Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s Sister, Dies at 86: NYPD

Former President Donald Trump’s sister and longtime appeals court judge, Maryanne Trump Barry, passed away at age 86.
Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s Sister, Dies at 86: NYPD
President Trump (L) is pictured with his sister Maryanne Trump Barry on June 10, 2008. ED Jones/AFP via Getty Images
Jack Phillips
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Maryanne Trump Barry, a former federal court judge and the older sister of former President Donald Trump, has died at age 86, according to a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

A spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed to The Epoch Times that she died on Nov. 13.

The NYPD also told Fox News that she died, and it was reported that there were no signs of foul play.

The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will now have to determine her cause of death. The cause of death wasn’t released, and no city officials have publicly commented on the matter.

Unnamed sources told The New York Times and other outlets that she died at her Upper East Side, Manhattan, home. Police were called to the home early on the morning of Nov. 13, those people said.

Neither the former president nor other Trump family members have released a comment about her death. In 2016, President Trump called his sister a “highly respected judge” and noted they disagree on some public policy issues.

In 2015, he also suggested his sister could be considered for the U.S. Supreme Court. “I think she would be phenomenal; I think she would be one of the best,” he told Bloomberg, also describing her as “very smart and a very good person.”

Ms. Barry was a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit until her retirement in 2019. She was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s before President Bill Clinton appointed her to the 3rd Appeals Court in 1999, where she remained for decades.

Three of the former president’s four siblings have now died. Robert Trump, his youngest brother, died in August 2020 at age 71, and his brother Fred Trump Jr. died of a heart attack at age 42 in 1981.

His first wife, Ivana Trump, died last year.

Ms. Barry had been married and was the widow of John Barry, a trial and appellate attorney.

The eldest child of real-estate businessman Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, she graduated from Mount Holyoke College in Hampshire County in Massachusetts before earning a master’s in public law and government from Columbia University, according to the Federal Judicial Center’s website. She later obtained her juris doctorate from Hofstra University.

In 2020, media outlets released audio excerpts of secret recordings that Ms. Barry made about her brother, who was president at the time, as President Trump’s niece Mary Trump released a critical book about her uncle’s presidency.

At the time, the Trump White House released a statement, saying: “Every day it’s something else, who cares. I miss my brother, and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before.”

The Epoch Times contacted a spokesperson for President Trump for comment but received none by press time.

President Trump’s lone surviving sibling is Elizabeth Trump Grau, who is 81 years old.

Allen Zhong contributed to this report.
Jack Phillips
Jack Phillips
Breaking News Reporter
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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