Page 56 - Too Much and Never Enough - Mary L. Trump

more responsibility, Fred brushed him off.
Trying to prove he could make executive decisions, Freddy placed a
window order for one of the older buildings. When Fred found out, he was furious. “You should have slapped a goddamn coat of paint on them instead of wasting my money!” he shouted while the employees looked on. “Donald is worth ten of you. He never would have done anything so stupid.” Donald was still in high school at the time.
It was one thing for his father to humiliate him in front of his siblings, but the people in that office weren’t Freddy’s peers. Someday, presumably, he would be their boss. For his nascent authority to be undermined so publicly felt like a body blow.
When he got home that night, he told Linda how trapped he felt and confessed that he’d never been happy working for his father. It wasn’t at all what he had expected, and for the first time it occurred to him that Trump Management might be a dead end for him. “I’m applying to TWA, Linda. I have to.” He wasn’t asking anymore. Fred might cut him off, but Freddy was willing to risk losing his inheritance. Pilots, especially pilots working for TWA, had good benefits and job security. He would be able to support his young family on his own, and he would be his own man.
When Freddy told his father that he was leaving Trump Management to become a commercial pilot, Fred was stunned. It was a betrayal, and he had no intention of letting his oldest son forget it.