Donald Trump’s childhood insults toward his older brother destroyed his confidence and led him down a path that led to his premature death at age 42 after a lifetime of drinking, a new book by the former president’s niece claims.
Mary Trump writes that her father, Donald’s brother, Freddy, felt “deeply ashamed” for not having lived up to his family’s expectations.
She claims Donald used to make fun of Freddy, who left the family property business to pursue a career as a pilot, and that her father was “ashamed” of him.
In ‘Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir’, Mary writes that Donald told her father he was a ‘glorified bus driver’ in one of many fits of rage that led to Freddy’s alcohol abuse that led to his death in 1981.
The Republican presidential candidate is portrayed in the upcoming book as a “failure” and a “sensitive bully” who beat up younger children as a child.
Donald Trump’s childhood taunts devastated Freddy Trump Jr. (pictured), his older brother, and led him down a path that led to his tragic death at age 42 after years of alcoholism, according to a new book by the former president’s niece.
Donald Trump (pictured), the Republican presidential candidate, is depicted in ‘Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir’, as a ‘sensitive bully’ who beat up younger children as a child.
Mary is also relentless in her criticism of her grandfather, Fred Trump Sr., who founded the Trump Organization, calling him a “sociopath” and “incapable of loving anyone.”
Fred would also insult Freddy and tell him he was a “damn chauffeur in the sky.”
This is Mary’s second book about her family following her bestselling 2020 memoir, Too Much and Never Enough, in which she claimed Donald was a victim of “child abuse” at the hands of his neglectful father.
As Trump’s eldest son, Freddy was supposed to be Fred’s successor at the helm of the Trump family’s real estate business.
In ‘Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir,’ Mary writes that Donald told her father, Freddy Jr., that he was a ‘glorified bus driver.’
But he turned down this offer and, “to escape his father’s stifling control and widespread disapproval,” Mary writes, he applied for a job with TWA Airlines and was accepted as a pilot in training in 1964.
After graduating, Freddy was assigned to the Boston to Los Angeles route, but four months later.
Mary writes: ‘Although Freddy could fly a 160-ton plane and keep all 180 passengers safe, he could not withstand the pressure his father put on him to return to Trump Management (the family real estate business).’
According to the book, Fred told Freddy he was a “damn chauffeur in the sky.”
Donald said to Freddy, “Dad is embarrassed for you. He tells everyone you’re a glorified bus driver.”
Maria writes: ‘His family’s teasing’ led Freddy to start drinking.
She writes: ‘The deep shame he felt for struggling to hold on to his dream, for not being able to live up to his father’s expectations, he couldn’t trust his wife, leaving him alone to deal with it all.’
Donald’s “increasing cruel streak” and the hug he received from his father only made matters worse.
While Freddy was financially “frozen,” Donald received all the money he wanted with benefits like a car, credit for work he didn’t do, and a chauffeur.
In 1970, 24-year-old Donald was president of the Trump Company, which meant that Freddy had no chance of moving up in the company (although that no longer mattered to him).
Pictured: Donald Trump, left, with his brother Fred Jr, his brother Robert, his sister Maryanne and his sister Elizabeth.
“There was literally nothing Freddy could do to change his father’s feelings toward him,” Mary writes.
Mary says her “issues with Donald” began when he was a child and he “tormented” his younger brother, Robert, and had “nothing but disdain for everyone else.”
This was especially true with her mother, Mary says.
Children in his neighborhood in Queens, New York, viewed Donald as a “touchy bully” who hit younger children but would run home in a rage if anyone stood up to him.
Mary, who now works as a therapist, writes: ‘Nobody liked Donald as a child, not even his parents.
‘As he grew older, those personality traits hardened into the hostile indifference and aggressive disrespect he had developed as a young child to help cope with the abandonment of his mother, because she was seriously ill and psychologically unstable, and his father because, as a sociopath, he had no interest in his children outside of Freddy.
‘Yet the interest was not love: Fred (father) was incapable of loving anyone.’
According to Mary, both her father and Donald were “failures,” but for different reasons.
Donald failed because “he had none of the skills necessary to succeed on his own,” Mary writes.
Everything Freddy did was a “personal affront” to Fred and that’s why his eldest son “repelled” him.
Not that Fred really cared about Donald.
Mary is also unsparing about her grandfather Fred Trump Sr (left), who founded the Trump Organization, calling him a “sociopath” who was “incapable of loving anyone.”
‘She cared for Donald only to the extent that she could use him,’ Mary writes.
She writes: ‘He needed someone with Donald’s oblivious arrogance, his lack of insight and his blatant ignorance of his shortcomings to be his avatar of success in a world beyond the provincial, unglamorous boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Donald played his role to perfection.’
Mary says the Trump family loves litigation so much that lawsuits are their “love language.”
This extended to her when Donald sued her for $100 million for helping New York Times journalists publish information about his personal finances, including his taxes.
The suit alleged that it was “an insidious plot to obtain confidential and highly sensitive records which they exploited for their own benefit and used as a means to falsely legitimize their publicized works.”
In May, a New York appeals court ruled that the case could go forward.
Among other legal battles that divided the Trump family was a lawsuit filed in 2000 in a New York court when Mary and her brother Fred III challenged an attempt by Donald and his siblings to exclude them from the family inheritance.
In retaliation, Fred III was informed that Trump’s health insurance would be canceled for him and his family.
That included coverage for her son William, who required around-the-clock care, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year because of severe disabilities.
Mary writes: “The taunts from his family” led Freddy (right) to start drinking (Pictured: Fred Trump Jr. and Mary Anne Trump (left) attending the 38th Annual Horatio Alger Awards Dinner on May 10, 1985 at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City)
In his own memoirs, which were published last month, Fred III called Donald “evil” for instigating the plan and said Fred had mental problems when he approved it.
Mary had a reunion of sorts with her family in April 2017 when she accepted an invitation to visit Donald at the White House when he was president.
But she regretted it from the moment she agreed, she writes, adding that, combined with the Trump administration’s policies, she had to resort to ketamine therapy.
Mary also underwent EMDR therapy, which involves moving the eyelids in a particular way to heal trauma and was made popular by Prince Harry, who did it for his Apple TV show.