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Mary Trump niece says she used to feel compassion for president - but feels that is now 'impossible'

President's niece said Mr Trump has never been held accountable for his actions

Graig Graziosi
Wednesday 22 July 2020 19:32 BST
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Mary Trump says the U.S. has devolved into a version of her incredibly dysfunctional family

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Mary Trump, the niece of Donald Trump, said it was "impossible" for her to fear compassion for her uncle at this stage of his presidency.

Ms Trump is the author of "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," a book about the Trump family and Mr Trump's upbringing.

In an interview with The Guardian, Ms Trump is asked whether she loves her uncle, the president.

"No I don't," she said. "I used to feel compassion for him. I really did. But that became impossible when I started learning about things that he had done and seeing what he's been doing since 20 January, 2017."

Ms Trump's book is largely about how the president, from his childhood, was encouraged to be a cheater and a liar. Mr Trump's father, Fred Trump, is portrayed as the patriarchal villain of the family, arranging his children at dinner by order of personal importance and treating laughter as a sign of weakness.

Though she paints Mr Trump as something of a victim of his father, she said the president deserves no sympathy for his upbringing.

"I completely understand having sympathy and empathy for the child who did suffer mightily but it's not an excuse for his behaviour," she said. "He's an adult human being who knows the difference between right and wrong, even though he doesn't think the rules apply to him. He knows what he's doing and one of the reasons we're in this position is because he's never been held accountable for anything. So his transgressions become more egregious over time and he needs to be held to account."

Ms Trump has actively worked against Mr Trump and other members of her family. She helped the New York Times in a 2017 investigation that dug into the methods Mr Trump and his siblings used to dodge millions of dollars in taxes.

In 2016, Ms Trump voted for Hillary Clinton for president and she said she will support former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 US election.

"I will do whatever I can to help him get elected," Ms Trump said.

She said that Mr Trump's re-election would be "the end of the American experiment" and that people continuing to support her uncle for another four years is "unthinkable."

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