Mary Trump did not write a book of family gossip. She wrote it with the scalpel of her profession: she is a clinical psychologist, and the patient she dissected was her own blood.
In ‘Too Much and Never Enough,’ published in 2020, she describes her grandfather Fred Trump as a “high-functioning sociopath”, a man whom she says was “devoid of human feelings”. According to her account, Fred grew up without feeling safe or loved, and that lack became the mold with which he raised his children in New York. Fred Trump Jr., Donald’s older brother, was allegedly emotionally destroyed by him to the point of alcoholism; he died at 43. Donald, on the other hand, was allegedly tempered over a slow fire, building narcissism, arrogance, and a constant need for approval.
Mary Trump also maintains that her uncle’s admission to Wharton was not entirely due to his own merit. She also had a legal dispute with Donald and his siblings over Fred’s inheritance. Her diagnosis is personal, not an independent expert assessment, but it comes from the person who knew that family table best from the inside.
