Mary Trump: Trump's Virus Response Is 'Criminally Negligent Homicide'

President Donald Trump's niece, Mary L. Trump, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Thursday that her uncle is directly responsible for the vast majority of the more than 192,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19, including a close friend of hers she says died from the virus last spring.

She said no one should be surprised by Trump's taped comments to journalist Bob Woodward, acknowledging that the president knew early on about the serious threat posed by the highly infections virus but chose to play down the danger to the American people. "I no longer understand why people are surprised about anything that comes out about Donald. He absolutely doesn't care. ... If he can profit from your death, he will. And then he will totally forget that you died."

"As far as I'm concerned at this point, we're not talking about an accident or an omission. We're talking about criminally negligent homicide. You know, this is incredibly serious, and I continue to be horrified by the lack of action by the Republican Party, " she said.

She added, "There was a calculation that said if we had just acted a week or two faster, ninety percent of the deaths could have been prevented. So, you know, that's a lot of blood to have on one's hands."

Mary Trump, who has a doctorate in psychology, said her uncle's lack of empathy or apparent regret for those who have died from the virus is part of his flawed personality.

She said Trump's comment "It is what it is" when asked about the scores of dead Americans is an old, often repeated phrase used within the Trump family to dismiss uncomfortable information.

"What I will say about how he behaves vis-à-vis the deaths and not mentioning them is that Donald is incapable of associating himself with what he perceives to be weakness. And in his mind that can be kindness, that could be sickness, that can be death.

So he just doesn't want to be associated with it. He prefers his narrative that everything's great, and he's great. And I think on some level, there is a bit of distraction going on, but on another level, and for very complicated psychological reasons, needs desperately to cling to the idea that everything is just fine."

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