A report from HuffPost on Thursday, January 25, 2024, Mary Trump, former President Donald Trump’s niece, has cautioned that his 2024 campaign rallies might encounter a “shrinking” issue that could agitate and unsettle him.
In her email newsletter, The Mary Trump Brief, the clinical psychologist elucidated how her uncle’s fixation on crowd size could potentially backfire as he endeavors to reclaim the White House.
“Donald has always been triggered by it,” she wrote. “Crowd size is a crucial metric for him to gauge success.”
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Referring to his infamous false claim about the audience size at his inauguration in January 2021, which was contradicted by photographic evidence and official estimates, she remarked, “His then-press secretary, Sean Spicer, dutifully lied to the press corps the next day, claiming it was ‘the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe.'”
She noted that this marked one of the initial falsehoods uttered by Trump during his presidency, culminating in his baseless allegations of election fraud and his role in inciting the deadly Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
Mary Trump, a vocal critic of her uncle and the author of the bestselling book “Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man,” highlighted that Trump thrived on the “violent energy” of his substantial and devoted crowds.
“They were a crutch. Without them, he loses an important method of deploying his message, and momentum,” she asserted.
However, she suggested that Trump might encounter difficulties in attracting and retaining supporters as he gears up for another presidential bid.
“Small turnout, muted responses, and louder hecklers challenge him and stress him in a way few other things can,” she observed.
Pointing to recent reports of sparse attendance and vacant seats at some of his rallies, such as the one in Florence, Arizona, on December 18, 2023, she also highlighted instances where former allies like former Vice President Mike Pence and former Attorney General William Barr faced boos and heckling from Trump’s supporters for not backing his election falsehoods.
Mary Trump emphasized that these signs of “shrinking” and “fracturing” within his base could pose a significant problem for Trump, who remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2024, according to most polls.
“Donald needs adulation the way the rest of us need oxygen,” she stated. “Without it, he becomes even more unstable, erratic, and dangerous.”
She urged Americans not to underestimate Trump’s threat to democracy and to hold him accountable for his actions.
“He’s not going away, and neither are the millions of people who believe his lies and support his agenda,” she asserted. “We need to keep exposing him for who he really is and what he’s really done. We need to keep fighting for the truth and for justice. We need to keep our eyes on the prize: a more perfect union.”
