WASHINGTON — President Trump visited his youthful brother, Robert S. Trump, on Friday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.Robert Trump, 7
WASHINGTON — President Trump visited his youthful brother, Robert S. Trump, on Friday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan.
Robert Trump, 72, two years youthful than the president, has been ailing for months and is alleged to be gravely unwell. He was additionally hospitalized in June.
“I’ve an exquisite brother,” the president mentioned Friday throughout a information convention on the White Home. “We’ve had an important relationship for a very long time, from Day 1, a very long time in the past, and he’s within the hospital proper now, and hopefully he’ll be all proper.” However the president added that Robert Trump was “having a tough time.”
Kayleigh McEnany, the White Home press secretary, added in an electronic mail that “Robert could be very particular” to the president. She didn’t say why Robert Trump was within the hospital.
Upon touchdown in New York Metropolis, Mr. Trump posted on Twitter that he was there to go to his brother, however he added a plug for his re-election marketing campaign by attaching {a photograph} of the entrance web page of The New York Put up that featured an interview he gave to the newspaper. “We’re going for New York on November third,” the president tweeted. He was on the hospital for slightly below an hour.
Because the youngest son within the strict family of Fred C. Trump, Robert Trump was shielded from a few of the strain exerted by his disciplinarian father over his older brothers. In “The Artwork of the Deal,” Donald Trump writes of stealing his youthful brother’s blocks and gluing them collectively. “That was the top of Robert’s blocks,” he writes, proudly.
Regardless that Robert Trump was by no means groomed to take over the household firm, he loyally went to work for it after his father handed the reins to Donald Trump. Robert Trump served as an government vp of the Trump Group, and he helped oversee its casinos in Atlantic Metropolis, N.J.
Trump Group workers referred to Robert Trump because the “good Trump,” in keeping with Gwenda Blair, a Trump household biographer. However after a blowout combat in 1990 together with his older brother after the opening of the Taj Mahal on line casino, he stopped reporting on to Donald Trump.
“Donald pointed the finger at Robert,” Ms. Blair mentioned. “When the opening weekend was botched and the slot machines acquired jammed up, he blamed Robert for that. Robert stormed out and by no means labored for him once more immediately.”
After that, Robert Trump was sidelined within the firm. “You may think about him the quietest of Trumps,” mentioned Michael D’Antonio, a Trump biographer. “He was glad to remain out of the highlight. He had a really low-key function within the Trump Group itself. I might by no means inform fairly what he did, nevertheless it was not public-facing.”
However Robert Trump remained loyal to his household, serving as its unofficial spokesman and consigliere.
He has in latest months led the household in its unsuccessful bid to dam the publication of a memoir by their niece Mary L. Trump — the daughter of their deceased older brother, Fred Trump Jr. — that described many years of household dysfunction and brutality that she claimed turned Donald Trump right into a reckless chief. It was the president’s youthful brother who requested the restraining order in a submitting in Queens County Surrogate’s Courtroom.
Earlier than that, Robert Trump was the one who spearheaded the household response in 1999 when Mary Trump and her brother, Fred Trump III, sued for his or her father’s share of the household property.
Robert Trump was already unwell when he helped the president within the more moderen lawsuit. “It appeared Robert was being dragged out of a sickbed to someway contest this,” Mr. D’Antonio mentioned. “He was keen for use by Donald, however by no means wanting to be out entrance.”
Robert Trump, who for years was married to Blaine Trump, a New York Metropolis socialite, was extra accepted in society circles than Donald Trump ever was, Mr. D’Antonio mentioned. However he all the time toed the household line that the Trumps have been devoted to 1 one other.
The president’s resolution to go to Robert Trump within the hospital is totally different from how he dealt with information in 1981 that his older brother, Fred Trump Jr., was in grave form. In response to Mary Trump’s account, Donald Trump went to the films the evening Fred Trump Jr. died.
However Ms. Blair mentioned that in mild of the crack that Mary Trump’s memoir has put within the Trump household lore, the president would have had no alternative.
“It’s very a lot a part of the Trump household legend that they’re a tight-knit, loyal group,” she mentioned. “That’s the household modus operandi. Mary Trump has lately instructed in any other case, however I feel as a part of the response to that, Donald Trump would haven’t any alternative however to go.”