Mary Trump, the estranged niece of President-elect Donald Trump, said on a New Year’s Day podcast that critics of her uncle, including herself, can sometimes “overreact.”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team via email on Thursday for comment.
Why It Matters
Mary Trump, a psychologist and media personality, has long been a staunch public critic of her uncle, issuing often dire warnings about the risk he poses to the government and the country. Through her podcast, books, Substack and mainstream media appearances, she has built much of her personal brand around opposition to her uncle and his political movement.
What To Know
On Wednesday, the president-elect’s niece did a live Q&A podcast episode via X (formerly Twitter). In the first few minutes of the episode, she talked about being “way too engaged” politically in 2024.
“This year is almost certainly going to be—I don’t want to say worse, right, I don’t want to go there—but more challenging than its predecessor,” Mary Trump said. She went on to say she needs to “figure out how to negotiate the stress wars.”
“This past year, I was way too politically engaged. By that I don’t mean paying attention. We all need to pay attention. But I took so much of what happened this past year to heart, and it had an impact on me that was not a good one,” she said.
She suggested critics of her uncle need to find a way to move forward in a way that is not “debilitating” or “harmful.”
“How do we interpret what’s going on without making too much of it either for the good or the bad?” she asked. She then gave an example, which she said is a pattern that has continued for years.
“Donald would post something on Twitter or Truth Social or wherever that was absolutely insane. The response would be: ‘Finally, he’s losing his mind and it’s over because he’s crazy.’ You know, that happened for eight years,” she said.
She went on to say that her uncle would sometimes do something “legitimately horrible” but that “we would overreact and think it was the end of the world.”
“So, let’s just take a breath.”
In the days and weeks after the 2024 election, Mary Trump had said “We’re doomed” and warned of the “dangers” ahead as her uncle prepared to take office later this month.
“This is a blow. I can’t sugarcoat it,” she continued. “This was a tragic blow to the American experiment. We also have to remember that we do have allies across the world who are aligned with us and will be there for us if we need them, and we will.
“There are a lot of people out there who understand what we are going through, who understand the dangers we are facing and understand the fight ahead of us,” she said shortly after the election in a YouTube video.
Dominik Bindl/Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images
What People Are Saying
Lindy Li, who was previously a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris and a staunch Trump critic, recently said the president-elect and his supporters were more “humane” than Democrats. She also announced she was leaving the Democratic Party, which she described as a “cult,” in an episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored last month.
Shannon Watts, founder emerita of the gun safety group Moms Demand Action, told The Guardian last month: “Donald Trump doesn’t stop being a danger the day after the election just because he won and he doesn’t deserve to be coddled or courted just because he won. I’m not saying there’s no room for bipartisanship or collaboration, but it seems abrupt to begin doing that without a clear leader or leaders in the party telling us what the strategy is.”
Donald Trump touted his 2024 victory in a Monday post on Truth Social: “We are the Party of COMMON SENSE, a primary reason that we WON, in a landslide, the magnificent and historic Presidential Election of 2024.”
He went on: “ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, 312 ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES, AND THE POPULAR VOTE BY MILLIONS OF VOTERS (Despite large scale voter fraud taking place in numerous states, including California, where votes are ridiculously still being counted, or under review!), ALL WON WITH EASE, CALM, & PROFESSIONALISM. Republicans are being praised for having run a ‘legendary’ campaign!”
What Happens Next
Trump will take office on January 20 as only the second president in U.S. history to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
