Mary Trump’s book dishes up dirt, but won’t change minds
The left and its media allies have enlisted a new running back in the never-ending playbook to sack President Trump.
It’s his niece, Mary.
The psychologist has received oracular status thanks to her recently published tell-all, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”
For the president’s detractors, it’s a schadenfreude feast of “revelations,” from his first wife Ivana’s alleged “regifting” of goody baskets (minus some treats) at Christmas, to Trump’s own purported payout to a fellow student to take his SATs for him.
But it’s not just Mary’s dab hand at airing the family’s dirty linen that’s elevated her in Trump-hating circles. It’s that she’s a psychologist, and has turned her analytical skills on the president.
This is, by the way, nothing new. Other mental health experts have played armchair psychologist for years, even before he won the election. In June 2016, The Atlantic published “The Mind of Donald Trump: Narcissism, disagreeableness, grandiosity — a psychologist investigates how Trump’s extraordinary personality might shape his possible presidency.”
But they weren’t family, and it’s the fact of Mary Trump’s relative closeness to the president that allegedly gives her a fillip of “expertise.”
She chatted with ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos Tuesday.
“If you’re in the Oval Office today, what would you say to him?” he asked.
“Resign,” Mary Trump responded.
The family’s got issues, she said, and being a product of the dysfunctional clan made Donald Trump “utterly incapable of leading this country, and it’s dangerous to allow him to do so.”
ABC News is just one media outlet to spotlight Mary Trump, her book and its damning appraisal of the president, and they are quick to assert that her memoir/ psych report matters greatly in this election year.
The question is: to whom? For those who were calling for Trump’s resignation from the moment he and First Lady Melania sat down for their Inaugural lunch, this just underscores what they have always believed about him.
His detractors have cheered on the Mueller probe, the impeachment hearings and every misstep, real or perceived, that the president has made over the past three and a half years.
It’s unlikely to make a big impression among Trump’s supporters, either.
Tales of Trump’s behavior made the rounds in 2016, as did scandals (the Billy Bush tape, Stormy Daniels, etc.) Alleged SAT fraud notwithstanding, there isn’t much unknown about the 45th president. And the 62,984,828 voters who cast their ballot for him in 2016 embraced his message and leadership “warts and all.”
Trump’s poll numbers are down, attributable to the economy, his administration’s response to the coronavirus and his oftenfractious style of leadership during this time of crisis.
But good news on the vaccine front, and quantifiable steps toward a sustained economic comeback, could turn those numbers around.
And if there’s one thing political experts learned in 2016, it’s that you can’t count Trump out, even though the polls indicate otherwise.
Though Mary Trump and her anti-uncle chronicles may enjoy a ride on the bestseller list, they’re unlikely to have a noticeable impact on November’s election — despite the best efforts of the mainstream media.