Trump building on his family achievements is the American way--indeed the Western way, reflected in what is best in our civilization and heritage.
From Magna Carta on, the concept of building on family achievement has been very central to the ethos. Trump is a builder in more senses than that immediately apparent. And much of what he has been saying--even if sometimes a bit rudely--demonstrates that he really does understand the multi-generational concepts & processes that are the core of the American way.
I happily concede the positive effects of gowing up in a Church-growing two-parent family. I am the happy product of the same. I readily confess the debt I owe my blessed Sainted parents for all that I am.
And my sons in their even greater achievements, owe a debt to my beautiful, Sainted wife and me.
But in a crucial way, I am a self-made man. I am not a billionaire, but I am a millionaire and businessman, humble and modest though my business dealings are. My parents gave me good morals , good habits, and unmovable principles, but my parents did not give me a large fortune. Making money from money takes work, prudence and diligence. The story of the man who received millions from his parents and squandered it all is a truism. trump, to his great credit, is the antithesis of that truism. He has taken a part of his father’s fortune and conserved and grown it to a significantly larger fortune, at least in nominal terms.
But it is not the same as the guy who made a bundle, no matter how modest, without a major founding capital contribution from mommy and/or daddy.
trump is not a “self-made billionaire.” He got a really big head- start from tens of millions in cold, hard, cash. There are many self-made billionaires with net worths that are multiples of trump’s who truly are business geniuses who helped others to millions and billions, instead of impoverishment like many of trump’s investors.