She wants to be the opposite of her uncle; but they've got a lot in common. Credit: YouTube
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We’ve seen this grift before. Armed with nothing but the Trump family name and a gross sense of entitlement, the con artist plies a ready public with myths, misdirection and outright lies. You’ve got problems — big ones — but don’t worry, ’cause there’s a solution. There’s only one place you can get it, though. “I alone can fix it,” the con artist says, and the crowd, addled by a heady mix of fear, loathing and latent insecurity, goes wild. And opens its wallets.
Donald Trump used this tactic to sell an unwitting public on everything from steaks to vodka to reality television; then it became his presidential campaign strategy. But now he’s gone, and there’s a new grifter in town. This one is named Trump, too. And she’s got a book to sell.
Until recently, Mary Trump was known mainly for being the black sheep of the Trump family and a thorn in the side of its presidential patriarch. She was “the good Trump”; a lesbian with a PhD who was openly critical of Donald even as the rest of the family backed his campaign. It was from her that the New York Times got the tax documents that formed the backbone of its 2019 bombshell reporting on Donald’s finances, which showed that the now-president had paid just $750 in federal income tax the year he was elected to office. She was the author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, the tell-all book about her uncle that his lawyers famously (and unsuccessfully) tried to quash. She was the one who went on national TV and called the president a sociopath. If the Trump family was a well-guarded mob, Mary was the closest thing the political Left had to an informant from the inside.
Mary’s unique position as the sole dissident member of the Trump clan was always her biggest selling point, and that remains true with the publication of The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal. The author claims to both loathe her family and shun the association, even telling strangers who ask about her last name that she’s not related — “I found it unthinkable that anyone should find out who I was.”
But she claims, too, to understand Donald in particular in the way only a family member could. She is the perfect, no, only person who can spearhead her titular Reckoning. (She never actually says “I alone can fix it,” but she doesn’t have to; the sentiment oozes from every page.) The book positions itself as a sort of literary therapy session: together we’ll unravel our national trauma, with Mary as our spiritual guide.
But this is where things get tricky — and decidedly, familiarly Trumpian. To sell us on the necessity of this book, Trump must first sell us (or at least, the 50% of Americans who didn’t vote for her uncle) on the notion that we are still capital-T-traumatised — until or unless we read it:
“I’m going to talk about the trail of impunity, silence, and complicity that winds its way through every generation of our history, from the economic, social, and moral justifications for slavery and Native American genocide, through the failures of Reconstruction, the horrific legal, quasi-legal, and extralegal quagmire in which Jim Crow expanded alongside the cultural expectations and disappearing of oral history that followed both world wars and the 1918 pandemic.”
This is a promise made in the book’s introduction. But this exhaustive and profound exploration of our country’s legacy of failure never materialises: it’s the literary equivalent of one of those rambling, incoherent campaign promises that Donald Trump made and then barely even tried, in the most half-assed way, to keep. In practice, Mary Trump’s deep dive into the multi-generational trail of impunity, silence, and complicity that touches every part of American life lasts a scant 27 pages and reads like it was cobbled together from the summary portion of various Wikipedia entries.
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Subscribe“Both refuse to admit that the people have spoken, that the country has moved on, and that despite the challenges of the past four years, our democracy ultimately worked as intended.”
What on earth is the author talking about? Maybe she should view Freddie Sayers’ recent interview of former Democratic strategist, David Shor. Specifically go to minute 6.25 of the interview and she’ll learn Biden won by approx. 0.3% of the vote, or about 50,000 votes.
How did Biden achieve that narrow margin of success? Largely due to the blatant collusion of the major social media outlets and the mainstream media to massively bias the news coverage to favor the Democrats and to downplay the riots and social unrest of last summer.
Biden’s victory had little to do with democracy working as intended and more to do with an undemocratic coalition of politicians, media, and big business. Trump was even cancelled by social media after the election, despite the fact almost half of all voters voted for him–in what universe does that censorship comport with a functioning democracy?
This article is basically a hit piece on Trump via his admittedly grifting niece. Meanwhile in this edition of Unherd there’s also an article attempting to reduce Quentin Tarentino’s creativity to his purported ‘mummy’ issues. Heaven forbid someone should write an article on how an irresponsible mother can mess up her kids–that would be sexist.
I’ve no doubt Unherd is in an ongoing process of deciding what type of publication it wants to be in the long term (assuming it has a future). The answer would appear to be it wants to become The Guardian lite. What a sad ending for a publication that started with such promise.
Did you read something you did not like? Having a little tantrum? (Is counselling required) Isn’t the point of this website to read of different views and ideas? I found the article dull and I little obvious too, but this is not representative of all Rosenfield’s output, neither is representative of UnHerd’s output in general. To read widely requires that we read things we do not support, to read things we do not agree with; to read things we do not like, the only way we have of gathering differing ideas, then coming to our own conclusions, in a thoughtful manner. Non partisan is not the aim of the individual writers (they are all partisan, as are we) it is the aim of the editors. As for the ‘Guardian lite’ is it anything other nowadays, but an unfair comparison. The Gaurdain would not have published your comment, I wouldn’t, but UnHerd did….
Although you are right about Tarantino thing, Tanya Gold is doing little to up her game, restaurant reviewer to cultural commentator! Needs work…
Why would you not have published his comment? Do tell!
Because he hates democracy and the idea that someone is allowed to have an opinion that differs from his.
Yes I would, then I would have mocked it in the same way. But I do not publish things, I please myself, which is for the best perhaps.
Well said! A lot of people on here think that Unherd should be nothing but an unmitigated Right wing culture war forum, and pro Trump boosterism. Anything else is a betrayal for them. This is as obsessional and fanatical (and BORING!) as the woke set they purport to loathe.
You are right! Those people should realise that it is not the role of a British publication to boost Trump (and thankfully they don’t boost Boris either!)
In fact, Biden won by only 42,000 votes, hardly a mandate, but he’s letting The Progressives pull him around by his nose.
I agree, just a hit piece on Trump and praise for Biden’s return to normal – unemployment, uncontrolled borders, high energy and gasoline prices and importing oil again.
0.3% of the vote: for such small miracles, many thanks. Sometimes, a hair-breadth is all it takes.
So my takeaway from this is two things. One is that Mary Trump is a one trick pony. More interesting is the fact that the author made sure to tell us that she didn’t vote for Donald Trump.
So what would make a far more engaging article (for me) would be for her to motivate why she voted Democrat, whether she thinks she did the right thing and whether she thinks the current administration is doing a good job – and why.
“to culminate in the weird, sad, dangerous, single-term presidency of one Donald Trump.”
The writer of the article is in fact Mary Trump under an alias, during one of her Manic phases.
Kat, if we all just stipulate that you’re incredibly intelligent and have a piercing socio-political vision that none of us can ever hope to match, can you spare us the Trump bashing?
In all seriousness, this woman is desperate for attention and wants undeserved ‘revenge money’ from the Trump family. Mary is a sad nutcase. Jimmy Carter was strapped with his beer swilling brother. Hillary Clinton also had a ne’er do well brother. Obama ignored his wonky Kenyan family. And yes, lately we’re being entertained by Hunter Biden’s, Joe’s finest, porn & drug videos and sex tapes, not to mention the loopy international financial swindles.
Sounds like she needs an Oprah interview.
Didn’t Obamas Uncle or Grandfather get Mau-Mau reparations money? Wild stuff.
Trump employed Blue Collar America and has experience of dealing with Democrat politicians, Unions and The Mafia who have power behind the scenes in New York and other cities. Trump had to construct and make a profit which requires practical skills which writers completely lack. The reason why Democrats hate Trump is that he knows how they work in running cities and are unable to earn the respect of Blue Collar America.
Trump wanted to invest in infrastructure which would enrich Blue Collar America but was opposed by the Democrats. Why? The Democrats do not want a Blue Collar America where the wages are sufficiently high such that a wife can afford to stay at home and bring up the children; the couple can afford a good home, car, holidays, education and medical insurance and are free of dependency on the State. In most cities run by the Democrats there are few well paid private company Blue Collar /Engineering jobs but plenty of well paid state employees
If Mary Trump was good as she thought she was, she would run her own construction company. What is her doctorate in; I doubt it is in engineering. Why are there no Democrat politicians who own successful construction companies in cities they run? The answer is that it requires practical skills.
Yes and most Trump haters don’t like blue collar work themselves. They are the elite. Trump came out trying to expose the globalists in the deep state and I believe the world learned quite a bit about how the US had been taken advantage of for years under both parties. Had he just quietly implemented his policies, not tweeted off the cuff and counted to 10 before he lambasted people, perhaps he would have been re-elected. Then, where would the US be today? Higher energy costs, inflation, weakened global stability? The world order was very glad he lost the election.
Funny. And I was just thinking that this article is probably 6 months but definitely a week too late if it wants to say convincingly that America is returning to normal. What I’ve heard is food shortages and inflation and a plummeting approval rating for Biden. Perhaps that is normal.
My Dollar Store, which is very popular, has 1/4 empty shelves at all times. Everywhere are signs in it offering work – but since the Biden Child Credit handouts no one will work there, so the shelves go unstocked.
One woman who has been there for a long time that I knew has 4 children lives in a paid house and gets benefits, and as her parent lives with them she can work, and so does to make ends meet. With the $300 per child a month coming out recently she quit – why do such a miserable job if she makes the same not working?
Walmart shelves are usually low – empty here and there – I do not know if it is supply issues, or maybe hoarding. I am doing a tiny bit of hoarding myself as why not? It does not cost much to get an extra when shopping – and the sight of empty shelves is un-nerving.
I work in construction in the Deep South and I do not know ONE construction worker who backs Biden, the Black ones are mixed maybe, but not pro Biden, maybe the Mexican ones but I never asked as they mostly do not speak English. The people who do hard, tedious, dangerious, work in the hot sun all day do not like seeing people who will not bother to work get free money – it just rankles with them.
Even the Hispanic are wondering why they pay so many taxes for security and don’t get it. If the R’s are successful in painting the D’s as socialist our recent arrivals will also oppose the D’s.
You are right but it is virtually impossible to give to only the deserving poor. The book, ‘The Myth of the Undeserving Poor’ addresses this issue.
I think we are better to give some to people who need to get a grip rather than leave deserving cases with unmet needs.
Trump had 2 years of control of Congress and should have been able to pass anything he wanted. Democratic opposition should have been irrelevant if he really wanted to pass an Infrastructure Bill.
So why did the Democrats not support Trump as this would have helped those working in the construction industry and those who make equipment for it, who traditionally voted for this party ? The reality is that many young university educated office types feel intimidated by tough practical independent men and women. Just watch as construction workers say tunnellers or steel fixers, enter a bar where young Democrat hipsters drink and see the shiver of fear run through them. The reality is that we hate which we fear and we fear what we cannot control.