From the members of Donald Trump’s family, his niece Mary Trump has been the only one who openly criticized him. Now, in secret audio recordings, it appears Mary is not the only one who feels differently about her uncle, but her own aunt, Donald’s older sister Maryanne Trump Barry as well.
The recordings come from Mary Trump as well, in a recent conversation with her aunt, and first surfaced on The Washington Post over the weekend. Mary provided the recordings after being questioned about the sources she used for her tell-all book “Too Much and Never Enough,” that offers a scathing portrayal of her uncle. Mary had been secretly recording conversations with family members since 2018 in the hopes of catching them in a lie over the actual value of the family estate, according to her spokesman Chris Bastardi.
In the recordings, Barry has sharply criticized her brother’s response to families being separated at the border. Having previously been a federal judge who also ruled in immigration cases, Barry expressed her shock and said that her brother is someone without any principles.
“All he wants to do is to appeal his base. 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,” said Barry in the recordings.
Barry also criticized Donald for how he has handled his presidency thus far. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying…”
However, Barry’s criticism of her brother has long gone on in numerous conversations over the years. Barry described Donald as “cruel” and as someone who could not be trusted.
In response to the recordings that surface, the White House sent a statement from Trump, and his chief of staff Mark Meadows has also defended the president against his sister and his niece. Meadows said politics would be behind the criticism Barry made against her brother, even noting that she did not attend the funeral of their younger brother, Robert Trump, who passed away recently.
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller also defended the president from Barry’s comments. “This is something unfortunately when you get to the White House you have family members who sometimes decide to voice their sibling rivalries or frustrations.”