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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Mystery of Mary Trump
Donald Trump reveres his father but almost never talks about his mother. Why not?
By MICHAEL KRUSE November/December 2017
When Donald Trump moved into the Oval Office in January, he placed on the table behind the Resolute Desk a single family photoof Fred Trump, his father. Sometime in the spring, White House communications director Hope Hicks told me recently, the president added one of his mother, Mary Trump. When, exactly, and why, Hicks couldnt or wouldnt say. This scenario, as uneven as it may seem, was a continuation of the setup in Trumps office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, where a photo of his father always was proudly, prominently situated on his deskand a photo of his mother, in the words of a former staffer, was noticeably absent. It can be risky to read too much into the placement of family picturesexcept with Trump, it confirms a disparity that has been evident for decades: the looming, constant presence of his father, and the afterthought status of his mother.
For so long, Donald Trump has talked often about the profound influence of Fred Trump. Thats why Im so screwed up, because I had a father that pushed me pretty hard, he wrote in his 2007 book, Think Big. Mary Trump, by contrast, has been more of a ghost in his voluminous public record, a cardboard cutout of a character. She was, we have been told, an acquiescent housewife, a spouse who didnt hassle her dour, driven husband, a mother who relished pomp and planted the seeds of her second sons acumen for showmanship and promotion. Judging by the biographical material, created largely by an aggressively unreliable narrator and those in his employ, the 45th president of the United States would seem to be the product of one domineering parent. But Trumps relationship with his mother, while less explored, is just as consequential.
The mothers of presidents often have been a kind of super-influencer. From Barbara Bush, the powerful matriarch of the two-time first family; to Virginia Kelley, who all but singlehandedly launched Bill Clinton from the Arkansas boondocks to Washington and the West Wing; to Ann Dunham, the anthropologist who steered Barack Obama from Hawaii to Indonesia to the Ivy League and the White Housethe sway these women had over their sons was incontrovertible. And their sons celebrated by them throughout their political careers. Dunham died at 52, more than a decade before her son was sworn in as the 44th president, but in books by Obama and his biographers, she has been cast as an almost elemental force. For all the ups and downs of our lives, Obama once told an interviewer about his mother, there was never a moment where I didnt feel as if I was special.
Trumps mother, who died in 2000, had in some ways been fading from view for many years before her son on Inauguration Day placed his hand on the Bible he got from her. But to discount her role in the creation of the Trump persona is to disregard decades of study about family dynamics. Trump might not agree, but most psychologists agree: Your mother helps make you who you are.
Who, then, was Mary Trump?
more
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/03/mary-macleod-trump-donald-trump-mother-biography-mom-immigrant-scotland-215779
cilla4progress
(24,736 posts)our last 2 Dem presidents were raised by single moms, much of their lives. Their biodads were not involved.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)Pretty amazing.
hlthe2b
(102,292 posts)But, I'd like to see more written about his surviving siblings.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)They are completely invisible.
BillyBobBrilliant
(805 posts)must have began at a very young age.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Hostility toward? She may have tried harder than his "business-centric," sports oriented dad to develop him morally and spiritually, to fit in and do well at school, the last apparently a source of issues.
A mystery. Journalist Kurt Eichenwald once tweeted that he believed Donald was in a mental institution for a while in the 1990s, the decade when Donald's severe financial and marital troubles occurred, notably when Fred was no longer able to help him. If so, a diagnosis would have been made then, but seemingly Eichenwald was not able to obtain proof or it would have been reported in Newsweek.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)It's a major republican thing.
* republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief
FM123
(10,053 posts)She may have only said those words towards the end of her life, but she probably thought and felt that way during much of Donald's life, and he probably knew that. He was a horrible person all along, she knew it, everyone knew it and deep down inside he knew it too. To keep her (and her picture) on the periphery allows him to live in his alternate truth.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)I mean, this picture is essentially Donald in 15 years, wearing a dress.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Seriously, her infinity weave is what inspired Dolt 45's hairdo...
FM123
(10,053 posts)ChubbyStar
(3,191 posts)That is a tRUMP trifecta.
spiderpig
(10,419 posts)and his obvious contempt for women other than his daughter.
PunkinPi
(4,875 posts)a respectful father doesn't call his daughter "a piece of ass".