Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man

by Mary L. Trump

As usual with Donald, the story mattered more than the truth, which was easily sacrificed, especially if a lie made the story sound better.

The fact is, Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for. At this point, we can’t evaluate his day-to-day functioning because he is, in the West Wing, essentially institutionalized. Donald has been institutionalized for most of his adult life,

The atmosphere of division my grandfather created in the Trump family is the water in which Donald has always swum, and division continues to benefit him at the expense of everybody else.

by engaging in behaviors that were biologically designed to trigger soothing, comforting responses from their parents, the little boys instead provoked their father’s anger or indifference when they were most vulnerable.

and he often trafficked in hyperbole—everything was “great,” “fantastic,” and “perfect.”