Donald Trump’s brother Robert died two weekends ago after several months of “illness.” No one is saying what Robert died of and I suppose it’s none of my business, but I am still curious. My first thought was the coronavirus, honestly, just because of Robert’s age (he was 71). But maybe it was something else. I always find it curious that beyond one rogue niece, the rest of Trump’s family avoids the press like the plague. Before Robert died, I barely had any idea that he existed, and I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a lineup. Same with Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald Trump’s sister. Mary Trump – Donald Trump’s niece – secretly recorded Maryanne Barry, who is a former federal judge, talking about her sadist brother.
Former federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry issued a sharp rebuke of her brother, Donald Trump, in secretly recorded conversations with her niece, shedding light on the tumultuous family dynamic. “Donald is out for Donald, period,” she said. “He has no principles.”
Such comments are among the many criticisms that Barry levels in previously unreleased transcripts and audio obtained by the Washington Post from Mary Trump, the president’s niece and author of the recent damning tell-all about her uncle and the family that made him. Questions about sourcing that followed the release of the book led Mary Trump to provide the Post with the secretly taped conversations from 2018 and 2019.
“It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel,” Barry says to her niece in one of the exchanges. Deploring “what they’re doing with kids at the border,” Barry appears appalled by her brother’s behavior in office. “His g-ddamned tweet and lying, oh my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy sh-t.”
Among the trove of details about the president revealed in the 15 hours of face-to-face conversations is Barry’s apparent confirmation of previous allegations that the president paid a friend to take his SATs so that he could transfer into the Ivy Leagues. Barry said Trump, who initially enrolled at Fordham University, “got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.” She called her brother “a brat.”
The candid comments are notable given that Barry—unlike Mary Trump—has never publicly criticized the president and the newly surfaced recordings and transcripts provide a window into the discord between her and her brother. At one point, the former federal judge told a story about a favor she asked of Trump in the 1980s—help getting nominated for a federal judgeship—that she claims her brother has continued to hold over her head.
“He once tried to take credit for me,” Barry said of the president, quoting him as saying, “Where would you be without me?” She reportedly told her brother: “You say that one more time and I will level you.” Barry noted it to be “the only favor I ever asked for in my whole life” and told Mary that she deserved the nomination “on my own merit,” rising from the position to subsequent higher judicial posts without her brother’s help. “Donald is out for Donald, period,” Barry said, warning her niece that “you can’t trust him.”
I’m not sure what’s groundbreaking about anything Judge Barry said, except for the fact that she’s known Donald Trump all of their lives and she seems to hate him, as most reasonable and sentient people do. The idea that his own sister is appalled by his cruelty, his lies, his credit-taking… well, I wish more people had spoken up in 2016. It is what it is.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I do wonder if these people coming forward actually changes the mind of his supporters? Like I’m glad more and more people are calling him out. But like Trump appeals to the darkest parts of our psyche. So I wonder if his supporters even read through these interviews.
I also find it interesting the rest of the Trump family AVOID the press. Trump is thirsty for attention and the rest of them visibly disinterested in any public attention. (Expect for his children of course but I assume they learnt their thirst from him).
I don’t think it will change a single supporters mind. Awful revelations in 2016 didn’t.
I think he pays and/or blackmail for silence.
Agreed. There is nothing that he can do or that anyone can say about him that will sway his base. They are in it for the long haul.
A video could come out of a Russian hooker peeing on him and his base would say, “Boys will be boys!”. He could shoot someone in Milania’s new, ugly rose garden and his base would say, “Yay! Gun rights!”. He could tweet about how much he hates God and his super Christian base would say, “But he hates abortion! We’ll save him yet!”.
The base will not leave him. We can just hope that enough rational people vote to balance it out.
I don’t think it would have made a difference. Look at that congressman from Arizona whose whole family appeared in a campaign ad against him.
That guy got reelected anyway.
“The cruelty is the point.”
Noel Casler on Twitter thinks the death was related to alcoholism. He worked on CA with Trump and seems to have a lot of insight that I find plausible.
Yes he mentioned alcoholism runs in the family. Jr and Complicit Barbie allegedly likes the sauce a bit too much.
Where is the other sister? Elizabeth? She lives in Fl
Maryanne stepped down because of lying on taxes so she’s hardly an beacon of morality. I wonder if Maryanne conspiring with Donald to steal her father’s inheritance was her reason for recording her.
This is one dysfunctional family. I can’t wait for Trump and Kushner to turn on each other.
Probe underway on Maryanne. When she stepped down the probe ended. Caught on tape or not, she’s complicit. You don’t ask for a favor from the mob without expecting to payback.
.. and Monday morning just like that major media news outlets have already forgotten it. Sad that this is the world we live in now. Our President and his band of Grifters say and do so much it’s all forgotten in days or hours. 🙁
That Mary Trump is such an icon, doing the lords work for our democracy 😭😭😭 but if she’s not careful she’ll get her head cut off by dictator trump!
They don’t speak out against him because they are afraid he will do to them what he did to his eldest brother.
And the WH said it’s just sibling rivalry. My sis and I have our issues, but you’d never catch her on tape saying such things about me.
And water is wet.
Judges don’t usually make public statements and I think that’s what was holding her back. However, I did hear snippets of those tapes and read part of transcript on Twitter. She doesn’t hold back. She also spoke about how he asked her why she doesn’t watch Faux News.
Notice he didn’t bad tweet her? He is probably afraid of her. Another strong woman.