Mary Trump, the estranged niece of President Donald Trump, warned about the direction of the president’s second term during a recent discussion on her Substack, The Good in Us.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has dismissed her criticisms in the past, telling Newsweek, “Mary Trump is a stone-old [sic] loser who doesn’t have a clue about anything.”
Why It Matters
Mary Trump is one of the few members of the Trump family who has publicly and consistently criticized the president. The daughter of Fred Trump Jr., she frequently comments on the administration’s policies as well as the family’s history.
What To Know
Mary Trump sat down with historian and political commentator Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation about the Trump presidency that aired on Wednesday. During the discussion, she argued that key institutions have enabled what she sees as an accelerating pattern of overreach since Trump returned to office.
“One thing that’s been happening with alarming frequency since January 20th since Donald has been unbound by the corrupt illegitimate supermajority of the Supreme Court and an entirely complacent Republican Congress that seems perfectly willing to abdicate its own constitutional responsibilities, is Donald has been trying with the use of American taxpayer money, to remake this country in his image, both literally and metaphorically,” she said.
She added that “capitulating” only “increases the size of the target on the backs of people who fight back even though they don’t have power and resources.”
Broader Political Context
Democratic critics have increasingly focused on the Supreme Court and congressional Republicans, arguing that both have largely aligned with the president. Polling continues to show Trump remains popular within his party: 84 percent of Republicans said they approved of his job performance in the latest YouGov/The Economist poll.
At the same time, a small number of Republicans have become more publicly critical. U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene—a Georgia Republican and longtime Trump supporter who is set to resign next month—has recently broken with the president on the Epstein files and some foreign policy issues.
The Supreme Court has sided with Trump on several major matters, including parts of his efforts to reshape the federal government and cut foreign aid. It has also blocked elements of his agenda, including a ruling this week that halted the administration from sending National Guard troops into a Chicago suburb to enforce immigration policy without the consent of Democratic Governor JB Pritzker.
Mary Trump also said earlier this week that the president has “lost the ability to control the narrative.”
“The strategy of lying, spinning, and obfuscating isn’t effective anymore and where, at least to a certain group of people, he looked strong, forceful, and full of fight, he now appears diminished to the point of impotence,” she said on Tuesday.
What People Are Saying
Greene, to CNN: “I think the dam is breaking. Many Republicans may not have called him out, but last week 13 Republicans voted with Democrats to overturn one of President Trump’s executive orders, which enabled him to fire federal workers. We also saw Indiana Republicans vote against redistricting. He didn’t call any of them traitors and call for primaries against them, but I would like to say that is a sign where you’re seeing Republicans—they’re entering the campaign phase for 2026, which is a large signal that lame-duck season has begun.”
President Trump, on Truth Social in November: “So many Fake Polls are being shown by the Radical Left Media, all slanted heavily toward Democrats and Far Left Wingers… Fake News will never change, they are evil and corrupt but, as I look around my beautiful surroundings, I say to myself, ‘Oh, look, I’m sitting in the Oval Office!'”
What Happens Next
Mary Trump is expected to remain a prominent critic as the administration heads into 2026. The president, meanwhile, is likely to continue facing scrutiny over the economy and the Epstein files, with his standing shaping the political landscape ahead of the November midterms.
