Niece paints acid portrait of President
President Donald Trump’s niece offers a scathing portrayal of her uncle in a new book, blaming a toxic family for raising a narcissistic, damaged man who poses an immediate danger to the United States public, according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press.
Mary L Trump, a psychologist, writes that Trump’s re-election would be catastrophic and that ‘‘lying, playing to the lowest common denominator, cheating, and sowing division are all he knows’’.
‘‘By the time this book is published, hundreds of thousands of American lives will have been sacrificed on the altar of Donald’s hubris and wilful ignorance. If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American Democracy,’’ she writes in Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.
Mary Trump is the daughter of Trump’s elder brother, Fred Jr, who died after a struggle with alcoholism in 1981 at 42. The book is the second insider account in two months to paint a deeply unflattering portrait of the president, following the release of former national security adviser John Bolton’s bestseller.
In her book, Mary Trump, who is estranged from her uncle, makes several revelations, including alleging that the president paid a friend to take the SAT – a standardised test widely used for university admissions – in his place. White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews called the allegation ‘‘completely false’’.
Mary Trump also writes, in awe, of Trump’s ability to gain the support of Christian leaders and white evangelicals, saying: ‘‘The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there. It’s mind-boggling. He has no principles. None!’’
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed the book yesterday, saying: ‘‘It’s ridiculous – absurd accusations that have absolutely no bearing in truth.’’
Mary Trump traces much of her pain to the death of her father when she was 16. The president, who rarely admits mistakes, told The Washington Post last year that he regretted the pressure he and his father had put on Fred Jr to join the family business when his brother wanted to be a pilot instead. Yet as her father lay dying alone, Mary Trump claims, ‘‘Donald went to the movies’’.
She says that, as a child, Donald Trump hid favourite toys from his younger brother, and took juvenile stunts – like Fred Jr dumping a bowl of mashed potatoes on his then-7-year-old head – so seriously that he harboured resentments even when his eldest sister, Maryanne, brought it up in her toast at his White House birthday dinner in 2017.
Mary Trump paints her uncle, who often called her ‘‘Honeybunch’’, as a narcissist who demanded constant adulation – even from his family – and had little regard for family members’ feelings.
Donald Trump’s crude rhetoric on the campaign trail, she said, was nothing new, reminding her ‘‘of every family meal I’d ever attended during which Donald had talked about all of the women he considered ugly fat slobs or the men, usually more accomplished or powerful, he called losers’’.
The book is, at its heart, a lengthy psychoanalysis of the Trump family by a woman trained in the field, who sees the traits of her uncle that critics despise as a natural progression of behaviours developed at the knees of a demanding father.
For Donald Trump, she writes, ‘‘lying was defensive – not simply a way to circumvent his father’s disapproval or to avoid punishment . . . but a way to survive’’.
Publisher Simon & Schuster announced on Tuesday that it would be publishing the book two weeks early, on July 14, after a New York appellate court cleared the way for the book’s publication following a legal challenge.
In the book, Mary Trump writes that she did not take her uncle’s run for the presidency seriously in 2016 – an opinion apparently shared by Trump’s eldest sister, a retired federal appeals court judge.
Mary Trump wrote that she considered speaking out against her uncle at various times, including the summer of 2016, but was reluctant to do so for fear of being ‘‘painted as a disgruntled, disinherited niece looking to cash in or settle a score’’.
After the events of the last three years, she writes, ‘‘I can no longer remain silent’’.
‘‘If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American Democracy.’’ Mary Trump, about her uncle