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'My uncle is increasingly unhinged': Democracy will be 'over' if Donald Trump becomes president again, his niece says
19 February 2024, 20:45 | Updated: 19 February 2024, 23:59
Mary Trump to Andrew Marr: Donald is a risk to democracy across the world
As Donald Trump is fined hundreds-of-millions of dollars for fraud, his niece, Mary Trump, says that democracy will be "over' if her "unhinged" uncle re-enters the White House.
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Speaking to LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, Mary Trump has warned that "westen liberal democracy" will be in "serious danger" if Donald Trump becomes president again.
She also spoke about how the former president has not changed since she was growing up.
Mary Trump said: "He continues to be a bully, he continues to be somebody who revels in grievance and quite honestly who can’t actually accomplish anything on his own.
"This is a dangerous person we already know because he’s telling us that if he does manage to get back into the White House again, his entire administration will be about settling grievances and getting revenge on his political opponents.
Ms Trump, who is an author and psychologist, also told Andrew Marr how Donald Trump became the person he is due to an absent ill mother and a "sociopath of a father".
Read more: Donald Trump fined $364m as judge rules against him in New York civil fraud case
She added that he became her grandfather's, Donald Trump's father's, favourite son.
This meant that his father, Mary's grandfather, enabled Donald "through his most egregious fallouts", with the "Republican Party in the United States continuing to do that today".
On the same topic of family, Andrew Maar asked Mary about the family phrase "killers", to which Mary replied: "I think it stood in for this sense that any kind of gentle qualities was seen by him as weak and weakness could not be tolerated
“So Donald stood up and instead of being an actual killer, he became somebody who would destroy his enemies in real estate by suing them or outspending them in lawsuits and it became this pattern that we're still living with now because he now has people do his bidding for him.
“The irony here is that Donald is one of the weakest most pathetic people I’ve ever known in my life, and yet people who support him people who are on his side politically are afraid of him and that is mystifying"
Concerning the outcome of the New York fraud trial, Mary said that his business is over, temporarily as the judge has continued the oversight of the company and has "de facto control over finances."
Judge Arthur Engoron issued his decision after a two-and-a-half-month trial.
Donald Trump has been fined $364 million (£288 million) over what a New York judge ruled was a years-long scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated his wealth.
Mr Trump and his companies were ordered to pay $355 million (£288 million). His eldest sons, Trump Organisation Executive Vice Presidents Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, each were ordered to pay $4 million (£3.1 million).
All three have been banned from conducting business in New York for three years.
The penalty was a victory for New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who sued Mr Trump over what she said was not just harmless bragging but years of deceptive practices as he built a multi-national collection of skyscrapers, golf courses and other properties that catapulted him to wealth, fame and the White House.
The former president was also banned from getting loans from New York banks for three years.
Mr Trump's lawyers had said even before the verdict that they would appeal.
Mary added that it will be "very telling" where her uncle will get the money to pay off these fines.
Andrew Marr added that either Donald Trump becomes president or goes "bust".
Mary said that it was "terrifying" how the Republican party could not move on after Donald Trump's indictments and criminal charges.
When asked if Donald has become more dangerous, compared to when he was president, Mary said yes, calling her uncle "increasingly unhinged".
She added that the Republican Party "now seems to think that the fact Donald started incited an insurrection doesn't matter"
Andrew Marr then asked Mary whether American democracy would be in danger if Donald Trump won the next election, to which Mary replied: "I think it's over.
"Not only that, global democracy, western liberal democracy is in serious danger.
"We've heard recently that Donald would give Vladamir Putin the green light to invade Europe if European members of NATO don't contribute more money."
She then called Donald Trump "despicable" for comparing himself to Alexi Navalny.
Mary then concluded that Joe Biden has been the "most effective" president in her lifetime and that it is not inevitable that Trump will enter the White House.
