Mary Trump, the niece of Donald Trump, has predicted that the ex-president will “pretend” to run for the White House in 2024 because his election loss to President Joe Biden was very lucrative.
The clinical psychologist has been a frequent critic of her uncle and his politics, having previously called him a “sociopath.”
The former president on Sunday continued to push his baseless claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the 2020 election and hinted to supporters that he may run again in 2024 in a fiery speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida.
“Actually, you know, they just lost the White House, I may even decide to beat them for a third time,” he said.
In an interview with MSNBC, Mary Trump told host Mehdi Hasan that she doesn’t think her uncle will run again but will pretend to launch a bid for president instead.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held in the Hyatt Regency on February 28, 2021 in Orlando, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty
“I think he will pretend to for sure,” she said. “Think about how much money he made in the last few months. He made more since Biden won the election than he has in his entire life. I don’t think he will let that go so soon. But you’re right, there is no way he will put himself in the position of losing again. But the Republican Party seems determined to continue to keep him relevant.”
The ex-president assured the CPAC audience on Sunday that he will remain a Republican as he continues to fight for his America First agenda.
“We will win. We will not be starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. I am not starting a new party. That was fake news,” he said.
Despite losing the White House, recent polling shows that Trump has held onto his base of loyal supporters. A recent USA Today/Suffolk poll found that 46 percent of Trump voters said they would leave the GOP to join the former president’s new party if he decides to create one and just 27 percent said they would remain.
Mary Trump strongly criticized the GOP to Hasan.
“We cannot underestimate the pull of white supremacy in this party and I’m not talking about the fringes, this is mainstream Republicanism right now,” she said.
“People need unity they need sameness,” she added “And the Republican Party has gotten really good at stoking division. In cases like that people want to stick with what they know. They want to stick with what makes them feel better about themselves. And, unfortunately, Donald has always been very good at doing that.”
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump’s representatives for comment.