Too Much and Never Enough

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sociopathy, narcissism, and other personality disorders.

Mary L. Trump, the author of Too Much and Never Enough, received a PhD from the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies. Additionally, she has taught graduate-level courses in trauma, psychopathology, and developmental psychology. Trump is also the granddaughter of Fred Trump Sr. and the only niece of former president Donald Trump. Her father, Fred Trump Jr., died of a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 42 after years of heavy smoking and alcohol addiction. In Too Much and Never Enough, Trump’s overarching theme focuses on the family dynamics between her grandfather, her father, and her uncle Donald. Her father was originally selected as her grandfather’s heir apparent, but instead he decided to pursue a career as an airline pilot, a decision that both Fred Sr. and Donald ridiculed. After her grandfather died in 1999, Trump discovered that she and her brother, Fritz, had essentially been disinherited as their father’s 20% share of the estate was being divided by his four living siblings.

In 2017, Mary L. Trump was approached by New York Times reporter Susanne Craig, who was working on a story about the Trump family’s finances. While the author initially rejected Craig’s plea for help in obtaining revealing financial documents, Trump later changed her mind after witnessing her uncle’s behavior as president and his divisive policies in action. Published in 2018, the article brought to light several possibly fraudulent and illegal business dealings over the years. Citing a previously signed non-disclosure agreement, the Trump family sued the author to stop publication of Too Much and Never Enough, but their attempts failed and likely provided the tell-all book even more publicity. In its first week of publication, the book sold 1.35 million copies, making it one of the fastest-selling books in history.

Trump offers a unique viewpoint on the subject matter in two different ways: her expertise as a psychologist and her insider perspective on Trump family dynamics. In the Prologue to her work, Trump lays out her expertise with psychological disorders but warns that no diagnosis can be thorough without a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests (12). She argues that Donald meets all of criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) for narcissism, but also acknowledges that comorbidity is likely present (12-13). Relying on her distinct insider perspective of the family as well as her psychological expertise, Trump also points out that her uncle meets the criteria for antisocial personality disorder and at least some of the criteria for dependent personality disorder (13). She is also very clear about her grandfather, whom she refers to as “a high-functioning sociopath” in Chapter 1. While her father died when she was only 16 years old, Trump remained an active part of the Trump family and regularly attended family gatherings with her grandparents. Her opinions concerning her grandfather and uncle are not shaped from media reports or partisanship, but rather from her vantage point of being part of the family and knowing her subjects in the most personal way.