Publication of tell-all Trump book by his niece brought forward despite efforts to block it

‘The act by a sitting president to muzzle a private citizen is just the latest in a series of disturbing behaviours which have already destabilised a fractured nation in the face of a global pandemic,’ says author’s spokesperson

The release of a tell-all book about President Donald Trump, written by his niece, has been brought forward by two weeks despite an ongoing legal battle to prevent its publication.

Simon & Schuster announced on Monday that it will release Mary L Trump‘s book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man, on 14 July, instead of the previously announced date of 28 July.

In a statement on Monday, the publisher announced: “due to high demand and extraordinary interest in this book, Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L Trump will now be published on July 14, 2020”.

The publisher has already printed 75,000 copies of the book, which is currently top of Amazon’s US best sellers chart, according to CNN.

Simon and Schuster also released an excerpt from the book on Monday that read: “Today, Donald is much as he was at three years old: incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in & synthesise information”.

The president’s brother, Robert Trump, has been attempting to block the book’s publication by arguing that it breaches a confidentiality agreement relating to the estate of his father, Fred Trump, signed by Ms Trump 19 years ago.

Last Wednesday, Judge Alan D Scheinkman ruled that the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) Ms Trump signed does not bar Simon & Schuster from releasing the book.

“While Ms Trump unquestionably possesses the same First Amendment expressive rights belonging to all Americans, she also possesses the right to enter into contracts, including the right to contract away her First Amendment rights,” Mr Scheinkman wrote.

“Unlike Ms Trump, Simon & Schuster has not agreed to surrender or relinquish any of its First Amendment rights.”

Although the publisher can release the book, the Trump family still has an injunction against Ms Trump, and she is asking the New York Supreme Court to lift it, as she claims the NDA does not apply to her.

Ms Trump’s book will reportedly reveal that she was the primary source for the New York Times’ investigation into the Trump family’s alleged involvement in tax fraud schemes.

She claimed that finding out her inheritance was worth less than she was informed through the exposé makes the NDA an unenforceable fraud, according to the Daily Beast.

Ms Trump’s lawyer, Ted Boutrous, wrote in an affidavit on Thursday that the “settlement agreement is unenforceable and void because plaintiff and his siblings fraudulently induced Ms Trump to enter into it based on false valuations that were revealed by the New York Times in its exposé of the Trump family finances in October of 2018”.

Ms Trump added that she never believed the NDA ever barred her from writing her “life story”, which she claims involves “the conduct and character of my uncle, the sitting President of the United States, during his campaign for re-election”.

She claimed that because members of her family, including the president, have “spoken out about our family and the will dispute on numerous occasions”, that the confidentiality agreement is irrelevant.

“None of the parties to the Settlement Agreement, including my uncles Donald Trump and Robert Trump, or my aunt Maryanne Trump, has ever sought my permission to speak publicly about our family or their personal relationships with me, my brother Fred, or among each other,” she wrote.

Last month, the White House attempted to block the release of former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton‘s, tell-all memoir about his time working for the president.

The Trump administration delayed the book’s release and attempted to block its publication entirely, but were unsuccessful, and The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir was released on 23 June 2020.

A spokesperson for Ms Trump criticised interference in the publication of her book, in a statement that was released on Monday.

“The act by a sitting president to muzzle a private citizen is just the latest in a series of disturbing behaviours which have already destabilized a fractured nation in the face of a global pandemic,” the statement read.

“If Mary cannot comment, one can only help but wonder: what is Donald Trump so afraid of?”