WASHINGTON (AP) – The older sister of President Donald Trump, a former federal judge, is sharply criticized for criticizing her brother in a series of recordings, at one point saying of the president, “He has no principles.”
Maryanne Trump Barry was secretly captured by her niece, Mary Trump, who recently released a book urging the president, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the Most Dangerous Man.” Mary Trump said she made the recordings on Saturday in 2018 and 2019.
In one recording, Barry, 83, says she had heard a 2018 interview with her brother on Fox News in which he suggested he put her on the border to oversee cases of immigrant children divorced from their parents.
‘His basis, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Don’t do that, ”says Barry.
At another point she says, “His goddamn tweets and lies, oh my God.” She adds: ‘I speak too freely, but you know it. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. It lies. Holy shit.”
Barry can also be heard saying that she advises that her brother has never read her opinions on immigration cases.
“What did he read?” Mary Trump asked her aunt.
Barry responds: “No. He does not read. ”
The recordings were first reported by The Washington Post. The Associated Press then received the recordings.
The footage came to light just a day after the late Robert Trump, Maryanne’s brother and president, was commemorated in a White House service. Later, the president was rejected from the recordings.
‘Every day it’s something different, who cares. “I miss my brother, and I will continue to work hard for the American people,” Trump said in a statement. “Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before. ”
In the weeks since the release of Mary Trump’s narrated book about her uncle, she has been questioned about the source of some of the information. Nowhere in the book does she say that she recorded conversations with her aunt. On Saturday, Mary Trump revealed that she had applied 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry secretly.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Sunday that it was “really a sad day” when a family member secretly spent 15 hours talking to someone, “obviously promoting an agenda.” Meadows said he had not met Maryanne Trump Barry but had hoped to see her at her brother’s funeral, where he said the president’s tribute showed his compassion and love for his family.
And Meadows, speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” dismissed the idea that the president was not well-prepared, claiming that Trump “read so much that it made me have to read many times a night to get him in.” heal. “
The president often spoke loudly about his sister; the recordings are the first time a family member, other than Mary Trump, has been critical of him.
“Mary realized that members of her family had borrowed in previous downturns,” said Chris Bastardi, a spokeswoman for Mary Trump. He added: “Anticipating lawsuit, she felt it was prudent to tap conversations to protect herself.”
The recordings lighten the tension between the president and his sister. At one point, Barry says to her niece, ‘It’s the phonony of everything. It’s the phonony and this cruelty. Donald is cruel. ”
Mary Trump’s book was full of attacks on her uncle, including the claim – he denied it – that he paid someone to take the SATs for him when he tried to transfer to the University of Pennsylvania.
In one recording, the federal judge says a Joe Shapiro took the test for Trump. The president was friends with a person at Penn named Joe Shapiro, who died. Shapiro’s widow and sister told that they never took a test for one.
Bastardi said of Mary Trump: “She never expected to learn much from what she heard, including the president’s sister, Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, states that Donald Trump paid someone to take a SAT exam for him. “
