If you’re Mary Trump, and you’re faced with having to live your life in the shadows of your accomplished, polished cousins Eric, Don Jr., and Ivanka, you too may figure out that riding your name, waving your psychology degree, and bashing your uncle will eventually get you the attention you crave, especially if you can stoke baseless claims that sell your book and get you a lot of clicks.
In an effort to stay relevant, Mary outdid herself on the latest edition of her podcast — not with an original thought, but by simply agreeing with her historian guest, who suggested without any supporting evidence that former President Donald Trump will “take revenge” on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should he regain power and run for reelection.
(Video: YouTube)
Joined by Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Mary peppers her podcast with all the right words — “authoritarian,” “fascist,” and plenty of insults for her uncle’s supporters — before agreeing to whatever ridiculous notion Ben-Ghiat puts forth.
“If you’re objective, you think, okay, this is a person who’s gotten away with stuff for a really long time and hopefully it’s catching up with him, which is why there are so many investigations and lawsuits, etc.,” Mary began. “But if you’re inclined to support him, it’s going to seem like people are out to get him because it’s unthinkable that one person could have committed so many crimes and gotten away with them. And I think that’s part of what we’re kind of grappling with right now.”
In other words, if her uncle is found guilty of any of the charges that have been thrown at him, then “objectivity” will have prevailed. If none of the charges stick, it’s not because he’s innocent, it’s because he “got away” with “stuff.”
In Mary Trump’s lonely bubble, that’s how “objectivity” works.
Luckily, she found someone as infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome as she is to enable her bitterness.
“Yeah, I agree,” Ben-Ghiat stated.
The duo then began feeding off each other like hungry little hippos.
“And in fact, another unprecedented thing is that, you know, Trump must be very doubly feeling like the victim because his big lie thing didn’t work for him. Right? He wasn’t actually able to stay in office,” Ben-Ghiat continued. “But the party embraced it. They embraced the coup. They are all living high off the big lie. In fact, there’s now a plethora of Mini-Trumps that anybody can become a little Trump, and if they don’t like the result of the election, they can just say it didn’t happen.”
In Ben-Ghiat’s fantasy, a “ruthless” DeSantis has cleverly eclipsed his master as “SUPER BAD DUDE” and for that, he must surely pay.
“And look at, then you must be particularly upset with Mr. Ron DeSantis, who has learned all of his lessons and as the most ruthless of the bunch, was the earliest to start his office of, quote, election crimes. And now he made those like sham arrests, and he’s learned all of the lessons,” Ben-Ghiat theorized. “But he’s flourishing and Trump’s in limbo, which increases the odds that he has to run for office because he’s got to get back in and shut everything down and take revenge.”
“I have zero doubt that, this is how strongmen are,” she declared.
“Yes, I was going to ask you that,” Mary obligingly effused. “So I’m glad you went there!”
Despite court ruling to HALT, Simon & Schuster says Mary Trump’s tell-all book has already been shipped https://t.co/qCQ1x7oZTw pic.twitter.com/MMFJ720ln5
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) July 1, 2020
That was all the encouragement Ben-Ghiat appeared to need. And what better way to continue slamming Trump and his supporters than to point to Italy and the nation’s former leader, Silvio Berlusconi?
“Yes. Once they get in the system, look at Berlusconi. Right? He was — it’s very important,” Ben-Ghiat insisted. “Berlusconi had an enormous personality cult. He was so corrupt. I can’t even describe. He was ultimately convicted after he was forced to resign. They started prosecuting him and they tried to prosecute him.”
“He had dozens of corruption trials while he was prime minister. Nothing could touch him because he would change the laws. Like if he was accused of bribery. He got parliament to change the law. So bribery was no longer punishable with jail. Like that’s what he would do,” she explained. “For years he did this stuff. So finally he’s booted out because of the eurozone crisis. They prosecute him and he’s convicted. So he’s a convicted criminal. He’s back in power now and he’s convicted.”
Ben-Ghiat then suggested that, as with Berlusconi’s supporters, the only way to squash the “cult” is to drown your opposition in litigation.
“The key thing was that prosecution was the only way that [Berlusconi’s] personality cult started to deflate and his party finally lost its hold,” she said. “And he was banned from politics for five years. And that’s what made his party go from the mighty powerhouse to now, it got like 7%.”
Ray Charles could see where Ben-Ghiat was going with this line of thought. Ultimately, the “historian” admits that, like cockroaches, you “never really get rid of” the people she doesn’t like.
“The fact [Berlusconi’s] back in power again, it means that once you’re in the system, you never really get rid of them. Right?” she lamented. “However, his most lethal, dangerous self was deflated because he was prosecuted and convicted.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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