Vanity Fair: Is Donald Trump Jr. Really the Fredo of His Family? An Investigation
www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/07/donald-trump-jr-fredo-godfather
All along, we knew it was you. For the last few months (and especially this week), Donald Trump Jr. has weathered a horde of comparisons to Fredo Corleone—the useless, bumbling middle brother from The Godfather I and II, who essentially signs his own death warrant after clumsily betraying his brother Michael. The comparisons have hit a fever pitch particularly since The New York Times reported that the eldest Trump child had met with a Russian lawyer in an attempt to obtain damaging information about Hillary Clinton. It was exacerbated on Tuesday when Trump Jr.—in a profoundly misguided stab at one-upping the scoop from The New York Times—released a short statement and screenshots of the incriminating e-mail exchange via Twitter. Perhaps it’s no wonder that Trump’s inner circle has been calling him Fredo since the campaign.
In attempting to be the Trump family’s answer to Michael, Don Jr. slipped to the very depths of his Fredo-ness. But if he is the heir apparent to the Fredo throne, what does that make his equally yoked siblings? (We’re talking here only about Eric and Ivanka, as Barron and Tiffany are not included: Barron is a child, while Tiffany is off on a European vacation her siblings must now envy more than ever.) The only true answer: Don Jr. is just the highest-ranking Fredo in an interchangeable lineup of Fredos.
Why? Because each and every last one of the elder Trump children believes themselves to be the Michael Corleone of the family, which is the first rule of being a Fredo.
Donald Jr. has taken the top prize with his latest acts, but there is no doubt that he still believes himself to be the canny, ruthlessly efficient Michael—or at least a brash, manly Sonny. (Sonny probably also would have eschewed the advice of his family’s Tom Hagen and tweeted out screenshots of his incriminating e-mails, if he had known what e-mails and tweets were.) This makes Junior the truest Fredo, though it also merely bolsters the fact that he has been a Fredo all along: he’s spent years as the most active Trump kid on social media, constantly cheerleading papa’s efforts. Alas, his visibility has mostly yielded very public blunders.
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The thing about Fredo, though, is that even though he was a consummate fool, he intuited enough to know that people thought he was a fool—try as he might to convince everyone otherwise. (“I can handle things! I’m smart!”) But Trump Jr. continues to display public hubris to the point of dangerous self-incrimination, the sort that could land him behind bars if the Tom Hagens in his life are not very careful.
It should go without saying that Trump Jr. being Fredo does not necessarily make his father Vito Corleone. In truth, Donald Trump is just Fredo Sr., who begat a litter of younger, even less competent Fredos. If movie Fredo suddenly came to life and became a part of the Trump family, he might actually be its sole Michael—which says everything about the current state of the elder Trump brood.
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