What sort of denial do you have to live in if you are a woman/mother and Trump is your father?

[llmart]

How on earth do his two daughters sit by and see all the crap their father does and not disown him? They're grown adults and you would think have some sense that these stories can't all be fake. They surely have memories of some of his behavior and episodes from his past.

My father was not a nice person, not a good father, not a good provider, not a good husband. When he died I felt nothing other than regret that he had been my father and not some other man who would have cared about me. I have two sisters and we all felt the same way about him. He had power over us until we grew up and left home (we all left as soon as we graduated from high school), and we immediately set out to make our own way in this world. We used him as an example of how not to raise our children. He wasn't rich like Trump so there was no lure of an inheritance to keep us under his thumb, but I still can't imagine how one could know all about the criminality and sleaziness of their father and stand next to him smiling like he's the greatest man in your life.

But then again, I also can't understand why the porn star stays married to him either.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Maybe they don't want to be kicked off the gravy train.

And maybe there's a kind of Stockholm syndrome going on; according to some accounts Don Jr. was treated very badly by his father, yet he seems the most desperate to please him.

[Raster]

3. And there you have it... the tRump* progeny have no skills outside of grifting with Dad...

...and yes, Don Jr. wins the "daddy issues" award.

[llmart]

9. I have three brothers.

They were horribly abused by my father and to this day they talk about him like he was the best father in the world. My sisters and I are always reminding them of the way he treated them, but it doesn't matter. Guess it's easier for them to live a lie than to be honest. My youngest brother even went so far as to chastise us at our father's funeral for not crying. My oldest sister, who's always very blunt said, "Oh for heaven's sake. There isn't a one of us that didn't wish him dead a gazillion times when we were growing up."

[redstatebluegirl]

2. As long as they stay in the will they will follow him to hell and back.

[llmart]

6. Hopefully there won't be anything left after the State of New York pursues all the lawsuits.

That'd be karma for his wife and kids. Stand by his side all those years only to find out they get nada.

Plus, how many kids has he fathered in all his dalliances that might come forward after all's said and done and claim part of whatever's left?

[awesomerwb1]

4. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[leftieNanner]

13. That was going to be my response

Only with more $$$$$$$$

That is, if he actually has any.

[hlthe2b]

5. The controversial author of the 2 books on Trump maintains Ivanka and Jared

actually hate him (Michael Wolff). Now that is hard to fathom and says nothing good about them either, but rather underscores their exploitation and sociopathy, but, who knows...?

[Brother Buzz]

7. Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are in agreement on this The Stockholm syndrome thingy

?

[spooky3]

8. I know this is not your main point, but I am very sorry for what you lived through as a child. nt

[llmart]

10. That's very kind of you. Thank you.

I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but it taught me resiliency, how NOT to raise my two wonderful children, and that childhood abuse stays with you for life, if not shown outwardly in one's public persona, then it's always with you internally. I've spent a lifetime examining it and learning to live with it. It helps me to understand about the choices I've made in my own life.

[Bettie]

11. They were raised to believe that

if they or their family members do something, it is good and noble, everyone else is so far beneath them that they don't even qualify as human.

[Ohiogal]

12. I would have to be very heavily medicated

to stand up at a political convention and make a speech about Trump if he was my husband/father/whatever and gush on and on about what a great guy he is. I agree, you would think that these family members, at least the daughters, would have seen enough of the world to know what their disgusting father is all about. How they can continue to support him is mind boggling.

And, Ilmart, I'm sorry for what you went through. I did not have the greatest relationship with my father, either.

[Beringia]

14. I have never read any theories on abusive parents and children

How come some children still worship them and others flee for their lives. It seems his children have adopted his advantaged lifestyle, in that way they have followed in his footsteps, so they have a lot of themselves invested in being like him and enjoying their social status.

[dawg day]

17. Donnie Jr is the weirdest case--

His father was scornful and (by accounts) abusive towards him.
Donnie sided with his mother in the divorce and didn't speak to his father.
He had a more loving father figure in his maternal grandfather.

But he ends up the most slavish of all-- and desperately trying to ape his father in openly cheating on his wife and humiliating her. And he's the one who is most obedient to Trump's nasty wishes.

He doesn't, shall we say, have a very strong core. And shallow people like that with a lot of grievances are exactly the ones who go for Trump.

Plus, let's face it. No one who wasn't related to Donnie Jr would give him a job.

[Beringia]

18. Using your parent to build your own ego identity, must have something to do with it

I don't even understand the dynamics in my own family, so I can't even guess what happens in others.

[dawg day]

15. His children no doubt are subconsciously thinking...

"At least those brown kids' families really love them! My dad doesn't love anyone but himself!"

[Leith]

16. They don't know that there is a different way to be

Their entire lives have been in the megarich bubble. Everybody they know acts in that same, twisted way and they are not even aware that it is out of the ordinary. If, by some chance, one of them witnesses acts of happy family members, they assume that it is for public display.

[sarabelle]

19. Or that you even support this MF?

You have to be a heartless and RACIST B.

[cpamomfromtexas]

20. I feel qualified to answer.

My father has the exact mannerisms and behavior of Trump. Its uncanny.

I did not realize until I was in my 50s that his behavior was abnormal. It was normal because thats all I had ever seen. I did know I didn’t like it.

Slap a yellow wig on him and they would pass as brothers. And, like Trump, my father controls with money. He has committed at least 6 felonies in last year. I was victim of most of them. This is in retaliation for going “no contact” and refusing to deal with his bullshit anymore.

Unfortunately my Grandmother died and left him trustee. Contrary to law he refuses to disperse land in Accordance with will and trust. So he controls what belongs to me.

If I had known this abuse that I hated had a name, I would have cut off ties much sooner.

[GeorgeGist]

21. Too much money ...

is a helluva drug.