Mary Trump says her uncle is panicked by FBI raid and never believed the DOJ would take action
- Mary Trump said that her uncle is in "panic" after Mar-A-Lago was raided by the FBI.
- Even if Donald Trump was forewarned, "he could not possibly believe it was coming," she told MSNBC.
The niece of former President Donald Trump, Mary Trump, said that he is in "panic" after the FBI raided his home in Florida late on Monday.
Trump "may have been told it was coming," but he would not have believed that the FBI would actually do it, Mary Trump told MSNBC on Monday.
The former president raged from Trump Tower, his New York City residence, as FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago resort over the course of several hours.
Many details remain unclear about the search, including whether Trump had advance notice, but he described it as "unannounced" in a furious statement.
The Department of Justice is also probing the 2021 Capitol riot, including Trump's role. According to multiple reports, the FBI was in this instance primarily looking for presidential-era documents stored at Mar-A-Lago and sought by the National Archives.
In Monday's interview, Mary Trump said that the raid would have been "a bit of a shock" to her uncle. Mary Trump, a psychologist by profession, attributed that to his "narcissism and sense of entitlement."
"He may have known, been told it was coming, but he could not possibly believe it was coming, because it never has. So I think that's where that panic is coming from."
Mary Trump has been a longtime and vocal critic of her uncle, telling Insider's Joshua Zitser last year he was a "born autocrat."
She echoed that on Monday, speaking of what she called "his clear affection for the autocrat, for the authoritarian."
According to an excerpt from a forthcoming book about the Trump presidency, Trump while in office called for absolute loyalty from his generals, in the manner that he inaccurately imagined Adolf Hitler had received.
Reflecting on this on Monday, Mary Trump said: "That's what people are for — to be loyal to him, to do his bidding."
Meanwhile Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose role includes overseeing the FBI, "is the epitome of the kind of man that Donald is contemptuous of," Mary Trump said.
It's unknown whether Garland personally approved the raid, but such a high-level intrusion would likely need senior authorization.
"So it never occurred to him that Garland would have the intestinal fortitude to — well, not go after him — to do his job, quite honestly, and hold Donald accountable."