Following softball interviews promoting her tell-all book on mainstream media, Mary Trump, a niece of the president, found herself in the hot seat, accused of trying to make an easy buck by ‘The View’ co-host Meghan McCain.
“I think I made it clear to your publishers I don’t like books like this. I don’t like family tell-all books, especially when it comes to families with fame and power,” McCain told Trump’s niece in a Thursday interview on ‘The View.’
She added she does not end up believing most what is written in books written by disgruntled family members because they are too “one-sided.”
“What do you say to people like me, who think this is just a great way for you to get paycheck right now?” McCain asked.
.@MeghanMcCain to Mary Trump: “What do you say to people like me who think this is just a great way for you to get a paycheck right now?”
Trump: “If I had wanted to cash in… I would have done this ten years ago… and I would not have been taking the risks that I’m taking.” pic.twitter.com/grPPGHYcHt
“If I had wanted some measure of revenge, if I had wanted to cash in, as you say, I would have done this ten years ago when Donald was still a very public figure,” Trump replied.
Despite the book selling over one million copies in its first week of release, Trump also claimed she would have preferred not to publish it at all.
McCain also questioned Mary Trump’s credibility and suggested she may not be as close to the president’s immediate family as she claims to be, pointing to the lack of stories in the book about Trump’s children. Mary Trump countered that families are “complicated” and suggested McCain was trying to distract from her accusations against the president.
Many of President Trump’s critics on social media predictably did not take too kindly to the conservative McCain’s questioning of the author’s motives — and blasted her for daring to question the legitimacy of the book, casting Mary Trump as a hero for batting away McCain’s criticisms.
To add to the list of reasons to be impressed by Mary Trump: the graceful and patient way she just dealt with Meghan McCain’s rude and unpleasant line of questioning on #TheView.
Among the allegations in the book is that the president paid someone to take the SAT test for him and that he has used racist and anti-semitic language in the past.
Mary Trump has been making the rounds on mainstream media in recent days, but has rarely been pressed for details or proof of her stories — and has seemingly been used to confirm mainstream assumptions held by the president’s critics.
On a recent episode of the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC, Trump was asked if she had ever heard the president use the N-word or antisemitic slurs. She said that “yes,” she had heard him use both and said such comments were commonplace in her family.
Conservatives have unsurprisingly been more skeptical of Mary Trump’s accusations and her motivation in publishing the tell-all book just months before the presidential election.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but Mary Trump is a liar
