Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, argues in the book that Donald Trump was emotionally limped at a young age because his mother became ill and his father, a real estate developer, made no effort to take over the parenting duties of sons.
“Donald is very much like what he was at age three: unable to grow, learn, or evolve, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or assimilate and synthesize information,” says an excerpt from the book’s back cover. “Donald suffered deprivations that would mark him for life.”
Mary Trump’s account appears to be indifferent, according to a statement from the editorial. She alleges that her uncle Donald values humans “only … in monetary terms” and subscribes to “cheating as a way of life.”
Charles Harder, who frequently represents President Trump in arbitration lawsuits and actions and leads Trump’s brother Robert’s campaign to suppress the book, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new developments.
The accelerated launch announcement is just the latest move in aggressive legal and public relations maneuvers throughout the book.
Backed by President Trump, his brother Robert launched a legal campaign last month to try to prevent the book’s publication by claiming that it violates a nondisclosure provision in a 2001 resolution deal related to the estate of the President’s father, Fred, who died in 1999.
The litigation has had mixed success. An initial foray into Queens probate court failed, but last week, a state court judge in Poughkeepsie issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Mary Trump or Simon & Schuster from distributing or printing the book.
However, the next day, another New York judge reduced that order by removing the reference to Simon & Schuster.
That seemed to leave the famous publisher free to continue publication, though there still appeared to be a legal risk to the company because the order still prohibits any Mary Trump “agent” from taking steps to proceed with the book.
In an affidavit filed in the court case last Thursday, Mary Trump insisted that the release was out of reach after the publisher accepted the manuscript in May.
Once Simon & Schuster formally accepted the book, I lost the ability to prevent or delay publication of the first edition of the book. In fact, I have no control even over the publication date, ”he wrote.
The judge who issued the temporary restraining order has set a deadline on Friday to complete legal filings related to a possible preliminary injunction against Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster. That’s only four days before the new release date.
As the launch progresses, Simon & Schuster appears to be following the playbook it recently used with another hotly contested book on President Trump: one written by former national security adviser John Bolton.
After initially delaying the publication of that book to allow reviews of potential classified information, the publisher brought the date forward before the Justice Department went to court to try to block the publication. A judge declined to issue a court order against the book, but was highly critical of Bolton’s tactics and said distributing advance copies to journalists made any court order useless.
Robert Trump’s attorneys have cited that example as one reason why the New York court should act quickly to avoid the Mary Trump book.
Representatives from Simon & Schuster and Mary Trump have continued to denounce the litigation as an effort to suppress political dissent and as an affront to the First Amendment.
A spokeswoman for Mary Trump, Chris Bastardi, said in a statement Monday: “The act of a sitting president to silence a private citizen is just the latest in a series of disturbing behaviors that have already destabilized a fractured nation in the face of a globalized world. ” pandemic. If Mary can’t comment, one can only help wondering: what is Donald Trump so afraid of?
In theory, Mary Trump and Simon & Schuster could be at risk for damages if the lawsuit continues.
However, Mary Trump’s affidavit released last week appears to threaten trouble for her uncle if the court case continues. She argues that she was tricked into signing the 2001 estate deal due to an alleged pattern by Donald Trump to alter asset valuations to reduce his tax bills.
“I relied on the false valuations provided by my uncles and aunt, and I would never have entered into the Agreement if I had known the true value of the assets involved,” he wrote.
Prosecutors in New York are reportedly investigating the tax-related allegations, released by the New York Times in October 2018 and also discussed by former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen before a House committee last year.
