Mary Trump ‘Deeply Disheartened’ After Debate—’Donald Doesn’t Need Favors’

Donald Trump’s estranged niece said she was “deeply disheartened” by perceived “favors” her uncle was granted during his highly anticipated debate with President Joe Biden on Thursday.

Biden and former president Trump faced off in their first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, as they sought to win over undecided voters. Polls showed the two candidates locked in a close race a little more than four months before the election. During the TV clash, the two sparred over issues including the economy, the conflict between Israel and Hamas, immigration, and abortion.

However, Mary Trump, who appeared in the debate spin room alongside Biden’s campaign, had complaints about the handling of her uncle during the debate, which was moderated by CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash.

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, the psychologist, who is a frequent critic of Donald Trump, wrote: “I was proud to be a surrogate for team Biden/Harris tonight but was deeply disheartened by the egregious abdication of journalistic responsibility we saw on that debate stage. Donald doesn’t need any favors.”

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Donald Trump, Mary Trump, and CNN via email for comment.

During the debate, Bash and Tapper faced criticism from a faction of viewers for not fact-checking the candidates or keeping Donald Trump on subject during the debate.

Joining in the chorus of critics was Barbra Streisand, who commented on X: “What is wrong with these two moderators who let Trump change the subject? They ask him a question, but then let him go on a rampage about something else. Not fair!”

Distractions remained minimal throughout the night, in part due to CNN’s decision to turn off the candidates’ microphones when they were not speaking and to not have a live audience.

On the eve of the debate, Mary Trump—daughter of Fred Trump Jr.—announced in a Substack post that she would be present to weigh in on the showdown.

“I’m in Atlanta tonight to remind everyone who Donald is as a person and how he would rule as a president because the stakes are far too high for us to get this wrong—we cannot afford to allow Donald Trump anywhere near the levers of power again,” she wrote.

She further shared her belief that Donald Trump “cannot be trusted and we must recognize that his last administration was simply a warm-up for much worse to come,” warning that he speaks of “revenge” and “retribution.”

“He is desperate for power and has shown himself both unworthy of wielding it and obsessed with regaining it purely for his own benefit. He must be stopped,” she said.

“If the worst happens and Donald gets back into the White House, none of us who ever criticized him will be safe because revenge and retribution are what he traffics in. I’m here tonight because only President Biden can stop Donald and save our country,” Mary Trump continued.

She added that she is “honored’ the Biden campaign asked her to appear in the spin room, but said yes because “America needs to know exactly who my uncle is and what he will do to this country and its people if he manages to win a second term.”

In May, Mary Trump issued a warning about a second Donald Trump term, insisting that her uncle would “destroy us” if he returned to the White House.

“We are so turned around that many of us blame the man who has actually tried to fix the horrific damage his predecessor inflicted on all of us while giving a pass to the man who landed us here,” she wrote in a blog post on Substack.

“And not only is Donald getting a pass; tens of millions of [Americans] want to give him almost unlimited power which he will wield in ways that will destroy us.”