President Donald Trump on Saturday elevated his attacks on his niece while hitting those who have written intimate — and often unflattering — portrayals of his family life and the inner workings of his presidency.
“About the only way a person is able to write a book on me is if they agree that it will contain as much bad ‘stuff’ as possible, much of which is lies,” the president wrote aboard Air Force One. “Even whether it’s … an unstable niece, who was now rightfully shunned, scorned and mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind & caring grandfather!"
Mary Trump has spoken out against her uncle in a series of interviews after releasing a tell-all book in July that characterized the president as a racist, serial liar suffering from numerous personality disorders.
In an interview with POLITICO shortly after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention, Mary Trump said she considered the four-day event “disturbing” and “law-breaking” and marked by a “breathtaking” torrent of lies.
“The extent to which every, almost every single participant in this convention was willing to lie, and knew they were lying, and didn’t care that pretty much everything they said was a lie, was breathtaking,” she said.
Last week, Mary Trump released secret recordings to the Washington Post that reportedly captured the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, disparaging her brother.
Mary Trump described her rationale behind sharing the recordings as a need to stop her uncle from being re-elected in November.
“Because we’re at this extraordinarily crucial point in this country’s history, and we need to do everything,” she said. “Everything has to be put on the table. Everything. And if I take a hit personally, so be it.”
President Trump on Saturday also went after former national security adviser John Bolton and journalist Bob Woodward as he traveled to tour devastation wrought by Hurricane Laura in Louisiana and Texas, referring to them respectively as “a dumb warmonger” and “a social pretender … who never has anything good to say.”
Bolton’s highly anticipated book ripped the president for repeatedly endangering national security, while Woodward is scheduled to release his second book on the Trump presidency in September (Trump had previously praised Woodward's work before he released his first book on the administration).
The president departed Andrew Air Force Base with acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House counselor Hope Hicks at around 11 a.m. Saturday, bound for Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, La.
