Mary Trump spoke to John Aravosis and Cliff Schecter promoting her latest book about the collective trauma Americans have faced over the years from the Trump administration.
In the early part of the conversation, Trump explains some information about the upbringing of former president Donald Trump's children and how her uncle carried on some of the mistakes Fred Trump made with him.
Fred Trump's eldest and namesake, Freddy Trump, was supposed to take over the business and build it bigger and better. But he was so disenchanted with what he had to deal with that he left and decided to do what he loved, flying. That was what ultimately turned Donald into the new Trump heir.
Like his father, Donald also skipped over his namesake and elevated Ivanka to be the more important part of the business. This was, in part, because Don Jr. is the least intelligent of the Trump children, Mary Trump explained.
"Just in terms of the situation into which he was born, he shares that with my dad," she explained. "You know, the oldest son of a 'powerful person' — well, I think Donald is the weakest person on the planet but he's been propped up so much. So, clearly, though he certainly did not deserve it, he had a lot of influence, had a lot of money, which was my grandfather's money, so I think Donnie was born with the same expectation that my father was born with, which was, you're the oldest son. You carry the name ... and you must follow in the footsteps and surpass what your father has accomplished, and you have to do it exactly according to his preferences."
She explained that for her father, Freddy Jr., it was really difficult for him to live up to the expectations that his father had for him.
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"Donnie is weak in a different way," she continued. "He had no intention of striking out on his own. He had no intention of doing anything but sucking up and toeing the line, and the problem is — one of the problems is — and who knows how this happens — but kind of the same problem that happened to him happened to my dad. My grandfather, for whatever reason, didn't like my father and saw something in his sibling Donald, and the only thing that's weird is that Donald did the same thing but with Ivanka."
She explained that their grandfather would never have considered any of his daughters as a successor for his business.
"But Donald had this thing for Ivanka really early on and Donnie was left in the dust," she said, "and yet, he still tries, doesn't he? I think he's like many people in my family. He has no core. He has no ideology."
She explained that Donnie will out-misogynist anyone, out-racist anyone and shoot as many animals as possible just to get "whatever passes for affection in my family." So he does a lot of what his father does, she said, loving people because they love him. The reason, she said, is because neither of them really know or understand what love is.
"He'll behave to get whatever love keeps coming in," Dr. Trump continued. "For Donnie it's more of a way to get his father's attention, which he never will. And Donnie is a deeply unintelligent person. I've been asked this -- who's the stupidest one and it's him."
Schecter recalled being at Penn at the same time as Don Jr. and recalled Trump slapping Jr. across the face in front of the whole hall. There were stories about Donald Jr. fighting back against Trump when it was discovered he was cheating on his mother Ivana. But Mary Trump said that she believes it was more transactional and that Donnie ultimately just fell in line.
Mary Trump went on to reveal that her uncle was always kissing on Ivanka and she was always sitting on his lap while he doted over her.
See the conversation below:
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