On June 22, 2024, a Facebook user named Sarah Smile posted a quote meme featuring Mary Trump, the niece of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The quote meme displaying her image and name received more than 13,000 shares and read, "I don't care what his cult says. I know him personally. And here's the truth: My uncle is the only person I know without one redeeming quality. Not a single one." This post appeared to be one of the more prominent postings of the meme.
Hours later, the popular Occupy Democrats Facebook page also reposted the quote in a newly-designed meme. The post received more than 2,600 shares.
Other users also previously reposted the same quote in May and June, including on X , americasbestpics.com , Facebook , Reddit and TikTok .
Snopes received emails from readers asking whether Mary Trump truly said or published those words about her uncle. The quote in question certainly seemed like something she might have said. After all, she previously posted on X about her belief Donald Trump's voters constituted a "cult." She also wrote two books fiercely critical of her uncle, with a third book scheduled for publishing later in 2024. Further, she has appeared numerous times as a guest on CNN and MSNBC, where she also spoke critically of the former president.
Our research found the meme may have originated in a Facebook post by Mary Trump in April 2024. We've explained below the slightly complicated task of definitively confirming the origins of this quote.
Our Research
We performed a reverse-image search with Google Images to find the oldest available posting of the meme that was ultimately shared by Facebook user Sarah Smile. According to our search, the earliest posting occurred on April 23, 2024. That post appeared on a Facebook profile displaying Mary Trump's photo and name. According to Facebook's "page transparency" tab, two users residing in the U.S. manage the profile.
The post's text caption read, "The truth hurts, trust me. When I stood up to Donald, I lost my family. But what I gained was all of you – a community. It would mean so much if you subscribed to my newsletter as we face the coming madness. I'm fighting back." The post also asked users to support Mary Trump's official Substack account. Additionally, searches of the Facebook profile displayed results from September 2020 including a video of her apparently showing a pet she also mentioned on her official X account, as well as a listing for a Facebook event titled, "LPAC Event." In other words, it certainly seemed as though Mary Trump managed the Facebook profile.
However, a list of links in the "About" tab on Mary Trump's official YouTube channel did not mention anything about her having a presence on Facebook. Also, she did not post the same meme on her official accounts for Threads , TikTok or X , nor did she appear to mention the Facebook profile on any of those other websites.
Our research also found a different and more popular Facebook profile also displaying Mary Trump's name and image. According to Facebook's "page transparency" information, an unknown person residing in Nigeria manages that profile. What looks like a scam supposedly offering job opportunities appeared to be the most recent post .
We attempted to contact Mary Trump by email several times to ask about the quote and whether the first Facebook profile we mentioned featuring the meme belonged to her, and will update this story if we receive a response.
Mary Trump's Books and TV Appearances
In 2020, Mary Trump published "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." The Associated Press called the bestseller a "scathing memoir about her uncle." Her second book, "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal," published in 2021. According to a search of Google Books , neither of the two books featured the words "cult" or "redeeming," both of which appeared in the quote in question.
On March 19, 2024, People.com reported a third book, titled "Who Could Ever Love You," was scheduled for release Sept. 10, just weeks ahead of the November 2024 presidential election.
As for Mary Trump's appearances on CNN and MSNBC, a search of captions on the TV News Archive website found no TV segment in which she spoke the words from the quote.
Sources:
"Mary Trump Book Already Nearing 1 Million Sales." The Associated Press , 16 July 2020, https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-mary-trump-donald-trump-john-bolton-politics-535b1e4c2a6c2190df59f6f606efbd94 .
Sisak, Michael R. "Niece Says 'cruel and Traitorous' Trump Belongs in Prison." The Associated Press , 4 Dec. 2020, https://apnews.com/article/mary-trump-donald-trump-cruel-traitorous-c2c6812cdc5e1daeaf111d566e52f405 .
Tagen-Dye, Carly. "Donald Trump's Niece, Mary L. Trump, to Publish New Book About Her Family." People.com , 19 Mar. 2024, https://people.com/mary-l-trump-to-publish-new-book-about-her-family-8611278 .
Trump, Mary L. The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal . St. Martin's Publishing Group, 17 Aug. 2021, https://books.google.com/books?id=AOMLEAAAQBAJ .
---. "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man." Google Books , Simon and Schuster, 14 July 2020, https://books.google.com/books?id=LY7rDwAAQBAJ .
"TV News Archive." Internet Archive , https://archive.org/details/tv/ .
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