As she continues on her publicity tour to promote her tell-all memoir, Donald Trump’s niece Mary Trump stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where she opened up about writing about her uncle.
In her memoir Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man (Simon & Schuster), Mary Trump details a myriad of damaging claims against Trump and his family such as alleging the president was abused by his father, used anti-Semitic slurs and was the epitome of a narcissist.
While discussing some of the claims she wrote in the book, Colbert questioned whether she believes Trump has the same “sociopathic tendencies” as his father, Fred, and asked whether she considers them to be “high functioning.”
“Donald has so many pathologies and they’re so complex,” she explained, adding that it’s “difficult to tease out exactly what’s going on without testing.”
However, Mary went on to say that it’s evident Trump is “comfortable doing heartless things.” “Clearly he doesn’t seem to be interested in empathy. So I think it’s safe to say, sure, he demonstrates sociopathic tendencies,” she said. “That’s something that should give every person in this country pause.”
Mary added that should Trump have to function in the “real world on his own,” he wouldn’t be able to. “A crucial reason that he’s gotten as far as he has is because he’s continually protected by what I consider institutions.”
She describes Trump as someone who has always had his “needs taken care of” and someone who has “never been held accountable,” therefore has always been “protected from failures.”
After being elected president of the United States, Colbert explained, Trump entered “an enormous institution built around the office in order to keep dignity” around the person holding office. Now that he possesses power, Colbert said, that circumstances only “feeds into that sense of narcissism” and “the protection” of Trump’s behavior.
Colbert then questioned Mary on whether Trump’s position of power had a “chilling” effect on her knowing his behavior could be enforced. “It was one of the worst nights of my life,” she explained of his being elected. Though Trump has become a recognized name in entertainment, business and now politics, Mary discussed how she still just calls him “Donald” and considers him her uncle.
“It’s still very difficult for me to wrap my head around it. It’s awful, honestly,” she told Colbert after the late night host asked whether it’s odd for her to have “personal and intimate connection” with a man who is now a “transformative political figure.”
“I have a better handle of it now. But I’d say for the first two years, every day of my life there would be this moment where I’d remember and just be horrified all over again,” she explained.
Since its July 14 release, Mary’s book has become an instant best-seller with more than 950,000 preorders alone. The book had a long journey to publication as earlier this month, the president’s brother Robert failed in an attempt to suppress publication of the book, and just last week a judge lifted a restriction on Trump’s niece conducting a press tour for the book.
