Donald Trump’s gay niece, Mary Trump, reveals president sees illness as ‘an unforgivable weakness’
Donald Trump. (Brandon Bell/Getty)
Mary Trump, the niece of Donald Trump, has explained why, in her opinion, the president has responded so erratically to his coronavirus diagnosis and to the pandemic at large.
The president and his doctors have repeatedly sought to play down his condition after being admitted to the Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday (October 2)
In an interview with NPR‘s Fresh Air, Mary Trump — who has a doctorate in clinical psychology — explained that being ill was seen as “unacceptable” by the family.
She said: “It was unacceptable and a display of unforgivable weakness — which sounds incredible and cruel but happens to be true.
“And when I say illness, I mean both physical illness, over which, you know, nobody has any control, necessarily, but also in the case of my grandmother, who had osteoporosis, that was not really tolerated or dealt with in any direct way.
“It also had to do with things like addictions… my dad was an alcoholic, and in my family, it was treated like a moral failing.”
Donald Trump signs a blank piece of paper inside the Presidential Suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in a photos the White House claimed featured the president at work (Joyce N. Boghosian/The White House via Getty Images)
Mary Trump — an out lesbian who has penned a book about her famous family — said the view was shared by the president, explaining: “That’s why we’re in the horrible place we’re in — because he cannot admit to the weakness of being ill or of other people’s being ill.”
Mary Trump says LGBT+ people make the president feel uncomfortable.
The president’s niece, who faced a legal battle in an attempt to suppress publication of her tell-all memoir, recently launched her own proceedings against Trump, accusing him and his siblings of “rampant fraud and misconduct” that had defrauded her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions.
She previously dismissed the president’s “absurd” claim he supports LGBT+ rights, suggesting gay and trans people make him “uncomfortable.”
In an interview with The Advocate in July, Mary Trump revealed she never came out to come out to her uncle or introduced him to her partner, adding: “He never knew, but I’m sure he does now.”
She said of his claims that gay people ‘love’ him: “It’s just absurd. What’s worse that on some level, he’s actually convinced himself that that is true. Anyone who takes that seriously should be discounted out of hand.”
Of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s insistence that the president has a “great” record on LGBT+ issues, she said: “I think gay people make [Trump] uncomfortable with male homosexuality. He’s like guys with no self-awareness.
“And trans people make him uncomfortable because he’s uncomfortable with anyone that’s different. And that includes differently-abled, different colour of skin, and different beliefs.
“I really don’t think gay issues occupy any of his attention, but how McEnany could say that with a straight face, knowing that one of the very first things he did, without consulting anybody, was to kick trans people out of the armed services. It’s disgusting.
“He’s not [an] ally of the gay community, or really any community for that matter. Donald doesn’t have any concern or beliefs beyond his own self-interest. His enablers tell him to enact a certain policy, and he’ll do it. He doesn’t care.”
