WaPo: “A tell-all book by President Trump’s niece describes a family riven by a series of traumas, exacerbated by a daunting patriarch who ‘destroyed’ Donald Trump by short-circuiting his ‘ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion,’ according to a copy of the forthcoming memoir obtained by The Washington Post.”
“President Trump’s view of the world was shaped by his desire during childhood to avoid his father’s disapproval, according to the niece, Mary L. Trump, whose book is by turns a family history and a psychological analysis of her uncle.”
“Mary’s father, Fred Jr., — the president’s older brother — died of an alcohol-related illness when she was 16 years old in 1981. President Trump told The Washington Post last year that he and his father both pushed Fred Jr. to try to go into the family business, which Trump said he now regrets.”
“Donald escaped his father’s scorn and ridicule, Mary Trump wrote, because ‘his personality served his father’s purpose. That’s what sociopaths do: they co-opt others and use them toward their own ends — ruthlessly and efficiently, with no tolerance for dissent or resistance.'”