Mary Mary quite contrary?? Mary L Trump on Donald Trump
In case you didn’t catch-on when it hit the media, Mary L Trump decided to write a ‘tell all’ book about her Uncle Donald Trump, who she describes as the world’s most dangerous man. 👀
Never thought I’d find myself typing this man’s name in one of my blogs – but as you know, I do like to share a book review now and again!!
Ok – before you say anything…I was looking for a ‘new and unique’ form of entertainment and wondered if the contents of this book might provide it.
When you read about a person’s life, it’s interesting to delve into their mind and discover something psychologically insightful….or perhaps something that would have left Freud and all the worlds greatest psychologists, well…speechless.
Again, I thought this book might deliver on both counts.
Have you read it? Are you going to read it? (I promise I won’t judge) 🙈
Please don’t keep your thoughts and comments to yourself – I’m intrigued 🤔
Spoiler Alert – straight to the point
Let’s break it down….just imagine your own niece (who happens to be a doctor in psychology and has worked in psychiatry) or some other family member claiming the following things about you – in no particular order:
- Your behaviour is crass, despicable, irresponsible and dysfunctional
- You are a psychopath, deluded about your own faults and weaknesses, lies, misrepresentations and fabrications
- With no attempt to hide it, you were the favourite son of a high functioning sociopath who loved to create divisions (apparently, she says 75% of those diagnosed with this are men)
- Kindness and forgiveness have no meaning to you, you are rewarded for failure, wilfully ignorant, building these things like walls against deeper rooted feelings of abandonment
- Growing up, you had a childhood where lying was a way of life, a defence mechanism and means of avoiding your father’s dreaded disapproval and ridicule – a breeding ground for low self esteem
- The image you’ve pushed, of being a self made businessman is a charade – and you benefited mainly from your father’s wealth and your father’s favours to you, including bailing out your debts, along with banks doing the same
- Never one to admit any weaknesses, you always blame something or someone else for your own failures – this seems to be one of the key lessons you learned from your father
- You are incapable of empathy, you disregard the suffering of others and happily use it for your own financial gain
- Power hungry, cheating tactics and being greedy for money – are all a recurring theme with you (I see where she got the inspiration for the book title)
Well that’s what she claimed about her Uncle Trump in this book.
Family Life
Mary tells us that Donald’s mother (her own grandmother) tended to her children to meet her own needs when it suited her, not when the children (including Donald) needed her.
Donald’s grandmother was apparently just as tense and physically unaffectionate.
“…[his father] came to validate, encourage and champion the things about Donald that rendered him essentially unlovable….that were the direct result of [his father’s] abuse”
Mary references alleged racial discrimination in property rentals and alleged fraudulent activities that she claims her family have engaged in.
Your worth was based on how much money you made, bottom line, that’s how it was within the wider family, as highlighted in situations where wills were concerned.
Stabbed in the back? That’s how they must have felt, when Mary and her brother ended up fighting an inheritance battle (after being disinherited by their grandfather – Donald’s dad)…..I’m not sure/can’t remember how that concluded. 🤔
Ouch
Mary L Trump’s not holding back, in fact she has very little to say about her uncle that isn’t negative.
What’s true, what isn’t true – who knows!! Only the rest of the family, friends and those closest to him – probably.
In the end I wouldn’t say I found the book entertaining, not at all – insightful, yes.
Political Rant
I promised myself that I would not get into my own opinions of Trump, I think you see and hear plenty of this all over mainstream and social media.
I wanted to read this book as objectively as possible, albeit from a subjective source.
For many of us, this book probably helps make a lot of things make a lot more sense, assuming it’s all true – but you never really know whether you know the whole story.
So I try and keep an open mind…not ruling anything 100% in or out, and that includes even the wildest of conspiracy theories lol – you just never know!!
As always, hundreds of people can read the same book and all take away something different from it.
So what did I take away?
Firstly, Mary’s personal experience of Donald and the wider Trump family doesn’t sound like it’s been an overly positive one.
Ultimately, Mary’s uncle, Donald Trump, has become a life sentenced prisoner to his own ego. An ego massaged and fuelled by a lifetime of false pretences, and an encouraging media, creating an iron-weight pressure on him to maintain the facade – a vicious cycle of sorts.
Childhood trauma – well I guess you can always find a link back there somewhere to what we’ve become today!!
In a nutshell, Mary implies that a lot of her Uncle Trumps’ behaviours and characteristics are projections from that once ‘little boy Donald’ towards his father.
Those deep seated patterns, fears and need for approval still remain strong within him to this day – despite their grotesque nature and the number of years gone by since his father’s passing.
The book sounds like pretty much what I would have expected, telling the truth about his unsavory character; however, when it comes to his (unreasonably) devoted supporters, they will only take away that his abhorrent behavior isn’t his fault at all and so he must be just dandy underneath all that ugliness. As I am so wont to tell people who do that, “Even Jack the Ripper had a mother.” We all come into this world the same way and many people have terrible influences that affect their psyches forever. That doesn’t change the fact that as adults we become responsible for what WE do and how WE deal with our past. Understanding the why and how of an unstable person’s behavior should only be used to acknowledge the truth and seek help and not be used to make excuses with no accountability. Congrats for getting through that book. Nothing in it would surprise me one bit.
I agree – lots of people have experienced trauma – worse than him and have not followed patterns like what we see with this one!! His childhood gives some possible/interesting insight into the beginnings of some of his personality traits, but cannot be held solely responsible for the character he is today and choices he makes today – no way, like you said, as adults we are accountable for our behaviour – he’s fully conscious of what he’s saying and doing, surely….
His character traits were very obvious to anyone who stopped to look, long before he decided to run for president. As to why his supporters support him, hard to say. When one person was asked about this, they said, “Let me put it this way, I would invite him over for supper, but I would not leave him alone with my daughter. I hope everyone South of the 49th will at least get educated (from a variety of news sources) on the candidates and their platforms, characteristics, etc. and make an informed choice on voting day. Any outcome that can restore sanity and calmness will be a good one. Fingers crossed.
All the best for the November elections – I hope things get better 🤞
What amazes me is that Trump has so many devoted supporters…I have concluded that he is an evil pied piper who is able to undermine the legitimate news media and induce people to abandon common sense and their own powers of observation.
I don’t read very many book reviews, but I found this one very informative.Thank you for posting it. All the best! Cheryl
Hi there, thanks for stopping by – ‘he’ really is something of a mystery really – I don’t understand it – the following he has – mind boggling. Yes, Mary’s book was insightful, but still not enough insight to make sense of the caricature he has become…unless it’s all staged for some unknown reason…he’s probably the most famous person in the world right now, for all the wrong reasons and he seems to relish in that limelight and grow even more bold.
Best wishes to you too 🔆
Cherryl 😊
I commend you on your courage to red the book. I don’t think I could. 😉
Hope all is well?
😆 It wasn’t that bad actually, given the perspective it’s written from…but you’re not missing much if your decide to skip it. All is well thankfully, things in the UK feel a lot more relaxed than few months ago. Hope you’re keeping well….sounds like things are still quite severe in Mexico….
If you’re off on any travels, I hope they go smoothly and, you don’t get caught out by any shifting travel corridors!🔆 🤗 Keep safe.
Glad for the UK. I’m just concerned (as for Frogland) about the number of companies going bankrupt… There will be thousands…
Not a single trip planned until the health situation clears. Which probably means until a treatment is available… 😩😩😩
Be good. (Or bad)
Yes – the impact on business’ and the economy in general is the silent cut that runs deep and is deepening (unemployment etc). The debts being stacked up will come home to roost soon enough (public sector spending). Glad you’re staying put for now 😊 unnecessary risk to your health probably isn’t worth it for a quick trip ….treat it like a kind of ‘year out/or year in’. I’m going to try and be good 😇 hopefully at some point next year things might have settled down a bit🙏💫
The UK and France will probably experience the worst drop in GDP around 12%… (Brexit cost notwithstanding for the UK, that’ll be for next year.) So meanwhile, hang on to your job… And have a lovely week-end…
Que Sera, Sera…I guess!! 😊 Enjoy your weekend too!!
Just received my voting instructions for November elections. People need to go out & be sure their votes will make it because until change happens people will keep dying and Racism and brutality will be norm in our streets and communities. If people were paying attention to the news and the recent Republican campaign at the White House, we should be scared of what’s going to happen to America in the future 4 years. Any person of color and ethnicity , any current migrant should be scared and concerned. The election is the only brief window of opportunity for change and hope.
The world is watching the US right now on the edge of their seats – I hope you get that much needed window of change 🙏
I think anywhere in the world even the farthest down under New Zealand can hear about Trump news. He even tried to discredit NZ about having covid free. Yes we have been covid free for 102 days and the reason covid returns is because we allow the citizens residents from overseas to come home for safety! Not everyone cooperated and in result we had our 1st community transmission 3wks ago! So D.Trump doesn’t have the right to even compare US to NZ as we’re far different in values and beliefs when it comes to covid-19.
It’s hard to take anything he says seriously tbh🤨 (I feel like he has become a more of media cartoon character than a serious authority figure) and most of what we hear in the media isn’t always accurate – I try to keep a very open mind. Good to hear NZ have managed the virus as well as you have, and hope you are able to carry on doing so. Thanks for reading and stay safe.
I have nominated you for the Liebster Award !
It is sad that despite of the truth , the effects on so many continues. Thanks for sharing this .
Thanks for reading 🤗
never thought I would read this review – but yea you made me curious! Was the niece deported ? 😀
It’s certainly an interesting read and offers some insight into how he may have grown into the character that he is today – but I don’t think it explains everything, his behaviour seems too exaggerated, to the point of theatre!! 🧐
His niece is an American citizen so I don’t think she’s going to be deported anywhere…..
I take it she doesn’t like him! 😂😂
I’m not one for tell all books and I certainly don’t want to sit down in a comfortable chair to read about such a despicable excuse for a human.
Of your Straight to the Point section the only trait that we haven’t seen in 3 1/2 disastrous years is “Growing up, you had a childhood where lying was a way of life, a defence mechanism and means of avoiding your father’s dreaded disapproval and ridicule – a breeding ground for low self esteem. ”
Everything else has been on full display.
Thank you for your review and taking one for the team.
Thanks, I love the brutal honesty, I admit I was somewhat fascinated to peel back the layers and see if there was anything brow raising. Despite the childhood trauma insights, his psyche is still very much a black hole to me.