When it comes to his niece Mary Trump, former President Donald Trump faces a version of that classic horror film scenario — “the calls are coming from inside the house.” In Trump’s case, the calls are coming from inside the family.
In Mary Trump’s latest tweet knocking her uncle, she shares a New York Times headline that quotes Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence. It reads: ‘History Will Hold Donald Trump Accountable’ for Jan. 6, Pence Says. Ms. Trump adds the line: “It would be even cooler if the present held him accountable first.”
It would be even cooler if the present held him accountable first. pic.twitter.com/96RGlaP5Bj
— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) March 13, 2023
While Trump’s immediate family — Don Jr., Ivanka, Melania, et al — all remain highly loyal in public, Mary Trump, daughter of his late brother Fred Trump, Jr., consistently sides with the Trump resistance, playing the thorn in his side. (Indeed, she wrote a book about how her family created what she calls “the world’s most dangerous man.”)
Ironically perhaps, Mary Trump wields a blade that would hardly cut if her uncle hadn’t sharpened it for her: That weapon is the Trump name, which the former president has turned into one of the biggest brands in the world. It guarantees attention, if sometimes only modest, for any claim Mary Trump makes about the Trump family. Because she is a Trump.
Mary Trump is pushing Pence’s narrative partly because nobody will otherwise see it. Not yet willing to attack his former running mate in front of the cameras, Pence made his allegedly disparaging Trump remarks at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington where the events, unlike almost everywhere else in the world, go unrecorded.
Pence reportedly also said “tourists don’t injure 140 police officers by sightseeing,” a reference to Tucker Carlson‘s attempt at reframing the Jan 6 attacks. (Note: Carlson will not, barring a giant breach of protocol, receive any Gridiron Club video of Mike Pence making his remarks.)
Donald Trump has won in court against Mary Trump, after she accused him of defrauding her out of a rich inheritance. But the two are about even in the court of public opinion, according to polls. 31 percent of registered voters held a favorable view of Donald Trump in a Quinnipiac poll taken at the end of 2022. Data showed that, in 2020, about 40 percent of Americans were interested in reading Mary Trump’s tell-all book about her uncle.
