Dr. Mary L. Trump, the author of a damning new memoir that gives insight into President Donald Trump and his family, said his inability to handle a crisis like the coronavirus didn’t shock her because he is “incapable of succeeding at it.”

Asked by host Rachel Maddow to explain “why [Donald Trump] has made all the wrong decisions around this crisis and done so little work to fix anything,” Dr. Trump, a clinical psychologist explained that she addressed the coronavirus in her book because she wrote it just after New York had passed the peak of the infection, but the rest of the nation was still vulnerable.

“I want people to understand what a failure of leadership this is,” Dr. Trump said, “and the reason he’s failing at it is because he’s incapable of succeeding at it.

“It would have required taking responsibility, which in his mind, had meant admitting a mistake, which in his mind, would’ve been admitting weakness,” Dr. Trump continued, “which in my family was, ah, essentially punished with the ‘death penalty’, symbolically or otherwise.

“What I think we need to grapple with now, is why so many people are continuing to grapple with this,” Dr. Trump said.  “The fact that he is dividing us at the expense of people’s lives–I mean, we’re at 140,000 Americans and counting are dead, and the vast majority of those people did not need to lose their lives.

“If only Donald had said, ‘Listen to the scientists.  Wear a mask.  Stay home,'” Dr. Trump explained.  “People are dying every day.  There are states in this country that are out of control, and to curry favor with Donald, certain governors are continuing to ignore the science, and more people are getting sick, and more people are going to die.”

“It is utterly insane at this point.  We need to wake up.  And instead of taking it seriously, instead of standing aside and letting the experts take over,” Dr. Trump said, “Donald is hawking black beans.  It would be absurd if it weren’t so devastating.”