Donald Trump loves to take credit for being the genius behind the Trump brand, but according to his nephew’s new book, it was actually Trump’s brother who came up with the idea to use the family namesake on its development projects.
“The airing of that fact is sure to rankle his Uncle Donald, who loves to take credit for almost everything and to present himself as a business savant,” notes Washington Post writer Manuel Roig-Franzia.
Fred Trump III’s new tell-all memoir, "All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got this Way,” dives into some of the Trump family’s secrets, including Donald Trump’s history of racist slur-ridden rants.
But what may pinch Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s ego the most is the revelation that Fred Trump II was the one who first thought of adorning everything in the Trump real estate empire with the family surname.
“Did my father create a monster with that branding suggestion of his?” the former president’s nephew muses in the book. “Later, of course, his younger brother would run away with the idea. Before you knew it, we’d have Trump Tower, Trump University, Trump sneakers, and Trump Bibles.”
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The lesser Trump, who is notably a Democrat, paints a picture of a family prone to petty power grabs from inheritances to legal disputes. It also serves as a revealing character study on his uncle, a man of massive ego who “couldn’t handle being called a loser,” but also had a cowardly streak.
As The Washington Post write-up notes, the book relays an anecdote from his other uncle, Robert Trump. After winning a golf game, Donald Trump began to ridicule his losing opponent, prompting the man to walk over and punch him.
But the fight ended there, Fred Trump writes, as Trump backed away from throwing his weight behind his words.
“A lot of tough talk, not too many punches,” Fred Trump writes.
