UNCLE DON
Book exploring prez pathologies
your failures is discouraged.” “Cheating as a way of life.” Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist who has severed nearly all ties with her family, draws a parallel between the president’s disturbing character traits and his upbringing.
“Love meant nothing to Fred; he expected obedience, that was all,” she writes in another excerpt, referring to the president’s late father. “Over time, Donald became afraid that asking for comfort or attention would provoke his father’s anger or indifference when Donald was most vulnerable ... Donald suffered deprivations that would scar him for life.”
Not surprisingly, the book has drawn a lawsuit from the president’s family. Filed by Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, the suit demands the book be blocked because it allegedly violates a nondisclosure agreement Mary Trump signed in 2001 after the family divvied up the estate of family patriarch Fred Trump, Sr.
The legal action remains pending in Dutchess County Supreme Court. However, the judge has signaled that, even if Robert Trump’s hush agreement argument holds water, it could be hard to stop the book’s release because the publisher has already disseminated copies.
A federal judge in Washington recently declined to block the publication of former Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s book because hundreds of thousands of copies were already in circulation.
Additionally, the law frowns on prior restraint of publications, preferring to allow lawsuits after the fact.
Charles Harder, Robert Trump’s lawyer, did not return a request for comment.
Trump maintains his niece can’t publish because of the nondisclosure agreement, recently telling Axios, “she’s not allowed to write a book.”
Chris Bastardi, a spokesman for Mary Trump, questioned why the Trump family continues to fight if the president has nothing to hide.
“The act by a sitting president to muzzle a private citizen is just the latest in a series of disturbing behaviors which have already destabilized a fractured nation in the face of a global pandemic,” Bastardi said. “If Mary cannot comment, one can only help but wonder: What is Donald Trump so afraid of?”