned Craig away, telling her that she didn’t talk to reporters.” But she reconsidered, deciding to work with the Times.

“Mary Trump reveals how she smuggled a motherlode of financial documents out of the law firm, Farrell Fritz,” Swan notes.

2. Donald Trump’s world view was shaped by a desire to avoid his father’s disapproval

In the Washington Post, reporters Shane Harris and Michael Kranish explain that Donald Trump’s “view of the world was shaped by his desire during childhood to avoid his father’s disapproval, according to the niece, Mary L. Trump.”

Mary Trump paints a damning picture of Fred Trump, Sr., saying that he came to envy his son’s “confidence and brazenness.”

3. Donald Trump slammed Fred Trump, Jr. for not devoting more time to the family business

“The memoir chronicles Fred, Jr.’s fruitless efforts to earn his father’s respect as an employee, and how his younger brother Donald reliably ridiculed him as a failure who spent too much time following his passion of aviation, and not enough on the family business,” according to Harris and Kranish.

4. Donald Trump allegedly paid someone to take an SAT for him

Although Donald Trump attended the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia during his youth, he wasn’t known for being a great student. In the New York Times, Maggie Haberman reports that according to his niece’s book, Donald Trump didn’t take his SAT himself.

Haberman explains: “As a high school student in Queens, Ms. Trump writes, Donald Trump paid someone to take a precollegiate test, the SAT, on his behalf. The high score the proxy earned for him, Ms. Trump adds, helped the young Mr. Trump to later gain admittance as an undergraduate to the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Wharton Business School.”

5. Fred Trump, Sr. was ‘brutal to his namesake’

Haberman reports that Fred Trump, Sr. treated Donald Trump with much more respect than he showed to Mary Trump’s father, Fred Trump, Jr. The Times reporter explains: “It has long been part of the Trump family’s lore that the eldest child of Fred Trump Sr., Fred Trump Jr., who was better known as Freddy, was the black sheep of the dynasty. Freddy Trump was a handsome, garrulous man and a heavy drinker who, after a miserable experience working for his father, left his job in real estate to pursue a passion for flying, becoming a pilot for Trans World Airlines.”

She continued: “Fred Trump Sr. could be brutal to his namesake, shouting at him once as a group of employees looked on, ‘Donald is worth ten of you,’ Ms. Trump writes.”

Alex Henderson is a news writer at AlterNet and veteran political journalist. His work has also appeared in Salon, The Raw Story, Truthdig, The National Memo, the Philadelphia Weekly, the New Civil Rights Movement, Democratic Underground, The L.A. Weekly, MintPress News and many other publications. Follow him on Twitter @alexvhenderson.