Too Much and Never Enough

Over the first eight chapters of Too Much and Never Enough, Trump examines how her father and his siblings were raised by her grandparents and how they interacted with one another, establishing The Influence of Upbringing on Adult Behavior as she draws parallels between childhood and early adult influences and her uncle’s behavior as an adult. In Part 3 of her work, Trump’s tone shifts to a more personal aspect of her narrative and how her family’s dysfunction and upbringings affected her own life. Perhaps the primary reason for this switch in tone is that within her narrative, her father had just died at the close of Part 2, and she clearly feels as though his parents and siblings, especially Fred Sr. and Donald, were detrimental to his health and callous about his death.

In Chapter 9, Trump focuses her discussion on Donald’s rise to fame during the 1980s and his failed business dealings in the following years. She explains that his perceived success with the Grand Hyatt and Trump Tower led to his later ventures. Up until then, however, he “had relied on Fred’s money and influence,” but when he took up the idea of becoming a casino operator in Atlantic City, his father could not help (133). Donald opened not just one but three casinos, which were all financed by enormous banks loans and investors based on the pretense of his name and image that his father had purposely cultivated. As the debt continued to pile up, his casinos were not paying off and he continued to spend lavishly on his lifestyle. The banks attempted to reign him in, but they had already enabled his tendencies. Trump explains that Donald now belonged to the banks and the media: “[H]e was both enabled by and dependent upon them, just as he had been upon Fred” (138).

The chapter strongly reinforces the theme of Personality Traits of Narcissism and Sociopathy. Trump not only examines the farcical idea that Donald was either self-made or an astute businessman, but she also examines the ego for which he has become even more famous. She provides an anecdote detailing his offer to have her ghostwrite one of his books. The endeavor failed primarily because the only meaningful input Donald gave her was a stream-of-consciousness recording he had made in which he discusses famous women whom he had expected to date, but who, “having refused him, were suddenly the worst, ugliest, and fattest slobs he’d ever met” (147). Throughout Chapter 9, Donald’s personality traits are examined not only through anecdotes such as this but also through his open record as a businessman and a media creation.

In the latter half of Part 3, Trump refocuses on The Long-term Impacts of Family Dynamics, writing in a more personal manner as she discusses her grandfather’s battle with and eventual death from Alzheimer’s disease, as well as the aftermath. In Chapter 10, she describes how Fred Sr.’s mind began failing and how “Donald now treated him with contempt, as if his mental decline was somehow his own fault” (157), comparing Donald’s contempt with that Fred Sr. expressed toward Freddy.

Dysfunctional family dynamics emerge once again in Chapters 10-12 after Fred Sr.’s death in late June 1999. When a copy of her grandfather’s will was delivered for her to sign, Trump discovered that she and her brother had essentially been disinherited. While they were included in a separate bequest to all the grandchildren, their father’s 20% share of the estate was divided evenly among his four siblings (168). Knowing that the will could not be put into action until all beneficiaries signed, Trump and her brother chose to seek legal counsel and weigh their options. Trump describes a hostile phone call from her grandmother, in which she explained that her father “didn’t have two nickels to rub together” when he died (173). From this conversation, she came to realize that within her family, the only currency is money, and that alone determines one’s worth. When her grandmother died, a copy of her will was identical to Fred’s with the small exception that now Trump and her brother were no longer included in the grandchildren’s bequests. She points out that her father and his entire line “had now been effectively erased” (177), reiterating the pattern of insults, contempt, and vindictiveness that the author has established as normalized parts of the family’s dynamic.