Maryanne Trump Barry, former president’s older sister, dies aged 86

Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge and former president Donald Trump’s oldest sister, has died aged 86 at her home in New York.

Until her retirement in 2019, she was a senior judge on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, a level below the Supreme Court.

New York police said officers were sent to her Manhattan home just before 4.30am and found an 86-year-old woman dead.

The cause of her death was not clear.

The former president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, spoke briefly about his aunt as he left a Manhattan court on Monday, calling it a “rough day for myself and my family”.

Mr Trump Jr told reporters after giving evidence in a civil fraud trial that he had been told the news as he pulled up to the court on Monday.

“I’m very close with her grandson. We hang out all the time. And so it’s obviously a rough day for that,” he said.

Before becoming a judge, Ms Barry became an assistant US attorney in 1974 and was nominated to the federal court in New Jersey by former president Ronald Reagan.

She was later elevated to the US Court of Appeals by former president Bill Clinton.

She retired in 2019 amid an investigation into her family’s tax practices.

Ms Barry had stayed largely out of the spotlight during her brother’s presidency, but drew headlines after her niece, Mary Trump, revealed that she had secretly recorded her aunt while promoting a book that denounced the former president.

In the recordings, Ms Barry could be heard sharply criticising her brother, at one point saying the former president “has no principles” and is “cruel”.

The former president’s younger brother, Robert Trump, died in 2020 aged 71, and Mr Trump held a service at the White House in his honour.

His older brother, Fred Trump Jr, died of a heart attack aged 42.

Donald Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana Trump, died in 2022 at the age of 73.