Donald Trump’s New York hush-money case and the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing on his presidential immunity have been front and center in recent days, even as the former president is in a close race with President Joe Biden to occupy the White House for a second term. Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the niece of the former president weighed in on the case, in an interview on Thursday.
What Happened: Donald Trump’s two faces were evident amid the trial proceedings last week, said Mary Trump in an MSNBC interview.
“Last week we heard a lot about the split-screen Donald Trump, criminal defendant in a New York City criminal courtroom and then the Supreme Court hearing arguments about whether or not Donald should be immune from any kind of prosecution because apparently members of the Supreme Court think he is a monarch or something,” she said.
The more crucial concern people should be vigilant about is the split screen of him being the presidential candidate and an “anti-American authoritarian wannabe,” she added.
“The problem is we are seeing these as being treated as two entirely different people,” Mary Trump said, adding that “it’s a the fact that he is a criminal defendant, the fact that he has committed allegedly crimes against the United States of America, have no impact whatsoever on his relevance or his standing as a candidate for the presidency.”
This is because “there’s always a way out for him. There’s always somebody willing to bail him out even if it looks like there’s no escape,” she said. This was seen last week, she added.
The psychologist, podcaster and author also said she has one particular concern.
“As deep the trouble is that he is in, it may not be enough,” she said.
Mary Trump said her uncle’s personality is such that he is incredibly good at “pushing the envelope and pulling back in those rare instances in which he gets pushed back.”
“When he pushes the envelope, he breaks norms, he defies expectations and he gets away with it. Being who he is, he pushes the envelope some more to see what else he can get away with,” she said.
It is in those instances Donald Trump normalizes outrageous and egregious behavior, she added.
Mary Trump also said it is the duty of the press to step up. She emphasized that her uncle explicitly stated his intentions to become an authoritarian, strip away women’s rights, and say whatever he needs to regain power.
“Once that happens, he will not be stopped,” she said.
Mary Trump advised that for those running against Donald Trump, he should be consistently ridiculed. She observed this approach in the courtroom, noting his difficulty in handling the circumstances and his lack of power in that environment.
Mary Trump also asserted that her uncle was selfish and unconcerned about the other individuals trapped in the courtroom with him due to his actions.
More Setbacks: Mary Trump noted that, for the nine instances of gag order violations in the first week of the hush-money trial, Donald Trump was fined $9,000 and warned of imprisonment for any further violations. Prosecutors have submitted four more violations since then, she added.
Mary Trump mentioned that Acting Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan might not yet jail the former president for these four violations, as they occurred before Donald Trump was held in contempt. However, she did not rule out the possibility of incarceration if another violation occurs.
She also highlighted rumors about Donald Trump’s legal team representing his presidential campaign for a 2016 incident wanting to drop him as a client.
“The law firm, LaRocca, Hornik, Greenberg, Kittredge, Carlin & McPartland, cited an ‘irreparable breakdown in the attorney-client relationship’ as the reason for their request to withdraw,” Mary Trump said.
Last week, Los Angeles attorney Keith Davidson took the stand again to discuss the deal he had brokered between the plaintiff Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen to keep Donald Trump's affair with Daniels a secret from voters, she further noted.
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