Donald Trump's Shift in Strategy Explained by Niece Mary

Donald Trump's fear of humiliation is so strong that he won't be able to resist attacking prosecutors and the judges overseeing his criminal cases, his niece Mary Trump has said.

The former president and 18 others were indicted on Monday by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, accused of various crimes as part of a scheme to keep him in power after his 2020 election loss.

It is the fourth time Trump has been indicted this year and came just two weeks after Special Counsel Jack Smith charged him in a vast conspiracy to overturn the election.

Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases and says the charges against him are politically motivated. Newsweek has contacted his spokesperson Steven Cheung for comment.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has set a deadline of noon on August 25 for all the defendants to turn themselves in at Fulton County Jail to be booked.

Trump has avoided having his mugshot taken so far, but that could soon change. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat has previously said the former president will be treated like any other criminal defendant.

As Trump faces that potentially humiliating prospect, he has pulled from his usual playbook of lashing out at judges and prosecutors.

Experts have warned that Trump could face legal consequences for continuing to assail U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the federal judge overseeing one of the election conspiracy cases—even after she imposed a protective order and warned Trump and his attorney about "inflammatory" statements.

Chutkan said any violation of the order or potentially harmful public comments could result in her arranging for a speedy trial to reduce the risk of a tainted jury pool or witness intimidation.

Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist and the daughter of Donald Trump's older brother Fred, said the former president would likely continue placing himself in legal peril by lashing out on social media.

"He is not going to be able to stop himself," she told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Wednesday.

"There's been a really interesting shift over the last few months, or couple of years. The way in which he is presenting himself in social media, the kind of attacking nature, the aggressiveness. That used to be strategy for him… he used to throw temper tantrums strategically to get his way. It's not strategy anymore."

Trump is "literally doing what he's done in other contexts, which is pushing the envelope to see how much he could get away with, which obviously, until this time, has been everything," she added.

"But the unconscious fear, terror and especially fear of humiliation is so strong that he cannot course correct and realize that doing what he's always done is, this time, not going to get him what he wants. In fact, quite the opposite."

Elsewhere in the interview, she said Trump "always has been a frightened little boy, deep down."

She said it "might actually start breaking through that there's nothing he can do to get out of this."

Newsweek has contacted Mary Trump via social media for further comment.