Mary Trump says she is ‘enraged, disgusted, horrified’ but mostly ‘heartbroken’ watching impeachment trial

Ex-president's niece reportedly considering changing her name to distance herself from her uncle

In addition to their legal and political importance, modern impeachments are made-for-TV events, and the reviews are starting to come in.

Mary Trump, the former president’s niece and a sharp critic of his actions, said on Twitter on Tuesday that the whole process left her “heartbroken.”

“I know I should be enraged, disgusted, horrified, and outraged,” she wrote. “On some level I am all of those things, but mostly right now I’m heartbroken.”

Ms Trump, who wrote a scathing memoir about the president and is locked in a suit over millions in inheritance he allegedly cut her out of, has said she wants to change her last name to separate herself from her uncle, whom she has accused of doing “incalculable damage to the country.”

Read more: Follow all the latest Trump impeachment news live

Others, like noted Supreme Court lawyer and former acting US solicitor general Neal Katyal, praised the performance of Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman from Maryland leading the impeachment prosecution.

“Right now, @RepRaskin is vindicating the best of our Founders' ideals,” Mr Katyal said on Twitter on Tuesday as the Democrats made their opening arguments. “It is exquisite lawyering. Perfect, sober, balanced.”

Meanwhile, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez echoed the claims of her fellow Democrats, that there was a link between Republicans’ insistent false narrative about the election being stolen and the demonstrators who attacked the Capitol to try and take it back.

Read more: Can Trump run again in 2024?

“They spent the last month trying to trick the country into believing that their lies about our election had nothing to do w/ the attack,” she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “In fact, it was the linchpin.”

Others took issue with the defence.

“Would you liken today’s performance by Trump’s attorneys more to the Hindenburg disaster or the sinking of the Titanic?” asked Democratic activist Jon Cooper. 

Donald Trump was reportedly none too pleased as well, “screaming” at the TV as his own lawyers made their opening case according to reports. 

"Multiple people tell me Trump was basically screaming as Castor made a meandering opening argument that struggled to get at the heart of the defense team's argument," said CNN's chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.