President Donald Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, described him as a “cruel” man with “no principles” in ties that were secretly recorded in 2018 and 2019 by his niece, Mary Trump.
The footage, which was published late Saturday by The Washington Post, is the first to emerge from one of the president’s brothers criticizing his character.
They let Barry, a former federal judge, provide a critical assessment of her brother’s treatment of the presidency and provide the basis for some claims made by Mary Trump in her recent tell-all memoir that her uncle is described as a dangerous narcissist. .
“All he wants is an appeal at his base,” Barry said in one recording. “He has no principles. No. None. And his basis, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Do not.”
“His g ——- tweet and lie, oh my God,” Barry said. “I speak too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lie. Holy s —.”
Mary Trump told The Washington Post that she recorded 15 hours of conversations between her and Barry in an attempt to demonstrate that she was deceived about Trump family patriarch Fred Trump Sr.’s will.
In July, Mary Trump published “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Made the World the Most Dangerous Man,” and she said she supports Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden.
President Trump dismissed in a statement delivered to the Post by The White House, the recordings as unintentional, citing the death of his younger brother, Robert Trump, who died earlier this month.
“Every day it’s something different, who cares,” Trump said. “I miss my brother, and I will continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever!”
Maryanne Trump Barry could not be reached immediately, and she did not comment to The Washington Post.
One of the recordings seems to show a source of the rift between President Trump and his sister. In it, Barry says she asked her brother to help her secure a nomination from Ronald Reagan to the federal judiciary through Trump’s attorney Roy Cohn, who was known near Reagan.
“He had called Roy Cohn Reagan about the need to appoint a woman as a federal judge in New Jersey,” Barry said in the recording. “Because Reagan advised for re-election, and he was desperate for the female vote.”
Barry received the nomination, but later accused revenge when President Trump “tried to take credit for me,” Barry said.
Trump once asked her, she said, “Where would you be without me?”
Barry said she replied, “You say that one more time and I will bring you levels.”
Barry was nominated to the U.S. District Court in New Jersey by Reagan in 1983 and later elevated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by Bill Clinton. She retired last year, effectively ending a court investigation into Trump family tax practices recommended by an investigation by The New York Times.
In another recording, Barry said she worked to get her brother into college, among other things by doing his homework for him. She also makes an accusation that appears in Mary Trump’s book: That Trump did not take his college diploma.
“He came to the University of Pennsylvania because he had someone take the exams,” Barry said in the recording.
“SATs or whatever,” Barry said. “I believe so.”
The White House has denied the allegations in Mary Trump’s book, saying she was motivated by her own financial self-interest.
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