Mary Trump Celebrates Her Uncle's Indictment: 'Pop Those Corks'

Mary Trump has celebrated her uncle's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury by telling her podcast listeners to "get out your champagne" and "pop those corks."

Former President Donald Trump was indicted on Thursday night, though details have not yet been made public, following a vote by the grand jury, which had previously been hearing testimony concerning allegations of hush money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The niece of the former president—who is related to Donald Trump via her late father, his brother, Fred Trump Jr.—has been highly critical of her uncle. In 2020, she sued family members including Donald Trump over inheritance. The case was later dismissed.

That year, she published Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, an unauthorized biography of her uncle, which sold nearly a million copies on its first day of release, its publisher said at the time.

Following news of the indictment, an "emergency" episode of her podcast The Mary Trump Show was released with the title: "Indicted." Introducing the show, Mary Trump explained: "We're using the word 'emergency' loosely in this case because its not a bad emergency.

"In fact, everybody get out your champagne, pop those corks, because there has been—after seven decades of waiting—an indictment against Donald J. Trump," she added, before noting: "We're not here to speculate irresponsibly, or drink irresponsibly for that matter."

Mary Trump went on to said that "I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself. It's a little weird, it's like not quite sinking in yet."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's team via email for comment on Friday.

Speaking to the Associated Press (AP) on Thursday, Joe Tacopina, Donald Trump's attorney, confirmed that the Manhattan grand jury had indicted his client. It makes Trump the first former president to be indicted on criminal charges.

Specific charges have not yet been released. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, had been investigating Donald Trump over his alleged involvement in hush money payments made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels by his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2016.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was allegedly paid $130,000 by Cohen in 2016 to stay quiet about her supposed involvement with Trump while the presidential campaign was ongoing. Cohen has said under oath and in print that he was reimbursed by Trump. The former president denies wrongdoing and denies having had an affair with Daniels in 2006.

The Republican frontrunner, according to polls, in the 2024 presidential primary race has repeatedly claimed the investigation into him was politically motivated, a claim several prominent Republicans have echoed, noting Bragg's affiliation to the Democratic Party.

In a post on Thursday night, Donald Trump said: "They only brought this Fake, Corrupt, and Disgraceful Charge against me because I stand with the American People."

He previously said that he expected to be arrested, but believed it would be on Tuesday, March 21. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office told AP that prosecutors had reached out to Trump's lawyers to arrange for him to surrender, which could happen early next week.

"Everyone needs to understand that this isn't a single individual making a unilateral decision to indict the former president of the United States," Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former GOP congressional staffer, told The Mary Trump Show on Thursday. Bardella is now a Democratic Party adviser.

He added that the grand jury signed off on the indictment "after hearing the evidence, hearing testimony, after hearing from all sides that are a part of this. They then collectively made a decision to indict Donald Trump. I don't think it was lost on those jurors the gravity, the historical nature of the proceeding that they were involved in."

Asked about the feeling of celebration expected from many in the U.S. on another show on MSNBC, Mary Trump said Thursday that "because he has gotten away with so much for so long," she thought it "absolutely understandable that some people would be feeling vindicated and, quite honestly, celebratory."

The former president's niece was not the only person professing to pop a cork. In a tweet, Stormy Daniels said she could not respond to all the messages she was receiving as "[I] don't want to spill my champagne."