By Chris Otaigbe
While the US President’s penchant to deflect probes into his shady secrets, life and lies suffered a setback on Monday, July 13, 2020, as the court freed his niece from the restraining order, asking her not to promote her tell-all book, it is definite that Donald Trump’s adventure or misadventure in life; now has one book too many.
The ruling was made by Judge Hal Greenwald of the New York State Supreme Court, the state’s trial court, on the eve of the book’s release.
The book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” has topped the Amazon bestseller list and commanded significant news coverage. But Mary Trump was prohibited from promoting it, until now.
Renowned attorney, Ted Boutrous, who represented Mary Trump and who has also represented CNN in the past, said the court got it right in rejecting the Trump family’s effort to squelch Mary Trump’s core political speech on important issues of public concern, adding that the First Amendment forbids prior restraints because they are intolerable infringements on the right to participate in democracy.
“Tomorrow, the American public will be able to read Mary’s important words for themselves.” Boutrous added.
The motion to block the book had been brought by Robert Trump, the President’s brother, who argued that it violated a confidentiality agreement related to Fred Trump’s estate. Although, his Attorney, Charles Harder, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, from the media, after the ruling was issued.
In a statement the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, said it was “delighted” by the court’s decision.
“The unfettered right to publish is a sacred American freedom and a founding principle of our republic, and we applaud the Court for affirming well-established precedents against prior restraint and pre-publication injunctions,” said the publisher.
Just before Mary’s book came onto the scene, Trump’s former National security Adviser, John Bolton, was trending with his book detailing salacious details on Trump’s incompetence and the danger of his presidency to the American idea.
Titled ‘The Room Where It Happen’, the book details Trump’s idiosyncrasies, offers of favours to authoritarian leaders, lack of basic knowledge, and “obstruction of justice as a way of life.”
Centering on the disclosure of US national security information, particularly the concept of “prior restraint” that allows the government to censor speech or expression before it has occurred, the battle around the Bolton’s book is more than another Trumpian political scandal.
The issues originate in whistleblowing in the 1970s, when former officials spoke out against government wrongdoing. While one would admit Bolton is certainly no whistle-blower, the legacy of era informs an ongoing struggle today around first amendment freedom of speech rights and state secrecy, Mary’s ‘tell-all’ book has further deepened, albeit, more dangerously.
Emblematic of Trump’s White House, Bolton, who remains arguably, the longest serving national security adviser under Trump (April 2018 to September 2019), asserted the fact that the president “lacks the competence to carry out the job” and is not “fit for office.”
Little wonder, then, when the first excerpts from the book emerged, Trump characteristically lashed out with a tweet full of insults and accusations.
In the words of a federal judge in Washington who declined to block Bolton’s book, “the horse is out of the barn.”
Moulded by his “high-functioning sociopath” father during childhood, Trump’s outrageous behaviour threaten the world’s health, economic security and social fabric.
Alleging multiple instances of shocking behaviour by the president as a younger man, including academic cheating to get into a prestigious business school, and brutal treatment of women, Mary Trump’s ‘bare-it all’ book extended consideration of familial dysfunction, which she says shaped Donald Trump.
Responding to Mary’s detailed information of the President’s misdemeanour as stated in the book, White House, via its Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, denied being aware of, but denounced the publication as a book of falsehoods … ridiculous, absurd allegations that have absolutely no bearing in truth.”
Writing her study of his character from the perspective of a trained clinical psychologist, Trump’s niece defined child abuse as, “in some sense, the expectation of ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’,” which perhaps informed the book title.
According to her, Donald directly experienced the ‘not enough’ in the loss of connection to his mother at a crucial development stage.
Having been abandoned by his mother for at least a year, and having his father fail not only to meet his needs but to make him feel safe or loved, valued or mirrored, she deduced, caused the deprivations Trump suffered, that eventually scarred him for life.
“The personality traits that resulted in displays of narcissism, bullying, grandiosity – finally made my grandfather take notice but not in a way that ameliorated any of the horror that had come before.” She writes.
What finally left the future president and his siblings more dependent on their father, Fred Trump, a New York property developer who died in 1999, was health problems, Donald Trump’s mother, also called Mary, suffered, resulting from an emergency hysterectomy.
Detailing his bullying, antisemitism, racism, sexism and xenophobia, which are all traits the president is regularly accused of, Mary Trump describes Fred Trump as a “high-functioning sociopath.” The man that emerged, she writes, is now the ruthless and utterly self-centred, America and indeed, the world is now experiencing.
In a section on Trump’s education, Mary Trump describes how he paid someone else, especially Joe Shapiro, a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker, to take his SAT tests for him. According to her, “Donald, who never lacked for funds, paid his buddy well,” she writes.
Trump’s cheating capacity and ability span all human relations and transactions, as Mary describes, in her book, for which her Lawyers pointed to how the president has contributed to his and his family’s notoriety in a variety of ways, including as the author of nearly 20 books on topics including his family, his wealth, his businesses and his own life.
As a practical example, Mary Trump details how she was contracted to ghostwrite one of those books, ‘The Art of the Comeback’.
According to the book, a few weeks after Donald hired her, detailing an experience familiar to many of the president’s business partners and contractors, she still hadn’t been paid.
The book also discussed Trump’s notorious treatment of women, which Mary Trump discovered was “an aggrieved compendium of women”, the long list of which included Madonna and the ice skater, Katarina Witt, among others.
“He had expected to date but who, having refused him, were suddenly the worst, ugliest and fattest slobs he’d ever met. I stopped asking him for an interview,” she writes, adding that on a visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to work on the book, she was wearing a bathing suit when Trump looked at his niece and said, “Holy shit, Mary. You’re stacked.” Writes Mary Trump.
Accused of sexual misconduct and assault by more than 20 women, all of which he has denied, Trump’s propensity to use and dump women, according to Mary’s account are facts of the current President’s perception of the female gender as mere sports for his perverted pleasure.
Typical of Trump, she was fired from the book project, by proxy, as Mary Trump writes, he had someone else tell her.
She never hid her disdain for the possibility of a Trump presidency, which she expressed, severally, on social media. In her book, she writes of turning down an invitation to his 2016 election night party, because “I wouldn’t be able to contain my euphoria when [Hillary] Clinton’s victory was announced, and I didn’t want to be rude.” Writes Mary Trump.
Trump’s eventual victory traumatized her, as did millions of Americans who voted for Hilary Clinton. “I was wandering around my house, as traumatized as many other people but in a more personal way; it felt as though 62,979,636 voters had chosen to turn this country into a macro version of my malignantly dysfunctional family.”
Fred Trump’s oldest son, also called Fred, died in 1981 in his early 40s, from the effects of alcoholism. His daughter, the book’s Author, writes that Donald Trump’s character was formed by watching the traumas inflicted on and suffered by his older brother.
Apart from Maryanne Trump Barry, the judge, Donald Trump’s surviving siblings are Robert Trump, a businessman, and Elizabeth Trump Grau, a retired banker.
In the acknowledgments, Mary Trump thanks her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry, the president’s sister and a federal judge who retired in 2019, “for all of the enlightening information.” Writes Mary.
Claiming a non-disclosure agreement signed in 2001 over Fred Trump Snr’s will precludes publication, Robert Trump sued Mary Trump in New York, while the president believed the NDA, which includes Maryanne Trump Barry, meant the book could not come out.
Fortunately, Mary Trump’s argument that the NDA was based on fraudulent financial information may have convinced that Judge to grant her prayers.
As President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump has impacted millions not just in the U.S., but around the world. Looking back at the factors that shot him to the highest office of the most powerful country on earth, one cannot but admit that, indeed the name, Donald Trump, does come with some resonance. Love him or hate him, there is no denying Trump’s imprint on the minds of millions, perhaps billions, which continue to be documented in books for posterity to ponder and draw their conclusions.
Some of the many books dwelling on the personality and the phenomenon that is Donald Trump include:
The ultimate behind-the-scenes account, ‘Let Trump Be Trump’, writes about how the president became the head of the most powerful country on earth. Featuring stories behind headlines such as the Access Hollywood recording and last-moment comeback and victory in the 2016 elections, the book was written by two of Trump’s closest campaign advisors.
Written by Bill O’Reilly, ‘The United States of Trump: How the President Really Sees America’ shows readers a rare, insider’s look at the life of the president, blending a never-before-released interview material with a history recounting Trump’s childhood and family as well as factors that forged the world view that grew with him to the Oval Office.
‘A Very Stable Genius’ provides a definitive insider narrative of Trump’s presidency with “shocking new reporting and insight into its implications.” Co-authored by two Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists with deep sources throughout Washington, D.C., the book reveals the president at his “most unvarnished”, exposing how decision-making in his administration has been “driven by a reflexive logic of self-preservation and self-aggrandizement.”
Offering a “sweeping, eloquent” history of Trump’s first years in office, ‘Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency’ covers everything from election night to the latest news. The book features interviews from the chief of staff, Jared and Ivanka Kushner, Donald Trump, Jr., White House insiders and even Trump himself.
‘Front Row at the Trump Show’ was authored by ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, who has known the president for more than 25 years. The book, which is available in hardcover, kindle, audiobook and paperback formats, shows behind-the-scenes moments that defined Trump’s presidency from the struggles of those who work in the administration to those who report on it.
‘Dumpty: The Age of Trump in Verse’ is the first of a two-book collection of satirical poems from award-winning actor, John Lithgow, now a New York Times bestseller.
The poems featured in the book draw inspiration from renowned authors such as A.A. Milne, Lewis Caroll, Rodgers and Hammerstein and even Mother Goose.
Discovering a sensitive, poetic side that is not seen from him until now, ‘The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump’ brings comical take on Trump’s innermost thoughts by taking his tweets and transcripts, cutting them up and reordering them to create 17 all-new poems.
Penned by celebrated Supreme Court lawyer and former Acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal, ‘Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump’ is for those who believe that no one is above the law; a belief “as American as freedom of speech and turkey on Thanksgiving” held sacred by Democrats and Republicans alike. The book argues why Trump’s alleged collusion with “foreign powers” (i.e. Russia) in the upcoming presidential election is a ground for his impeachment.
A hidden American history revealed, Sarah Kendzior’s ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’, more accurately, outlines how Trump’s rise coincided with what she believes is the degradation of the American political system and the continual erosion of civil liberties in the country by foreign powers, revealing just how fragile American democracy is right now.
‘Facts Don’t Care about Your Feelings’ would be a must-read if you are a Ben Shapiro fan. A compilation of columns that highlight Donald Trump’s campaign, election and presidency, the book is divided into 10 chapters with each talking about issues, such as religion, government and the First Amendment, both Trump’s supporters and critics will find amusing.
As election season kicks off amid a global pandemic, one reality is certain; among the books on offer concerning Trump stories and life history, the Bolton book and Mary’s tell-all piece would strike home. This is because, facts from a National Security Adviser and home truths from a niece who know the President where it matters; in the office and at home, would provide a true and perhaps, near-perfect picture and profile of a man, who now seeks a second term to occupy the most powerful office on the planet.
