Too Much and Never Enough

Beginning in Chapter 13, Trump acknowledges that when she was invited to and attended Ivanka’s wedding to Jared Kushner, she had not seen her aunts and uncles in 10 years, since the fallout from her grandfather’s will. Shortly after the wedding, she met with Robert and Maryanne, supposedly to discuss what had happened a decade before, but the meeting essentially consisted of them venting about Donald’s behavior during their estrangement. A couple of months after Trump visited the White House for her aunts’ birthday celebration in 2017, she was approached by Susanne Craig, a reporter for the New York Times. Craig told her that she was working on a story about her family’s finances and that she thought the author might have documents that could help. Trump flatly refused to help originally, but soon she reconsidered. She explains that after watching her uncle’s first year as president unfold, “as Donald shredded norms, endangered alliances, and trod upon the vulnerable,” she decided to help (186). Trump argues that “the only thing that surprised [her] was the increasing number of people willing to enable him” (186).

Craig told her that her old attorney in the will lawsuit, Jack Barnosky, might have the needed documents.