'The View': Meghan McCain Drags Donald Trump's Niece for Tell-All: 'I Don't Like Books Like This'

The View co-host Meghan McCain and psychologist Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

The View co-host Meghan McCain and psychologist Mary Trump, the niece of President Donald Trump, clashed during Thursday's episode when Trump appeared on the show to promote her new book, Too Much and Never Enough. McCain, who is also a member of another high-profile political family, said she disagreed with Trump's decision to publish her book, a tell-all on life in the Trump family before the president was elected. Trump defended her book, reminding McCain that she is not a distant family member and said she did not publish her book to make money.

McCain told Trump she told Simon & Schuster, the publishers of Too Much and Never Enough, that she does not "like books like this." McCain added, "I don't like family tell-all books, especially when it comes to families with fame and power, because they're told from the one side and often the subjects are villainized to the point that I don't actually end up believing the stuff written." McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, told Trump there had been books about her family that were "complete and total garbage, told from a skewed perspective, and at the end of the day you get a really good paycheck out of it. But I don't think it's that legitimate."

"You're entirely entitled to your opinion," Trump told McCain. "I think if you read the book, you see that I bring to the story my very deep experience within the family. I'm not some stranger writing it — I'm his niece." Trump, the daughter of President Trump's brother, the late Fred Trump Jr., and Linda Lee Clapp, told McCain she is not "extended" family. She said President Trump's children "are completely irrelevant to the story I was telling, which is in my view the foundational narrative about my family and how Donald became the person he is."

If Trump really wanted to take "revenge" on her uncle, Trump said, she would have released the book 10 years ago "when Donald was still a very public figure and I would not have been taking the risks that I'm taking." Considering how whistleblowers have been pushed out of President Trump's administration, Trump said she would have "preferred" not to publish a book. "But I felt it was extremely important that the American people have all of the information they need in order to make an informed decision," Trump explained.

McCain responded by accusing Trump of not being "concerned enough to not go to the White House and have dinner with him" and said Trump has a "complicated relationship" with the president's family that she doesn't "understand." McCain also pointed out that the Trump family tried to stop the book from being published. "I do think if you were probably close to that family you would probably know your cousins, Don Jr. and Ivanka, on a level that you clearly don't," McCain told Trump.

Trump also defended going to the White House for dinner in 2017, during the first months of the president's time in office. "The administration was at that point less than four months old. I was going there for my aunts' birthdays, not to take advantage of Donald's position," Trump said. She went on to tell McCain that she was "not entirely sure why" she was so focused on her cousins. "I did not go to the White House on the taxpayer dime, that's a quite absurd thing to say," Trump added.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man was published on July 14. The book sold 1.35 million copies in its first week, Simon & Schuster said, reports CNBC. The book is now in its 17th printing and is being sold in five languages.

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