A person’s inner life remains concealed from all but God. Reflections on family and mortality, however, can bring parts of that life to the surface.
Maryanne Trump Barry, older sister of former President Donald Trump, passed away Monday at the age of 86.
In an under-the-radar interview conducted little more than a month before Barry’s passing, the 77-year-old former president shared memories of family members he has lost, including his father and two brothers.
Raheem Kassam of The National Pulse conducted the 37-minute interview and posted it to X.
Trump, of course, spent time lamenting the state of the country and the failed presidency of Joe Biden. Kassam’s line of questioning, however, appeared to put the former president at ease and thus make him more reflective on personal matters.
At one point, for instance, Kassam asked if Trump would try to shape his own legacy by writing an autobiography.
“I will when we’re finished,” the former president replied.
This led Trump into a series of comments on the intensity of spirit he has felt from his supporters. He then mingled this observation with a rhetorical question about how much his supporters like him personally.
“The level of love and spirit — and I think what they do is — they like what I say. I think they like me. You know, they like to say, ‘They like his policy, but they don’t like him.’ I think they like me. Why wouldn’t they like me?”
Did you know Trump had 4 siblings?
Yes: 27% (9 Votes)
No: 73% (24 Votes)
The former president went on to talk about the campaign, but Kassam brought the conversation back to the personal. The interviewer asked Trump about the people in his life whom he misses most.
“Well, I had two really good brothers,” Trump said.
His older brother, Fred Trump Jr., passed away in 1981 at the age of 42. The former president recalled that Fred struggled with alcohol and thus admonished him never to drink or smoke.
Then his thoughts turned to his younger brother Robert, who passed away on Aug. 15, 2020 — eleven days short of his 72nd birthday.
“My other brother Robert, I was very close to. Passed away two years ago. Wonderful guy. He was so proud of me,” Trump recalled.
Finally, the former president remembered his father, Fred Trump Sr., who died in 1999 at age 93.
“You learn from people. My father was a great guy. He was very strong, very tough. But he had a tremendous heart. Tremendous heart. He was very generous in so many ways,” the former president said.
Trump added that his father loved what he did for a living. And this trait, according to the former president, defines most successful people.
In short, Trump learned temperance, humility, resilience and generosity from his father and two brothers.
The establishment media and others who misunderstand Trump would scoff at this notion, but by far the most important of these qualities — the one that has served him best — is humility.
For instance, when Kassam asked Trump about being the most famous person in the world, the former president replied with an anecdote about golf and an old acquaintance.
At first, as Trump meandered through the story, it did not seem that the anecdote would go anywhere. But it did. In fact, it concluded in the only response one should ever make to a question about one’s fame.
“The most famous person in the world is Jesus Christ,” Trump said.
Readers can view the entire interview here:
WATCH: @RaheemKassam interviews @realDonaldTrump at Mar a Lago in what Steve Bannon called the greatest interview of Donald Trump he has ever seen. pic.twitter.com/qCIrq8kbq4
— The National Pulse (@TheNatPulse) September 29, 2023
For eight years, Trump has almost single-handedly battled some of the world’s darkest forces, from deep state to establishment media.
As I watched, I often wondered if he drew strength from all the animus directed toward him. In fact, more than once he has seemed to embody the man who craves what 19th-century English poet Coventry Patmore called “the fine mountain air of public obloquy.”
Kassam’s interview, however, reminded me that Trump’s true source of strength lay in Christ. Amid relentless political persecution from evildoers — and having suffered personal losses — the former president needs our prayers.
