Freed from gag order, Mary Trump has one word of advice for her uncle, President Trump: 'Resign'
In an interview on the day her much-anticipated book excoriating President Donald Trump was released, Mary Trump had one word of advice for her uncle: "Resign."
Mary Trump, speaking about "Too Much and Never Enough" one day after a judge lifted a gag order, offered a simple message about President Trump, her uncle, in response to a question by ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.
"He is utterly incapable of leading this country. And it’s dangerous to allow him to do so," she said during a clip broadcast Tuesday on ABC's "World News Tonight with David Muir," adding that her conclusion is based on what she's seen of Donald Trump over "my entire adult life."
In the interview that aired Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Mary Trump reflected on the process of writing the book, during which she realized there were "so many parallels between the circumstances in which my family operated and the circumstances in which this country is now operating."
"I saw firsthand what focusing on the wrong things, elevating the wrong people can do, the collateral damage that can be done by allowing someone to live their lives without accountability," she said.
Mary Trump has faced backlash from the decision to publish her book from the public, the Trump administration and other members of her family. She said she thought about saying something about her uncle in the past, but worried about being painted as a "disgruntled, disinherited niece who just wanted her 15 minutes" of fame.
"If I can do anything to change the narrative and to tell the truth, I need to do that, because I don't believe the American people had the entire truth 4 years ago," she said. "If I had wanted money or revenge, I would have done this 10 years ago when it was infinitely safer, but neither one of those things interested me."
Is Trump's book an extension of how dysfunctional her family is? "Probably," she said with a laugh.
"I didn't write it as a form of therapy or anything like that," Trump added. "I would have preferred not to write it. It was quite difficult and I sometimes think I would have been better off not knowing some of the things I now know."
ABC will air more of Trump's interview Thursday morning, Stephanopoulous said.
In an ABC News story highlighting other parts of the interview, Trump, whose book already is on best-seller lists, offered an assessment of how dangerous behaviors cultivated before her uncle became president have flowered during his time in the White House.
Trump analysis: Mary L. Trump's new book almost turns The Donald into a sympathetic figure
The highlights released on "World News Tonight," in an ABC News clip and in the ABC News story largely reflect earlier discussion of the book, whose unflattering descriptions of the Trump family and the president have been the subject of many stories by journalists who received advance copies.
In the Stephanopoulos interview, which also will be featured Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Trump described an Oval Office encounter with her uncle just months after the start of his presidential term.
"He already seemed very strained by the pressures. He'd never been in a situation before where he wasn't entirely protected from criticism or accountability," said Trump, whose father, Fred Trump Jr., died in 1981. "And I just remember thinking, 'He seems tired. He seems like this is not what he signed up for, if he even knows what he signed up for."
She also remembers President Trump saying, "They won't get me," during that April 2017 visit. "And, so far, it looks like he's right," she added.
The author relies on her memories, first-hand observations and various documents for the book, which survived a legal effort by Robert Trump, her uncle and President Trump's younger brother, to keep it from being released.
In the interview, Trump, a psychologist, also discussed Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father and a huge influence, calling him "a sociopath.'
“He was incredibly driven in a way that turned other people, including his children (and) wife, into pawns to be used to his own ends,” Trump said. “It’s impossible to know who Donald might have been under different circumstances and with different parents. But clearly he learned the lesson.”
The White House on Tuesday referred ABC News to its previous statements about the book. The White House previously said: "Mary Trump and her book’s publisher may claim to be acting in the public interest, but this book is clearly in the author’s own financial self-interest."
"President Trump has been in office for over three years working on behalf of the American people – why speak out now? The President describes the relationship he had with his father as warm and said his father was very good to him. He said his father was loving and not at all hard on him as a child," the statement continued.
As of Monday, publisher Simon & Schuster had shipped more than 600,000 copies of the book, subtitled "How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," to bookstores across the country.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mary Trump says Donald Trump is 'utterly incapable' of being president
