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Complimenting niece’s breasts, cheating and abuse: What did we learn from Mary Trump’s anticipated book?

‘You’re stacked,’ now-President Trump allegedly told 29-year-old bathing suit-clad niece

John T. Bennett
Washington Bureau Chief
Tuesday 07 July 2020 22:09 BST
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White House spokesperson refuses to say why Donald Trump thinks black race car driver should apologise

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Donald Trump‘s niece, in her upcoming book, paints a disturbing portrait of an uncle she claims is emotionally damaged, instinctually inclined to cheat, prone to creating his own realities – and even programmed to compliment a family member’s breasts.

Mary Trump, the 55-year-old daughter of his late brother, reportedly describes many scenes in Too Much and Never Enough, released next week, but one stands out.

She claims that as a 29-year-old she visited Mr Trump’s Mar a Lago resort in South Florida. She met Mr Trump and others for lunch, wearing a bathing suit top and shorts.

“Holy s***, Mary,” the now-president allegedly said. “You’re stacked.”

The remark embarrassed Mary Trump, she writes, and seemed to offend Mr Trump’s then-wife, Marla Maples. “Donald!” she said, slapping her then-spouse on the arm, according to the book.

“I was 29 and not easily embarrassed, but my face reddened, and I suddenly felt self-conscious,” Ms Trump wrote. “I pulled my towel around my shoulders. It occurred to me that nobody in my family, outside of my parents and brother, had ever seen me in a bathing suit.”

The book could force more working white women, a key part of his 2016 Electoral College win, away from the president. It also might become part of an avalanche of negative accounts of his presidency that could cause some of his core supporters to simply stay home in November.

Here are other memorable accounts from the tell-all book.

‘Cheating as a Way of Life’

Democratic lawmakers and his presumptive 2020 general election foe, former vice president Joe Biden, have accused the president of bending the rules during his term – mostly to benefit himself, not the country.

Ms Trump says their perception of the president is correct. (Mr Trump and his aides deny he has cheated at anything – ever.)

Ms Trump claims young Donald Trump paid a friend to take his SATs, fearing he lacked the necessary package needed to get into college. That took him first to Fordham University then to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was able to become admitted to its Wharton business school.

The president brags often about getting into the prestigious Pennsylvania school, saying merely attending it is “super genius stuff”.

Narcissist in chief?

Foreign policy experts have spent years trying to nail down just what might be the 45th commander in chief’s guiding philosophy or set of principles.

Ms Trump writes that one of his sisters once said this: “He has no principles. None!”

His niece, a clinical psychologist, writes that Mr Trump shows all the signs of having a narcissistic personality.

“The fact is, Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviours so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neurophysical tests that he’ll never sit for,” she claims.

“Donald has been institutionalised for most of his adult life,” Ms Trump writes, apparently referring to his lifestyle inside a self-made bubble, “so there is no way to know how he would thrive, or even survive, on his own in the real world.”

‘Fraudulent’ taxes

Mr Trump continues fighting Democratic efforts to secure his tax returns and other financial records, something other presidents have done voluntarily.

He has been accused for years of not paying contractors dating back to his days as a New York real estate executive. Ms Trump alleges his scheming for cash went much deeper.

She claims to have slipped The New York Times reams of documents for its 2018 investigative report into what she calls illegal tax schemes. She also says Mr Trump got $400m from his father’s real estate business despite claiming to be a self-made success story.

The dinner

Mary Trump reportedly opens the book by describing an April 2017 dinner at the White House to celebrate the birthdays of two of her aunts, Maryanne and Elizabeth.

The president’s niece reports being blown away by what her uncle said about Lara Trump, the wife of presidential son Eric Trump.

“Lara, there,” he allegedly said. “I barely even knew who the f*** she was, honestly, but then she gave a great speech during the campaign in Georgia supporting me.”

The couple, at that point, had been married for nearly a decade.

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