Donald Trump’s estranged niece accused the president of being detached from reality after he declared at a Georgia rally that the U.S. had entered “the golden age of America.”
The president, 80, made the remarks while holding a campaign-style rally at a Georgia high school this week to promote his administration’s “Trump Accounts” program for children’s savings. The program is projected to cost taxpayers approximately $17 billion through 2028, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
In her latest column, Mary Trump, the daughter of the president’s late brother Fred Trump Jr., questioned the timing of the event and her uncle’s grip on reality.
“Much of what Donald described simply does not exist outside his imagination. Yet he continues making sweeping claims with absolute confidence, assuming that repetition alone will transform fiction into reality,” she wrote in the piece, titled “Who’s Still Buying This?”
“It is an approach that has defined his public life for decades. If reality contradicts him, then reality must be wrong,” Mary Trump said of her uncle.
She argued that the timing of the rally “could not have been more revealing,” pointing to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll showing that just 33 percent of respondents approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
“Inflation remains elevated at roughly 3 percent, despite a modest decline last month that was driven largely by a temporary drop in gasoline and oil prices during the brief ceasefire with Iran,” she wrote. “That respite did not last. Donald’s inability to secure a lasting agreement allowed the conflict to escalate once again, and the economic consequences have followed.”
Despite those concerns, Trump painted a far rosier picture of the U.S. economy during his remarks, as he sported his signature heavily bruised hand.
“Together, we’re making our country safer and stronger and far more successful than it’s ever been before. And that’s happening before your very eyes. That’s why I call it the golden age. This is the golden age of America,” the president said.
Trump also claimed manufacturers were returning to the U.S. in large numbers.
Manufacturers are “coming in from all over,” the president said. “I don’t think you’ve ever seen anything like it.”
Mary Trump savaged her uncle, writing: “No, they have not seen anything like it because it is not happening.”
She accused the president of lying “constantly.”
“Donald lies constantly. He has always lied constantly. Yet somehow, people continue listening to him recycle the same grievances… He remains incapable of moving beyond his own need for validation because, fundamentally, he cannot imagine a world in which he is not the center of it.”
Mary Trump also argued that her uncle’s speeches had become increasingly repetitive and unfocused.
“When I ask how people continue believing Donald’s lies, I also wonder how they continue listening to him at all. Every speech sounds exactly the same. The grievances never end. The self-pity never ends. The stories wander aimlessly from one unrelated thought to another. He cannot stay on topic,” she wrote.
“He cannot speak with clarity. He cannot modulate his voice. He cannot communicate a coherent argument. And yet millions of people continue treating him as though he is somehow persuasive, credible, or trustworthy.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast that Mary Trump is a “stone-old loser who doesn’t have a clue about anything.”
The president launched his “Trump Accounts” program on July 4, which provides a one-time $1,000 federal deposit for eligible children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, while allowing families, employers, and others to make additional contributions over time.
