Too Much and Never Enough

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man is a 2020 work of nonfiction by psychologist and author Mary L. Trump, the granddaughter of real estate developer Fred Trump and the only niece of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. A chronological biography, the book is divided into four parts that provide a historical analysis of the former president’s immediate family.

The author’s primary focus is on The Long-term Impacts of Family Dynamics between her grandfather, Fred Trump Sr.; her father, Freddy Trump; and her uncle, Donald Trump. As the oldest son, Freddy was originally prepared to run the family business, Trump Management, but he never lived up to his father’s expectations and decided to pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot. Donald, on the other hand, embodied everything that his father valued with his flair for self-promotion and hyperbole. Additional themes in the book include The Influence of Upbringing on Adult Behavior and the Personality Traits of Narcissism and Sociopathy. A record-setting New York Times bestseller, Simon & Schuster published the book in 2020 by despite the legal efforts of the Trump family to stop its publication.

This study guide refers to the Simon & Schuster edition.

Content Warning: The source text describes alcohol addiction and emotional neglect, as well as discussions of sociopathy, narcissism, and other personality disorders.

Summary

In the book’s Prologue, Mary L. Trump discusses her background as a psychologist and the reasons why she chose to write the book. While not offering an official diagnosis, the author acknowledges that specific psychological disorders are likely responsible for the behavior of both Donald and her grandfather. In her narrative, she provides a detailed history of the Trump family, beginning with her grandfather’s rise as a prominent New York developer and the house he built for his family in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens. When her five young children ranged in age from 12 years to 9 months, the author’s grandmother, Mary, needed an emergency hysterectomy due to postpartum complications. She then suffered severe post-surgery health issues, which left her emotionally unavailable to her children. Fred Sr., whom the author describes as having high-functioning sociopathy, was similarly unavailable because of his involvement in his successful business. As a result, dysfunctional family dynamics took shape in which the children were virtually abandoned by their mother, and their father’s sole focus was on the oldest son, whom he expected to become his right-hand man.

Primarily because his interests were more diverse than real estate, Freddy disappointed his father, who constantly degraded him. Donald, however, gained his father’s attention because of his arrogance and aggressiveness, impulses that Fred Sr. identified with. While in the Air Force National Guard, Freddy developed a love of flying and quit working for his father to become a commercial pilot. Fred Sr. saw this as a betrayal and, as a response, promoted Donald to vice president of several Trump Management companies at 22 years old. Wanting to break into Manhattan real estate, Fred sought to cultivate a persona for Donald as a brilliant businessman, allowing him to take undeserved credit for projects. Fred Sr., and later Donald as well, continued to belittle Freddy for his chosen path, which the author indicates was a contributing factor to the alcohol use disorder that resulted in Freddy’s loss of his career as a pilot, his family, and eventually his life. Having been forced to resign as a pilot, Freddy went back to work for his father but was given only menial maintenance jobs at Trump Properties. Freddy died of a heart attack at only 42 years old.

In the 1980s, Donald wanted to become a casino operator in Atlantic City. Thanks to his father’s legacy and his façade as a self-made millionaire, he was able to secure loans to purchase three casinos as well as a mansion, a yacht, and a plane. Soon, however, it became clear that his casinos were failing financially and he was not paying creditors. Because the banks needed his casinos to remain in operation, they continued to issue loans but put Donald on an allowance and forced him to submit expense reports. Despite Fred Sr.’s attempts to bail him out, Donald’s first attempt to succeed independently of his father resulted in multiple bankruptcies. In 1990, with his father in poor health, Donald sought to amend his father’s will, which would have put him in complete control of Fred Sr.’s estate and solved his debt problems. When his scheme was uncovered, Donald’s older sister, Maryanne, made sure that a new will was written ensuring that the four living children received equal shares of the estate.

Fred Trump Sr. was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1993 and died in 1999. In her grandfather’s will, author Mary L. Trump discovered that she and her brother, Fritz, had been virtually disinherited because their father’s 20% share of the estate was divided equally among his four siblings. Although they did receive a bequest given to all the grandchildren, they decided to pursue legal action. As a result, the Trump children decided to eliminate their family health insurance and threatened to purposely bankrupt the remaining properties from which they receive money. Mary and Fritz ultimately decided to settle and were forced to sell their shares of the assets they did inherit. Over a decade later, after Donald had been inaugurated as president, the author was approached by a reporter who asked for her help on a story about fraudulent business dealings of the Trump family over the years. While she initially declined, Trump ultimately changed her mind after seeing the damage that Donald’s behavior and policies were doing to the nation. In the fall of 2018, the New York Times published a 14,000-word article detailing a list of potentially fraudulent and criminal activities in which Fred Sr. and his children had engaged.