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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTim O'Brien piece on Mary Trump's book: A Guided Tour into the Troubled Mind of Donald Trump
Last edited Wed Jul 8, 2020, 08:56 AM - Edit history (1)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-07-08/mary-trump-s-guided-tour-into-her-uncle-donald-s-troubled-mindMarys clarity, training, discipline and sharp eye help make her a reliable narrator, and shes a fluid, witty writer to boot. Much of whats shes written about Ive covered as a journalist and an author (Donald unsuccessfully sued me for libel for my 2005 biography, TrumpNation). Everything in her book that Im familiar with is spot on. There is plenty in the book, however, that I wasnt aware of, and I suspect thats the reason the president and his siblings have gone to court to try to halt its publication. The Trumps know that Marys understanding of her family is authentic shes a true insider in an era when insider accounts of the president are a dime-a-dozen and that what shes written is likely to be indelible.
-snip-
Fred Sr. was steely and unforgiving, while his wife, Mary, lived in his shadow, emotionally distant and demanding. The Queens mansion where Donald grew up as his fathers favorite is an intimidating pile that Mary calls The House. In the basement of The House, Fred Sr., a teetotaler, kept an elegant bar outfitted with everything but alcohol and guarded by a collection of life-sized wooden statues of Native American chiefs standing along a wall. An oil painting of a lovely Black nightclub singer with generous swaying hips backed by a Black jazz band hung on a wall nearby. That was apparently as close as Fred Sr. wanted Black people to get to his family. The son of a German immigrant, he slurred any person of color seeking to rent an apartment from him as die Schwarze. Roy Cohn, the infamous lawyer and mob confidante, came into the Trumps lives when Fred Sr. and Donald retained him to battle a Justice Department probe of racial discrimination at Trump properties in the 1970s.
-snip-
Other observers have picked up on some of this over the years, of course. Liz Smith, the late New York gossip columnist, had a street-smart understanding of Trump. Theres something about him thats ever juvenile. Its hard to believe hes a grown-up person who went to college, she once told me. Hes like a kid, and hes got that brash, narcissistic thing that works for him. He has enormous appeal to the masses because of that.
But Mary understands thats not a benign matter anymore. Donald today is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information, she writes. This is far beyond garden-variety narcissism; Donald is not simply weak, his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be. He knows he has never been loved.
-snip-
He has suffered mightily, Mary writes of Donalds worldview, and if you arent doing all you can to alleviate that suffering, you should suffer too.
-snip-
Fred Sr. was steely and unforgiving, while his wife, Mary, lived in his shadow, emotionally distant and demanding. The Queens mansion where Donald grew up as his fathers favorite is an intimidating pile that Mary calls The House. In the basement of The House, Fred Sr., a teetotaler, kept an elegant bar outfitted with everything but alcohol and guarded by a collection of life-sized wooden statues of Native American chiefs standing along a wall. An oil painting of a lovely Black nightclub singer with generous swaying hips backed by a Black jazz band hung on a wall nearby. That was apparently as close as Fred Sr. wanted Black people to get to his family. The son of a German immigrant, he slurred any person of color seeking to rent an apartment from him as die Schwarze. Roy Cohn, the infamous lawyer and mob confidante, came into the Trumps lives when Fred Sr. and Donald retained him to battle a Justice Department probe of racial discrimination at Trump properties in the 1970s.
-snip-
Other observers have picked up on some of this over the years, of course. Liz Smith, the late New York gossip columnist, had a street-smart understanding of Trump. Theres something about him thats ever juvenile. Its hard to believe hes a grown-up person who went to college, she once told me. Hes like a kid, and hes got that brash, narcissistic thing that works for him. He has enormous appeal to the masses because of that.
But Mary understands thats not a benign matter anymore. Donald today is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information, she writes. This is far beyond garden-variety narcissism; Donald is not simply weak, his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be. He knows he has never been loved.
-snip-
He has suffered mightily, Mary writes of Donalds worldview, and if you arent doing all you can to alleviate that suffering, you should suffer too.
Much more at the link.
That last paragraph explains Trump's eagerness to hire and promote people who defend him against his perceived enemies, no matter how unqualified they are for the jobs he assigns them.
And it explains how viciously he'll turn on them if he believes they failed him.
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Tim O'Brien piece on Mary Trump's book: A Guided Tour into the Troubled Mind of Donald Trump (Original Post)
highplainsdem
Jul 2020
OP
Laelth
(32,017 posts)1. That last paragraph describes the mindset of all Cluster B-disordered people.
It explains their extreme vengeance if you ever let them down.
-Laelth
GreenPartyVoter
(72,378 posts)2. On the list. Heaven help you.