Book Review – Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump

I absolutely do not care. I. Do. Not. Care. Mary Trump spends the entire book giving an outlook of her emotional dysfunctional family that is built on evaluating people’s worth in dollar signs. The patriarch – the grandfather – placed value on people based on their inability to follow orders and fulfill the vision of making as much money as possible. These lessons framed Donald Trump’s growth and development to make him the person he is today. For all of that – I simply don’t care.

I do not care how wrongfully Mary Trump’s father was treated and how her mother lived in subpar conditions, as her grandfather paid for her Bachelor, Graduate, and Ph.D. degrees. Poor Mary Trump received a monthly stipend, and her grandfather even chastised Mary when her grandmother gave her money for a typewriter after Mary’s apartment was robbed. I absolutely do not care that Mary Trump received (according to her calculation) hardly anything of the 20% of $250-300 million Trump estate when her grandfather died and she received nothing from her grandmother because she spent an unsuccessful 2 years trying to sue her grandfather’s estate for her equal share.

So, we learned that Donald Trump’s father was petty, as he wanted his kids and grandkids to change everything including a signature to be in alignment with his wants. Donald Trump is the reincarnation of his father. He is petty and selfish. Just as his father, he favors one child over the other. All of this sounds like rich people’s problems.

And, frankly, I don’t care. She makes a pathetic attempt to try to explain how all of this matter in the final chapter – she tries to make these ties and explain how the whole Trump clan – Donald Trump and his brothers and sister – are the same. The only person who went against the father was Fred Trump, who is Mary Trump’s father. Sadly (only if you care), Mary and her brother paid dearly for the sins of her father.

Mary Trump asserts that being cruel and mean is in his DNA because he was raised to be this way. Okay. Again, I don’t care. You can read it for yourself and tell me if you care. I just don’t have the mental space to pull myself in a world of caring.