President Trump said that his niece Mary L. Trump “was not exactly a family favorite” and that he and his family “did not respect or like her very much.”
Trump made the comments during an exclusive interview on “Fox News Sunday” a few days after his niece’s revelation, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” set a record first day for Simon & Schuster after the publisher said Thursday that it sold 950,000 copies, including presales. During the interview, Trump called his niece’s book “stupid” and “vicious.”
Host Chris Wallace noted that one of Mary Trump’s “main points” is that she said that President Trump’s father, Fred Trump Sr., harmed the entire family.
Speaking on ABC News on Thursday, he said: “He learned to become the killer you mentioned. The man who needs to be successful at all costs … who will do anything to get attention, financial rewards and win. ”
During the exclusive interview, Wallace asked President Trump, “Do you see any truth in that?”
“My father liked to win,” Trump said in response. “My father was a very good man. He was a strong man. ”
“It is embarrassing that she said that,” he continued, then noted that she “was not exactly a family favorite” and “we did not have much respect or liking for her.”
“I would never have said that, except that she writes a book that is so stupid and cruel and is a lie,” Trump continued. “My father was a great, wonderful man.”
THE PUBLISHER OF MARY TRUMP DOES NOT CLAIM ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE NDA AFTER THE JUDGE’S MIDDLE ORDER; SAYS EVERYTHING HAS SENT
Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist and daughter of the President’s older brother, Fred Trump, Jr., who died in 1981.
The president emphasized that his niece “is not a person I spent a lot of time with,” adding that he is now “glad” that he spent “very little time” with her.
Wallace later noted that the president “has developed a fairly thick skin over the years from decades of attacks on the New York tabloids” and the press, as well as his political opponents in Washington, DC
“But even for Donald Trump, does it hurt at all to be attacked in such personal terms by a member of your own family?” Wallace asked the President.
“Yes,” Trump said in response. “It hurts me more to attack my father, not to be kind to my mother. I have a mother who was like a saint. She was incredible. She was an amazing woman and she [Mary Trump] it was unpleasant even for my mother. ”
“She is a very marked person,” he continued. “She was not a very familiar person.”
The President went on to say that he believes his father was “the strongest person I have ever met and that he was a very good person.”
“He was a very, very good person,” Trump continued. “It was strong, but it was good.”
Trump acknowledged that his father “was tough on me” and “tough on all kids,” but emphasized that he was tough “in a solid sense, in a really good sense.”
“For her to say, I think the word she used was psycho, what a disgrace,” Trump continued. “She should be ashamed of herself. That book is a lie.
After the Mary Trump book was printed, Robert Trump, the president’s younger brother, filed legal action in June to stop publication of the book, citing a confidentiality agreement he signed in 2001 in a deal on his inheritance.
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A New York judge last month said the editors were not bound by the NDA and lifted the restraining order against Mary Trump last week, releasing her for interviews.
Brie Stimson and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
