Donald Trump Beginning to 'Fray at the Edges'—Mary Trump

Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, said the former president's psyche is beginning to "fray at the edges" as his hush-money trial continues.

Jury selection in the first criminal trial of a former president began on Monday. The first seven jurors were seated on Tuesday, and 11 more must be sworn before the opening statements begin.

It's the first of Trump's four criminal cases to reach trial, and it could be the only one to return a verdict before voters decide whether to give the presumptive Republican nominee a second term in November.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as part of an alleged effort to bury stories about extramarital sexual encounters during the 2016 presidential campaign. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison, but there's no guarantee he would get time behind bars.

In a post on Substack, Mary Trump, a psychologist, wrote that Trump is likely feeling constrained by the rules imposed on him in the Manhattan courtroom.

"Per the judge's instructions, Donald will be stuck in that New York City courtroom for at least four days a week and eight hours a day," she wrote. "He is not free to come and go as he pleases."

He probably feels "as though he's being singled out for extraordinary punishment, but that's because he has so rarely been in a situation in which he has no control over either the narrative or the proceedings," she wrote.

Her uncle, she added, "doesn't handle it well when he feels like the walls are closing in on him. He freaks out — and acts out — when he feels thwarted because he so rarely ever has been."

Because he can't speak out of turn, she wrote that some of Trump's traits—"like his thuggishness, his temper, his sense of grievance"—will come across very differently in the courtroom.

"He will be seen to be rude, weak, and incapable of controlling himself when bound by the same rules to which the rest of us must conform," she wrote.

"There's a reason he tried to get this case delayed until the 11th hour. Even after one day, it was clear Donald wasn't faring well. He's experiencing serious psychological trauma. The narcissistic wound that he's suffering right now is basically short-circuiting him."

Newsweek has contacted a Trump spokesperson for comment via email.

Mary Trump also questioned why no family members have attended the proceedings to support Trump.

"Being in a courtroom day after day is extraordinarily draining for the criminal defendant, and to face it with no emotional support could be potentially debilitating," she wrote.

"He's also going to be bored out of his mind. For him to be facing this completely alone — without family, without friends, to the extent he even has friends — is telling on so many different levels, and it's going to play into the kind of stressors — the lack of control, the disrespect, the boredom — that he'll be experiencing unremittingly on an almost daily basis."