Mary Trump says her uncle Donald Trump had little interest in being a father. The exception, she says, was his eldest daughter, and she found that relationship hard to watch.
Mary Trump is a clinical psychologist and President Donald Trump’s niece. In an interview with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, hosts of the British podcast “The Rest Is Politics,” she was asked what sense she had of Trump as a father. She posted the transcript to her Substack on Thursday.
“He was an entirely hands-off father. He had no real interest in his children,” she said. “When Ivanka got older, he had this very odd attachment to her, but I cannot exactly say that it was paternal.”
“She was constantly sitting on his lap, and I cannot really explain it, but I found it odd and off-putting,” she added.
Mary Trump said she didn’t see much of her cousins growing up. Donald Trump Jr. is 12 years younger than she is, and she believes Ivanka is about 16 years younger.
“I really only saw them at Thanksgiving and Christmas,” she said.
She said Trump had no real emotional connection with his children, “certainly not to the two older boys.”
She traced that coldness back to her grandfather, Fred Trump Sr. She said he treated kindness and sensitivity as weakness and “systematically” broke down her father, Fred Trump Jr., who died at 42.
“The lesson he learned was do not be anything like Freddy,” Mary Trump said of her uncle. “Do not be kind. Do not be empathetic. Do not be sensitive.”
She said Trump’s sons’ growing wealth isn’t about building a family legacy the way it was for her grandfather.
“With his sons and their wealth, that is just a reflection,” she said. “It just reflects well of him if they are really rich too.”
Trump has long faced questions about his comments on Ivanka. They include a 2006 appearance on “The View” in which he said that if she weren’t his daughter, “perhaps I’d be dating her.”