Mary Trump, a psychologist and author who is the niece of former Republican President Donald Trump, lashed out at actress Susan Sarandon, calling her a "complete idiot" for discouraging her fans from voting for Democrats, an act Trump said helped usher her uncle into the executive office in 2016.
Sarandon made public her support for Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent Senator who ran against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 and indicated she and other Sanders supporters would not support Clinton if she was named the Democratic nominee.
At the time, Sarandon suggested having Donald Trump in office would disrupt the "status quo" and noted "some people feel that Donald Trump will bring the revolution immediately," a statement that prompted many to accuse her of minimizing the concerns of marginalized groups who rightfully feared the impacts of a Trump presidency.
In the last month, Sarandon made headlines again, this time for suggesting Democrats' anger over the all but certain dismantling of reproductive rights is little more than fearmongering.
Sarandon suggested Democrats' "only strategy is scaring you into voting blue," criticizing the party for "sitting on their hands for the last two years."
\u201c\ud83d\ude44\n\nA lot of good that did in 2020. \n\nDems are going to use this to fundraise and get you to vote for them again despite sitting on their hands for the last two years. Instead of actually standing for anything, their only strategy is scaring you into voting blue.\u201d— Susan Sarandon (@Susan Sarandon) 1651596712
These statements were no doubt on the mind of Mary Trump, who criticized Sarandon during an interview with the MeidasTouch podcast last month.
Mary Trump said:
"She’s a complete idiot. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and if anybody can say with a straight face that the Democrats are the problem, I don’t know what to tell them.”
“She was pretty decent in a couple of movies a couple of decades ago, but politically she’s a moron.”
“I cannot even tell you how much it enrages me. She's an idiot, but she thinks she’s some wise shaman or something.”
Her statements reignited the anger many continue to feel toward the Thelma and Louise actress.
They feel Sarandon—a rich White woman—used her platform to deny Clinton a win that would have spared the United States much of the political upheaval of the last six years.
\u201cGood for you Mary Trump. @SusanSarandon helped Trump win in 2016. Is she doing it again? I will never watch any movie she is in, ever again.\u201d— Leo Thelion (@Leo Thelion) 1654198758
\u201cSusan Sarandon lives in a world where ONLY she is right...anything she says has as much value as anything a QAnon nutjob says... it comes from the same source: self-delusion. #ResistanceUnited\u201d— Dan Skinner (@Dan Skinner) 1654197925
\u201cAfter tossing the 2016 election to Trump, Susan evidently wants to make Trump permanent. You know, like Putin.\u201d— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf08 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\udf08) 1654196915
\u201cSusan Sarandon doesn\u2019t care because she\u2019s halfway dead. She doesn\u2019t have to worry about reproductive rights, equal rights or any other social issue. She lives in a million dollar bubble.\u201d— Universally Proud Troublemaker \u2708\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf08 (@Universally Proud Troublemaker \u2708\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\udf08) 1654189313
\u201cDid she have her acting hat on when she said that?\u201d— David Romero (@David Romero) 1654198469
\u201cI partly blame her for the dumpster fire of our last administration. She was very vocal against Hillary.\ud83d\ude21\u201d— DC Adk \ud83c\udf0e\u23f3\ud83d\udcda\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udf3b (@DC Adk \ud83c\udf0e\u23f3\ud83d\udcda\ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\udf3b) 1654186482
\u201cCalling @SusanSarandon a complete idiot is selling her short. She & her cult of BernieBrats changed the course of history for the worse. Along with @MSNBC for giving her a platform! They allowed themselves to used by Putin & the GOP, & they still are!\nCult mentality is dangerous!\u201d— THEE BidenHarris2020 team (@THEE BidenHarris2020 team) 1654194532
\u201cEach time a conservative has won an election, Sarandon has gotten a tax cut. She is no idiot. Idiots are the poor people & women who listen to her.\u201d— Tiff Hunter Biden \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 \ud83c\udf3b (@Tiff Hunter Biden \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 \ud83c\udf3b) 1654194876
\u201cMary\u2019s not wrong. I\u2019m sick of Dems and Progressives saying that they\u2019ll protest by voting for a third party candidate with no chance of winning or sitting out an election because all of their concerns aren\u2019t being addressed fast enough. This is what gets Republicans elected.\u201d— \ud83d\ude37\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83e\udda0 \u2026Steve\u2026 \ud83e\udda0\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\ude37 (@\ud83d\ude37\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83e\udda0 \u2026Steve\u2026 \ud83e\udda0\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83d\ude37) 1654182819
Mary Trump has 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 nondisclosure agreement.
