UPDATE, 9/24/20, 11:41am ET: Mary Trump has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan against Donald Trump, the late Robert Trump, and Maryanne Trump Barry, accusing her uncles and aunt of committing fraud and evil conspiracy. The first sentence of the lawsuit, obtained by The New York Times, reads, “fraud was not just the family business — it was a way of life.” Mary writes that beginning in the 1980s, her family “exploited” their real estate empire to “enrich themselves,” and that she was one of their victims, beginning at age 16 when her father, Fred Trump Jr. died.
Mary, now 55, claims that Donald, Robert, and Maryanne conspired to “siphon money away” from her when she inherited part of her father’s stake in the company. The situation escalated in 1999, when she and brother Fred Trump III contested their grandfather’s will, something she writes about extensively in her tell-all. She is seeking to regain the millions of dollars she allegedly lost due to her family’s actions.
ORIGINAL: Donald Trump‘s niece, Mary Trump, is set to release a tell-all book filled with “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president. In Too Much And Never Enough, Mary, 55, will reportedly identify herself as The New York Times‘ main source in their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Trump family finances. She’ll also disclose a number of “harrowing and salacious” stories about the president, writes The Daily Beast. Here’s what you need to know about Mary and her upcoming takedown of her uncle:
1. She’s the daughter of Donald’s late brother, Fred Trump Jr. Her father, Fred Trump Jr., died at the age of 42 in 1981 after suffering a heart attack due to complications from alcoholism. Fred, once considered the heir to the Trump real estate empire, left the family business to work for Trans World Airlines. President Trump said in a 2019 interview with The Washington Post that he “regretted” pressuring his brother to rejoin the Trump Organization.
“I do regret having put pressure on him,” he said. “It was just something he was never going to want. It was just not his thing… I think the mistake that we made was we assumed that everybody would like it. That would be the biggest mistake… There was sort of a double pressure put on him.”
2. Her beef with Uncle Donald goes back to 2000. Mary, who has a PhD in psychology, has largely stayed out of the spotlight. She aired family drama, though, in 2000, when she and her brother, Fred Trump III, contested their grandfather’s will and sued his estate. They claimed that the will was ““procured by fraud and undue influence” on part of Donald and his siblings, Robert and Maryanne. In response to the lawsuit, Donald cut off medical benefits to Fred III’s sick child, William Trump, who was born with cerebral palsy.
“When [Fred III] sued us, we said, ‘Why should we give him medical coverage?” Donald told The New York Daily News at the time. Asked if he thought that his actions were “cold-hearted,” Donald replied. “I can’t help that. It’s cold when someone sues my father. Had he come to see me, things could very possibly have been much different for them.”
3. The book will be released right before the Republican National Convention. Too Much And Never Enough will arrive on August 11 — three weeks before President Trump officially becomes the GOP candidate for president at the Republican National Convention. The RNC, originally set for Charlotte, NC, is now only being held for the first day (August 24) in Charlotte, moving the next two days to Jacksonville, FL. The book release date is also six days before the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, WI. Former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, is expected to become the party’s nominee.
4. She was allegedly a crucial source for The New York Times. Mary will reveal in her book that she was a primary source for The New York Times‘ extensive reporting about President Trump’s taxes. The investigatory article included information about how the president was involved in “fraudulent” tax schemes, and how he had received over $400 million, adjusted for inflation, from his father’s real estate empire. Mary reportedly provided Fred Sr.’s tax documents and other confidential Trump financial records to the newspaper, which she obtained during the aforementioned lawsuit.
5. She will also reportedly include quotes from her aunt, Maryanne Trump Barry. A retired federal judge, Maryanne has stayed away from speaking about her brother’s politics. That’s apparently changing within the pages of Too Much And Never Enough. Though Mary said during her 2000 lawsuit that Maryanne and Donald should be “ashamed of themselves,” their relationship has seemingly healed over the past 20 years. Maryanne has now provided “intimate and damning thoughts about her brother” in her niece’s book, according to The Daily Beast.