Mary L. Trump, Donald J. Trump's only niece and a clinical psychologist, examines her family's legacy of greed and narcissism, and its impact not only on her but also on the character of the 45th president of the United States. Who Could Ever Love You illustrates how the answer to the question posed by the memoir's title was, for generations within the Trump dynasty, "no one."
This memoir comes just four years after Too Much and Never Enough, Mary Trump's book about her father's family, and opens with a description of her debilitating isolation and stress, which began with her uncle's election. Trump is the daughter of Fred ("Freddy") Trump Jr., who was the second of five children and his father's namesake. Mary grew up witnessing her grandfather's contempt for her beloved father, the natural heir to the leadership of Trump Management. Instead, Fred Sr. named Donald, "his obnoxious middle son," president of the company when Donald was 24. Noting Fred Sr.'s ruthless New York City real estate policies, Mary writes that the patriarch expected Fred Jr. to be "a killer," and that Fred Sr.'s "unrelenting criticism" eventually led to her father's despair, alcoholism, and early death.
Mandatory visits for family gatherings to "the House" where her grandparents lived confirmed "there was no way for me to fit into this family," a young Trump decided. She and her brother, Fred III (called Fritz) received financial support, but not love, from their grandfather. Near the end of this memoir, Trump writes that she and Fritz were disinherited by their grandfather and filed a lawsuit to challenge his will; subsequently, her uncles sued to stop her from publishing her first book. "Lawsuits, my family's love language," she wryly observes. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.