Mary:
Welcome to the first part of my interview with Dean Obeidallah, host of The Dean Obeidallah Show on SiriusXM and the proprietor of the Substack, The Dean’s Report. We start by discussing how difficult 2026 has been, but Dean reminds us that 2025 was a banner year for Democrats up and down the ballot. We hope you enjoy it.
Dean:
And look who’s here. The one and only Mary Trump—author, mom, defender of democracy, New York Times bestselling author. And of course, her Substack is wildly popular, The Good in Us. Mary Trump, good to see you, my friend.
Mary:
Hey, Dean. It’s been way too long.
Dean:
It has been. I haven’t seen you since the new year, or even the last part of last year. Happy New Year. I say that and people ask if I’m being sarcastic, and I say no, I’m just being nice about it. So before we get into the hard stuff, I want to remind people that it’s not just vibes. We ended the year on a really good note. Objectively, we had huge wins in November. Mikey Sherrill was just sworn in as governor yesterday. She was supposed to win by one point and she won by thirteen because the energy is on our side. We won the mayor of Miami in December for the first time in thirty years. Even in special elections we lost, the gap was tiny. I just want to reflect on that for a second. Does that still give you some hope?
Mary:
Yeah. Listen, what’s happening now has nothing to do with the elections in November and the other successes we had literally across the board. I agree with you. Narrowing margins in races we supposedly had no right to win is success, because that trend is going to continue. Some of this is by design, of course, and some of it is because we’re being led by madmen. The chaos, the fear—all of that is designed in part to make us feel demoralized and to forget all of the good stuff, which we need to hang on to now more than ever.
I’m with you. It’s kind of shocking how—technically it was January 3rd, but it felt like January 1st—we got that terrible news out of Switzerland that started the year on a dark note. Then it felt like with the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro, things really fell off a cliff. And it’s not like 2025 was a great year in American politics anyway.
Dean:
So let’s talk about it. I titled today’s conversation Donald, Davos, and Dementia. Let me ask you this. Since you knew Donald when you were younger, was he always obsessed with Greenland? Was there something from his childhood where he was like, one day I want Greenland? Does any of this make sense to you?
Mary:
Money. That’s it. I mean, no, it’s not all of it, but it’s a huge part of it. Do we seriously think he went into Venezuela because he cares about regime change and democracy? No. He didn’t get rid of anybody in Maduro’s government. He wants the oil, and he’s been very explicit about that.
Do we really think he wants Greenland for its strategic importance or national security? No. He wants the rare earth minerals he can split up with his friends. It’s also another way to advance the agenda of splitting the world into three pieces—one for him, one for Putin, and one for Xi.
Dean:
I’m sure you saw the clips. I can’t watch his speeches live—it destroys brain cells—but I saw clips where he confused Greenland and Iceland, once at the press conference and at least four times yesterday. Karoline Leavitt attacked a reporter who pointed that out and said, no, you’re confused. This is where we are. The chief liar is telling us to ignore what we all watched.
On the dementia issue, for the first time I’m seeing people in the media raise cognitive decline. I’m like, welcome to planet Earth. Where do you think he is now compared to a few months ago?
Mary:
One of the main reasons we’re here is the normalization of his depravity, corruption, and serious mental illness. Of course it’s worse now—ten years have passed. He’s older. There are presumably neurological issues. He’s physically unwell, based on observations from people who know more than I do. I’m a clinical psychologist, not a neurologist or medical doctor.
But the idea that after an eighty-minute rambling, delusional press conference and the utter humiliation of the United States at Davos, people are suddenly saying, wow, this is bad—ten years ago, he was unfit by every metric to be anywhere near the Oval Office. Is it worse now? Sure. But it didn’t need to be worse than it was in 2015.
It’s maddening that people are still waiting for a line to be crossed. We passed that line years ago.
Dean:
You mentioned you’re a clinical psychologist, but not a neurologist. Frankly, we don’t need expertise anymore. We’re post-education. Look at RFK Jr.—this guy is head of Health and Human Services. Be whatever you want, folks. It’s superhero time.
On Greenland, Donald says he won’t use military force, but we could wake up one day and U.S. forces are there. That gives some breathing room to talk about what he’s distracting us from—Epstein. Whatever is in those files is so bad he’d go to war with our NATO allies to stop their release. There are up to two million documents. Survivors are coming forward saying the law promised them access for healing. What do you think happens next?
Mary:
No. We learned a few days ago they filed a brief to prevent compliance with the law. We’re talking about a Department of Justice that no longer exists. The Civil Rights Division no longer exists. The DOJ now serves as Donald’s defense attorneys, targets his perceived enemies, and protects the rights of guns and white, straight, wealthy people.
Why is he threatening Greenland again? Because he got away with kidnapping the head of state of Venezuela and nobody stopped him. Why is the DOJ stonewalling? Who’s going to stop them?
Even if a judge orders release, the documents will be redacted into uselessness—or they’ll simply refuse. Only about twelve thousand documents have been released. That’s less than one percent of the total.
And all of this—the threats, the chaos—is serious. But it’s also a distraction from the Epstein files. Has anyone ever acted guiltier than Donald is acting right now?
Dean:
No. It’s like a movie. And now James Comer announced Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by Congress in early February. Even behind closed doors, it brings Epstein back into the spotlight. She won’t help Donald. Even lies hurt him. She puts him back at Mar-a-Lago, back with Epstein. That alone is damaging.
Mary:
Even if she lies, which she does, that’s not the point. The spotlight is back on the Epstein files. I would be shocked if Donald doesn’t retaliate against Comer.
Dean:
There’s also the corruption reporting. The New York Times reported Donald made $1.4 billion in one year using the presidency—crypto scams, personal lawsuit payouts, shakedowns. This deserves far more attention.
Mary:
It reminded me of the 2018 New York Times investigation into my family’s finances. It exposed the myth that Donald was self-made. He received over $416 million from my grandfather, and more after his death. It didn’t matter. It didn’t change the narrative.
The difference now is the corruption is happening in real time and at the expense of the American people. Politicians once took conflicts of interest seriously. Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm. Now Donald is selling America for parts and making it clear he’s for sale.
What do you do? You stop it.
Thank you for listening to part one of my interview with Dean. Stay tuned for part two. Please share this video and subscribe to the channel. If you’re listening on podcast, please follow and leave a five-star rating. It really does help others find our work.
Thank you MariaLeeCarta/Scruchina, Sandra Steffen, Dorothy Neustater 🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦, PaulM, Melissa Hockman, and many others for tuning into my live video with Dean Obeidallah! Join me for my next live video in the app.
