Donald Trump’s Niece Challenges His Debate Claim That He Didn’t Receive $400 Million Allowance from Father

The niece of former President Donald Trump refuted her uncle’s claim during the Sept. 10 presidential debate that he wasn’t given $400 million from his father. 

“Over the course of my grandfather [Fred C. Trump Sr.]’s lifetime, he gifted and ‘loaned’ Donald $413 million,” Mary Trump shared on X during Donald’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.

She continued: “And Donald still declared bankruptcy 6 times. He failed so badly that the banks needed to put him on a $425,000-a-month allowance.”

When reached for comment about Mary’s claim in the X post, Donald’s spokesperson simply said, “Trump Derangement Syndrome is a serious issue and some people like her need to get checked out.”

During the presidential debate on Tuesday, which ABC News hosted in Philadelphia, Harris aimed to draw a distinction between her middle-class background and Donald’s wealthy upbringing, asserting that she better understands the housing crisis, “knowing not everyone got handed $400 million on a silver platter and then filed bankruptcy six times.”

In response to Harris’ comment, Trump said: “Well, first of all, I wasn’t given $400 million. I wish I was. My father was a Brooklyn builder — Brooklyn, Queens. And a great father and I learned a lot from him. But I was given a fraction of that, a tiny fraction, and I built it into many, many billions of dollars. Many, many billions. And when people see it, they are even surprised. So, we don’t have to talk about that.”

A 2018 New York Times investigative report alleged that Trump received today’s equivalent of $413 million from his father’s real estate empire during his lifetime, providing important context to Harris and Mary’s claim.

“Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes,” the report stated. “He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show.” 

“Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more,” the outlet continued. “He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”

The Times reported that Trump turned down requests for comment on the paper’s 2018 piece. In a statement to the Times, Charles J. Harder, an attorney for Trump, called the paper’s allegations of tax evasion and fraud “100 percent” and “highly defamatory.” 

Harder also told the Times in 2018 that Trump had no involvement in the tax strategy matters, and that the former president delegated those responsibilities to tax professionals and family members.

Mary, a psychologist and the daughter of Donald’s older brother, Fred Trump Jr., has been a longtime critic of her uncle Donald. In 2020, she published Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, which details Donald’s ascent to the presidency and discusses his relationship with Fred Jr. and their father.

On Tuesday, Mary released her latest book, Who Could Ever Love You, which talks about her father, who died in 1981 at the age of 42, and his experiences within his immediate family. In a statement to PEOPLE at the time of the book’s announcement, George Witte, St. Martin’s Publishing Group SVP and editor-in-chief, said: “Mary Trump is a truth-teller, and in this intimate new book, she lays bare the toxic family dynamic that now shapes every day of our national discourse.”

In June, Mary announced that she would serve as a guest of President Joe Biden at the debate in Atlanta between him and former President Trump — less than a month before Biden dropped out of the presidential race.

“For my whole life I have witnessed my uncle’s narcissism and cruelty,” she said in a statement to PEOPLE on why she was supporting Biden instead of her relative. “His sense of inferiority has always driven his jealousy and his pathological need to dominate others and this is information that is crucially important for the American people to have in advance of the most important election of our lifetimes.“