Donald Trump’s younger brother Robert Trump dies at 71
New York: President Donald Trump's younger brother, Robert Trump, a businessman known for an even keel that seemed almost incompatible with the family name, died Saturday night after being hospitalised in New York, the president said in a statement. He was 71.
The president visited his brother at a New York City hospital on Friday after White House officials said he had become seriously ill.
It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight," Donald Trump said in a statement. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.
The youngest of the Trump siblings remained close to the 74-year-old president and, as recently as June, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family that unsuccessfully sought to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president's niece, Mary.
Robert Trump had reportedly been hospitalised in the intensive care unit for several days that same month.
Both longtime businessmen, Robert and Donald had strikingly different personalities. Donald Trump once described his younger brother as much quieter and easygoing than I am, and "the only guy in my life whom I ever call 'honey.' Robert Trump began his career on Wall Street working in corporate finance but later joined the family business, managing real estate holdings as a top executive in the Trump Organization.
When he worked in the Trump Organization, he was known as the nice Trump," Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer, told The Associated Press. Robert was the one people would try to get to intervene if there was a problem. Robert Stewart Trump was born in 1948, the youngest of New York City real estate developer Fred Trump's five children.
The president, two years older than Robert, admittedly bullied his brother in their younger years, even as he praised his loyalty and laid-back demeanor.
I think it must be hard to have me for a brother but he's never said anything about it and we're very close," Donald Trump wrote in his 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal.
Robert gets along with almost everyone," he added, "which is great for me since I sometimes have to be the bad guy. In the 1980s, Donald Trump tapped Robert Trump to oversee an Atlantic City casino project, calling him the perfect fit for the job. When it cannibalised his other casinos, though, he pointed the finger of blame at Robert, said Blair, author of "The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire."
When the slot machines jammed the opening weekend at the Taj Mahal, he very specifically and furiously denounced Robert, and Robert walked out and never worked for his brother again, Blair said.
A Boston University graduate, Robert Trump later managed the Brooklyn portion of father Fred Trump's real estate empire, which was eventually sold.
Once a regular boldface name in Manhattan's social pages, Robert Trump had kept a lower profile in recent years. He was not a newsmaker, Blair said.
Before divorcing his first wife, Blaine Trump, more than a decade ago, Robert Trump had been active on Manhattan's Upper East Side charity circuit.
He avoided the limelight during his elder brother's presidency, having retired to the Hudson Valley. But he described himself as a big supporter of the White House run in a 2016 interview with the New York Post.
I support Donald one thousand percent, Robert Trump said. In early March of 2020, he married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan.
The eldest Trump sibling and Mary's father, Fred Trump Jr., struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43. The president's surviving siblings include Elizabeth Trump Grau and Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal appeals judge.
Authors Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher described Robert Trump as soft spoken but cerebral in Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President : He lacked Donald's charismatic showmanship, and he was happy to leave the bravado to his brother, but he could show flashes of Trump temper."
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Modi agreed to caste census out of fear: Rahul Gandhi
Darbhanga (Bihar) (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to hold a caste census "out of fear" of the country's deprived population, to which the opposition was lending its voice.
The leader of the opposition made the remark at a charged-up interaction with students in Darbhanga district of Bihar, where he defied attempts of the local administration to thwart him from reaching the venue.
"As you all are aware, my car was stopped at the gate (of Mithila University). But I did not relent. I got out and took a circuitous route to reach here on foot," said the Rae Bareli MP, who launched 'Shiksha Nyay Samvad', a public interaction programme in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year.
Gandhi was speaking at the varsity's Ambedkar Hostel, where permission for holding the event had been denied by the administration, evoking outrage from the Congress which rejected the suggestion that the programme be held at an alternative venue.
The former Congress president said, "Do you realise why the government in Bihar could not stop me? It was because I am propelled by the vast pool of energy that you embody. It is the same energy before which Narendra Modi had to bow."
"We told Modi you shall touch the Constitution with your head and he ended up doing so. We had also told him you will have to hold a caste census. On both occasions, Modi acceded to the demands out of fear of a backlash from you people," Gandhi claimed.
"But the fact remains that his government serves the interests of Ambani, Adani and their ilk. The system is working for the benefit of five per cent of the population. Dalits, OBCs and tribals have no say, be it in the government, the corporate world or even the media," he alleged.
He urged the youngsters to not get distracted and remain focused on three demands -- an effective caste census on the lines of the survey conducted in (Congress-ruled) Telangana, reservations in private colleges and universities and release of funds allocated to the sub-plan for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.
"You can expect little from the NDA. But rest assured that your interests will be taken care of when we come to power, be it in Bihar or at the Centre," he added.
Donning his trademark white polo T-shirt and cargo pants, Gandhi spoke into a hand-held mic and the crowds erupted in chants of 'Jai Bhim' when, towards the end of his speech, he held aloft a portrait of Dr B R Ambedkar.
He also sought to strike a chord with the audience by making one of the attendees, who identified himself as a hosteller hailing from a poor family of daily wage earners, voice his sentiments.
The youngster urged the leader of the opposition to raise in Parliament the issue of discrimination against students from the backward classes and inadequate representation of the underdogs in the media.
"Thanks for sharing your views. Say my namaste to your parents and siblings when you go home," said Gandhi, as he bade goodbye to the student.
