Born Trump: Inside America's First Family

Written by Emily Jane Fox

Narrated by Emily Jane Fox

Who is Donald J. Trump? To truly understand America’s forty-fifth president, argues Vanity Fair journalist Emily Jane Fox, you must know his children, whose own stories provide the key to unlocking what makes him tick. Born Trump is Fox’s dishy, deeply reported, and richly detailed look at Trump’s five children (and equally powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner), exploring their lives, their roles in the campaign and administration, and their dramatic and often fraught relationships with their father and with one another.

Reexamining the tabloid-soaked events that shaped their lives in startling new detail, Born Trump is full of surprising insights, previously untold stories, and delicious tidbits about their childhoods (ridiculously privileged and painful, in equal measure) and the extraordinary power they now wield. As a version of this new kind of American royalty they wish to be, they are ensconced not in palaces but in Trump Tower and the White House.

Even before Trump’s oldest child, Don Jr., was born, Donald told friends that he wanted at least five kids—to make sure there was a greater probability one would turn out just like him. His vision didn’t pan out exactly as he’d imagined, but Trump’s children each inherited some of his essential traits—as one source says, “collectively, they make the whole.”

Ivanka is a media-savvy, hyperskilled messenger with her father’s self-promotional ease but without the brash.

Don Jr. has the most contentious relationship with his father yet seems prone to endlessly repeat his mistakes.

Eric embraced the family’s real estate business but has, in surprising ways, charted a more independent course than his siblings.

While Tiffany grew up mostly separate from her father, she inherited Trump’s perspective as an outsider—his unique combination of assurance and insecurity.

And there is Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, whose own family drama and personal ambition is a crucial thread in this saga.

Come for the vision of Trump as a father—a portrait of the president at his kindest and cruelest. Stay for the revelatory gossip, including the truth about the firings of Christie and Manafort, the inside scoop on Donald’s three marriages, why Ivanka and Jared are “bashert,” and how this family of real estate tycoons have become the most powerful people in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780062844002

Emily Jane Fox

Emily Jane Fox is a senior reporter at Vanity Fair. A former White House intern, she is also a graduate of Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Pennsylvania.

Reviews for Born Trump

[norma iglehart · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great insight into whole family. Sheds a lot of light on what we are all living with in the White House now.

[Rey Cianciotto · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Yuck. Interesting that the author's last name is Fox. What a gross family.

[Rachel Schultz Dickerson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining book...
Had to have done a ton of research!

[Leslee Fiszlewicz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting reading about their family life and the type of parenting.

[huba.library · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Better title "Born Trash". That family is worse than expected & the ride has just begun. History will not be kind to this famaily.

[knightlight777 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't know who Emily Fox was when I picked up this book. I was informed by a friend she is a regular to comment on matters Trump from the typical side of the mainstream media with appearances on say CNN. That was apparent throughout the book as her viewpoint and analysis was always forefront.

What drew me to this particular book however was curiosity and the compelling tabloid nature of this family that also draws me like a magnet. Quite a bit of the beginning is devoted to the interactions and scenarios that played out through the campaign and on through to the election and early days of forming the new government. A bit of a yawner as most of this type of material has been analyzed to death.

Then she shifts to the individual players, being the children and their spouses excluding only Baron due to his age and thankfully his privacy. I found it a great insight into the complexities of this first family and the many flaws that are on display everyday it seems. Not your typical family by any stretch but also typical in the flaws and dramas that play out in most.

Each individual here is brought into clearer focus to get a feel for their actions and motivations stemming from their biographical histories and experiences being brought up Trump. A good read for not only the curious but also the political perspectives it presents and what we will soon witness as the administration winds to the conclusion of its first term and onto the next round.

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a piece of fluff book with a few interesting anecdotes about the four eldest Trump children and their lives growing up. The book appears to have never been proofread by an editor because it is filled with really ridiculous errors - grammatical, spelling, structural. I counted 25 of them, and I'm sure there were probably more. It is a sloppy, slipshod, embarrassing product. Don't waste your time - it's really bad.

[hikatie · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I honestly don't know why I read this - I guess because the excerpt in a recent Vanity Fair was engaging and interesting? And I think I'd have been fine sticking with that excerpt. There were some interesting anecdotes and insights but ultimately I don't think I care enough to have read the whole book - especially when it came off as a real slapdash effort. I read the Kindle version and I've never come across a published book - in print or digital - so filled with errors. It's hard to believe anyone even gave this a proofreading scan. In a story about the Trump kids having a lemonade stand, the text reads that they used powdered Country Crock - which is margarine - instead of Country Time. There are several sentences which are clearly about Ivanka but say Ivana, and dozens of paragraphs where the pronouns used are so unclear that you're not sure who the anecdote is surprising. Typos abound. The book also just ... ends, abruptly, after the profile of Tiffany, without any kind of wrap-up or perfunctory analysis. I guess technically it ends with an Author's Note wherein the writer says she didn't want to write this book but then decided she did. Meanwhile, I started out interested in the book but then decided I wasn't.

[etxgardener · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of the qualifying statements I've always heard people make about Donald Trump is that despite his horrible domestic and foreign policies, he did a good job of raising his children. This book substantially disproves those assertions. If you believe this book, they would have been better off being raised by wolves.

[nyiper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

No, no real surprises---just sort of "sickeningly" revealing---hence the 3 stars. Fox writes in a very readable style and my stars for her writing would be FIVE of them. She gathered all the details she could find -- who would want their lives presented in this fashion? And that's what it is..."fashion." Somehow, I guess this shows that all of the Trumps are completely used to and want the constant public notice----and probably liked this book.....