AMY GOODMAN: Mary, before we end, I wanted to ask you about President Trump's attitudes to the LGBTQ community. You write in your book about sitting with your grandma, your "Gam," as you called her, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. It was the funeral, memorial service for Princess Diana.
MARY TRUMP: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What did she refer to Elton John as?
MARY TRUMP: She called him the F-word, for the slur for a gay man. And...
AMY GOODMAN: So, you were planning at that time to come out to your family, at least to your grandmother. You made a big decision then not to do that, right? And as we wrap up, I was wondering if you can talk about whether you feel that attitude, that anti-LGBTQ sentiment, was transferred to President Trump, and what you are most concerned about with him.
MARY TRUMP: Yeah. I mean, interestingly, homophobia was not something I grew up with, simply because, like, homosexuality wasn't discussed, really. But it wasn't surprising to me. I mean, I wasn't happy about it, certainly, that my grandmother had those attitudes, but it didn't exactly surprise me in a household that was so racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic.
So, you know, by extension, Donald's attitudes towards the gay community aren't surprising. But he's done so much damage in the last three-and-a-half years, starting with the ban on transgender troops, that I'm afraid is going to take a very, very long time for us to regain the ground we've lost.
AMY GOODMAN: And can you end by talking about what the separation of children, immigrants on the border, has meant to you, and what you say to your uncle, to President Donald Trump?
MARY TRUMP: That, to me, I can't say it was the last straw, because from the Muslim ban on, there have just been new horrors every day or week. But there was something about that, that kind of broke me, because we're talking about it's not just children are being kidnapped, and their parents are being tortured. If you're a parent, you know what it's like to worry about your child and to have uncertainty about where they are or their well-being. It is literally torture. People are dying in these concentration camps that they set up.
What I would say to Donald is well, he wouldn't listen to me anyway, but it has to stop. It is antithetical to what this country aspires to be, you know, despite our past around these issues. And people like Stephen Miller, who is a -- should not be anywhere near the executive branch of this country, should be dismissed immediately. And, you know, Donald should maybe think about surrounding himself with people who have some modicum of compassion and empathy, which he won't, which is all the more reason for him not to be in the Oval Office.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for spending this hour, Mary Trump, niece of President Donald Trump, clinical psychologist, author of Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man.
That does it for the show. Stay safe. Wear a mask.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
