Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, Christopher Steele: Mogul, Enforcer, Spy

By Diane Holloway Cheney

This thrilling page-turner describes the lives of the most controversial men of our era and how they impacted each other.
We now realize that the greatest threat to our country can come from within as well as those not in our own country. Can an administration ignore laws and attack democratic institutions without damaging democracy?
These shocking revelations are not without some humor to brighten what are otherwise dark and scary truths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Sep 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662917127

Diane Holloway Cheney

Diane Holloway Cheney, Ph.D. is a psychologist with nursing and social work background, who dealt with professions (police, fire, physicians, and individuals) impacted by sleep problems. She belongs to the American Psychological Association, American Academy for Sleep Medicine, American Nurses Association, National Association for Social Work, International Association of Chiefs of Police, and International Association for Fire Chiefs. Dr. Cheney wrote The Mind of Oswald, Dallas and the Jack Ruby Trial, Jacuzzi, American History in Song, Authors' Famous Recipes and Reflections on Food, Before You Say 'I Quit', Who Killed New Orleans, and other non-fiction books.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

AGE, HEALTH AND SIZE OF MUELLER, TRUMP AND STEELE

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. Winston Churchill

MUELLER’S AGE, HEALTH AND SIZE

Robert Swan Mueller III was born August 7, 1944, in Manhattan, New York. On that day, radio and newspapers carried reports of considerable success against the Germans. When we listened to the radio, we heard hits such as GI Jive, I’ll Be Seeing You, Besame Mucho, Mairzy Doats and Cole Porter’s Don’t Fence Me In.

Mueller is nearly two years older than President Donald Trump. Mueller grew up to be 5’11" and lately weighs about 165 pounds or less. His body mass index (BMI) using height and weight is 23 which is considered underweight, and he does look skinny.

He was wounded in the thigh by an AK-47 while serving in the Marine Corps in Vietnam and operated on. He received the Purple Heart among other honors. Stephen Ambrose might say he is a man of undaunted courage. Mueller was later operated on for prostate cancer on August 2, 2001. He had a complete recovery after removal of his prostate gland. He would become the longest-serving FBI Director since J. Edgar Hoover.

Mueller’s nickname is Bobby Three Sticks because he is the third Robert Mueller in his family line.

TRUMP’S AGE, HEALTH AND SIZE

Donald John Trump was born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York. On that day, songs on our radio were Rumors Are Flying; Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow; and Hoagy Carmichael’s Ole Buttermilk Sky.

Trump grew up to be 6’2 on his Selective Service Registration Card or 6’3 on other forms. Trump’s Selective Service Card also said he has a birthmark on both heels. He weighed 239 pounds at his physical reported in January 2018 and told his physician that he wanted to lose weight. His Body Mass Index (BMI) using height and weight is 31 which is considered moderately obese. He had another physical examination in February 2019 and had gained four pounds. That classified his BMI as clinically obese. In a comment that most physicians would never use, Sean Conley, D.O. stated that the 72-year-old president was in excellent health and will remain so for the duration of his Presidency, and beyond. To suggest that an obese man of this age would remain in excellent health for the next two years is a leap of faith few would undertake.

Trump was the oldest man to become an American president. In 2015, Trump dictated his own medical report to his physician, gastroenterologist Dr. Harold Bornstein, in preparation to run for the presidency. He said his health was astonishingly excellent. He also dictated for Bornstein to write: If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. Some months later, Trump’s bodyguards raided Bornstein’s office on February 3, 2017. Dr. Bornstein was upset at this intrusion and revealed that Trump had composed the letter.

Bornstein said Trump had an appendectomy at age ten, takes Propecia (a prostate-related drug to treat baldness), aspirin daily, antibiotics to control rosacea, and a statin to reduce blood cholesterol and lipids. Donald Trump is the physically largest president ever elected after two other heavy presidents—William Taft and Grover Cleveland.

He is a year older than Hillary Clinton. He could have used President Ronald Reagan’s line: I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.

His nickname has been The Donald, given him by his first wife, Ivana.

STEELE’S AGE, HEALTH AND SIZE

Christopher David Steele was born June 24, 1964, in Aden, South Arabia, now called Yemen. His actual birth place was in the Muslim country of Oman which is southeast of Saudi Arabia. In that area, they had little entertainment but if they had a radio, they might have heard The Beatles tunes A Hard Day’s Night, Love Me Do and I Want to Hold Your Hand. Steele is apparently in very good shape, has run in many marathons, triathlons and plays golf. His height and weight are uncertain but he is approximately 5’9" and of trim weight. He goes out of his way not to be noticed. His friends call him Chris.

DOES AGE, HEALTH AND SIZE HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH SUCCESS AND POLITICS?

Oh, yes. A study in 2004 showed that the taller you are, the more you earn. A study of children found that taller boys and girls performed better on tests and were found to have better nutrition. Another study showed that CEOs were usually taller men. Is this related to taller and bigger cave men being better able to defend their dwellings? We sense that a leader should be tall according to a Fortune 500 study of CEOs. Fat or overweight leaders are seen as less effective, having poorer job performance, lacking time management skills, and possessing an unattractive appearance. As for age, it was found that older-looking presidential candidates won more elections during wartime. However, age matters less than competency, according to many studies.

Incidentally, these three men play golf and who knows who might win in a fair game?

CHAPTER TWO

PARENTAGE OF MUELLER, TRUMP, AND STEELE

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung

Russian writer Leo Tolstoy said in Anna Karenina, Happy families are all alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. What does it take for a family to be happy? Most happy families have agreements on religion, money, sex, discipline, in-laws, but some do not. We are unsure whether any of these three families were unhappy. However, we do know that children pick up behavior, beliefs, and even prejudices from their parents. That will be illustrated as we review each family background. Just recall the lyrics in the 1949 Rogers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific:

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear, you’ve got to be taught from year to year

It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear, you’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid, of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade, you’ve got to be carefully taught.

MUELLER’S PARENTS AND HERITAGE

Mueller is the oldest so we will begin with him. Mueller’s father, Robert Swan Mueller II (1916-2007), was of German origin. He attended Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland, and then graduated from Princeton University in 1938 where he majored in psychology. He was on the varsity football, hockey and lacrosse teams and was a member of the Cap and Gown Club. He was also the first to be class president for three years and was Ivy Orator in his senior year. After the elder Mr. Mueller graduated, he entered the Navy and served as an officer in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean areas during World War II. He married Alice Truesdale, daughter of railroad executive William Truesdale. These details are available on Wikipedia.

Robert II worked for DuPont Corporation as an executive in the chemical industry until he retired. He later became president of Tobacco Merchants Association (TMA) who were marketing consultants in Princeton, New Jersey. He and Alice had five children. Robert Swan Mueller III was their first child. Then came four girls: Susan M. Timchak, Sandra M. Dick, Joan B. Christian, and Patricia. He died December 12, 2007. Alice, his wife, predeceased him by six months when she died at age 87 on May 28, 2007.

Robert II was the kind of father whom boys love. He had a fine presence and innate dignity that impressed people. Robert III followed in his footsteps in many ways, attending the same schools, practicing the same sports, and bearing the same seriousness of persons who play by the rules.

TRUMP’S PARENTS AND HERITAGE

Author J.D. Salinger said, If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. This sounds a little like Trump. When writing his first book with Tony Schwartz, Trump could remember little about his upbringing but I’ll go into a little of that.

Donald Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump immigrated from Germany (at that time the Kingdom of Bavaria) in 1885 at age 16 to work in the Klondike Gold Rush. Wikipedia reports show that he started as a barber but then ran restaurants and boarding houses. He finally set up a hotel, restaurant, and rooms for ladies—a veiled description of prostitution--in Bennett, near Skagway and later in Whitehorse, Alaska. When gold diggers found they had venereal disease, the main relief of symptoms was mercury, but that had bad side effects. Hence, the old phrase One night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury. The Klondike certainly had lots of mercury (known as quicksilver) because gold diggers turned their hoses on mountains unloading toxic amounts of mercury. Venereal disease was finally cured by penicillin in World War II.

Friedrich tried to return to Kallstadt, Germany, but he was an illegal immigrant who dodged the draft so he lost his Bavarian citizenship. He and his wife returned to New York where he became a barber, hotel manager, and acquired real estate. Stories of their Klondike adventures were told throughout the years to family members.

Trump’s father, Frederick Christ Trump (1905-1999) tried to conceal his German origins during WWII because so many of his tenants were Jews. In Trump: The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump claimed that the Trumps were Swedish. However, they were German Lutherans and Fred spoke German. Donald heard his own father and grandfather lie about their origins for many years, and he did the same. He became dishonest at an early age.

Donald’s father learned how to be a carpenter. His mother formed a business where Fred built homes and pioneered supermarkets with the slogan Serve yourself and save! He built quarters for the U.S. Navy and later built middle-income housing for returning veterans and their families. He built and sold his first home by the time he was 20. However, there was a darker side to Fred. On Memorial Day in 1927, the 22-year-old was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally of 1,000+ people dressed in Klan attire. No charges were brought against him, according to Donald Trump. This is reminiscent of the 1924 song Daddy Swiped Our Last Clean Sheet and Joined the Ku Klux Klan by Helen Marcell and Peggy Hedges.

That song made it sound like an innocent organization but that was far from true. The year before, Klan members shot and lynched three blacks and planned to tar and feather their lawyer and to castrate a white lawyer on the case but discarded plans for the latter two events. These things happened in Aiken, South Carolina, but were reported by James Weldon Johnson, New York Secretary of the National Association of Colored People, NAACP, in his October 29, 1926, newsletter. Johnson was also a songwriter who helped compose Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing and Under the Bamboo Tree sung by Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien in the 1944 movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. He wrote several books including God’s Trombones and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Donald’s young father may have been trying to fit in with his community because law enforcement and business people were involved with the KKK in the 1920s, despite its dreadful practices.

Fred Trump took the Dale Carnegie course on How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie wanted to be an actor and lecturer, and wrote the book of the same name in 1936. The course emphasized these points: Become genuinely interested in someone, smile, remember a person’s name, be a good listener, talk about the other person’s interests, and make the other person feel important. Donald Trump read Dale Carnegie’s book at his father’s suggestion. He was eleven and shy so he wanted to know how to change that. Carnegie also wrote Sigmund Freud said that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great. This may have been an important comment to young Trump just as he became pubescent.

Dale Carnegie changed his name from Carnaygey to the name of a rich man and rented Carnegie Hall in New York to make talks. Dale eventually went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and found his second wife, a leggy blonde named Dorothy Price Vanderpool who became his secretary there. As an aside, the author’s father was also a salesman and had dated Dorothy but lost her to Dale who was a more famous salesman.

By age 35, Fred Trump was building hundreds of houses each year in Brooklyn and Queens. He sold them by showboating. In July of 1939 he outfitted a 65-foot yacht called the Trump Show Boat at Coney Island. Loudspeakers played The Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America so that people had to stand and salute each time the patriotic songs aired. The boat floated 5,000 sword-fish shaped balloons. Each had an offer for $25 to $250 toward 200 of his FHA new Trump homes. A news item in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1939 was entitled Show Boat Tells Bathers About Trump Flatbush Homes: Novel Method of Publicizing Low-Cost Borough Houses Used by Builder.

By age 45, he was building some of the largest apartment complexes in the country. A 1938 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called Fred Trump the Henry Ford of the home-building industry. His mind was seething with the notion of acquiring wealth and glory.

Fred dyed his rather longish hair a slightly reddish color, perhaps because that looked a bit more Swedish and less Germanic. Fred Trump married a Scottish immigrant, Mary Anne MacLeod, who loved attention and pageantry. For example, Donald described how she spent hours watching the coronation of 25-year-old Queen Elizabeth on television in 1953.

Fred and Mary had five children: Maryanne Trump Barry, Fred Jr., Elizabeth Trump Gau, Donald and finally Robert. Donald’s oldest brother, Fred Jr. was born in 1938 and died of alcoholism in 1981. Fred had little time for family and his children received little attention unless they were like-minded. It was surmised that Fred Jr. could not withstand his father’s pressure to follow in his footsteps. Donald John Trump was the fourth of five children.

Fred Trump had many confrontations because of racial discrimination suits during his construction career. In later years, some of these included Donald who joined the company in 1968. Fred was making millions in business so he and Mary decided early on to transfer money to their children to avoid gift taxes. When Donald was three, he was already earning $200,000 per year. It was over a million dollars by age eight. In his 40s and 50s, Donald was receiving more than $5 million a year from his father’s company. The Trump children were gradually given roles in Fred’s company and received unprecedented salaries that the family kept secret from the IRS. To Fred Trump, success seemed always just around the corner.

STEELE’S PARENTS AND HERITAGE

Christopher’s parents, Perris and Janet Steele, met while working for the United Kingdom’s national weather service called MET, a meteorological service for the British military. Perris’ father had been a coal miner in Wales. During Christopher’s upbringing, his parents lived in Aden until the Yemen War. They were then transferred out of harm’s way to Cyprus and the Shetland Islands, famous for their Shetland ponies. Languages in Christopher’s life included primarily English, but Arabic in Aden, Greek and Turkish in Cyprus, and Old Scottish in the Shetland Islands. It is not surprising that he later embraced learning the Russian language.

The little we know about Christopher’s parents can be quickly told. His parents obviously had a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, and the striving for novelty. We know the settings where Steele and his family lived. In those places, people lived simply and innocently, and learned many frontier skills. By lucky chance, Christopher and his parents were thrown into places where surprise followed surprise.

CHAPTER THREE

EDUCATION AND MILITARY SERVICE OF MUELLER, TRUMP AND STEELE

An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends. Benjamin Franklin

MUELLER’S EDUCATION AND MILITARY SERVICE

Robert Mueller III attended a private school—St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, a private school. He and John Kerry, future secretary of state under President Obama, played hockey together. Bob was the captain of the hockey, soccer and lacrosse teams, and won the Gordon Medal as the school’s top athlete in 1962. Robert was also in the Missionary Society and the Library Association. Other important people who attended St. Paul’s were actor Efrem Zimbalist, publisher William Randolph Hearst, cartoonist Gary Trudeau, business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt III, fur tycoon John Jacob Astor IV, and banker J. P. Morgan, Jr.

Robert’s wife, Ann Mueller, attended Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. She went to Sarah Lawrence College for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, specializing in teaching in Special Ed classes. Others who attended Sarah Lawrence were Yoko Ono, Franklin D. Roosevelt III, Kyra Sedgwick, Rahm Emanuel and Alice Walker.

After high school, Robert went to Princeton where he intended to train for a medical career. However, a difficult organic chemistry class caused him to change his major so he earned a bachelor’s degree in politics in 1966. He next went to New York University and earned a master’s degree in international relations in 1967.

Mueller served three years in the Marine Corps, with one year in Vietnam. He was wounded when leading his platoon to rescue Marines under fire. He received the Purple Heart, Bronze Star with valor, two Navy commendations, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and achieved the rank of second lieutenant. The citation for the Bronze Star said: Second Lt. Mueller moved from one position to another, directing the accurate fire of his men and shouting words of encouragement to them. With complete disregard for his own safety, Mueller then skillfully supervised the evacuation of casualties from the hazardous area and, on one occasion, personally led a fire team across the fire-swept terrain to recover a mortally wounded Marine who had fallen in a position forward of the friendly line. Second Lt. Mueller’s courage, aggressive initiative and unwavering devotion to duty at great personal risk were instrumental in the defeat of the enemy force.

Mueller was the sort of man in whom action was the complement of a dream but his action parted him from loved ones. Mueller was serving in Vietnam when his first child, Cynthia, was born. He did not see her until she was four months old. In later years when Mueller gave talks about his life, he said I do consider myself fortunate to have survived my time in Vietnam. David Hackett, my inspiration, did not. And perhaps because of that, I have always felt compelled to try to give back in some way. Robert Mueller wanted a Marine Corps career but his wife, Ann, said, That is not an option!

Thus, Mueller decided to pursue a career in law. He chose the University of Virginia School of Law because students pledged not to lie, cheat or steal under penalty of expulsion. This university was founded in 1819 by past President Thomas Jefferson. Others who attended the University of Virginia School of Law include Ted and Robert Kennedy, Woodrow Wilson, Janet Napolitano and John Warner.

Mueller was a representative to the Law School Council. Robert tested on the Virginia Law Review, submitting a writing and editing exercise that only eight others passed. He was research assistant to law professor Mason Willrich, who was assistant general counsel for the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Kennedy administration. Mueller graduated law school with his J.D. in 1973. He prided himself on his honesty just as his father had.

Robert later received the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law and the Woodrow Wilson Award. He was invited twice to address graduating seniors at his old school, St. Paul’s. In his 2004 visit, he admitted that in his early school days, he was most likely to be found shooting pucks in my fireplace in the dorm to the chagrin of his instructors. In his 2008 address, he said he was grateful to have taken away a sense of faith from his years at St. Paul’s. Coming here, I was not particularly religious, he said. What I found was that going to chapel made a difference—it was something I would not have picked up elsewhere. That faith helped me, he added, when referring to the birth of his daughter with spina bifida.

TRUMP’S EDUCATION AND LACK OF MILITARY SERVICE

About 1949, Donald Trump attended the private Kew-Forest School and gradually developed a reputation, along with other boys, for pulling girls’ hair, passing notes, talking out of turn, and racing chairs crashing into desks, according to a school friend, Paul Onish. Donald spent so much time in detention that his buddies nicknamed the punishment DTs—short for Donald Trump. Trump told biographer Tony Schwartz that he once punched an elementary school music teacher in the eye and was nearly expelled for his behavior. As Prince Philip, the Duke of Windsor, said, Young people are the same as they always were. Just ignorant!

While in first grade, a song about Donald’s father became famous. Guitarist Woody Guthrie sang and wrote about the downtrodden poor whites, blacks, Hispanics and military veterans trying to find an affordable place to live. He criticized various inequities by landlords which flew in the face of equal rights under the Constitution.

Guthrie lived in Fred Trump’s Beach Haven Apartments from 1950 to 1952 and wrote Old Man Trump with these lyrics.

Old Man Trump knows just how much

Racial hate he stirred up in the blood pots

When he drawed that color line

Here at his Beach Haven Family Project.

Guthrie also wrote the ballad I Ain’t Got No Home for veterans with a similar message. It was similar to the World War I ballad The Forgotten Man about men who fought wars but could not get a job or a decent residence after the war.

Beach Haven ain’t my home, I just cain’t pay this rent.

My money’s down the drain, and my soul is badly bent.

Beach Haven looks like heaven, where no black ones come to roam.

No, no, no! Old Man Trump, Old Beach Haven ain’t my home.

Guthrie wrote that white supremacists were way ahead of God because God don’t know much about any color lines. Guthrie also wrote a more famous song: This Land is Your Land.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President after World War II and was very interested in getting good help for American veterans who served and survived the war. If he learned of abuses by builders offering housing to veterans, he noted the inequities, especially in New York City. Ike created a Senate investigation committee to ensure fairness for veterans in housing developments. Ike called developers who benefitted from inflated veteran rent sons of bitches. Fred Trump was investigated by a U.S. Senate committee in 1954 led by Senator Capeheart.

Donald’s father was charged with profiteering off of public contracts, and for overestimating the Beach Haven building charges of $3.7 million. Not only did Fred Trump charge veterans too much rent, he discriminated against minorities. His motto might have been: There’s a sucker born every minute.

On July 12, 1954, Donald Trump’s dapper daddy went to court to plead after being found to take in millions more than he needed for construction at Beach Haven. Fred Trump had also paid off some Federal Housing Authority (FHA) officials for favors. One official was Clyde Powell, who then lived a glamorous life despite a low FHA pay check.

Fred Trump claimed they wanted to avoid inharmonious uses of house, a phrase used to avoid selling homes in white areas to blacks. Clearly, this phrase shaded the truth and tried to cover the intent to deprive people of housing based on race. This was, according to Trump biographer Gwenda Blair, a betrayal…of the New Deal vision that had given birth to the FHA agency.

Donald was a millionaire by age eight, thanks to his parents As Winston Churchill said, Saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you. But how were the Trump children raised? Trump’s parents and especially his mother forbade their children from cursing, calling each other by nicknames, and wearing lipstick. Trump might have said, A boy’s best friend is his mother, and he has claimed that she gave him a sense of showmanship. But apparently her commands had little impact. In Trump’s later life, reporters constantly described his cursing and expletives.

His unflattering nicknames are notorious. Here are some of them: Joe Biden—1 Percent Biden, Crazy Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe. Michael Bloomberg: Little Michael Bloomberg. Richard Blumenthal—Da Nang Richard, the Dick. Jerry Brown—Gov. Jerry Moonbeam Brown. George H. W. Bush—Bush Original. Jeb Bush—Low Energy Jeb. Bill Clinton—Wild Bill. Hillary Clinton—Crooked Hillary, Lyin’ Hillary, Nasty woman. James Comey—Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey, Leakin’ James Comey, Sanctimonious James Comey, Lying James Come, Climball James Comey, Slippery James Comey, Shady James Comey. Bob Corker—Liddle Bob Corker. Ted Cruz—Lyin’ Ted, Texas Ted, Beautiful Ted. Andrew Cuomo—Hightax Andrew Cuomo. Dianne Feinstein—Leaking Dianne Feinstein, Sneaky Dianne Feinstein. Jeff Flake—Jeff Flakey, Rejected Senator Jeff Flake. Al Franken—Al Frankenstien (sic). Kirsten Gillibrand—Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Doug Jones—Puppet Jones. Tim Kaine—Total stiff. Omarosa Manigault—Wacky Omarosa, Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. James Mattis—That dog, Mad dog, Moderate dog. Barack Obama—Cheatin’ Obama. Nancy Pelosi—High Tax, High Crime Nancy Pelosi, MS-13 Lover Nancy Pelosi. Rod Rosenstein—Mr. Peepers. Marco Rubio—Little Marco. Bernie Sanders—Crazy Bernie. Adam Schiff—Liddle Adam Schitt, Slezy Adam Schiff. Chuck Schumer—Cryin’ Chuck, Fake Tears Chuck Schumer, Head Clown Chuck Schumer, High Tax Schumer. Jeff Sessions—Mr. Magoo. Elizabeth Warren—Pocahontas, The Indian. Maxine Waters—Crazy Maxine Waters. Frederica Wilson—Wacky Congresswoman Wilson. Bashar al-Ass of Syria—Animal Assad. Al-Waleed bin Talal in Saudi Arabia—Dopey Prince. Kim Jong-un in North Korea—Rocket Man, Little Rocket Man. Alex Salmond of Scotland—Mad Alex, and Dopey Christopher Steele.

Further information on how Donald was raised came from those outside his family. One neighbor, four years younger than Donald, was warned by his mother, Stay away from the Trumps! That neighbor, Dennis Burnham, recalled, Donald was known to be a bully. I was a little kid, and my parents didn’t want me beaten up. He explained that when he was in a playpen, his mother found Donald throwing rocks at little Dennis. Donald scared children and their parents, and he was feared by others up to and after he attained the presidency of the United States.

Ann Trees, a teacher of seventh grade at Kew-Forest said of Donald, Who could forget him? He was headstrong and determined. He would sit with his arms folded with this look on his face—I use the word surly—almost daring you to say one thing or another that wouldn’t settle with him. A teacher’s burden is to hope that with learning, a child’s character might be improved. As we know, a man’s character is his fate.

Fred’s son, Donald, was impressively athletic at Kew Forest. However, if he made an out in baseball, he might break the bat. Around the sixth grade, schoolmate Nicholas Kass said, He always wanted to hit the ball through people. He wanted to overpower them. As a catcher, he once smashed neighbor Jeff Bier’s bat on the pavement. The bat cracked but Trump did not apologize for ruining it. In addition, Donald refused to admit mistakes. For example, he insisted that a wrestler named Antonino Rocca was Rocky Antonino despite being corrected numerous times about the spelling of the name.

Donald Trump’s best sport was baseball and he wrote a poem about it at age twelve, published in the 1958 school yearbook.

I like to hear the crowd give cheers,

So loud and noisy to my ears,

When the score is five to five,

I feel like I could cry.

And when they get another run,

I feel like I could die.

Then the catcher makes an error,

Not a bit like Yogi Berra,

The game is over and we say

Tomorrow is another day.

Young Donald learned the adage spouted by actor Tom Hanks in the A League of Their Own movie: There’s no crying in baseball. Around age twelve, Trump and friend Brant liked to board an E train bound for Manhattan on Saturdays. They explored Central Park and Times Square. They bought hand buzzers, fake vomit, switchblades and stink bombs. A stink bomb was composed of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia and smelled like rotten eggs or a decaying carcass when thrown against something hard. Near the end of seventh grade, Fred Trump discovered Donald’s knives and learned of their trips. He angrily ordered changes and enrolled Donald at the New York Military Academy.

The boarding school was some seventy miles from their 23-room home with Trump Cadillacs, limousines, cooks, and chauffeurs. As Judy Garland said in The Wizard of Oz, There’s no place like home. Some others who attended Trump’s military academy were producer/director Frances Ford Coppola, composer Stephen Sondheim, musician Les Brown, and Mafia don John Gotti, Jr.

Donald was too embarrassed to tell his friends about his parent’s rejection and his removal from school. Theodore Dobias, a combat veteran who served in World War II, taught at the Academy and recognized Donald’s innate drive. He wanted to be number one. He wanted to be noticed, liked compliments, and bragged about his father’s wealth. Donald had little interest in academics. He had even less interest in disciplining himself and had gargantuan drives to be a big man on campus.

Donald grew up to be very tall, a head taller than most of his classmates. He often bragged about his family including his mother’s cooking. He enjoyed her recipe for meatloaf and made it available for all and served at the Mar-a-Lago Club.

DONALD TRUMP’S MOTHER’S MEATLOAF

2 lbs. fresh ground beef

1 Spanish onion, diced fine

1 red bell pepper, diced fine

1 green bell pepper, diced fine

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lg. tomato, diced fine

2 fresh eggs

2/3 c. seasoned breadcrumbs

¼ c. parsley, chopped

2/3 c. tomato puree

½ tbs. salt and pepper

Optional: Mushroom gravy

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large sauce pan, slowly cook peppers, onion, garlic and tomato until the onions turn translucent. Then let cool. In a large mixing bowl, add ground beef, cooked cooled vegetables, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt and pepper and mix well. Remove mixture and place in a large ceramic baking dish and form into a loaf. Top the loaf with tomato puree and bake 45-55 minutes or until brown and firm. Let the loaf rest for ten minutes before slicing. Optional: Serve with mushroom gravy.

At the New York Military Academy, Donald stood out as an athlete, pitching for the baseball team and playing tight end on the football team. By his senior year, he was bringing stylish, well-dressed women to the campus and showing them around. Ladies man was the caption under his photo in the senior yearbook. Young Donald had a penchant for grandstanding.

Donald’s roommate, Ted Levine, called him Mr. Meticulous because he was so neat. Donald competed to win awards for best bed, cleanest room, etc. One day, Donald saw Ted’s unmade bed, tore the sheets off, and threw them on the floor. He may not have said Bette Davis’ famous line What a dump! but he thought it. The boy, a foot shorter, started throwing things at Donald and hitting him with a broomstick. Trump tried to push Ted out the second-floor window but two cadets intervened. Was this the first sign of Trump’s problem which later manifested itself in avoiding germs and excessive handwashing?

Stories of venereal disease and treatments may have passed from grandfather’s brothels to parents so that Donald learned early to fear germs. Many young men forego sex because they have heard about venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. We don’t know what Donald might have heard from parents or parents about germs. Certainly, germs were a problem and caused infections.

Donald played Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis albums. He screwed an ultraviolet light into an overhead socket and lay down for a tan. He told roommate David Smith, We’re going to the beach. His skin was gradually tanned, except for his eyes which he covered.

In 1964, Trump graduated from the New York Military Academy. During high school, he was receiving about $17,000 per year from his father’s apartment profits. He was made part owner of a 52-unit apartment and awarded a salary of one million dollars a year.

In 2011, Donald Trump would challenge President Barack Obama to show his records to prove that he hadn’t been a terrible student. Trump offered to donate $5 million to charity if Obama released his college transcripts. However, he feared his own transcripts would be uncovered so he charged his attorney, Michael Cohen, to threaten Trump’s educational facilities with lawsuits and defamation.

In 2011, the Headmaster at New York Military Academy, Evan Jones, told reporters that superintendent Jeffrey Coverdale came to me in a panic because he had been accosted by prominent, wealthy alumni of the school who were Trump’s friends and wanted to keep his records secret. Coverdale told Jones, You need to grab that record and deliver it to me because I need to deliver it to them. Coverdale said members of the school’s board of trustees wanted him to hand over Trump’s records to them, but he refused. He said he moved the records elsewhere on campus, adding that it was the only time he ever moved an alumnus’s records.

Trump was approached by some academy graduates in 2010 when they sought $7 million because the school was in debt. One of those graduates spilled coke on Trump’s carpet. Trump asked what he would get for his $7 million. He ended by saying, It’s not a good business proposition. Ten years earlier, Trump had offered to build a facility in honor of coach Theodore Dobias, but the school board turned it down and asked for a cash donation instead. School authorities have said he was a very good student but his grades were not outstanding. The Academy’s code of conduct was modeled after West Point. The academy closed in 2015 after filing for bankruptcy protection, but reopened when a Chinese investor paid off the school’s debt.

Trump said on page 76 of Trump: The Art of the Deal, After I graduated from New York Military Academy in 1964, I flirted briefly with the idea of attending film school at the University of Southern California. I was attracted to the glamour of the movies but…I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx.

In 1966, Trump left Fordham where he said he had made respectable grades. Trump later had attorney Michael Cohen write the president of Fordham University, a New York School that Trump attended for two years. According to Fordham University spokesperson, Bob Howe, the letter in May 2015 warned that media outlets had requested Trump’s transcripts and the attorney reminded the university that if Trump’s student records were released, Trump would hold the school liable to the fullest extent of the law. This suit could result in both criminal and civil liability and damages include, among other things, substantial fines, penalties and even the potential loss of government aid and other funding. This suit could would lead to jail time. The threat letter ended with the comment under Cohen’s signature that Mr. Trump truly enjoyed his two years at Fordham and has great respect for the university."

Trump entered the undergraduate program at Wharton in Pennsylvania. The admissions officer had gone to school with Trump’s older brother. In 1966, Trump arrived at the University of Pennsylvania driving a Ford convertible, where he attended Wharton School of Business. There, he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics on May 20, 1968. Trump has said he graduated first in his class but has refused to disclose his transcript. He did not graduate with honors, however. Trump graduated in 1968 with a B.S. in Economics but was not among the top 15% of graduates. Trump defended his education in his presidential campaign saying I went to an Ivy League school. I’m very highly educated…I don’t have to be plainspoken. I have like this incredible vocabulary.

An open letter to Donald Trump from Wharton School of Business was published on July 8, 2016, in their newspaper and was signed by over 3,000 various students, graduates, and staff. It was not the official viewpoint of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania but here is the letter they circulated:

You Do Not Represent Us: An Open Letter to Donald Trump

At the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, students are taught to represent the highest levels of respect and integrity. We are taught to embrace humility and diversity. We can understand why, in seeking America’s highest office, you have used your degree from Wharton to promote and lend legitimacy to your candidacy.

As a candidate for President, and now as the presumptive GOP nominee, you have been afforded a transformative opportunity to be a leader on national and international stages and to make the Wharton community even prouder of our school and values.

However, we have been deeply disappointed in your candidacy.

This letter reflects the personal views of its signatories only and is not affiliated with Wharton School. The Wharton School takes no political position and does not comment on its students, alumni or faculty.

Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified on February 27, 2018, to the House Oversight and Reform Committee about his years working for Donald Trump. He said: As I mentioned, I’m giving the Committee today copies of a letter I sent at Mr. Trump’s direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if Mr. Trump’s grades or SAT scores were ever disclosed without his permission… When I say conman, I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges, and the College Board to never release his grades or SAT scores.

After Trump graduated from Wharton, he came home and went to work full-time with his father. He joined the Trump Company in 1968. He argued a good deal with brother, Fred Jr. who was an airplane pilot. One day at a party where gregarious Fred Jr. was imitating old time comedian W. C. Fields, Donald got mad and told him to stop this silliness and try to make something of himself. Donald put Freddy down quite a bit, according a lady who used to attend parties with him. She said Fred lacked the killer instinct of his father and gradually became alcoholic. The lady, Annamaria Schifano, told a reporter that Freddy said his parents were unhappy that her family was the first ethnic family to move into the neighborhood. So, the Trump family seemed to have a bias against people who were not like them. These Italians were not another race, but many Europeans groups were against each other in early New York history.

When Donald Trump was 22, he was exempted from military service during Vietnam. He applied at the Selective Service Center on June 14, 1968. It was noted that he had birthmarks on both heels but that was not the basis of his exemption. Bribery was the cause. Queens podiatrist, Dr. Larry Braunstein, did a favor for Donald’s father and gave Trump a letter saying he had heel spurs, a painful condition. Donald had never complained of heel discomfort during his various sports competitions for which he won honors at school. Dr. Braunstein died in 2007 but his daughters knew of the letter. Dr. Elysa Braunstein and her sister, Sharon, said that Dr. Braunstein rented his office in Queens from Fred Trump, Sr. I know it was a favor said Elysa. But did he [her father] examine him? I don’t know. Donald Trump did not have a disqualifying foot ailment. That permitted him to immediately join his father’s business organization which father and son both wanted. Some have said Mr. Trump is a heel for having gotten out of military service with this ruse.

STEELE’S EDUCATION AND MILITARY SERVICE

Steele was a little tyke on the Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Oman (South Arabia). His parents were plane-spotters involved in the defense ministry during the Yemen War. They gathered information about Naval activity in and out of the Suez Canal. When the Yemen war began, British families were pulled out by 1967.

They were transferred to the frigid Shetland Islands where young Christopher developed an interest in bird-watching despite the fog and chill winds. He proved to be very observant. Located at the most northern area of Scotland, the RAF base was adjacent to Norway on its east side and the island saw many Norwegian refugees. Iceland was located to the west slightly more northern than the Shetlands. Snow and wind hampered activities on the base but children enjoyed camp concerts, soccer, billiards, dancing, parties and schooling. Janet and Perris Steele were involved in identifying and reporting flights or ships from Europe heading north above the Shetlands to get to other destinations. Again, they were tracking bad guys and reporting violations.

From there, British forces were transferred to Cyprus bases at Akrotini and Dehkelia. Chris’ parents were tracking Soviet warships exiting from the Bosporus. When Russian ships went through the Black Sea down the Bosporus through the Sea of Marmara, they were going through the Dardanelles. English author George Gordon Lord Byron, despite being born with a clubbed foot, made a famous swim across the one-mile channel on the Bosporus against strong tides on May 3, 1810, in some 90 minutes. The famous swim across that area called the Hellespont made such history that Steele never forgot some of Byron’s words. Those who will not reason, are bigots. Those who cannot, are fools. Those who dare not, are slaves. Lionel Perris Steele and his wife Janet relayed to their son that Lord Byron attended classes at Cambridge University in England where Christopher would go later.

The Steeles ended their tour of duty and returned to Berkshire, England, where they put teenaged Christopher into the famous Wellington College, near Windsor Castle. This monument to the first Duke of Wellington was a boarding school for youth aged 13 to 18. Other notables who boarded there included actor Sir Christopher Lee and author George Orwell. No doubt Christopher remembered George Orwell’s words Big Brother is watching you when he later served in Russia. There is no doubt that Christopher Steele picked up on the work his parents had done to spot bad guys and report on them.

Steele was accepted to Cambridge University in 1982, where he attended Girton College. Christopher wrote for the Varsity, the main student newspaper. In 1986, Steele was President of the Cambridge Union debating society, where publisher Arianna Huffington had been president 11 years earlier. He was the first president of Cambridge Union debating society to invite a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to speak. He presided over high-profile political debates. One was the proposition that President Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies had hurt the United Kingdom. Christopher graduated with a degree in Social and Political Sciences in 1986.

Cambridge University opened in 1269. Other attendees included Isaac Newton, Oliver Cromwell, John Winthrop, William Pitt, Rajiv Gandhi, Abba Eban, Roger Williams, Lord Byron, John Milton, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Michael Redgrave, Erasmus Darwin, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, Bertrand Russell, Alistair Cooke, and Kim Philby. Philby went to work as a spy for MI6 but soon began sending documents to Communists. After some 40 years, he defected to Russia.

The effects of education usually help people use their imagination, develop their reasoning by becoming fact checkers, and value independence and free speech. Studies have shown that the more education people have, the less they tend to be racist and sexist. They are progressive and more willing to listen and learn new things from others rather than avoiding input which differs from their own views.

CHAPTER FOUR

MUELLER, TRUMP, STEELE EARLY RELATIONS AND CAREERS

It was love at first sight. Joseph Heller

MUELLER’S RELATIONS WITH WOMEN

In 1961, Robert Mueller met his future wife, Ann Cabell Standish, at a high school party. Some spark of understanding evidently passed between them. She became the love of his life. In 1966, Robert married Ann Standish. They would have two daughters—Melissa and Cynthia. Robert found that he could count on Ann.

TRUMP’S RELATIONS WITH WOMEN

In 1965, Donald Trump had a date with Candice Bergen when she attended the University of Pennsylvania. They were both 18. Candice was the daughter of radio ventriloquist Edgar Bergen whose wooden puppets included Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. She said of Trump, He was a nice-looking guy…and I was in college where he was to be going to college. It was like a blind date. He called me in the dorm. I was bored. He picked me up. He was wearing a burgundy three-piece suit with burgundy patent leather boots, and he was in a burgundy limousine, so it was very color-coordinated. I was home by nine. It was a very short dinner. Candice starred in several movies and went on to star in a television series called Murphy Brown about a business woman. Candice found young Trump to be a showoff who paid little attention to the thoughts of a female on a date.

Trump was always looking for places to meet important people. As Jane Austen wrote, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife. Trump looked for such women at Le Club and Maxwell Plum’s Bar which would lead to his first marriage. The Maxwell Plum’s Bar was owned by Warner LeRoy, son of Mervyn LeRoy, who produced movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Quo Vadis, Little Caesar, etc. Warner’s mother was the daughter of Harry Warner of Warner Brothers Studio. Warner LeRoy was given the little dog, Toto, after The Wizard of Oz was made. Warner also owned Tavern on the Green, a restaurant in Central Park.

The Bar was not the only New York hot spot owned by Warner LeRoy. He bought the Russian Tea Room at 150 W. 57th Street in New York City known for its vodka and tea. It was on everybody’s trip to New York City. The Tea Room was begun in 1927 by the Russian Imperial Ballet as a business for Russian expatriates. It was used for many movies. Famous clientele included Russians, movie stars Anne Bancroft and husband Mel Brooks, ballet star Rudolph Nuryev, conductor Leopold Stokowski, Jackie Kennedy, and singer Madonna who worked there as a waitress before she became famous. The four-floor restaurant’s most famous servings were Moscow Mule, borscht, caviar, gravlax, blintzes, and Chicken Kiev. There are whimsical glass bears juggling balls, and gorgeous wall and table accoutrements that make one feel like they are in an Anna Karenina movie.

Even English mystery writer Agatha Christie had a certain feeling about New York City. She said, It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.

When Maxwell Plum’s Bar closed after Mervyn LeRoy’s death, Donald Trump came to look over items to install in his Taj Mahal casino. His agent purchased a Tiffany lamp, a peacock window, a bronze elephant’s head with a long trunk, and some scones.

After Trump’s career at Wharton as a ladies’ man, he fulfilled the role socially. Igor and Oleg Cassini opened Le Club at 416 E. 55th Street in New York City. It was the kind of club where Donald met barons, princes and the jet set, a term developed by Igor Cassini for the roaming international set. Oleg Cassini developed the fashion line for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy when she married John Kennedy. Oleg married movie star Gene Tierney who gained fame for her role in the movie Laura. The Cassini brothers wrote a column under the name Cholly Knickerbocker for society gossip in the 1940s-1950s for the Hearst Newspapers chain. Le Club was an extremely popular club until later years when it closed after bad food inspections and diminishing clientele. Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, The Gondoliers, had a line about a place like this. When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.

STEELE’S RELATIONS WITH WOMEN

Christopher met Laura Hunt, the daughter of nuclear physicist David Hunt, who spoke Russian. They met on a blind date in April 12, 1988, and married in July 1989. Laura was a beautiful woman who worked for the international accounting firm of Peat, Marwick and McLintock. Chris’ candor was one of his most attractive features. Their lives were characterized by a restless urge to travel. Christopher had been accidentally propelled into the new-found career of espionage that suited them both.

Christopher and Laura had two boys in London (Matthew and Henry) and a girl (Georgina) when they were living in Paris. All three children were born between 1996 and 2000. Laura died in September 2009 of cirrhosis of the liver from a non-alcoholic cause, after a seven-year battle with the illness. She left a grieving husband to care for their three young children.

At Laura’s funeral, Christopher presented a poem called She Is Gone by David Harkins, which was used by Queen Elizabeth when her Queen Mother died a few years earlier.

You can shed tears that she is gone

Or you can smile because she has lived.

You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back

Or you can open your eyes and see all she has left.

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her

Or you can be full of the love you shared.

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday

Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.

You can remember her and only that she’s gone

Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.

You can cry and close your mind,

Be empty and turn your back.

Or you can do what she would want:

Smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

Three years later, Christopher married Katherine in 2012 and they have one child from their union. They were raising their four children in a pleasant house in Surrey, quite some distance from Chris’ office on Grosvenor Street near Buckingham Palace. He would later move his business office.

Both Mueller and Steele displayed marital longevity and respect for their spouse. They also had to develop much empathy for the suffering and plight of loved ones. Mueller and his wife had a child with such serious medical problems (spina bifida) that it changed their lives. Steele lost a wife who gradually failed in health over many years, and had to deal with his loss and the impact of that loss on their three children. The sympathy and loss undoubtedly created long-lasting empathy with the ability to view things from a broader perspective of human emotions. Trump suffered rejection by his father when sent to the military school away from his home. As a grown man, he suffered the loss of an older brother who died of