During an interview with MSNBC's Ali Velshi, Mary Trump, a psychologist and author who is the niece of former Republican President Donald Trump, warned Republicans her uncle "will burn everything down" should the GOP abandon him.
She cautioned "Donald becomes his most dangerous when he fears loss of relevance," all but confirming the notoriously thin-skinned former President will lash out at those he believes have wronged him.
Nor would it be smart to ignore him, she continued, because the Republican Party’s "strategy of just deciding to turn in a different direction won’t work" when Trump "won’t let them do it" and when Republican lawmakers are "largely responsible for the state of the party and the dangers this party continues to present to this country.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
\u201c\u201cThey\u2019ve created this monster.\u201d Mary Trump on why the GOP won\u2019t abandon Donald Trump. (Video: MSNBC)\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1670806013
Mary Trump said:
"They have created this monster. Republicans have been doing this forever. It happened with the Tea Party and now Donald is just the latest incarnation of creating a monster they think they can control and they end up getting controlled by the monster, so to speak."
"So they cannot abandon him wholesale because they need the base. They are tied to this White supremacist, antisemitic, anti-immigrant, misogynistic base that they continue to have to cater to. They can't say that out loud so they waltz around it." ...
"We cannot let [Donald] get away with this nonsense. He is the Republican Party and he represents the Republican Party as much now as he did six years ago."
When asked for her insights into how Trump has been affected by the GOP exodus as well as his own family's disinterest in backing his latest presidential campaign, she responded:
"I think it's really important to remember that on both sides of that equation, all of these relationships are transactional and Ivanka [Trump] and Jared [Kushner] have finally realized that they gain more by staying away from Donald than they do by staying aligned with him."
"Think about how much sense that makes. I mean, Donald is definitely losing value in terms of the party and in terms of politics generally."
"Ivanka and Jared are legitimately wealthy people apart from whatever Donald's doing so they don't need him to the same degree they might have, and they probably understand that staying so closely aligned with him for so long probably damaged them, at least socially."
"So it's the same with all of Donald's inner circle. There's always a transactional calculation being made." ...
Most importantly, she warned that Republicans are in for trouble if they collectively try to ignore Trump altogether:
"We don’t know just what kind of information he has on other people in his party. What we do know is he would be willing to use it. Donald will burn everything down if he feels like he is going down."
“The Republican Party’s strategy of just deciding to turn in a different direction won’t work."
"One, it won’t work because he won’t let them do it. And two, it shouldn’t work because they are largely responsible for the state of the party and the dangers this party continues to present to this country.”
Mary Trump's appearance on MSNBC comes as more Republicans continue to distance themselves from Trump in recent weeks.
Trump recently announced a presidential campaign that has failed to animate the GOP in light of last month's midterm election results, which did not result in the "red wave" Republican legislators and pollsters had counted on. Many candidates who had backed Trump's false narrative about election fraud were repudiated at the ballot box.
Despite their influence, this year's midterm elections were seen as a referendum on how much sway Trump and his rhetoric still have over the American electorate. The lack of a "red wave" indicates that many voters have repudiated his lies and blatant attempts to subvert the democratic process.
Trump's legal troubles—which include the Trump Organization being found guilty of a slew of tax-related crimes—have only added to the growing discontent within the GOP, whose members continue to urge senior leadership to break from Trump in light of the party's poor midterm election performance.
Signs of that break persist, especially after Trump received heavy pushback from prominent Republicans who denounced his call for the "termination" of the United States Constitution.
Many concurred with Mary Trump'a assessment.
\u201cMary Trump Warns Republicans to buckle up because her crazy uncle is about to burn everything down.\n\nThis may be the best thing to happen to the Republican party, so they can rise, like the Phoenix. Because right now they lie on the verge of destruction \n\nhttps://t.co/0OptwhkSaN\u201d— Lorie Meacham (@Lorie Meacham) 1670876956
\u201cThe GOP would rather go down in flames rather than go against their wretched leader. Mary Trump warns Republicans to buckle up because her crazy uncle is about to \u201cburn everything down\u201d https://t.co/fkIyS8N3D8\u201d— Robert M Ramirez (@Robert M Ramirez) 1670873237
\u201cMary Trump: GOP isn\u2019t denouncing Trump because \u2018they created this monster\u2019. \n\nAnd, many Republicans are just like him, hateful, racist, selfish white supremacist who feel entitled and above the law. https://t.co/3liBT4eg30\u201d— #GOPBetrayedAmerica \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@#GOPBetrayedAmerica \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1670816909
\u201cLove it when Mary puts uncle Donny on the couch. The personal-professional angle adds authenticity.\n\nTrump has 'gone farther down the rabbit hole' because he's a 'black hole of need': Mary Trump https://t.co/ZTio9KJ1Ch\u201d— Brit For Biden (@Brit For Biden) 1670840273
\u201c@MikeSington Created it, feed it, propped it up, encouraged and supported it, etc\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1670806013
\u201c@MikeSington They don't have to cater to insanity. Could they try, to develop a moral compass, and run the party with integrity? I don't see that happening with the current GOP. SO, again, they are just whoring themselves to MAGA, for the votes. Just GET THEM OUT. They don't deserve power.\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1670806013
\u201c@MikeSington Those "transactions", so far, have ended badly for everyone foolish enough to engage in them. I fear it will also end badly even for those of us who didn't engage.\n\nTo quote Edward Albee, "No good will come of this".\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1670806013
\u201c@MikeSington True , but I think there are now a lot of republicans who are hoping trump is indicted .\u201d— Mike Sington (@Mike Sington) 1670806013
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.
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.
Last week, news outlets reported that Mary Trump asked a New York appeals court to reinstate a fraud lawsuit that accused her uncle and his siblings of cheating her out of her share of the family fortune via bogus accounting and falsified documents.
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