By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s sister, a retired federal judge, called him a liar with “no principles” in audio recordings made public this weekend, the latest attack on the president’s character in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.
Maryanne Trump Barry, 83, also criticized the Republican president for “phoniness” and “cruelty” in interviews that were secretly recorded by her niece Mary Trump during a series of conversations in 2018 and 2019, according to The Washington Post, which obtained the recordings from her.
The remarks surfaced days before Republicans convene to back Trump for another four years in the election against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Last week, more than 70 former Republican national security officials endorsed Biden, saying Trump had engaged in corrupt behavior “that renders him unfit to serve as president.”
Trump dismissed his sister’s remarks in a written statement.
“Every day it’s something else, who cares,” he said. “Our country will soon be stronger than ever before!”
Trump Barry could not immediately be reached for comment.
In one of the recordings, some of which were also obtained by Reuters, Trump Barry addressed the president’s suggestion in 2018 – while she was still a sitting judge – that he might send her to the border to deal with a surge in migrants.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Trump Barry said. “He has no principles. None.”
Mary Trump, the president’s niece and a trained psychologist, published a tell-all book in July in which she concluded he likely suffers from narcissism and other clinical disorders.
Chris Bastardi, a spokesman for Mary Trump, said she taped the conversations as part of a legal dispute over her inheritance following the death of Fred Trump Sr., the president’s father and her grandfather, “in order to protect herself.”
(Reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Mary Milliken and Chizu Nomiyama)
