The American media published on Tuesday July 7 extracts from a book to be published on July 14 on Donald Trump written by his niece Mary Trump. According to her, the American president grew up in a dysfunctional family headed by a "domineering" father.

This psychologist is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr., the president's older brother, who died in 1981 at the age of 42, from his alcoholism. In his 240-page book "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man", this 55-year-old woman, who has long since broken with her uncle who became president, mixes "family history and psychological analysis of her uncle", according to the Washington Post.

She explains in particular how her father was despised and "mocked" by her "domineering" grandfather, Fred Sr. And how Donald Trump, seven years younger than Fred Junior, learned "to lie to enhance himself" after having witnessed the humiliation suffered by his seven-year-old elder.

According to the New York Times, the president's niece describes a family climate of "lust, betrayals and fratricidal tensions" to explain how Donald Trump acquired "crooked behaviors". "Donald's pathologies are so complex and his behaviors often so inexplicable that to establish a complete diagnosis would require a whole battery of psychological and neurophysical tests that he will never pass," she writes, according to the New York daily.

She also claims that the former New York real estate tycoon paid someone to take the American SAT university admission tests for him, according to the New York Times, which does not say if she provides evidence. "Donald, following the example of my grandfather and with the complicity, the silence and the inaction of his brothers and sisters, destroyed my father. I cannot let him destroy my country", writes the niece again, cited by CNN.

A legal battle

The announcement of the release of this book sparked a legal battle almost four months before the presidential election. Robert Trump, brother of Donald Trump, tried to block him in court, arguing that he was violating a confidentiality agreement that this 55-year-old niece had accepted in connection with the legacy of Fred Trump, the president's father.

But a judge of a New York court of appeal lifted, last Wednesday, a temporary ban on publication ordered two days earlier. He said the publisher, Simon & Schuster, was "not a party to the Trump confidentiality agreement" and could therefore proceed with publication.

On the other hand, he postponed his judgment on the question of the possible violation by Mary Trump of an agreement intended to prevent her from revealing family secrets. A hearing on this matter could take place on July 10.

"It's a false book," White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany counterattacked on Tuesday. "These are ridiculous, absurd allegations that have absolutely no basis. I haven't seen the book yet, but it's a false book."

Approaching the American presidential election, he is already number one in book sales on Amazon, just ahead of the book by ex-security adviser John Bolton, published in June, also very critical of Donald Trump.

With AFP

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR