Mary Trump Praises Fani Willis for Making Donald's Day 'Incredibly Bad'

Mary Trump, the estranged niece of Donald Trump, praised Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for making the former president's Thursday "incredibly bad" after testifying in the hearing into whether she should be disqualified from prosecuting his election interference case.

Judge Scott McAfee presided over the disqualification hearing for Willis, who has charged Trump in connection to alleged election interference efforts in Georgia after losing the 2020 presidential election. The hearing presided over whether Willis' alleged romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired in the case, should result in her removal from the case, an argument pushed by Trump's legal team.

Attorneys representing Trump and his co-defendants argued Thursday that Willis and Wade benefitted financially from taxpayers' money, and that she should therefore be disqualified. Willis has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

Mary Trump, a vocal critic of the former president, praised Willis' testimony and wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday that Willis was among several factors that made Trump's day "incredibly bad," as he also headed to court for his New York case involving a hush money payment allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with the former president a decade prior, which he has denied. Trump, the current frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has denied all wrongdoing in his ongoing criminal cases, pleading not guilty to all charges.

In a Substack post titled, "The Top Reasons Donald's Day Sucked," Mary Trump wrote that Willis stood up to the former president's plans to "torpedo" his Georgia election interference case, noting that the district attorney "didn't just defend herself against a bunch of white men," but "reminded everybody why they were in court in the first place—Donald Trump is on trial because he is a traitor."

"You've been intrusive into peoples' personal lives. You're confused. You think I'm on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I'm not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial," Willis said during her disqualification hearing.

In a second Substack post titled, "WOW: Key Brave Fani Willis Quotes from the Stand," Mary Trump continued to detail why she believes Willis' testimony was damaging for the former president, who she described as a "bully attempting to destroy democracy of the country you love."

"On live national television, Fani Willis showed us how it's done. She was defiant in the face of specious attacks against her integrity. Her responses were righteously indignant. Her testimony was historic," she wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

Willis' investigation into Trump focused on his call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the former president asked him to find enough votes to tilt the election in his favor, as well as an alleged plot to submit a false slate of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Trump has accused Willis of leading a politically-motivated prosecution.

It remained unclear after Thursday's hearing whether McAfee would ultimately rule in Willis' favor. While Mary Trump and others praised Willis' testimony, the testimony of other witnesses, including Wade, could be problematic for her, legal experts previously told Newsweek.

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said on Thursday that while the testimonies "shouldn't affect the legal merits of the case," the "optics" were bad for Willis.

"She should cut her losses, step down, and have someone else take over this prosecution," he said.

Meanwhile, MSNBC host Katie Phang wrote in a Thursday post to X, "I stand by what I said earlier today. I have not heard any *evidence* during the hearing that would justify DA Fani Willis being disqualified."