Review | Born Trump: Vanity Fair journalist on America’s first family

Born Trump
by Emily Jane Fox
Harper

3/5 stars

Born Trump feels like tabloid fodder because of its gossipy style. But perhaps that’s the intention: the first family of the United States, if you believe everything Emily Jane Fox writes, lend themselves to trash talk.

The author, a Vanity Fair writer, seemingly cuts and pastes, or otherwise interviews nameless sources, to build quick profiles of Trump’s wives and their children (plus various satel­lites). Tiffany, Trump’s daughter with second wife Marla Maples, is given some­thing of a reprieve, possibly because, as Fox points out, most people don’t really notice her. But we hear why Ivanka spied on Maples as a child, and that “Vank’s” engagement ring (from Jared Kushner) came from her own jewellery line. Even dirtier is that she and her brothers, Don Jnr and Eric, were apparently the results of Ivana’s IUD mishaps.

We also learn of tensions between Eric and Jared, and that Don Jnr, at least while at college, desperately sought to escape his family name. Although Barron, Trump’s 12-year-old son with Melania, is spared scrutiny, Trump used his name when planting stories about himself. Fake news? Sometimes you just couldn’t make it up.

The Unpunished Vice
by Edmund White
Bloomsbury