Former President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump slammed her uncle as "the death candidate" in the wake of the Supreme Court's bump stock ruling, calling the Republican Party the "pro-death party."
Mary Trump called on voters to "choose life" in the latest edition of "The Good in Us," her Substack newsletter, just days after the nation's highest court overturned a ban on bump stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire at rates comparable to machine guns, eliminating one of the rare firearm regulations implemented after a mass shooting.
The 6-3 decision was divided along ideological lines. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, stated that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives overstepped its authority by classifying bump stocks as machine guns through a rule.
The ban had been put in place by the Trump administration following the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, the deadliest in recent U.S. history. The ruling represents a significant rejection of one of the government's limited measures to combat gun violence, as legislative efforts in Congress remain stalled.
Mary Trump wrote in part:
"Last Friday, I thought there was a possibility that the illegitimate super-majority of the Supreme Court was finally going to rule on presidential immunity. But, because they want to give Donald as much help as possible, they put the decision off yet again."
"And instead, they decided to kick us all in the teeth by dealing another blow to gun safety. The decision, which held that the federal ban on bump stocks is not authorized by existing statute, was so bad that Justice Sonia Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench." ...
"Friday was a terrible day for those of us who don’t want to die — and don’t want our kids to die — at the hands of mass murderers wielding weapons of war, modified or otherwise. The irony, of course, is that the Trump-era bump stock ban was one of the very, very few decent things the Trump administration managed to accomplish."
Mary Trump noted that her uncle's campaign issued a statement saying they "respect" the court's decision and then touted an endorsement from the National Rifle Association (NRA), which has played a key role in undermining attempts to pass and enact comprehensive gun control legislation.
She condemned his actions, writing:
"Back in February of this year, Donald said, 'During my four years, nothing happened. And there was great pressure on me, having to do with guns. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.'"
"And, with the exception of the bump stock ban, this is true. Las Vegas was followed by the Sutherland Springs church shooting that killed 26; the Parkland shooting that killed 17; the El Paso shooting that killed 23; and dozens of other mass shootings during his administration and he did, indeed, do nothing."
"In the wake of Friday’s Supreme Court decision, we can expect more of the same if Donald is allowed back in the White House."
She then referred to her uncle as the "death candidate," indicating that more people will die unnecessarily in the event he wins November's election, pointing to his life-threatening actions during the COVID-19 pandemic:
"As horrified as I am by the court’s decision — and I am very horrified — I’m also grateful to them for making it so clear what the election in November is all about: life or death. Friday’s decision—and Donald’s response to it—were powerful reminders that the leader of the Republican is the death candidate." ...
She continued with the following scathing criticism of Trump and the Republicans who enable him:
"In the process, he might have killed Herman Cain at a rally. ; he almost killed Chris Christie at debate prep; and he tried to kill Joe Biden during the debate."
"You could also make the argument that Donald has killed the Republican Party—or at least their sense of patriotism, decency and shame—but that’s hardly a great loss."
Then she hammered in her point further:
"Whether it’s his anti-vaccine platform (he continues to claim that he will defund any schools that require vaccines for diseases like polio and smallpox), his love of dictators, or his racism, Donald does not care about American lives. Kim Jong Un killed Otto Warmbier and Trump still talks about how much he and the North Korean dictator love each other."
"He took out front page ads in New York City’s major newspapers calling for the now-exonerated Five to get the death penalty. He suggested the country’s top general should be killed."
She concluded:
"How do we even begin to estimate the number of American women he has killed or will get killed with his increasingly extremist anti-choice stance and the Supreme Court rulings that embody it? How many will he kill with his fossil fuel corruption and climate change denialism?"
"How many has he killed with his calls for extremism and violence? And how many will die if he loses in November? How many more if he wins?"
"The harsh reality is that Donald is a serious national security threat to the American people. This is a life-or-death election. And my uncle is the death candidate. Let’s choose life, shall we?"
Many concurred with her assessment.
Mary Trump has for years vocally opposed her own family members.
In 2020, she published a book about her uncle and family titled Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which became a nationwide bestseller.
She says in the book that she was the anonymous source who revealed the Trump family’s tax returns to The New York Times. The Times later won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the matter.
Although the Trump family took legal action to block the book’s release, they were ultimately unsuccessful. In 2020, then-President Trump told Axios reporter Jonathan Swan that Mary Trump was “not allowed” to write the book because she was bound by a nondisclosure agreement.
Then-President Trump referred to a nondisclosure agreement his brother Robert Trump said Mary Trump signed regarding a 1999 lawsuit surrounding the Trump family estate. A judge later found that Mary Trump was not bound by the NDA.
