In June, when Mary Trump began teasing her tell-all about President Trump, I was in the vanguard of those urging readers to gobble it up. I refer you to “Two Trump Tell-Alls: Boycott Bolton’s! But There’s Something About Mary’s…,” on June 22.
Then, when it became an instant bestseller, I celebrated. I refer you to “Mary Trumps John in Battle of Trump Tell-Alls,” on July 17.
The point is that nobody was a bigger champion for her cause than I; that is, with the possible exception of MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow. Here is how Mary explained her motivation for writing Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man:
What I was trying to do early in the book was to give people a sense of things that might be going on, to give people a picture of some of the symptomatology that we’re seeing …
I haven’t spoken to anybody on the [Biden] campaign. But I’ll do everything in my power to make sure that Joe Biden gets elected, that I will do.
(The Washington Post, July 27, 2020)
Surely nobody in their right mind would take issue with that. The problem is that what she’s doing now smacks more of spite to destroy her family than of strategy to defeat her uncle.
Maryanne Trump Barry, President Trump’s older sister and a former federal judge, described him as a liar who has ‘no principles’ in a series of audio recordings made by her niece, Mary L. Trump, in 2018 and 2019.
The recordings were provided to The Washington Post, which published them online Saturday night. In the recording, Ms. Barry can be heard disparaging her brother’s performance as president.
(The New York Times, August 22, 2020)
Perhaps you’ve heard excerpts from those recordings – as the media gleefully air Maryanne speaking of her brother with utter contempt and abiding shame. But when I read this story, I felt no inclination to join in the revelry. Instead, I was seized with dismay.
In fact, my feeling was such that I was moved to do something I have never done: I commented on the Post’s site. Here is what I wrote:
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Mary, I appreciate why you secretly taped your aunt. But why betray her confidence in this wanton fashion. Your uncle is the villain, not her. Your book is already a bestseller.
Frankly, this smacks of the kind of petty spitefulness one would expect of a Trump. Except that the whole premise of your book is that you are different. Ironically, your aunt comes across as a far more sympathetic and endearing person than you.
No public interest is being served by sharing these tapes, which will do nothing but incite your uncle’s infamous wrath against your aunt. You have told your story. You should have respected your aunt enough to let her tell her own.
Shame on you.
________
I have a well-documented aversion to the comments section on all sites. Therefore, nobody should be surprised that I did not stick around to see how others reacted. But I am reliably informed that my comment stands out among the thousands posted like a black fly drowning in white milk.
Not that I’m surprised that nobody seems concerned about the wanton impact these leaks will have on Mary’s aunt. Because a prevailing irony, which defines America these days, is that those who routinely lambast Trump for his lack of empathy often show little empathy for others in public life.
Of course, reporters, pundits, and politicians would have you believe this leak is newsworthy. Except that they would be hard-pressed to cite a single thing Mary’s aunt is caught on tape saying that we did not already know, or that Mary herself did not already reveal in her tell-all.
What’s more, she claims she secretly taped her aunt to gather information on what she thought was a Donald-led conspiracy to disinherit her. But Mary’s purpoorted good intentions are belied by the fact that none of the excerpts she released to the Post has anything to do with that inheritance matter.
That raises the question:
- Did we really need Mary to betray her aunt to find out that Donald Trump is a lying, cheating, unprincipled, untrustworthy, phony, ignorant buffoon…?
Meanwhile, what she is doing to her aunt is no different from what Julian Assange (of WikiLeaks) did to John Podesta (and Hillary Clinton) in 2016. And those hailing her cannot deny this with a straight face. No doubt you recall the gleeful way news outlets aired Podesta’s hacked e-mails without any regard for the gross violation of his privacy inherent in doing so.
By contrast, say what you will about my comment, I can at least say that I am being consistent, perhaps even principled: Yes, I’m decrying the open and notorious way news outlets are colluding with Mary to betray her aunt today. But I decried the same when news outlets colluded with Assange to betray Podesta back then.
Here in part is how I did so in “Hey Media, Wikileaker Assange Is Still a Self-Promoting, Bail-Jumping Rape Suspect!” August 29, 2016:
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Don’t get me started on their blithe hypocrisy in reporting on Hillary’s e-mails. … This is what is passing for “Breaking News” every day now — as Assange leaks a new cache of hacked e-mails like manna from Heaven for lazy, unconscionable and myopic journalists.
But what do you think CNN, FOX News, the BBC, The New York Times, the Guardian, and other news outlets would do if Assange were leaking hacked e-mails of their anchors and reporters – purportedly to expose bias in the media? The obvious answer only hints at why my disgust with the news media compelled me to write commentaries like “Journalism Is ‘Having a Very, Very Pathetic Moment,’” November 13, 2013.
Remarkably, no news outlet is bothering to question the prurient nature of Assange’s leaks. Even worse, none of them appear to have any qualms about facilitating his cybercrimes, which serve no compelling public interest and are devoid of any socially redeeming value. …
The real story here is the media’s complicity in propagating hacked documents that do far more harm than good. For, just as Assange will leak anything for attention, news outlets will broadcast any leak for ratings – even the national security of the country be damned.
________
Again, insert Mary and leaked tapes for Assange and hacked e-mails, and everything else holds.
Incidentally, apropos of hypocrisy, Republican politicians and pundits take the cake: Today they’re whining about the unseemliness of news outlets playing these leaked tapes for ratings; whereas, four years ago, these gaslighting hypocrites were reveling as Donald “I love Wikileaks” Trump read hacked e-mails for laughs.
In any event, I readily concede that Mary is not as vile and odious as her uncle. But there’s no denying that she is now every bit as disreputable as Assange.
On the other hand, if she were leaking recordings of her uncle, that would’ve been newsworthy and probably incriminating. Of course, he would’ve insisted they were “perfect.”
More to the point, I maintain my contention that, given the Ukrainian precedent that got him impeached, it behooves anyone who has a phone call with Donald Trump about anything to find some way to record it, legally. Because this president of the United States is as inclined to solicit a bribe as to get you to commit a crime.
Related commentaries:
Mary Trumps Bolton…
Wikileaks…
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