Donald Trump's power base could slip once his enablers get what they want, according to his niece.
Mary Trump, who has written about her personal relationship with the president in the past, believes those in his Cabinet are there merely for their personal gain. Her comments came as Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino defended Border Patrol actions in the killing of Alex Pretti.
Pretti, 37, had been at a protest in Minneapolis Saturday when he was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents. The Trump administration has since defended the agents, with Bovino going as far as to say Pretti was not a victim, but a "suspect".
Mary Trump, speaking to The Daily Beast, said, "Donald has modeled this behavior for decades now, you know: be a bully, be a thug, be disrespectful, and then... complain when you think other people are behaving the same way.
"In fact, in the aftermath of Renee Good’s murder, Donald actually said, well, she was being disrespectful towards law enforcement— as if that means that she deserved to be killed.
"That trickles down to other people in the administration. So, we now know that you can be a participant in an insurrection against your own government, [and] as long as you are in support of Donald Trump, you’re going to get pardoned.
"If you’re an ICE agent murdering American citizens in cold blood, as long as you are doing that in service to advancing Donald Trump’s agenda, you’re going to get pardoned.
"You are going to be given absolute immunity, which is a thing that doesn’t even exist, and they’re not even going to allow local and state law enforcement to be part of the investigation. So we’re never even going to get the truth."
Mary Trump, who wrote Too Much and Never Enough about her experiences with Trump and the wider family, considers those around the president to be enablers working for their own gains — and that is why he is in power.
The president, she adds, has "gotten away with everything, not because he has any special powers or because he has any particular strengths. Again, he’s like the weakest person I’ve ever known in my life. It’s because his enablers find him useful still.”
