ABOVE: Mary L. Trump in an ABC News exclusive with George Stephanopoulos. (Screenshot from ABC News’ YouTube)
President Donald Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump, who recently published a tell-all book about her uncle and their family history, shared in the book how an incident with her grandmother caused her to refrain from coming out as gay.
“Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” is described as a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him,” according to a synopsis from publisher Simon & Schuster.
Mary sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive interview July 16.
“[Mary] describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse,” Simon & Schuster wrote. “She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office…”
However, Mary herself was not exempt from this “nightmare” either, as she shares in the book how an interaction with her grandmother compelled her to hide her sexuality from her family.
In 1999, Mary had plans to secretly marry her girlfriend in Maui, Hawaii. A week before the wedding, she met up with her family because her grandfather – and Donald Trump’s father – Fred Trump was on his deathbed.
During this time, Mary decided not to share the details of her upcoming nuptials with her family because of a previous conversation they had had about Princess Diana’s death and her funeral service, which openly-gay singer Elton John performed at. Mary’s grandmother criticized the decision to allow John to perform at the event.
“It’s a disgrace they’re letting that little faggot Elton John sing at [Princess Diana’s] service,” her grandmother said at the time.
Mary’s recollection of this moment ultimately led her to refrain from disclosing her wedding plans.
“I’d realized it was better that she didn’t know I was living with a woman,” Mary wrote in the book.
Mary ended up getting married to her girlfriend and raising a daughter with her.
Mary has also said that a disacknowledgment of the LGBTQ community within her family allowed homophobia to plant itself covertly.
“Homophobia was never an issue because nobody ever talked about gay people, well, until my grandmother called Elton John [a faggot],” she said.
The Trump administration’s relationship with the LGBTQ community is marked by its own tension.
The administration was recently sued by a number of advocacy groups “over its decision to remove transgender protections from the Affordable Care Act.” Additionally, it was revealed that the administration “allocated millions of dollars in loans [from the Paycheck Protection Program] to a handful of anti-LGBTQ organizations.”
“Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man” was released July 14 and sold 950,000 copies by the end of its first day, breaking a new record for Simon & Schuster, according to a report from CNN Business.
A temporary restraining order was brought against Mary by President Trump’s brother Robert Trump, in an attempt to block the book’s release, but the order was lifted by a New York State Supreme Court judge.
