THE GREAT I-AM: His brother called him "The Great I-Am!"

MONDAY, APRIL 21, 2025

Last Friday, here's what he did: Way back when, in July 2020, Mary Trump published a big, beautiful book.

At the time, she was largely unknown. Her book became a major bestseller. Here's the thumbnail from Simon & Schuster:

Too Much and Never Enough:
How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
By Mary L. Trump

About The Book

In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.

Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens...

The overview continues from there. On the cover of our copy of the book, the author is presented as "Mary L. Trump, Ph.D," presumably to stress her background as a clinical psychologist.

(Also, that presentation distinguishes her from another woman named Mary Trump. We refer to President Trump's late mother, a major figure in her granddaughter's best-selling book.)

Could Simon and Schuster end up in CECOT this year? At present, experts aren't sure! That said, Mary Trump's book spent at least thirteen weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list, but only after debuting in the blockbuster manner described below:

Mary Trump’s tell-all memoir sells 1.35 million copies in blockbuster first week

A tell-all memoir by President Donald Trump’s niece—who claims he has world-endangering emotional problems stemming from childhood trauma inflicted by his parents—has sold 1.35 million copies in its first week, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.

Mary Trump’s “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” is in its 17th printing, the publisher said Thursday...The sales figure, which includes all formats, puts the book on track to being one of the most popular books of the year.

Too Much and Never Enough was a "tell-all memoir," according to that report by CNBC. According to Simon & Schuster, it was "a revelatory, authoritative portrait" of President Trump and his family.

However you want to teach it, the book's Part One is laid out in this way in its Table of Contents, 

PART ONE: THE CRUELTY IS THE POINT

CHAPTER 1: The House
CHAPTER 2: The First Son
CHAPTER 3: The Great I-Am
CHAPTER 4: Expecting to Fly

Chapter 3 is called "The Great I-Am." That refers to a nickname Mary Trump's father, the late Freddy Trump, once gave his younger brother, today's American president. 

(In the book, Mary Trump refers to her father as Freddy. This helps distinguish him from Fred Trump, the president's father, but also from Frederick Trump, Mary Trump's brother, who she refers to as Fritz.)

Freddy Trump was, in fact, the "First Son" of Chapter 2. He was eight years older than his brother Donald. He bestowed the nickname on his younger brother when the latter was something like 11 or 12 years old.

We'll offer more detail as the week proceeds. For now, here's the key paragraph:

CHAPTER THREE
The Great I-Am

[...]

Encouraged by his father, Donald eventually started to believe his own hype. By the time he was twelve, the right side of his mouth was curled up in an almost perpetual sneer of self-conscious superiority, and Freddy had dubbed him “the Great I-Am,” echoing a passage from Exodus he’d learned in Sunday school in which God first reveals himself to Moses.

If accurate, that's a description of a growing misfortune manifesting itself in the life of a child. In this book's account, it started when the child's mother suffered an extremely serious medical incident when he was just two years old.

In her book, Mary Trump is able to pity that child, even as she voices something like contempt for the adult he became. In our view, that's one of the great strengths of her book—her ability to pity the child, even as she says that the child developed into "the world's most dangerous person."

With respect to that childhood nickname—with respect to "The Great I-Am"—can such accounts be trusted from an author who wasn't actually present on the scene at the time?  

Early on, Mary Trump outlines the various sources on whom she draws for her accounts of this important family's history. Along the way, she was apparently told—possibly by her aunt Maryanne, the current president's older sister, now deceased—about "The Great I-Am."

For the record. something else happened to the young Donald Trump "by the time he was twelve." At the start of eighth grade, he was renditioned to the New York Military Academy, a boarding school sixty miles from his home, because he'd become "uncontrollable" at the private school in Queens he'd attended up to that point.

For the record, these is no doubt about the fact that the president was sent to NYMA at the start of eighth grade, or about the fact that he stayed there through his high school graduation.

There is no doubt that he was sent to NYMA by his domineering father. As the week proceeds, we'll show you Mary Trump's account of the background to that decision.

For better or worse, "The Great I-Am" was sent to what his siblings ridiculed as a "reform school." In Mary Trump's telling, this seems to have involved the start of a set of "psychopathologies" which, she says, remained on vivid public display during her uncle's first term in the White House.

Mary Trump is, in fact, a trained clinical psychologist, the holder of a doctorate. Obviously, the fact that she made certain assessments of her uncle doesn't mean that those assessment were automatically accurate, true or correct.

That said, consider what happened last Friday night with respect to the ruler in question. The incident's reverberations will be widely felt, but do any of Blue America's "well-adjusted" leaders care?

Last Friday night, her uncle may have engaged in one of his most remarkable acts of public deception to date. Or was he simply telling the truth? 

We aren't in position to tell you. That said, also this:

As the American experiment may perhaps be coming undone, does anyone possess the intellectual skill and the moral commitment which might allow us the people to know what's true? For that matter, to what extent do Blue elites actually seem to care?

Human history includes many stories of conquest by the planet's most powerful rulers:

Starting around the year 1206, Genghis Khan "united the tribes." Almost a thousand years before that, Alexander the Great is said to have wept when he came to believe that he had "no more worlds to conquer."

Alexander died at age 32. There seems to be no evidence he actually made some such statement

Last Friday night, "the most dangerous person in the world" made his latest somewhat odd presentation. At issue was the question currently roiling the two American nations:

Was Kilmar Abrego Garcia ever a member of the criminal gang, MS-13? Is he some such affiliate even today?

There "The Great I-Am" now sat. situated in the White House. He displayed an apparent photograph of some person's left hand. As you can see by clicking this link, he offered this post on X:

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such “a fine and innocent person.” They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The president was offering talk from the hand! According to the sitting president, the detainee in question has the letters and numbers "M S 1 3" tattooed right there on his knuckles! 

There it was, for all to see! Apparently, no one had noticed!

A second post followed, from the generic White House account. It showed the same photo and reposted the president's text. Also, this White House post said this:

The White House
@WhiteHouse

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck

The text was so snarky it could have been written by President Bukele himself! According to this second post, the detainee in question quacks like an MS-13 gang member—or at least, he "probably" does.

Starting with the employees of the Fox News Channel, this new claim has been spread all across Red America since last Friday night. Almost three days later, major news orgs from Blue America have almost completely averted their gaze.

Nothing to look at, their three days of silence seem to have said. Let's talk about Hegseth instead!

Some bloggers quickly said that this alleged photograph of the hand had, in fact, been doctored. As of Saturday, New York magazine's Chas Danner had explicitly said the photograph was doctored, though his post was weirdly buried in such a way as to limit its exposure.

Elsewhere, Blue America sat silent. The Great I-Am had spread it around, and the great news orgs of our own Blue America had continued to take a gigantic pass with respect to the fairly obvious fact that something is wrong with this person.

Over time, every great ruler's giant empire has eventually come to an end. Is this latest incident one more episode in a related matter? Is it merely the latest way a certain human experiment is possibly coming undone?

More specifically, is that photograph actually real? Red America is being told that it is. To date, the major elites of Blue America have apparently—once again—chosen to turn tail and run.

For ourselves, we can't answer that question with certainty. Of course, it's possible be that fact-checking will eventually appear among Blue American troops.

That said, when he was maybe eleven years old, his older brother apparently mocked him as "The Great I-Am." Today, he sits in the White House, where, last Friday evening, he went ahead and offered a bit of talk from the hand.

He still claims he won the 2020 election. He would like to send "homegrowns" down south. He also claims he has a photograph of a certain detainee's hand.

Is it real, or it is just the latest "error?" Red America is being told that it's real. As has happened again and again, everyone else in this failing nation has been left by the side of the road.

Nothing to look at, our big orgs have said. The greatest rulers in human history have long said the darnedest things!

Tomorrow: More on this "BREAKING NEWS" allegation, which is now three days old...