Mary Trump doubles down on uncle Donald even as he sues her: ‘I should send him flowers for selling my book’

Niece thanks uncle after he alleges she worked with reporters to expose his tax history

Donald Trump’s niece has ‘thanked’ him for “selling” her book amid his ongoing retaliation for a New York Times story about his tax returns.

Mary Trump says her “favourite thing” about the former president suing her and the newspaper for its reporting is that it “extensively” used parts of her book, Too Much and Never Enough.

in an interview with The Daily Beast’s podcast The New Normal, she told Molly Jong-Fast: “Probably my favourite thing about the suit is that he quotes the Times article extensively, which outlines all the awful things Donald had done, and then he quotes extensively from my book.”

"Thank you! Should I be angry, or should I send him flowers for selling more books for me? I think it's the latter,” Ms Trump told the podcast, which was available from Friday. “Donald and Meghan McCain are like my best salespeople."

Her remarks follow a lawsuit filed by Trump on Tuesday, alleging the New York Times “convinced” his estranged niece to hand over information about the Trump family’s wealth and tax affairs, which were in violation of a settlement agreement not to do so,

The lawsuit reportedly alleged that The Times was aware that Ms Trump was breaking a settlement agreement that barred her from handing over confidential information, and that they were carrying out a “vendetta” against him.

The newspaper was able to cast doubt on the former president’s claims about his own self-worth — in addition to financial wrongdoing, after Ms Trump’s late father, Fred, allegedly handed his brother $413m (£302), including through tax avoidance schemes.

Mr Trump is reportedly seeking “damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be no less than one hundred million dollars”.

Ms Trump, who in her book last year identified herself as the source of the information, told MSNBC that the former president was a “loser” for filing the lawsuit, and told The Daily Beastthat he was in fact a “f****ing loser”.

She added in her interview with The New Normal that the the lawsuit was “doomed to fail because it’s so shoddy”, and that there was no violation of her settlement agreement.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.