Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump Book Review

Well, I guess we’ll all find out what happens in probably the next few days.

It’s felt like not too long ago that I was pondering the possibility of a second Trump turn back near the end of 2020. To tell the truth, because of Kamala Harris’ seemingly hesitant take on truly saving the innocent Palestinians and Lebanese from Israel’s genocide, I can’t help but not have as much enthusiasm towards her as I should. And the 2016 election reminded me a surprise can always come, no matter what the polls might say. But I can definitely tell you that Project 2025 would be a nightmare, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t come true. With those things in mind, here are my thoughts on the bestselling bio Trump’s niece wrote years back.

Something that surprised me about Too Much and Never Enough is what it is mostly about. The literal title tells us this is how Mary’s family created Donald Trump, but Donald’s not the protagonist or even main antagonist. Remember, Mary is Donald Trump’s niece. Mary’s father was Fred Trump Jr., but everyone called him Freddy. Freddy was Donald Trump’s older brother, alongside their two sisters Maryanne and Elizabeth, and younger son Robert. Leading this pack was Fred Trump, the self-made multi millionaire (of a company his mother started) and his completely sad and submissive wife, also called Mary. But of all these people, Freddy is the one the author of this book knows best. After all, he was her father. He was also the oldest male Trump, and Fred had societal and mental expectations of him. 

I won’t reveal any more, other than this is the story from Mary L. Trump’s point of view, of how her grandfather ruled the family with an iron fist, and how one thing led to another to make Donald Trump the monster he is today. As I was typing that, I was originally considering putting “person” there, not monster. But we call people monsters all the time, for doing much less than Trump did. Why should he get any special privileges?

I remember how much of a hit this book was, months before the 2020 election, how the administration tried to sue to stop it. I can see why. There have been many books about Trump since his successful presidential run, and I’m not going to pretend I’ve read…well, any of them, I’m a little ashamed to admit. I guess all I can say is this is a villain origin story, except most of those stories try to paint sympathy for the villain. This one sure doesn’t. One can only wish someone called Child Protective Services on this family (and for there to have been strict laws in place about intimidating CPS) before Donald Trump morphed into the forever petulant and greedy man he is today, groomed, if you will, by his father.

I’m not very much of a non-fiction book blogger, but what I especially like about this work are two things; one, Mary lays out exactly how she felt in trying times and isn’t afraid to assume emotions, as long as they help us understand the setting, which is in my opinion a good thing to do, and two, the book concludes before it can get overwhelming. At 220 pages, this digestible book is at the perfect length to tell the story Mary set out to do. I felt particularly bad for Freddy, just as much as I wish there could’ve been something therapeutic enough to conquer his demons, because the things he did because of his depression…so counterproductive and stupid and poisonous and yet his family made him feel like such a loser.

I would disagree at this point with her positivity towards some of those she praises in the book, like Andrew Cuomo, and I feel sometimes her writing noticeably repeats some points. And there’s the occasional typo. But it is a very reasonably-lengthed book and a great insight into a world that rewarded greed and did not accept any type of feeling that would get in the way of it. Which is what created, as Mary put it, the world’s most dangerous man.

My grade: 4 stars out of 5