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- In an interview, Mary Trump called her uncle a "fascist" and "born autocrat."
- She added that former president Donald Trump "probably doesn't know what fascist means."
- Mary Trump spoke to Insider following the release of her new book, "The Reckoning: Our nation's trauma and finding a way to heal."
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Former President Donald Trump's estranged niece, Mary Trump, says he has the personality of a fascist leader.
Speaking to Insider following the release of her new book, "The Reckoning: Our nation's trauma and finding a way to heal," the 56-year-old psychologist explained why she thinks that the former president is a "born autocrat."
"He is a fascist," she said during the interview. "But he probably doesn't know what fascist means."
"He thinks he deserves all the power in the world just because of who he is," she said. "In his mind, he's always at the center of the universe and thinks he should be deferred to even though he's ignorant, the weakest, and the least intellectually curious person I've ever met."
The New York Times bestselling author, who has long been fiercely critical of her uncle, told Insider that history shows he prefers dealing with authoritarian strongmen over those "willing to engage in diplomacy."
"The only thing that matters to him is what he views, in his mind, to be strength," she said. "I guess his definition of strength is being cruel and disruptive as possible and getting away with it all the time."
Mary Trump said that her uncle is unimpressed by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and places greater value on the opinions of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un.
In April 2020, the former president defended his close relationships with both leaders. "I got along great with President Putin. I liked him. He liked me," he told Fox News. "[Kim Jong Un] writes me letters. I like him. He likes me," he also said in the interview.
Mary Trump added that this is typical of the man she has known all her life. "He is so needy. He raises anybody who puts him on a pedestal," she said. "No matter how bad they are."
She went on, the former president's recent praise of the Taliban as "good fighters" and "great negotiators" is emblematic of his tendency to curry favor with despots. "It's just another version of him saying, 'there are very fine people on both sides,'" she said.
Mary Trump's latest book, "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way To Heal," was published in August by St. Martin's Press.