Donald Trump's niece claims the President lies 'constantly to the point where he convinces himself it's truth' and craves attention 'like a drug' after battling to win his father's approval
Donald Trump's niece has claimed attention is 'like a drug' to the President after battling to win his father's approval as a young boy.
Author and psychologist Mary Trump argued that her 74-year-old uncle has 'never really experienced' love and suggested that his feelings of 'abandonment' as a youngster forced him to develop defense mechanisms which hardened into permanent character traits.
Speaking in a new discovery+ documentary, Donald Trump: A Faking It Special, Mary - an outspoken critic of her estranged relative - suggests her uncle lies 'constantly and relentlessly' to the point where he 'convinces himself that it's the truth'.
Meanwhile his former National Security Advisor John Bolton sensationally claims that Trump can't tell the difference between 'truth and falsehood'.
Mary Trump - an outspoken critic of her estranged relative - has claimed her uncle lies 'constantly and relentlessly' to the point where he 'convinces himself that it's the truth'
Discussing his childhood, Mary, the daughter of the president's elder brother, Fred Jr., explained: 'When Donald was just two-and-a-half, his mother [Mary Anne - nee MacLeod - a Scottish immigrant who spoke English as a second language] was very ill and was essentially unavailable to her children for about a year.
'So, he's suddenly bereft of his primary connection to human love and affection. And, because my grandfather had absolutely no interest in small children, Donald essentially felt abandoned. He was alone, he was terrified, and he was confused.
'There was nobody to help him make sense of the loss so he had to develop some defense mechanisms to protect himself from those absolute horrible feelings. And over time they hardened into character traits.'
Mary went on to claim that as Donald got older, he became bolder and more aggressive, challenging his mother and teachers - attributes which his grandfather liked and referred to as his 'killer attitude'.
The author and psychologist argues in new discovery+ documentary, Donald Trump: A Faking It Special, that her 74-year-old uncle has 'never really experienced' love
Mary previously said the President inherited his acerbic behavior from his father, Fred Trump (right), a real estate developer who died in 1999. She called her grandfather 'a horrible human being who just reveled in other people's humiliation'
Meanwhile, according to Mary, he was 'incredibly hard' on her father Fred Jr., who was expected as the eldest to take over the family real estate business.
'My grandfather was incredibly hard on my dad who was very sensitive, so my grandfather's abuse of my father really beat him down,' she said.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes argued watching this as a young boy who was usually ignored taught him that if he wants approval, he's got to be 'tough' and can't show any sign of vulnerability.
'To do that is to risk humiliation and punishment,' she explained. 'So you can see how that dynamic really shaped who he believed he was and who he believed he had to be if he wanted to win his father's affection.'
With this in mind, Mary suggested that attention has become like a 'drug' to Donald, surmising that his need for constant validation fueled his desire to star in the US Apprentice and ultimately run for President.
Mary went to a dinner in the White House to celebrate her aunt Maryanne Trump Barry's birthday but is now entirely at odds with her uncle - and wants to see him jailed after his presidency. When she visited the Oval Office in 2017 her uncle Donald had a picture of his father but not his mother on the table behind the Resolute Desk
Trump keeps a photograph of his father Fred on the table behind the Resolute Desk. It was there before he added a picture of his mother Mary Anne (nee MacLeod), a Scottish immigrant who spoke English as a second language. Fred's father died in the post-World War I flu pandemic
'For Donald, one of the drugs is attention, but it's not the kind of attention that replaces love, which he has never really experienced,' she said.
'It's this fruitless but interminable quest to find those things that have been missing in his life since he was two-and-a-half years old.
'Donald fit the bill and was perfectly willing to put himself out there, be the center of the attention, be flashy, be somebody who was completely willing to throw money around.'
According to Mary, Donald's status as a television personality further endeared him to his father.
'That just appealed to my grandfather, and it even overrode the undeniable fact that Donald wasn't actually good at business,' she claimed.
For Mary, Trump's penchant for bending the truth goes back to his need for constant approval.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes argued watching this as a young boy who was usually ignored taught him that if he wants approval, he's got to be 'tough' and can't show any sign of vulnerability
Discussing his childhood, Mary, the daughter of the president's elder brother, Fred Jr., explained: 'When Donald (pictured) was just two-and-a-half, his mother was very ill and was essentially unavailable to her children for about a year. 'So, he's suddenly bereft of his primary connection to human love and affection. And, because my grandfather had absolutely no interest in small children, Donald essentially felt abandoned. He was alone, he was terrified, and he was confused'
'Of course he lies. He lies constantly and relentlessly, but it goes way beyond that,' she said.
'Because what happens for Donald is the more tells the lie the more he convinces himself that it's the truth.'
Kerry added: 'Deep down, he's really just that little boy seeking approval. His idea of what is truthful and what is reality is so distorted, I think, the first person he deceives is usually himself.'
Speaking in the documentary, John Bolton claims Trump was unfazed by the gravity of the Presidency, and more enamored by the platform it gave him.
'I felt that after almost 15 months into the presidency, the weight of the office, the gravity of the responsibilities, would have had an effect on him as they've had on every other president,' he said.
'But I found out that that was not true, he didn't see it as something larger than himself.'
Critical of his approach in office, John suggested that Trump put his own interests ahead of the country.
'He thought that the presidency was about Donald Trump. That's the basic explanation for almost all of his conduct; it wasn't about leading the United States, it was about being Donald Trump on the biggest stage he could find.
'I think it shows that deep inside Trump there's nothing there.'
A poll released Saturday shows 42 per cent of registered voters think Trump will go down in history as one of America's worst Presidents of all time – as more than half say they don't believe the election was stolen.
Of the 1,007 respondents, the Fox News poll found only 22 per cent believe Trump will be remembered as one of the greatest Presidents in U.S. history.
It also showed that 54 per cent of registered voters have an unfavorable view of Trump as he has just over a month left in office before Joe Biden is sworn in. And 55 per cent think the country is worse off now than it was four years ago.
The December 6-9 survey comes as Trump continues to blast the presidential election results, claiming on Twitter Sunday morning it was the 'MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY!'
A poll released Saturday shows 42 per cent of registered voters think Donald Trump will go down in history as one of America's worst presidents of all time – as more than half say they don't believe the election was stolen. Pictured Trump with Melania on December 5
After Trump was beaten by Joe Biden in his re-election campaign, TV stations and social media began adding disclaimers to his tweets.
'Twitter started adding to Donald Trump's tweets that actually his claims are disputed, and even FOX news started to say "actually, this isn't necessarily the truth",' Kerry noted.
Speaking about her uncle's election defeat, Mary suggested the impact the loss will have on him should not be underestimated.
'This is literally the first time in his life that Donald has been in a situation the outcome of which he cannot change,' she said.
'Nobody can buy him out of it, nobody can use their influence to change the result.'
Earlier this month Mary announced she is writing a follow-up to this summer's scathing bestseller about her uncle, 'Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created The World´s Most Dangerous Man'.
Her new book, 'The Reckoning,' from publisher St. Martin's Press won't be out until next July and will trace what she says is America's collective trauma from its founding on the backs of enslaved Africans to the burgeoning economic and mental health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, Mary sued the President, Robert Trump and their sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge, alleging that they cheated her out of millions of dollars while squeezing her out of the family business. Robert Trump died in August and the lawsuit is pending.
When her book about the family was published in July, Trump tweeted that Mary Trump was 'a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents (who couldn't stand her!) and me,' and violated a non-disclosure agreement.
Mary acknowledges that she has seen the president only sporadically over the last 20 years - she wrote in 'Too Much and Never Enough' that he invited her to a family dinner at the White House in 2017 - but previously argued 'he hasn't changed at all.'
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