Mary Trump, author of the bestselling family exposés “Too Much and Never Enough” and “The Reckoning,” spoke with media outlet The Daily Beast a day after the latest January 6 Committee hearing.
“In the last hearing, Liz Cheney very explicitly said Donald himself called a witness. Now, we don’t know if he left a message. We can only hope. What is important to me about that is it’s an enormous misstep.”
“He’s terrified and desperate, and he’s completely overestimating his power to manipulate people.”
“Do we really think Donald wasn’t behaving like this every step along the way for all of those four years? Do we really think he took the first impeachment calmly? Or took any thwarting of his desire for power, or whatever, do we think he was calm, cool and collected then, and it’s only after the election that he started losing it? Of course not.”
Trump says her uncle’s mental state reflects his increasing isolation, even from family.
“We knew, or should have known, that this is what would happen when it got to the point where Donald was in serious enough trouble that even he may not be able to get out of.”
“Ivanka clearly has come down on the side of protecting herself, and her way to do that is quietly. She’ll tell as little of the truth as she can.”
“And then she’ll just slink away and pretend that she was never involved.”
With Donald Trump, Jr. “it’s the other way around. He has always has been the least favored, right? Clearly this upsets him. And he knows the only way he gets some semblance of attention, or dare I say affection from Donald is to become his number one surrogate, which now, as we know, requires being as mendacious, as violent and as cruel as he can possibly be. I think that’s the cost of admission. Think of how horrifying that is just on a human/familial level.”
Mary Trump says the former president “is addicted to being at the center of attention. I’m sure he’s as riveted by these hearings as we are, but in completely different ways. And for him to feel that the focus is shifting away from him or that he’s losing power will make things even worse because he won’t confront that and process it and deal with it. He will bury it and therefore worsen his situation.”
“I can only imagine what it’s like to be anywhere near him right now. I’m sure the temper, the out-of-control narcissism must be just unspeakably difficult for people around him to deal with. Not that I have any compassion for any of them at this point, but yeah, it’s only gonna get worse from here.”
This article appears courtesy of our media partner LGBTQ Nation.