Fred C. Trump, despite being on the outskirts of his own family, has plenty to say about his relatives
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Fred C. Trump III is an interesting case study. While he’s not shy about sharing the family name and using it to get ahead in the world, he’s also not really in lockstep with the rest of the Trump clan. And now, he’s speaking about it publicly, right as his “Uncle Donald” is closing in on the closing months of his third-consecutive Presidential campaign. That’s no mistake, and Fred Trump has said as much, hoping to use the stories told in this book to help influence the decision for many Americans who may read it come November.
“One Trump may not be able to redefine the brand that’s been breaking news for so long,” he writes. “But I won’t be changing my name, and I will no longer be the quiet, private citizen.”
“All In The Family” is an inside account of what it was like growing up a Trump, not dissimilar to his sister Mary Trump’s 2020 tell-all “Too Much and Never Enough.” Unlike that book, however, Fred Trump allows Donald Trump a little bit of levity while sharing his increasing uncomfortableness with who he ultimately became.
It also focuses heavily on his personal life, including his legal battles with the Trump family estate and his immediate families’ struggle with caring for their son William, a child born with severe disabilities including benign familial neonatal seizures and cerebral palsy.
Fred Trump’s love for his children, and especially for William, truly comes across on every page it’s mentioned, and it helps him stand out from his family’s shadow in a positive, charitable light. It also makes his claims that Donald Trump told him that people like his son and others like him should “just die” even more heartbreaking and infuriating.
It’s surprising, then, that he does give his uncle so much grace, unlike Mary did in her book. He establishes, throughout the memoir, just how differently he views the world than his family does, and even admits to voting for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the elections that his uncle has been a candidate in (he’s also publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris during this election cycle). But he never fully, wholeheartedly bashes him the way that his sister chose to; he conveys his displeasure by writing of his disappointment and bewilderment instead.
In a passage near the book’s conclusion that can be paraphrased as the call coming from inside the house, it’s also worth noting that Fred Trump believes that Trump will not fade away if he loses again this fall.
“If he loses,” he writes, “mark my words: he won’t be a loser. He will run again in 2028. America isn’t close to finished with the Trumps.”
Whether that statement holds remains to be seen.
