Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the niece of former President Donald Trump described her uncle as a “destroyed human being” during an interview on MSNBC. Speaking with host Lawrence O’Donnell on Last Word, Mary Trump explained that her uncle’s recent attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris are a result of a defense mechanism called projection.
“Donald uses a defense mechanism known as projection very frequently, in which he takes things that he unconsciously knows about himself but can’t bear and projects them onto other people,” Mary Trump said during the interview. She believes this has intensified since Harris became a prominent political figure.
According to Mary, Donald Trump’s behavior took a noticeable turn after Vice President Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. “That has been happening with increasing frequency… when Vice President Harris became his opponent for the presidency,” she said. Mary added that Harris’s candidacy seems to have deeply unsettled her uncle, causing him to unravel. “She pushes his buttons in a way few people ever had,” she explained, noting that Harris is clearly “getting under his skin.”
When O’Donnell asked if her “crazy uncle” inspired her to become a clinical psychologist, Mary responded, “Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one.” She shared that Donald Trump is just one of five siblings, all of whom she described as “destroyed human beings.” In a striking revelation, Mary added, “As shocking as it may seem, Donald was not the worst one in my family.”
Despite this, she expressed concern about her uncle’s enduring influence, saying, “He has, unfortunately, power that continues to be bestowed on him by a bankrupt Republican party and tens of millions of Americans.” She attributed much of the family’s dysfunction to a broken upbringing, explaining, “The whole family system was so broken from the very beginning.”
Mary Trump, who authored the tell-all memoir Too Much and Never Enough, a New York Times bestseller, has been an outspoken critic of her uncle. In the book, she wrote, “Nobody liked Donald when he was growing up, not even his parents,” adding that his father, Fred Trump, was “incapable of loving anybody.”
Mary Trump’s insights offer a glimpse into the psychological dynamics of her uncle, whose actions and rhetoric continue to dominate the political landscape.
