Trump’s niece’s book presents scathing portrait of president

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s niece offers a scathing portrayal of her uncle in a new book obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press that blames a toxic family for raising a narcissistic, damaged man who poses an immediate danger to the public.

Mary Trump, a psychologist, writes that Trump is a compulsive liar whose reelection would be catastrophic.

“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 willful 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 older brother, Fred Jr., who died after a struggle with alcoholism in 1981 at age 42. The book is the second insider account in as many months to paint a deeply unflattering portrait of the president following the release of former national security adviser John Bolton’s bestseller last month.

In her book, Mary Trump, who is estranged from her uncle, makes several revelations, including alleging the president paid a friend to take the SAT — a standardized test widely used for college admissions

— in his place. She writes that his sister, Maryanne Trump, did his homework for him but couldn’t take his tests and he worried his grade point average, which put him far from the top of the class, would “scuttle his efforts to get accepted” into the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which he transferred to after two years at Fordham University in the Bronx.

“To hedge his bets he enlisted Joe Shapiro, a smart kid with a reputation for being a good test taker, to take his SATs for him,” she writes, adding that, “Donald, who never lacked for funds, paid his buddy well.” White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews called the allegation “completely false.”

Mary Trump also writes, in awe, of Trump’s ability to gain the support of prominent 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 Tuesday, saying, “It’s ridiculous, absurd accusations that have absolutely no bearing in truth.”