Born Trump

""He’d sat with them for dinner and let them know that if they grew up to be kind and appreciative and unspoiled by all of their spoils, they would be loved not because of their money but despite it”. <br/><br/>Well that didn’t end up happening now did it?! Haha! This book was so juicy, well-researched, but also so easy to read. I finished a lot faster than I anticipated. This book got into the nitty gritty of the Trump family and all their various mishaps throughout the many (30+) years in the spotlight. There were a lot of aspects to the Trump kids growing up that I didn’t know about. For example, I didn’t know that the three oldest kids had not just one workaholic parent in Donald, but two in their mother Ivana who operated the day to day business of the Trump Atlantic City Casino. <br/><br/>I also didn’t know much about Jared Kushner, other than that he came from a Jewish background and that his father was in business for a whole slew of illegal activity. I was ultimately more than a little bit creeped out by the fact that Ivanka’s was so obsessed with the Kennedy dynasty and emulating them, in particular Jackie, that she (allegedly) named her daughter Arabella after Jackie and JFK’s stillborn daughter. <br/><br/>The reason that I wouldn’t give this book a full 5 stars was because there were a bit of formatting issues in my opinion. The biggest and frankly, most arduous chapter to get through was “Chapter 4: Born/Married/Divorced/Married/Divorced/Married/Raised Trump. I felt that each of his marriages could have been divided evenly between each of his now 3 marriages. I know that there was obviously overlap between at least one of his marriages (the first and later second), but it felt a bit long and at times uncohesive. Also, there were more than a few times when certain facts about certain periods of time were repeated randomly in the book. Like for instance when they mentioned that Don Jr. and Eric worked with the carpenters at the Trump estates, which was then mentioned later in the book again for some weird reason. Maybe it was to prove that they did (somewhat) work for what they had. <br/><br/>At times I did feel at little bit bad about them growing up in the glare of the publicity machine, especially when their (the older kids at the least) parents were going through their divorce, but also when both of their live-in nannies and maternal grandfather Dedo died suddenly. How would you deal with the only stable role models in your life just suddenly not being there when you needed them the most? Other than those examples, it really does show, except for maybe Tiffany and Barton Trump, that Donald Trump and his whole ideology about life and work, really did leave a lasting if some would argue, damaging effect on his kids. A lot of examples in the book don’t make them out to look like the greatest of people, although maybe just Eric and Tiffany because they were very young when both of their parents eventually split. <br/><br/>Overall I would recommend this book, if you are either a Trump family supporter or a less than ardent supporter. What I will say to some up the experience of reading this book is that you will learn quite a lot from this book that you thought you already knew."

"Delicious dish! Dysfunctional dynasty (emphasis on nasty) nuggets are addictive. Robust research and rollercoaster writing make Emily Jane Fox’s portrayal of Trump wives and offspring a juicy summer read."