Rising Trumpworld star May Mailman has publicly mocked what she called “Meghan Markle syndrome”—and accused the Duchess of Sussex of manufacturing trauma in service of success.
Mailman, a close lieutenant of MAGA ideologue Stephen Miller whose focus until she left the administration last month was on attempting to wipe out DEI in U.S. universities, delivered the extraordinary salvo in a podcast with the New York Times.
Markle has long served as a useful rhetorical target for those who deplore what they see as the politics of self-victimhood and grievance.
However, Mailman’s assault carries institutional weight given that the 37-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer was the architect of the Trump administration’s offensive against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on university campuses. She wrote the executive order signed on day one of Trump’s second term redefining sex to acknowledge only two genders.
Her strategy, deployed through federal levers, has intimidated independent institutions, infuriated faculty, and triggered fear among students who see dissent as the next target.
Against that backdrop, Mailman’s remarks to the New York Times’ Interesting Times podcast read like a thinly veiled ideological statement.
Talking about her belief that the culture has weaponized victimhood, she said: “You can notice it in little pieces, like when Justice Kavanaugh was going through his confirmation hearings, the need for grievance sessions, the need for coloring books, the amount of emotional support people needed to suffer through Trump’s electoral victory. And I think that there’s this culture that universities have been perpetuating as well, maybe I call it Meghan Markle syndrome, where, like, the greatest good, the greatest height that you can be is a victim. So I think that’s one thing.”
Later, talking about DEI admissions policies at universities, she said, “That type of behavior is not only illegal—you can’t treat people differently on the basis of their race—but it’s harmful for so many reasons beyond that. You just want the best people, no matter what they look like.”
She added, “The type of students that you want, you obviously want diversity… but the whole idea of treating people differently based on whether they are oppressed or oppressors, and if it’s seen as Meghan Markle—why does she want to appear like a victim? Because then she’s special—there’s something good about the [late] Queen [Elizabeth] not liking you, because you can then be a victim.”
Host Ross Douthat quipped: “I’m not sure it’s actually worked out that well for her.”
Mailman: “She has a TV show!”
Douthat: “She does. She does have a TV show.”
Mailman: “I don’t have a TV show.”
Douthat: “Not yet.”
Mailman’s attack is a new front in the Trump-Sussex war. Eric Trump called the Sussexes “spoiled apples” and suggested that America “might not want them anymore.” He even floated the possibility of deporting Prince Harry if the Trump machine won back the White House.
He told GB News, “You can always have bad actors in everything. You can have spoiled apples in every orchard.”
When asked during last year’s election campaign whether he might order Harry deported, Donald Trump backpedaled, saying he wouldn’t deport the prince because “he’s got enough problems with his wife—she’s terrible.”
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