Three days after her tell-all book sold nearly one million copies, Donald Trump‘s niece, Mary Trump, threw more barbs at her “incapable” uncle. Mary, 55, the daughter of the president’s late brother, Fred Trump Jr., appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss her best-seller, and slammed her uncle for his response (or lack thereof) to the COVID-19 pandemic..
“I want people to understand what a failure of leadership this is,” she told Maddow. “And the reason he’s failing at it is because he’s incapable of succeeding at it.” That, she says, is because President Trump won’t admit that he’s makes mistakes — a personality trait she describes at length in Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. “More people are getting sick, and more people are going to die,” Mary continued.
“Instead of taking it seriously, instead of standing aside and letting the experts take over, Donald is hawking black beans. It would be absurd if it weren’t so devastating.” She’s referring to the president’s bizarre photoshoot in the Oval Office on July 16, where he posed with an array of Goya products on his desk. The CEO of the Hispanic food brand, Robert Unanue, had visited the White House and expressed his support of the president, sparking a boycott.
The president’s daughter, and Mary’s cousin, Ivanka Trump, also posed with a can of Goya black beans on social media. Their photos are likely a violation of federal ethics law. The Department of Justice states that, “A [government] employee may not use his public office for his own private gain or for that of persons or organizations with which he is associated personally. An employee’s position or title should not be used to coerce; to endorse any product, service or enterprise; or to give the appearance of governmental sanction.”
Mary said that she decided to write her book, which focuses on how her family’s dynamic shaped the president into the man he is today, after seeing the “horrors” at the US-Mexico border. “I can’t say that there was a last straw because there had been so many straws,” Mary said on Maddow. “But certainly the horrors at the border — you know, the separating of children from their parents; the torture, the kidnapping, and the incarceration of them in cages, was unthinkable, unbearable, and when an opportunity presented itself to me to do something, I needed to take a leap.”
She said that she’s not scared of the backlash she’ll face from her family after releasing the book. The Trumps already attempted to block its publication, but their request was denied in court. “I’m taking appropriate precautions, certainly, because I’m not deluded about potential scenarios. He is in a position of great power. I know my family to be quite vindictive, and Donald has a rather passionate following. Whatever the consequences are, I’m prepared to deal with them the best I can.”