Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal judge and the older sister of former President Donald Trump has died at the age of 86. She was found dead at about 04:00 EST (09:00 GMT) on Monday morning in her New York City apartment, according to ABC News. There were no signs of trauma or foul play.
The cause of her death has not yet been revealed, according to the New York Times.
Born on April 5, 1937, in Queens, New York City, Maryanne Trump Barry was the eldest child of real estate developer Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.
As per BBC, Mrs Barry served as a federal judge in New Jersey from 1983 until her retirement in 2019. She was appointed in 1983 by then-US president Ronald Reagan to be a judge in New Jersey's US district court. Later, in 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She retired in 2019 as she faced a misconduct inquiry over reports she participated in a scheme to avoid taxes.
She married twice, first to David Desmond, with whom she had one son, and then to John Joseph Barry, who died in 2000.
Mrs Barry was close to Donald Trump for decades and was one of the few people whose advice he sought. However in 2020, the last year of Trump's term in the White House, his niece Mary Trump released recordings of Mrs Barry speaking critically about the then-president. She described the US president as cruel and a liar whose lack of principles meant he could not be trusted.
"Donald's out for Donald," she 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.''
The former president and his sister were on better terms recently. They saw each other over the summer at Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey club.
Notably, she is the third of Mr Trump's four siblings to have passed away. As per ABC News, Robert Trump, his youngest brother, died in August 2020 at 71 years old. Fred Trump Jr. died of a heart attack at just 42 years old in September 1981. His only surviving sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, 81, is a former banker.
