Trump's Reckless Power Play: Why Mary Trump's Warnings Should Alarm the Middle East Today
Dealing with the character of Donald Trump in the Middle East is no longer a matter of politics or diplomacy; it has become an issue that directly impacts the region's stability. Amid rapidly unfolding transformations—and at a time when a clear alliance is emerging between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the Arab world is confronted with a volatile reality shaped by American decisions that defy conventional political logic.
This fraught climate brings renewed relevance to a book that, since its publication, has offered key insights into the mindset of a man who manufactures crises as often as he generates headlines. Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, written by clinical psychologist and Trump's niece Mary Trump, is more than a family memoir—it is a psychological case study of a figure whose whims have global consequences.
The book, which sparked wide controversy upon its 2020 release, has not lost its urgency. On the contrary, its value has arguably doubled in light of today's extraordinarily delicate regional landscape, where alliances shift, interests collide, and spheres of influence are redrawn. With Arab powers unable to anticipate Washington's next moves, it becomes crucial to understand not just US policy—but the personality of the American decision-maker himself: his psychological drives, behavioural patterns, and deep-seated motivations. Trump's open embrace of Netanyahu's government at the expense of any Arab or Palestinian balance only reinforces this need.
Having grown up in the Trump household, Mary recounts the formative years of her uncle's upbringing under a domineering father who showed no tolerance for emotion and worshipped only money and dominance. She describes how Donald Trump learned early to mask vulnerability, lie persuasively, and play the strongman who never admits fault. From this harsh environment emerged a personality that sees aggression as a survival strategy, denial as habit, and unchecked power as a rightful tool for imposing one's will.
Drawing on her clinical expertise, Mary Trump diagnoses her uncle with acute narcissistic disorder—characterised by an insatiable hunger for praise, an inability to empathise, a vindictive response to criticism, and a compulsion to lie until he believes his own fabrications. The most alarming implication of this diagnosis lies in its ability to explain Trump's pattern of making fateful decisions without hesitation, foresight, or adherence to rational norms—a tendency repeatedly displayed on the international stage, particularly in the Middle East.
The book also reveals a darker family legacy: a tangled web of financial manipulation, tax evasion, and conspiracies to hoard wealth. Mary recounts how the Trump patriarch, Fred Trump, built and preserved a vast financial empire through shell companies, fictitious transactions, and fraudulent schemes. In such an atmosphere, Donald Trump never internalised respect for law or regulation. Instead, he absorbed the belief that accountability is optional—so long as one wields power and money.
According to Mary, when Trump entered the White House, he simply transferred his family's model of deceit and domination to the presidency. He governed through manipulation, institutional sabotage, and the propagation of alternative facts—ruling not through policy but through spectacle and disruption. What makes him most dangerous, she warns, is not his ideology but his instinct: the ability to destabilise opponents with erratic decisions and redirect the course of events through impulsive gambles.
One striking anecdote in the book involves Trump paying a friend to take his college entrance exam while in high school—a secret long buried within the family. According to Mary, this revealed not just a willingness to cheat, but a lifelong pattern of exploiting others for personal gain without remorse. Trump later boasted in private that he 'always knows how to pay someone to handle the boring stuff for him.'
Another telling moment involves Trump's response to his brother Fred Trump Jr.'s illness. While Fred was gravely ill in hospital, Donald ignored the family's pleas to visit him, opting instead to attend a social gathering—and later claimed ignorance of the severity of the condition. Mary presents this not just as cruelty, but as a revealing instance of emotional detachment, showing a man who sees others as disposable tools.
This is precisely why revisiting Mary Trump's book is so urgent—particularly for the Middle East. The region is entering a perilous phase: unresolved conflicts in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, mounting threats against Iran, and a crumbling Arab consensus. Against this backdrop, a US president driven by personal impulses and psychological dysfunction presents an existential danger.
What worries observers today is not Trump's traditional pro-Israel stance—that is well known—but his deepening alliance with the most extremist government in Israel's history, and his pursuit of unpredictable, high-stakes strategies whose outcomes defy prediction. His recent economic and military actions targeting Iran, along with pressure on Arab states to shift positions on Tel Aviv, reinforce the conclusion that Trump is propelled not by strategy, but by obsession.
Mary Trump's book thus becomes an indispensable psychological dossier. It is not just the biography of a president, but a chilling portrait of a personality that could once again plunge the Middle East into chaos. It lays bare the thinking of a man who equates strength with lawlessness and believes he is entitled to impose his will without constraint.
Debate may continue over Mary Trump's motives for airing family secrets. Yet what remains beyond doubt is that her rare insider perspective exposes the most disturbing traits of a leader who continues to shape the world stage. And if politics requires knowing one's adversary, then reading this book today is no longer a luxury—it is a strategic necessity for anyone concerned with the region's fate in an age that can no longer afford reckless gambles.
Marwa El-Shinawy – Academic and Writer
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