'A seldom seen niece': Trump fires back at Mary
Trump over tell-all book
The author, in turn, delivers a live rebuttal on cable
television.
By MATTHEW
CHOI
07/17/2020
07:17 PM EDT
Updated:
07/17/2020 09:59 PM EDT
President
Donald Trump on Friday broke his silence on a tell-all book that dives into the
president's upbringing and family life, distancing himself from his author niece
and calling her a "mess."
"Mary
Trump, a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things
about my wonderful parents (who couldn’t stand her!) and me, and violated her
NDA," Trump wrote on Twitter. "She’s a mess! Many books have been
written about me, some good, some bad. Both happily and sadly, there will be
more to come!"
The book by
Mary Trump, daughter of the president's late older brother, Fred Trump, Jr., is
an unflattering portrayal of a president the author alleges is a serial liar
suffering from multiple psychological disorders as a result of a fraught
relationship with his parents.
Speaking
with CNN's Chris Cuomo hours after Trump's tweet, Mary Trump echoed previous
comments in which she described her uncle as a racist and dismissed the
president's accusation that she was an outcast from the family.
Though she
conceded it was difficult to maintain relations after her grandfather's death
due to an intra-family lawsuit, Mary Trump pointed out that the president had
requested she ghost write his second book. She also added that she and her
grandmother were "very close."
"My
grandfather didn't really have positive feelings for anybody except perhaps
Donald," she said.
In response
to the president calling her a "mess," Mary Trump replied: "I
think it's just an attack he hurls predominately at women and honestly, I'm in
very good company. I believe he's said the same thing about Nancy Pelosi and
I'm fine with that."
Mary Trump
also responded to the president's tweets with one of her own, writing:
"5.23 million v. 5.11 million #seldomseen" accompanied by a pensive
emoji.
The numbers
are a reference to the reported views of Mary Trump's interview with MSNBC's
Rachel Maddow on Thursday versus the reported views of the president's town
hall with Fox News' Sean Hannity in June, and a dig at the president's
fascination with TV ratings.
During the
explosive interview with Maddow, Mary Trump said that she had heard the
president and other members of their family use anti-Semitic language and a
derogatory slur on Black people.
As of late
Friday, Trump had yet to respond to his niece's latest broadside.
Mary
Trump's book is not the first damning account of the president, but its unique
perspective from inside the family has propelled its popularity and intrigue.
"Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most
Dangerous Man" is currently No. 1 on Amazon's bestseller list, selling
more than 950,000 copies on its first day of release.
The Trump
administration has denied the accounts in the book on the president's behalf,
with White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany characterizing it as a work
of opportunistic fiction, asserting that the president maintained a healthy
relationship with his parents.
“It's a
book of falsehoods, and that‘s about it,“ McEnany said last week. “It‘s
ridiculous, absurd allegations that has absolutely no bearing in truth.“
The Trump
family tried to sue to stop the book's release, citing a family financial
agreement from 2001 as grounds to halt Mary Trump and her publisher, Simon
& Schuster, from publishing or discussing the book. But New York state
courts ruled that the publishing house was free to release the book, which it
did earlier this week, and that Mary Trump could discuss and publicize her work
— a point Mary Trump emphasized during her interview with Cuomo.
Trump also
went after his former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who had written
his own tell-all account of his time in the White House. Bolton's highly
anticipated book, released in June, alleged Trump committed numerous acts of
presidential misconduct including offering favors to foreign heads of
government and requesting Chinese help in his reelection.
The Trump
administration tried to halt Bolton's book, saying it revealed secrets
pertaining to national security, but a federal judge allowed the book's
release.
In his
tweets Friday, Trump called his former adviser "lowlife dummy John Bolton,
a war mongering fool, violating the law" who wrote the book "to build
badly needed credibility and make a few dollars."
The
president had previously attacked Bolton in the wake of his book, calling him
"stupid" and a "guy with no heart."
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