Donald Trump became a “monster” because no one held him to account, his niece says.
Psychologist and author Mary Trump told the Daily Beast Podcast that the president’s instincts to deny responsibility, attack victims, and escalate were learned many decades ago. Those traits are on display more so now than ever before, given the crises the administration navigates daily and with the Supreme Court’s gift of wide immunity, she explained.
“From the beginning of his adulthood, if not earlier, Donald was never ever held to account for anything and he was enabled at every turn,“ Trump, 60, said. ”And eventually that creates a monster, and we see that happening with increasing impact."
Trump recalled what the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, told her during his first term about how the causes of his behavior were tied to Fred Trump, his father.
“I was remarking on how incapable he, Donald, is of taking responsibility for anything, and I was sort of shocked to see that what used to be considered an admirable quality in adult human beings—taking responsibility, apologizing—had been turned on its head, and now it became sort of a sign of your strength and masculinity to deny all wrongdoing and never take responsibility,” Trump, the Ph.D. author of Too Much and Never Enough, said. “And she said, ‘ Oh, he learned that from your grandfather,’ because apparently, my grandfather also never took responsibility for anything. It was always somebody else’s fault.”
Many people in Donald Trump’s inner circle “understand exactly what it is they have to do to stay there,” his niece added. That means going on the offensive and lying about the victims of shootings by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, she said.
“Some of them are like him, you know: they are perfectly comfortable lying like they breathe. They are perfectly comfortable blaming victims. They are solely interested in maintaining their own power and proximity to power,” she said.
“Donald has modeled this behavior for decades now, you know: be a bully, be a thug, be disrespectful, and then... complain when you think other people are behaving the same way. In fact, in the aftermath of Renee Good’s murder, Donald actually said, well, she was being disrespectful towards law enforcement—as if that means that she deserved to be killed.”
The Supreme Court has emboldened those in the administration, Trump added, by essentially giving him a pass for actions deemed official in nature.
“That trickles down to other people in the administration. So, we now know that you can be a participant in an insurrection against your own government, [and] as long as you are in support of Donald Trump, you’re going to get pardoned,” Trump continued.
“If you’re an ICE agent murdering American citizens in cold blood, as long as you are doing that in service to advancing Donald Trump’s agenda, you’re going to get pardoned,” she said.
“You are going to be given absolute immunity, which is a thing that doesn’t even exist, and they’re not even going to allow local and state law enforcement to be part of the investigation. So we’re never even going to get the truth.”
The president doesn’t fear consequences because he has no reason to, Trump concluded, referencing his four indictments and one conviction.
He has “gotten away with everything, not because he has any special powers or because he has any particular strengths,” she said. “Again, he’s like the weakest person I’ve ever known in my life. It’s because his enablers find him useful still.”
When reached for comment, the White House disputed Trump’s credibility.
“Mary Trump is a stone-old loser who doesn’t have a clue about anything,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast. “Her entire worth as a human being is predicated on spewing lies about President Trump in a sad attempt to stay relevant.”
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