The Reason Trump Has Contempt For The Military
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| In a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump’s attitude toward the military, his gay niece, clinical psychologist Mary Trump, provided some family history to explain the president’s “ostensibly unfathomable behavior” and how he became so devoid of empathy. |
Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was Mary Trump’s grandfather. She said the elder Trump “cared about one thing… making money. That was it.”
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“My grandfather knew real estate,” she explained, “he was good at it and because that was the most expeditious way for him to make his fortune, being a success in that realm became for him the only viable, respectable, valued way to be a ‘success’ at all. And this extended to his sons… ”
She added, “Despite the fact that my grandfather’s vast fortune was built on and with hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts, he hated paying taxes. He passed that attitude on to at least three of his children—including Donald.”
His oldest son, Freddy Trump (Mary Trump’s father), did not have the same drive for riches, she said. He was relentlessly bullied by his father for being “frivolous, selfish, [and] somehow unmanly” for serving in the National Guard and becoming a pilot for TWA. “Having any ambitions separate from making money for his empire were beyond his consideration,” she said.
Freddy Trump eventually gave in and went to work for his father. “He internalized this shame so deeply that I didn’t even know he was in the National Guard until I stumbled across the medals he kept hidden in a shoe box that he put in the corner of his closet,” Mary wrote. “He could barely talk about it.”
As such, Donald Trump – almost eight years younger than Freddy – learned never to be like him. “Because being like Freddy would get him killed. So, he bought in to the selfishness. He bought in to the idea that the only thing that mattered was money—even if the only way to make himself richer was at the expense of everybody else.”
“The end result was that the only thing that matters to Donald is money. It is, indeed, the only currency he understands.”
Mary Trump told this story to provide context for why her uncle showed little concern for the four soldiers who went missing during a NATO training on March 25 near the Belarus border, three of whom have since been confirmed dead, while one is still missing.
As the search was underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump if he’d been briefed on the situation. His curt response – “No, I haven’t” – sparked outrage.
“That is simply not believable,” Mary Trump wrote. “There is no universe in which the person sitting behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office has no knowledge of the fate of four U.S. [soldiers] serving in hostile foreign territory.” She said it’s “also possible he was briefed, but had forgotten because such things are unimportant to him.”
“While Donald can’t be bothered keeping track of active duty troops overseas, regardless of what kind of danger they may be in, here the Trump regimes is gutting support for veterans. Elon Musk is leading a draconian cost-cutting initiative at the Department of Veterans Affairs and has fired 25,000 probationary federal employees, including nearly 1,700 from the VA alone. These cuts disproportionately affect veterans who make up nearly 30% of the VA workforce.”
She said many veterans who voted for her uncle regret their decision.
“I’m not going to throw any stones here, but I do wonder why it’s taken so long. There has been so much evidence, after all, of Donald’s contempt for them, their service, and their sacrifices.” She wondered whether it was from misinformation or because “like many people in the United States, [they] so deeply identified with their politics they reject all evidence that contradicts their beliefs?”
Mary Trump ended by saying that Donald Trump has “contempt” for military service in part because it reminds him of his own cowardice (he’s known for dodging the military draft during the Vietnam War five times).
“But he is incapable of owning that,” she said. “Instead, he looks down upon those who actually have the courage to serve their country, who have actually done what he is incapable of doing. Now in this most petty and cruel act of vengeance, because believe me, he recognizes their superiority, just as he recognized my father’s, he’s trying to make their lives unbearable by takin away everything this country owes to them. Because that’s who he is.”
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