President Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, released more secretly recorded conversations with the president's sister Friday, in which Maryanne Trump Barry can be heard criticizing Ivanka Trump and branding her a "mini-Donald."
Mary appeared on MSNBC's The ReidOut on Friday to discuss the recordings. The 55 year old is the daughter of the president's late older brother Fred Trump Jr., who died in 1981.
She wrote a tell all book published in July titled: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, and has since been releasing secretly recorded audio clips.
In the recordings released Friday, Barry can be heard complaining about Ivanka's conduct and mocking Eric Trump, the president's second son. She was discussing Ivanka's decision to post a photo of herself with one of her children on Instagram even while the Trump administration was separating children from their families at the southern border.
"When that damn Ivanka puts this picture of the 'Madonna and Child' on Instagram when the big news of the day was how kids are being ripped from their families," Barry said on the recording. "I couldn't blame—I'd never heard of Samantha Bee before. I couldn't blame what she said."
Barry was seemingly referring to Bee's attack on Ivanka following her photo post, branding the president's daughter a "feckless ****." Bee later apologized after being criticized for the remark, though maintained she was not trying to placate right-wingers in doing so.
"Ivanka gives a ****. She's all about her," Barry said. "She's a mini-Donald, but yet he's besotted with her. He always has been. She's always been his favorite." Barry had cutting words for Eric too. "Eric's become the moron publicly," she said.
Previous recordings have included Barry describing the president as "stupid," "cruel" and having "no principles."
Friday's clips included more scathing comments on Trump. "And then you get Donald who won't do anything for anybody unless it's going to inure to his—I mean, he won't do any—publicly," Barry said.
"I mean, if you—anything he did, he says, 'Look what I've done. Aren't I wonderful?' And he's as tight as a duck's ass. Just like dad was, really."
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller dismissed previous recordings as evidence of routine familial tensions. "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," he said earlier this month.
Trump has also rebuffed Barry's recorded allegations. He has described Mary as "a seldom seen niece who knows little about me, says untruthful things about my wonderful parents (who couldn't stand her!) and me, and violated her [non-disclosure agreement]."
Correction 9/2/2020, 9:05 a.m. ET: An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the MSNBC program The ReidOut.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
