Getty Donald Trump hugs his brother Robert Trump. /Robert and his first wife, Blaine Trump.
Robert Trump was the youngest brother of President Donald Trump. Trump was the manager for the real estate holdings for the Trump Organization outside Manhattan, New York. He was a retired business executive and real estate developer.
Robert Trump had a net worth of $200 million in 2019, according to Celebrity Net Worth. He died Saturday, August 15, 2020, in a New York hospital, where he had been admitted for an illness. The details surrounding his death and illness were not immediately released.
President Donald Trump released a statement on his brother’s passing in the hours following his death.
“It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Trump said in the 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.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Robert Trump Was the Quietest Member of the Trump Family & Stayed Out of the Spotlight
The White House said President Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, died on Saturday.
Robert Trump was the youngest of five children in the Trump family, and was not pressured to take over the Trump family real estate business, The New York Times reported. He was born in 1948 to Fred Trump and Mary Ann McLeod Trump.
His quiet personality which caused him to veer away from the spotlight, according to The New York Times.
“You could consider him the quietest of Trumps,” said Michael D’Antonio, a Trump biographer. “He was glad to stay out of the spotlight.”
He was described as easygoing person, dignified and a good listener, Jack O’Donnell, a former Trump Organization executive who worked closely with the Trump family, told the Times. O’Donnell said Robert Trump was a good person to work alongside in the family business.
“He was dignified, he was quiet, he listened, he was good to work with,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “He had zero sense of entitlement. Robert was very comfortable being Donald Trump’s brother and not being like him.”
2. Robert Trump Began His Career Working in Corporate Finance on Wall Street
Mr. President I’m so sorry for the loss of your beloved brother Robert Trump
I’m asking everyone in America to keep our leader and his family in your prayers.
#RIPRobertTrump
Robert Trump began his career working in corporate finance on Wall Street. He later joined the Trump family business, and managed real estate holdings as a top executive in the Trump Organization, according to The Washington Times.
Trump described his brother as “much quieter and easygoing than I am,” Donald Trump said, according to the Times. He went onto say his youngest brother was “the only guy in my life whom I ever call ‘honey.”
Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer, described Robert Trump as “the nice Trump” in an interview with the Associated Press.
“When he worked in the Trump Organisation, he was known as the nice Trump,” Blair said. “Robert was the one people would try to get to intervene if there was a problem.”
3. Robert Trump Was the Executive Director of the Trump Organization & Oversaw its Casinos
President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert Trump, has died after being hospitalized in New York
Robert Trump served as an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. Part of his duties included overseeing the organization’s Atlantic City casinos, CNN reported.
Robert Trump’s role with Donald Trump’s casinos was short-lived, The New York Times reported in 2005.
It was in the 1980s that Donald Trump selected brother Robert Trump to oversee an Atlantic City casino project. At the time, he called his brother the perfect fit for the job. But later, Donald Trump “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.
Despite the conflict, Donald Trump said he and his brother were “very close” in his 1987 bestseller “The Art of the Deal.”
“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. “Robert gets along with almost everyone, which is great for me since I sometimes have to be the bad guy.”
4. Robert Trump Retired to the Hudson Valley & Supported Charities
Robert Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, has died at a New York hospital. He was 71. t.co/eChG41RcE6
Robert Trump was enjoying his retirement in upstate Dutchess County, New York when he was struck with an illness and hospitalized. He supported local charities, including Angels of Light and a horse rescue group.
Robert Trump was a trustee of Angels of Light, a holiday giving nonprofit, and donated heavily to a horse rescue operation in the area, among other organizations, Town & Country reported.
He also sat on the board of directors for ZeniMax Media, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The U.S. Marshals Service awarded CertiPath a $33 million contract in October, 2019, a company owned in part by a firm linked to Robert Trump since 2013. The government contract aimed to provide security for federal courthouses and cellblocks and drew protests.
Ivanka Trump, Robert Trump’s niece, wrote a tribute to her uncle on Twitter in the hours after his death.
Uncle Robert, we love you. You are in our hearts and prayers, always.
“Uncle Robert, we love you. You are in our hearts and prayers, always,” she wrote.
5. Robert Trump Fought the Release of a Memoir Written by his Niece, Mary Trump
This is the Associated Press lede of their Robert Trump obituary
Robert rarely made his way into the public eye in his retirement years, but he emerged into the spotlight twice during Donald Trump’s presidency. In 2016, he supported his brother’s campaign for president, telling Page Six, “I support Donald one thousand percent. I think he’s doing a great job. I think he’s got a great message.”
More recently, he was in the spotlight to fight the release of niece Mary Trump’s memoir, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” according to the New York Post. He sued to block publication of the book, saying it would violate a 2001 nondisclosure agreement barring her from speaking publicly about family members.
“Donald had discovered early on how easy it was to get under Robert’s pale skin and push him past his limits; it was a game he never tired of playing,” Mary Trump wrote. “Nobody else would have bothered — Robert was so skinny and quiet that there was no sport in tormenting him.”
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Robert Trump Net Worth: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know