During the coronavirus pandemic, a time of prolonged national mourning, the President has rarely offered public displays of empathy or pain. Many of those who knew Fred Trump say this is another example of his influence on his son.
Our reporters Annie Karni and Katie Rogers He spoke to more than 20 friends of the President, family, political allies, members of the administration, and business partners for an article examining the complicated relationship between father and son.
Annie answered some questions about what she learned while reporting on the piece.
If you could summarize the core values that Fred Trump tried to instill in Donald, what would they be? How would you describe the importance of Fred’s influence on his son’s public and private personality?
The central vision of the world that Fred Trump conveyed to his son was a black and white perspective where people are loyal or unfair, where they win or lose, dominate or submit. He also conveyed this idea that work was valued above all else (see also: Trump refuses to call his golf weeks in Bedminster, NJ more than just a “work vacation”), and that success in business. Family was basically all that counted.
In the article, you write that Fred Trump pushed his son hard to succeed, but also that he invested hundreds of millions of dollars in supporting Donald’s business ventures, often helping him. get out of financial jams. If you had to choose between one, would you say Donald Trump was instilled with more emphasis on “winning” or actually doing the hard work necessary to get ahead?
It’s hard to separate nature and nurture, or to determine how much of Donald Trump’s personality comes from his upbringing and how much is simply because he was born that way. But it is clear that what matters to him is winning and the perception of winning. Throughout his career, perhaps even the coronavirus, he has been able to shoot his own losses as victories, and most of the time it worked.
I interviewed people who worked with Donald and Fred Trump, and they said that Fred always marveled at his son’s marketing and advertising skills. This was where father and son differed: Fred was a behind-the-scenes player, not a household name, and by design. He was scared and amazed by his son’s supernatural interest in selling himself. That part was invented by Donald Trump, and Fred was very proud of it.
