U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at Paris Orly airport, following the G7 Summit, in Orly, France, June 17, 2026. REUTERS Evelyn Hockstein
On Friday, a family member of President Donald Trump revealed the president is “trapped” in a world of sad lies cultivated by his broken father, and aggravated by a legion of flacks who are willing to feed his delusions.
“How many times have we watched the Congressional hearing in which somebody in Donald's orbit has been asked a direct question only to watch them look down at their notes for the person or institution they're supposed to blame in order to deflect, instead of answering the question?” Trump asked on her Friday podcast. “The pattern is unmistakable. When confronted with an uncomfortable question Donald or somebody in his orbit always redirects the accusation outward.”
Sometimes she said they combine projection with deflection and attack the person who asked the question. Trump himself likes to tell female reporters they don’t smile enough, or he calls her “piggy.” She said he also likes to call people he doesn’t like “stupid, nasty, crooked or corrupt.” All of this, she said amounts to an effort to shift attention away from the question Trump hates to answer and the fact that he fails to answer it.
“Projection is a very basic and quite common defense mechanism in which a person attributes thoughts, feelings, impulses and characteristics they find unacceptable in themselves to somebody else,” said Mary Trump, adding that this isn't exactly hypocrisy because projection is “unconscious” much of the time.
“When Donald says that somebody is ‘stupid’ or ‘low IQ’ or ‘corrupt’ or ‘criminal’ or ‘traitorous,’ he's literally talking about himself,” said Trump’s niece, who said she recognized the behavior in her uncle early in life.
“He just isn't aware of it because acknowledging those shortcomings about himself is unthinkable to him. Acknowledging those shortcomings would be to admit that he is nothing he claims to be, which is smart, strong, sophisticated, successful. The list goes on. Projection is a way of making one's problem,” she said, “… especially if the thing about themselves as humiliating.
Mary Trump said her uncle was trained early by his father, Fred, to believe vulnerability, dependence and failure were dangerous. So, what Donald Trump learned to deny those feelings and bury those characteristics.
This is a pity, she said — because these characteristics are particularly prominent in her broken, ailing uncle.
“Donald doesn't have to convince the entire country of his delusional framework because the truth of the matter is it's really just himself he's trying to convince,” she said, adding that unfortunately “there's a significant minority of people who are willing to go along with his delusional framework … because he is also expert at convincing very weak people that they’re responsible for assuaging his pain and supporting him, no matter what.”
“Even if it's to the detriment of their country and, quite frankly, their own detriment,” she concluded.
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