Too Much and Never Enough

Born in New York City in 1946, Donald Trump is a media personality and businessman who won the Republican Party nomination for president in 2016 and was elected that fall. Well before his rise to the presidency, Donald became known for his bravado, questionable business tactics, propensity to distribute false information, and promotion of conspiracy theories.

Donald’s presidency was highly controversial from the beginning, for reasons typically relating to his willingness to disregard long-held political norms and his lack of truthfulness, but also because of specific policies such as immigration, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and civil unrest stemming from instances of police brutality.

Too Much and Never Enough examines Donald’s relationship with his father, Fred Sr., and his brother, Freddy. It also traces his business career from its start in real estate development at Trump Management through his rise to the presidency. Throughout the book, the author—Donald’s niece—examines the role of family dynamics and upbringing that contributed to the former president’s personality traits and the ways in which these traits affected his role, and the country.

Born in New York City in 1905, Fred Trump was a successful businessman and real estate developer and the father of former president Donald Trump. Fred’s business career began at a very young age as he began building and selling garages in his neighborhood. Fred soon became well known as a real estate developer and owned a number of apartment buildings in New York under his Trump Management umbrella. He was an early manipulator of funding available through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program to ensure affordable housing. In 1971, Fred appointed Donald as president of Trump Management, and shortly thereafter, the two were sued by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department for refusing to rent to African Americans. The case was eventually settled out of court. Fred Sr. is a major figure in Too Much and Never Enough as the father of both Donald and Freddy and the grandfather of the author. Much of the narrative focuses on Fred Sr. and Freddy’s relationship and the ways in which the Trump patriarch purposely helped to create Donald’s image as a successful businessman.

Born in 1938, Frederick Crist Trump, known as Freddy, was the oldest son of Fred Sr. and Mary Trump and the father of the author. Freddy was originally groomed to become his father’s right-hand man with Trump Management, but eventually lost out to his brother Donald for that position. As his daughter points out in her book, Freddy was very different from his father and his brother Donald in that he had more diverse interests and a wider group of friends. Much of the focus in Too Much and Never Enough is on Freddy’s turbulent relationship with his father, how he failed to live up to his expectations, and how he was subsequently punished for it. While in the Air Force National Guard, Freddy developed a love for flying and became a fully licensed pilot after graduating from college. Although Freddy worked for Fred at Trump Management, he chose to step away and become a professional pilot. Freddy flew for TWA for roughly a year but developed a serious drinking problem and was forced to resign. From the moment that Freddy chose to follow his dream of flying, Fred Sr. sought to shame him by letting his preference of Donald be known. Working once again for his father, and living back at his parents’ house, Freddy suffered a heart attack in 1981 and died shortly thereafter at age 42.

Mary Anne Trump, born Mary Anne McLeod, was born in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1912. She was the wife of Fred Trump Sr., the mother of Maryanne, Freddy, Donald, Elizabeth, and Robert Trump, and the grandmother of the author. Shortly after giving birth to her last child, Mary needed an emergency hysterectomy and nearly died from a resulting abdominal infection. According to the author, “[Mary] eventually developed severe osteoporosis from the sudden loss of estrogen” (22). Trump also adds that her medical problems led to her being “often unstable and needy” (23). Mary Trump died in 1999 after a bout with pneumonia.

Maryanne Trump, now Maryanne Trump Barry, was born in New York City in 1937 as the oldest child of Fred and Mary Trump. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1958 and earned a master’s degree from Columbia University and later a Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law. She was an assistant United States attorney from 1974 to 1983, when she was nominated to a seat on the US District Court in New Jersey. In 1999, Maryanne was appointed to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, eventually retiring in 2019. She plays a prominent role in Too Much and Never Enough as the Trump sibling who was closest to their niece, the author.

Robert Trump was born in New York City in 1948 as the youngest child of Fred and Mary Trump. Robert had continuously worked for his father at Trump Management and later the Trump Organization since graduating from Boston University. He has a less prominent role in Too Much and Never Enough but becomes critical in the book’s final chapters as he is the primary Trump sibling who deals with Mary L. and Fritz Trump after they discover that their grandfather changed his will to disinherit them from their father’s share of his fortune. Robert died in 2020 at the age of 71.

Elizabeth Trump, now Elizabeth Trump Grau, was born in 1942 as the older sister of former president Donald Trump and one of the five children of Fred and Mary Trump. Among all of the Trump siblings, she plays the least prominent role in Too Much and Never Enough. When the author and her brother were disinherited from Fred Sr.’s will and left no alternative but to sue in order to try to get their father’s 20% share of the fortune, Elizabeth is the one sibling who they thought might be in their corner due to her lack of power within the family, but even she made negative comments about their actions.