Trump a "narcissist" still seeking late father's "favor," niece Mary Trump says in tell-all book
A new tell-all book by President Donald Trump's niece Mary Trump paints a portrait of a psychologically damaged man who she says is ill-equipped to handle the coronavirus pandemic, economic issues and the country's deep social divides, and whose way of life includes "lying," "cheating," and "sowing division," Paula Reid reports.
In the book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," published by ViacomCBS subsidiary Simon & Schuster, Mary Trump claims the president paid someone else to "take his SATs for him," and says a fraught relationship with "problematic parents" was a large factor behind alleged psychological issues.
"She wants people to be aware of who's in office, who's running the country, who's one of the most powerful people in the world, and how he became the way he is," Mary's friend Alice Hafter-Frankston told CBS News.
Mary Trump is the daughter of Mr. Trump's elder brother Frederick Trump Jr., who died in 1981 at the age of 42 after struggling with alcoholism. She gives an intimate, first-hand account of her famous uncle's upbringing and rise to one of the most powerful positions in the world.
"Donald… destroyed my father," she wrote. "I can't let him destroy my country."
The forthcoming book sees Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist, lay out a case claiming Mr. Trump is a "narcissist." She points to Mr. Trump's relationship with his father, Fred, who she calls a sociopath, as a driving force behind the president's alleged issues.
Fred Trump "perverted his son's perception of the world and damaged his ability to live in it," she writes, adding that she believes the president is still seeking his deceased father's approval to this day.
"Every one of Donald's transgressions became an audition for his father's favor, as if he were saying, 'See, dad, I'm the tough one. I'm the killer,'" she says in the book.
President Trump has spoken fondly of his father in the past. At the 2016 Republican Convention in Ohio, he called him the "smartest and hardest-working man" he ever knew.
However, Mary Trump says her grandfather was often cold to his children, and she argues that treatment shaped Donald Trump's worldview.
She also writes that her uncle has used lying as, "a mode of self-aggrandizement meant to convince other people he was better than he actually was."
The Trump family has tried to block publication of the book, saying it violates a confidentiality agreement Mary Trump signed over 20 years ago.
While President Trump has so far ignored questions about the book, the White House issued a statement saying "he said his father was loving and not at all hard on him as a child. Also, the absurd SAT allegation is completely false."