Emily Jane FoxCritiques

2.5 stars. I heard the author on Fresh Air and was intrigued. To be fair, I listened to this as an audiobook, and my attention wavered a bit. The author does not cast Trump, his parenting style, or even his children, really, in any kind of a favorable light. The most telling thing she highlighted was Trump's statement that he wanted to have 5 kids so that one of them would be guaranteed to turn out just like him. Yikes!

Better title "Born Trash". That family is worse than expected & the ride has just begun. History will not be kind to this famaily.

I only read this to satisfy an embarrassing desire for salacious celebrity gossip. Don’t think I learned anything new except for the design of each and every wedding cake for each and every wedding these people participated in. I should’ve listened to the audio version in my car so if I missed a few bits while merging onto the I-8, it wouldn’t have mattered.

But Emily Jane Fox writes well and I subscribe to Vanity Fair, so that’s why a second star.

I didn't know who Emily Fox was when I picked up this book. I was informed by a friend she is a regular to comment on matters Trump from the typical side of the mainstream media with appearances on say CNN. That was apparent throughout the book as her viewpoint and analysis was always forefront.

What drew me to this particular book however was curiosity and the compelling tabloid nature of this family that also draws me like a magnet. Quite a bit of the beginning is devoted to the interactions and scenarios that played out through the campaign and on through to the election and early days of forming the new government. A bit of a yawner as most of this type of material has been analyzed to death.

Then she shifts to the individual players, being the children and their spouses excluding only Baron due to his age and thankfully his privacy. I found it a great insight into the complexities of this first family and the many flaws that are on display everyday it seems. Not your typical family by any stretch but also typical in the flaws and dramas that play out in most.

Each individual here is brought into clearer focus to get a feel for their actions and motivations stemming from their biographical histories and experiences being brought up Trump. A good read for not only the curious but also the political perspectives it presents and what we will soon witness as the administration winds to the conclusion of its first term and onto the next round.

Portret van de Amerikaanse president Trump vanuit het perspectief van zijn familie: vijf kinderen en zijn schoonfamilie½

Als sich Donald Trump zur Wahl stellte, wurde die ersten Bücher herausgegeben, die sich mit ihm als Politiker befassten und es kommen immer wieder neue heraus. Nun hat sich also Emily Jane Fox, die als Journalistin bei Vanity Fair ist, diesem Thema gewidmet. Sie betrachtet alles aus der Perspektive der Kinder von Donald Trump. Ganz besonders liegt ihr Augenmerk auf Ivanka Trump, die schon immer mehr in der Öffentlichkeit stand als ihre Geschwister und Trumps Lieblingstochter ist. Von Anfang an war sie mit ihrem Mann Jared Kushner immer ganz nah dabei, wenn Donald öffentlich auftrat. Sie waren auch sofort mit wichtigen Posten versehen, als Trump ins Weiße Haus“ einzog. So bleibt alles in der Familie.
Wenn man in das Trumpsche Familienleben schaut, stellt man fest, dass Business schon immer wichtiger war als Familie. Die Kinder hatten materiell alles, was man sich nur vorstellen kann. Die Betreuung übernahmen aber Angestellte. Ein liebevolles Familienleben schaut anders aus.
Wer also eine oberflächliche, unterhaltsame Betrachtung über den amerikanischen Präsidenten und seine Familie im Stil der Yellow Press sucht, ist bei diesem Buch richtig. In der Ankündigung des Buches ist von „verblüffenden Erkenntnissen“ die Rede. Diese Erkenntnisse habe ich nicht finden können. Mein Wissen und meine Ansichten über den Menschen Donald Trump haben sich mit diesem Buch nicht verändert.
Nett zu lesen, geht aber nicht in die Tiefe.½

Herein is described the most hated Presidential family in U.S. history. A family of grifters, lickspittles, social climbers, perverse evil doers, and ingratiators who have inserted themselves into the White House, and the American government like cockroaches. These are the spawn of Donald Trump, the worst President of the United States in living memory. Three important facts have been glossed over; the dementia of Frederick Trump (the father of Donald Trump), the indicators that Donald Trump has inherited that dementia, and the autism of Barron Trump. Yes, there are several glaring grammar/spelling errors but these do not detract from the overall composition.

This is a piece of fluff book with a few interesting anecdotes about the four eldest Trump children and their lives growing up. The book appears to have never been proofread by an editor because it is filled with really ridiculous errors - grammatical, spelling, structural. I counted 25 of them, and I'm sure there were probably more. It is a sloppy, slipshod, embarrassing product. Don't waste your time - it's really bad.½

I honestly don't know why I read this - I guess because the excerpt in a recent Vanity Fair was engaging and interesting? And I think I'd have been fine sticking with that excerpt. There were some interesting anecdotes and insights but ultimately I don't think I care enough to have read the whole book - especially when it came off as a real slapdash effort. I read the Kindle version and I've never come across a published book - in print or digital - so filled with errors. It's hard to believe anyone even gave this a proofreading scan. In a story about the Trump kids having a lemonade stand, the text reads that they used powdered Country Crock - which is margarine - instead of Country Time. There are several sentences which are clearly about Ivanka but say Ivana, and dozens of paragraphs where the pronouns used are so unclear that you're not sure who the anecdote is surprising. Typos abound. The book also just ... ends, abruptly, after the profile of Tiffany, without any kind of wrap-up or perfunctory analysis. I guess technically it ends with an Author's Note wherein the writer says she didn't want to write this book but then decided she did. Meanwhile, I started out interested in the book but then decided I wasn't.

One of the qualifying statements I've always heard people make about Donald Trump is that despite his horrible domestic and foreign policies, he did a good job of raising his children. This book substantially disproves those assertions. If you believe this book, they would have been better off being raised by wolves.

No, no real surprises---just sort of "sickeningly" revealing---hence the 3 stars. Fox writes in a very readable style and my stars for her writing would be FIVE of them. She gathered all the details she could find -- who would want their lives presented in this fashion? And that's what it is..."fashion." Somehow, I guess this shows that all of the Trumps are completely used to and want the constant public notice----and probably liked this book.....