Bestselling Trump tell-all by the president's niece
July 17, 2020
Mary Trump's book will go down as a record-seller in Simon & Schuster's history. The tell-all by the president's niece sold 950,000 copies on Tuesday, the first day of its release, the US publisher said. The sales include pre-orders, audio and digital versions and print books.
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On the eve of publication, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man was ranked No. 1 on the Amazon.com list of best-selling books.
'A must-read'
The book "has entered the national conversation in a way that few books ever do, becoming a cultural phenomenon and must-read for anyone seeking to understand the singular family dynamic that produced the most powerful man in the world today," Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp said in a statement.
"It is at once a revealing psychological portrait and a work of historic importance."
Mary Trump, a psychologist whose father was the President's oldest brother Fred, describes Donald Trump as a man of hubris and ignorance and attests that he fits the clinical criteria of a narcissist.
Insider perspective
Mary Trump saw a good deal of her uncle and his four siblings at her grandparents' house in Queens, New York. "She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse," Simon & Schuster writes on its website. "She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office."
The book is regarded as the first unflattering portrayal of the US president by a family insider. The highly critical memoir with its analysis, anecdotes of life in the Trump family and warnings against the incumbent winning another term in office in the Nov 3 presidential election has been dismissed by the White House as a "book of falsehoods."
Court rejects arguments
The president's younger brother Robert had gone to court to try to block the release, but on Monday, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled that publication can go ahead. Robert Trump claimed Mary had violated a non-disclosure agreement signed in 2001 after the settlement of her grandfather's estate. The court lifted the temporary restraining order issued on June 30 blocking Mary Trump and the publisher from publishing or distributing the book.
The publisher has already ordered the next printing of the book, which will bring the number of copies to more than 1.15 million for the American market alone.