Donald Trump’s older sister, a former judge who fell out with him during the later stages of his presidency, has died in New York at the age of 86, US media reported Monday.
Maryanne Trump Barry passed away at her home in Manhattan, the New York Times said, describing her as “both his protector and critic throughout their lives.”
Barry was selected by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the Federal District Court in New Jersey in 1983, reportedly after the intervention of Donald Trump’s then-personal lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn.
She was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1993.
Barry was close to Donald Trump for decades, and was one of the few people whose advice he sought.
ABC said the siblings were in touch over recent years and met this summer at one of Trump’s golf clubs.
But in 2020, the last year of Trump’s term in the White House, his niece Mary Trump released recordings of Barry speaking critically about the then-president.
“Donald’s out for Donald,” Barry said in the recordings. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. He has no principles. None. None.”
Trump was reportedly furious and deeply hurt by the comments.
A probe into Barry’s alleged judicial misconduct was dropped when she retired in 2019, in the middle of an investigation into the family’s tax records. She denied any wrongdoing.
Trump, 77, who hopes to win back the White House next year, lost his younger brother Robert S. Trump in 2020, while his first wife, Ivana Trump, died in 2022.
He made no immediate comment on Barry’s death.
