Mary Lea Trump is an American psychologist and novelist who was born on May 3, 1965. She is the niece of former President Donald Trump. Too Much and Never Enough, her 2020 book on Donald Trump and his family, sold nearly one million copies on its first day of release.
Mary Lea Trump’s Early Life as Growing up in a Dysfunctional Family
Born in 1965 to Linda Clapp, a flight attendant, and Fred Trump Jr., a pilot. Frederick Christ Trump III is her brother. Mary went through hard times from a young age. When she was just 16 years old, her father died suddenly from alcohol-induced heart failure at the age of 42.
Mary was informed of her beloved father’s untimely death while at school, a memory that still haunts her. Despite pleading to view her father one last time, she was unable to do so and could only say farewell at his closed-casket funeral.
Mary felt ostracized by the Trump family following her father’s passing, claiming their intolerance of her sexuality and other aspects of her identity led her to remain “in the closet” for years.
The Trumps’ well-documented history of homophobia and prejudice cast a dark cloud over Mary’s adolescence.
After her father’s death, Mary graduated in 1983 from the Ethel Walker School. She went on to earn an English literature degree from Tufts University, a master’s in English literature from Columbia University, and a PhD in clinical psychology from Adelphi University.
Mary Lea Trump’s Personal Life and Starting a Family Amid Homophobic Relatives
Mary Lea Trump has openly identified as a lesbian since adulthood, a fact she largely kept private from her immediate family members. As revealed in her 2020 memoir Too Much and Never Enough, Mary chose to conceal her sexuality from her relatives for years out of fear of judgment or retaliation.
“Nobody in the family knew; they’d always been spectacularly uninterested in my personal life … and never asked about my boyfriends or relationships.”
She wrote that her grandmother
She pointed to comments made by family members growing up, including her late grandmother Mary Anne MacLeod Trump making a homophobic remark about Elton John, as reasons why she did not feel safe coming out to her prominent political family. Their apparent lack of interest or active hostility toward her personal life deterred Mary from being her authentic self around them.
Mary Lea Trump Partner and Daughter
Mary ultimately married a woman with whom she had a daughter, 21-year-old Avary, via in vitro fertilization with an anonymous sperm donor. Though she has since divorced her wife, Mary continues to live an open life as part of the LGBTQ community.
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She now resides with her daughter on Long Island, New York in a $7 million luxury apartment she purchased in early 2022—in part using royalties from her scathing tell-all book about the Trump family.
Mary Lea Trump’s Psychologist Career to Bestselling Author
In addition to being known as the niece of former President Donald Trump, Mary Lea Trump has built an accomplished career in her own right as a psychologist, educator, businesswoman, and author.
She worked for a year as a psychologist at Manhattan Psychiatric Center while earning her PhD, and contributed scholarly writing to an academic book called “Diagnosis: Schizophrenia” in 2002.
Mary founded a life coaching firm called The Trump Coaching Group, through which she provides counseling services focused on issues like well-being and professional development. She has also founded and operated several other small businesses based in the Northeastern United States.
Mary is perhaps best known professionally for her two bestselling tell-all books scrutinizing her uncle President Trump and the broader Trump family. Her 2020 memoir “Too Much and Never Enough” sold millions of copies and provided an unfiltered account of her relatives’ dysfunction. This was followed in 2021 by “The Reckoning,” which analyzed America’s societal trauma.
Her Books
Too Much and Never Enough
Mary Lea Trump made international headlines with her debut memoir in 2020, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. The book represented an explosive, unauthorized exposé on the former president and wider Trump clan from someone within the family’s inner circle.
Fueled by a combination of her detailed recollections and recordings of conversations with relatives and associates, Mary’s book levied damning accusations of dysfunction against Uncle Donald Trump and the forces that shaped him. She implicated herself as the anonymous source who leaked several of Trump’s tax documents to the New York Times—a contribution that helped the newspaper win a 2019 Pulitzer Prize.
The memoir also elaborated on long-rumored family disputes over inheritance and power struggles. The book prompted Trump’s brother Robert to unsuccessfully file legal action to block its publication on grounds Mary signed confidentiality agreements regarding family affairs—but no court would uphold this objection.
Upon hitting the shelves in mid-July 2020 through publisher Simon & Schuster, Too Much and Never Enough sold nearly one million copies on the very first day, cementing itself as a historic publishing phenomenon. The world clamored for insight into the Trump dynasty from someone born and raised within it.
How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man
In her 2020 bestselling book Too Much and Never Enough, Mary Lea Trump paints a disturbing portrait of Uncle Donald Trump and the dysfunctional family dynamics that shaped him. She reveals bizarre details about the future president’s gift-giving habits over the years – including Mary once receiving a single gold shoe filled with candy from Donald and his first wife Ivana one Christmas.
Mary also recalls insensitive moments like Donald and his brother Robert publicly berating their mother during holiday meals for not preparing turkey. Her grandmother would allegedly sit with her head bowed in humiliation throughout these tense gatherings.
Beyond quirky family anecdotes, however, Mary levied serious accusations against the wider Trump clan’s parenting tactics and values. She labeled patriarch Fred Trump Sr. a “high-functioning sociopath” whose toxic behavior contributed to personality defects like narcissism and bullying in his children – most evident in Donald.
Moreover, Mary has emerged as a vocal critic of her Uncle Donald’s claims of self-made business success and immense wealth. She points to tax schemes showing Donald inherited over $400 million from his father Fred – the true foundation for his empire. In essence, she argues Donald Trump
The Reckoning
In August 2021, Mary Lea Trump released her second book, The Reckoning: Our Nation’s Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal. Published by St. Martin’s Press, this follow-up title explored trauma at the national level rather than personal family dysfunction.
Mary examined the lingering societal wounds around America’s legacy of systemic racism and failure to address white supremacy. Her thesis argues that this unresolved trauma dates back to the country’s founding when racial oppression became embedded in institutions.
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Examples cited include the increase in overt displays of white supremacy and the violent January 6th insurrection Trump supporters staged.
The Reckoning represents Mary Lea Trump’s analysis of community-wide trauma plaguing American society stemming from unacknowledged racism and oppression over generations.
The Mary Trump Show
Mary Lea Trump launched her podcast in 2022 titled The Mary Trump Show. By February 2022, the show gained enough popularity for Mary to use it in activist protests. She removed The Mary Trump Show from streaming platform Spotify that month to stand against COVID misinformation she alleged was being spread on Joe Rogan’s exclusive Spotify podcast.
Mary has also built a large social media following, with 1.2 million Twitter followers keeping up with her outspoken takes. Her profile proudly displays support for the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ equality.
