Maryanne Trump Barry, the elder sister of former President Donald Trump and a former federal judge, passed away at the age of 86 in November 2023.
According to ABC News, Barry was discovered deceased in her Fifth Avenue residence around 4 a.m. Until her retirement in 2019, Barry served as a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Initially appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, she later received an appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1999 by President Bill Clinton.
Barry often spoke about her father’s wealth and expressed on numerous occasions that she voluntarily “stepped down” from her career to avoid competing with Donald in business. “I knew better even as a child than to even attempt to compete with Donald,” she told New York Magazine. “I wouldn’t have been able to win. He was building models when he was very young. Huge buildings.”
In her book “The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire,” she acknowledged Donald’s assistance in her legal career: “There’s no question Donald helped me get on the bench. I was good, but not that good.”
However, despite their longstanding support for each other, The Washington Post released secretly recorded conversations in which Barry described Donald Trump as a “cruel” man lacking in principles.
“He has no principles. None. None,” Barry remarked to her niece Mary Trump in one of the recordings. “And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”
“He got into the University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams,” she alleged in the recording. “SATs or whatever. That’s what I believe.”
At the time, the White House denied these allegations. Barry was married to the late John Barry, a trial and appellate lawyer.
Following her passing, it was determined that there were no indications of foul play or trauma. Emergency responders were called to her residence in response to a report of cardiac arrest.
May she rest in peace.
