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The niece of Donald Trump said the former president is at "his most dangerous" when he fears becoming irrelevant amid reports the Republican Party wants to move on from him in the wake of the midterms.
Mary Trump, a frequent vocal critic of her uncle, made the remarks while speaking to MSNBC's Ali Velshi on Sunday.
During her appearance, Mary Trump was asked what will happen to the former president amid speculation he may be replaced as the de-facto leader of the Republican Party following the GOP's poor midterms performance.
Many people, including those within the GOP, have blamed Trump for the party failing to win control of the Senate and still not managing to achieve a majority in the House. A number of the former president's endorsed election-denying and MAGA candidates lost races across the country.
Velshi asked Mary Trump what will now happen to Trump while noting her previous remarks that he still maintains the "dangerousness" in the Republican Party and is "by extension the most dangerous person in America."
"Donald becomes his most dangerous when he fears loss of relevance, when he fears that he is no longer the center of attention," Mary Trump replied, "when he fears that he is no longer the one in control.
"We don't know just what kind of information he has on other people in his party," she added. "What we do know is he would be willing to use it. I believe we talked about this before the 2020 election. Donald will burn everything down if he feels like he is going down. We cannot discount that. We ignore him at our peril."
Mary Trump added that the GOP's hopes of trying to move on from her uncle ahead of the 2024 presidential election "won't work," with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis widely thought to be his ready-made replacement.
"One, it won't work because he won't let them do it," Mary Trump said. "Two, it shouldn't work because they are largely responsible for the state of the party and the dangers that this party continues to present to this country."
Trump is expected to announce formally another run for president in 2024 on Tuesday, having teased he will be making a "very big announcement" at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, during a rally in Ohio on November 7.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Mary Trump gave a separate interview on MSNBC in which she said the country cannot "overestimate the extent and size of the narcissistic injury" the former president suffered in the midterms.
"I think it's probably the most debilitating one he's ever experienced in his entire life. Not simply because he performed poorly in terms of endorsement and in terms of the candidates he picked, but because he can always explain that away, he can always blame somebody else," Mary Trump told MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan.
"But the rhetoric that is coming from not just the party that supported him, but that essentially is responsible for him, it's impossible to ignore."
Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump for comment.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more