As Donald Trump prepares to do a speech at 10 p.m. EST each night at this week’s Republican convention, the Washington Post has published a report based on secret recordings showing that his older sister Maryanne Trump told his niece Mary Trump that the President is a cruel “liar” who has “no principles” and can’t be trusted.
Here’s one segment from the recording:
Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”
Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
Lamenting “what they’re doing with kids at the border,” she guessed her brother “hasn’t read my immigration opinions” in court cases. In one case, she berated a judge for failing to treat an asylum applicant respectfully.
How did the recordings surface?
In the weeks since Mary Trump’s tell-all book about her uncle has been released, she’s been questioned about the source of some of the information, such as her allegation that Trump paid a friend to take his SATs to enable him to transfer into the University of Pennsylvania. Nowhere in the book does she say that she recorded conversations with her aunt.
In response to a question from The Washington Post about how she knew the president paid someone to take the SATs, Mary Trump revealed that she had surreptitiously taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019. She provided The Post with previously unreleased transcripts and audio excerpts, which include exchanges that are not in her book.
One other quote from the post:
At one point Barry said to her niece, “It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”
Will any of this matter?
Not to Trump’s hardcore supporters who will dismiss it as family rivalry or a disgruntled relative. But it may add something to the ever-expanding info coming out which indicates is a less than stellar human being who is...truth challenged.
The U.S. is highly polarized politically. There are now fewer independents or wavering voters. At the least, these revelations, coming on the heels of Mary Trump’s best-selling book and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s upcoming book (already number 7 on Amazon), are likely to turn off many undecided voters due to the sheer volume of the revelations.
Mark Meadows smears Trump’s sister over audio tapes: ‘She didn’t show up for her brother’s funeral’ https://t.co/VjvRQVgcmH
— #TuckFrump (@realTuckFrumper) August 23, 2020
Pelosi on Trump's sister saying he's a selfish, cruel liar with no principles: "The president is calling everything a hoax … which is just a projection of what he is: a hoax. This is just further evidence of his inauthenticity and his lack of integrity." pic.twitter.com/DyNyp3ICOt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 23, 2020
Tonight's statement from Trump asks: "Who cares?" The answer: Anyone who cares about him and his performance in office. The secretly-recorded comments from his sister Maryanne are new evidence of the president's isolation. pic.twitter.com/5dPibJ5l4D
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 23, 2020
No surprise that Trump had someone else take SAT for him. Given hi's lack of vocabulary and business acumen, how else could he have scored well enough to get in? Still great hearing his sister admit this. News here is that he went to Fordham before getting in, a fact he hides. https://t.co/JKXz9967QP
— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) August 23, 2020
Speaker Pelosi responds to Trump’s sister calling him cruel: "It's heartbreaking to think that a family member of the President would have that view of him. This is further evidence of his lack of integrity." #MoscowMitchFundUSPSNow https://t.co/X11ioYZ267
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 23, 2020
"He reads more than probably anybody I know," Mark Meadows says on ABC when asked about secretly recorded audio of President Trump's sister saying someone else took his SATs.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 23, 2020
Straight from HIS SISTER’S mouth ?
Leaked audio of Maryanne Trump Barry
She did not attend her brother's funeral yesterday that her other brother hosted at the White Housepic.twitter.com/nFigY1gfyl
— Lindy Li (@lindyli) August 23, 2020
Trump's sister Maryann irreparably crushed him. He can't come back from close family saying he's cruel, lying & untrustworthy. Wait for the backstory & outtakes.
He doesn't read due to his dementia. He can't focus, decipher or retain info. He repeats familiar words, that's it.
— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) August 23, 2020
Trump is on every night because he has never seen a TV he did not want to be before. This is good for Biden because Donald is now recognized by all as he is to his big sister: stupid, unprincipled, and untruthful. While his base is with him no one else can stand him, rightly so. https://t.co/NlmRFDpHeY
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) August 23, 2020
The story is prominently featured on the Drudge Report — in red letters:
For more discussion on this issue GO HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.