Mary Trump helped uncover the biggest Trump scandal you've already forgotten about, Rachel Maddow notes


In Mary Trump's forthcoming book on her famous family, Too Much and Never Enough, she describes her involvement in helping The New York Times obtain tax documents uncovering decades of financial malfeasance and tax dodging by President Trump, his company, and his siblings.
That "has always struck me as one of the great overlooked jaw-droppers of the scandal-ridden Trump era," Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC Tuesday night. "His older sister, federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, really did have to give up her lifetime seat on the federal bench in order to avoid a judicial ethics inquiry into a massive, multi-million-dollar alleged years-long tax fraud scheme that she reportedly engaged in with her family, including with her brother, who is the sitting president. I mean, we don't even think of that as one of the Trump scandals, but, like, that's bigger than any other presidential scandal of my lifetime." Trump Barry denied any willing part in the scheme, Mary Trump writes in her book.
Mary Trump also says her Aunt Maryanne called Donald Trump "a clown" in 2015 and expressed astonishment evangelicals Christians would support her brother, saying, "The only time Donald went to church was when the cameras were there. ... He has no principles. None," CNN's Erin Burnett reported. Trump biographer David Kay Johnston explained why Trump paying someone else to take his SATs is so plausible.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Vanity Fair's Emily Jane Fox told MSNBC's Brian Williams she thinks Trump will be most upset by his niece's clinical analysis of Trump's relationship with his father, Fred Trump, though overall the book "hits at the specific fleshy part of Trump: the part that is very concerned with the branding of the Trump family and the myth-making surrounding them" and the part that "hates leakers and people who are disloyal to him." Each of those "really irks this president," she said. "Combining the two of them feels potentially explosive to him as he heads into an election year."
Mary Trump definitely provides "a psychological analysis of the president and his father and how he became the type of person that he is," Maddow said, but her "every anecdote" about Donald Trump also highlights "just how easily he lies" and how it appears to brings him pleasure — a quality Maddow found "unsettling" in a president during a global pandemic.
Fox News didn't have much to say about Mary Trump's book Tuesday night.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Democrats: The 2028 race has begun
Feature Democratic primaries have already kicked off in South Carolina
-
The Pentagon's missing missiles
Feature The U.S. military is low on weapons. Can it restock before a major conflict breaks out?
-
Rescissions: Trump's push to control federal spending
Feature The GOP passed a bill to reduce funding for PBS, NPR and other public media stations
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
-
Giant schnauzer wins top prize at Westminster show
Speed Read Monty won best in show at the 149th Westminster Kennel Club dog show
-
Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar take top Grammys
Speed Read Beyoncé took home album of the year for 'Cowboy Carter' and Kendrick Lamar's diss track 'Not Like Us' won five awards
-
The Louvre is giving 'Mona Lisa' her own room
Speed Read The world's most-visited art museum is getting a major renovation
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talks
Speed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively