In Conversation with Anderson Cooper

3 July, 2026

[ Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]

Mary Trump: I was on with Anderson Cooper last night, and we had a discussion about the massive amounts of money Donald, and his sons in particular, have been making off the back of the presidency. It’s a windfall that can only be described as gobsmacking, as is that family’s corruption. Enjoy.

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Anderson Cooper: Joining us now is the president’s niece, Mary Trump, author of Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir.

Mary, does the wealth your uncle has amassed even surprise you? There is obviously no precedent for a president making more than a billion dollars from cryptocurrency or accepting a jumbo jet from the Emir of Qatar.

Mary Trump: No, Anderson, unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me, and neither does the way in which he’s accrued this wealth. It comes from a history of corruption. At least Donald comes by it honestly. My grandfather also engaged in all sorts of illicit financial schemes to increase his wealth, and his children, especially Donald and a couple of the others, continued that tradition.

The problem here is not so much the ways in which Donald and his family continue to rig the system in their favor. It’s the number of people who are willing either to look the other way or to enable it.

Let’s also be clear that, while the ways this family continues to enrich itself are extraordinarily complex and, as you’ve alluded to, potentially illegal and unconstitutional, the underlying issue is actually very simple. This is the President of the United States endangering the national security of American citizens because he is willing to take money from virtually any foreign entity, no matter how potentially hostile it might be to American interests.

Anderson Cooper: Most of the countries we know about, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, have long been allies of the United States.

[Note] Mary Trump: Before I answer Anderson’s next question about Donald’s changing perspective on conflicts of interest, I wanted to take a moment to push back on one point.

I disagree with the suggestion, or even the implication, that because Donald is taking massive amounts of money from American allies, it doesn’t necessarily create a problem or threaten our national security. I don’t think that’s true.

What Donald is telegraphing very clearly to every country in the world is that he is for sale and that his personal interests are more important than the interests of the United States.

We also seem to forget that not very long ago Donald was indicted for stealing highly sensitive, classified documents from the United States government. The only reason that case never went to trial was because it was overseen by a corrupt judge appointed by Donald himself, his personal pocket judge, Aileen Cannon. Instead of acting as an impartial adjudicator of the law, she effectively acted as Donald’s defense attorney, and the case never saw the light of day.

In that context, I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask how Donald’s breathtaking greed and corruption might endanger American national security because some of our allies also have interests that do not always align with those of the United States.

It’s worth considering.

Now back to Anderson’s question.

Anderson Cooper: What do you make of the notion that the president appeared more concerned about conflicts of interest during his first term but then concluded, in his words, that “nobody cared”?

Mary Trump: He’s wrong, of course. A lot of people care. Unfortunately, very few people in positions of power, people who could actually rein him in, seem to care because they must be benefiting in some way.

I think the difference between Donald’s first and second terms is relatively easy to explain. During his first administration, not enough people around him had figured out how to protect him, protect themselves, and advance their agenda while working around constitutional constraints.

Then they had four years to develop a new strategy, much of which became Project 2025.

Over those intervening four years, Donald and many others figured out how to bypass many of the systems designed to keep presidential excesses and abuses of power in check.

Anderson Cooper: It’s not only the president who’s profiting. You’ve written about your cousins, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and how they’re making money in ways no members of previous first families have ever done.

Mary Trump: Yes, and again, that’s also a family tradition.

Let’s be clear. Donald was never as wealthy as he claimed to be. In fact, his wealth came almost exclusively from my grandfather. Before my grandfather died, Donald received more than $400 million in gifts and unpaid loans over the course of his lifetime.

That wasn’t because he was some brilliant, savvy businessman. One of the greatest disservices the New York media, and later the national media, did throughout the 1980s and 1990s was portray Donald as an extraordinarily brilliant businessman and a self-made man, which, of course, he never was.

We’re seeing the exact same thing happen with his children.

Again, it isn’t because they’re especially savvy or possess any unique skills or specialized knowledge. It’s because they happen to be related to people with tremendous political power and influence, and that’s what they’re trading on.

Anderson Cooper: It also seems clear that, when he eventually leaves office, the president plans to pardon virtually anyone around him whom he wants to protect. His supporters will undoubtedly point to President Biden pardoning his son and others.

Mary Trump: Of course, the difference is that President Biden and members of his family were actually at risk of being persecuted by the incoming administration.

Donald, however, will absolutely abuse the pardon power, just as he has done since first taking office in 2017.

It’s interesting. Earlier, I heard you refer to Donald describing people involved in cryptocurrency as scammers. That reminded me of my grandfather.

My grandfather used to describe renters as unwholesome people, creating the impression that only people wealthy enough to purchase the single-family homes he was selling were respectable citizens. At the very same time, he received a $9 million FHA loan to build rental properties in Brooklyn.

Now, of course, Donald is enthusiastically promoting cryptocurrency, which, as you pointed out, is not a legitimate or safe investment. The many people who have lost significant amounts of money investing in crypto can certainly attest to that.

Once again, Donald is pushing the limits of what he can get away with, and once again, nobody is putting the brakes on him.

At the end of the day, because of his abuse of the presidential pardon power, many people are likely to escape accountability for financial crimes that caused real harm to people who invested in Donald’s businesses because they believed in him and trusted what he was selling.

Anderson Cooper: Mary Trump, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.

Mary Trump: Thank you