[imagesource: Reuters / David Moir]

You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family.

Just ask Donald Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, who is so tired of her uncle that she’s penned a book trying to convince Americans not to re-elect him.

Critics will say that Mary has a vested financial interest in taking potshots at her uncle, but they’ll struggle to level the same claims against 83-year-old Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald’s sister.

Mary revealed that she had secretly taped 15 hours of face-to-face conversations with Barry in 2018 and 2019, and there were some pretty frank discussions had about the current US president.

Let’s hear a snippet from those recordings, where Barry lays into her brother, and those who support him:

If that one doesn’t work for you, here’s the same audio clip via Twitter:

Ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Maryanne Trump Barry on her brother Donald J. Trump! #legend pic.twitter.com/n5EbzfwZWJ

— Eily Teague (@EilyTeague) August 23, 2020

Tell us how you really feel, Maryanne.

The Washington Post on some of her other zingers:

At one point Barry said to her niece, “It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”

…Barry told how she tried to help her brother get into college. “He was a brat,” Barry said, explaining that “I did his homework for him” and “I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college.”

Then Barry dropped what Mary considered a bombshell: “He went to Fordham for one year [actually two years] and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.”

“No way!” Mary responded. “He had somebody take his entrance exams?” “SATs or whatever. . . . That’s what I believe,” Barry said.

It’s often said that Donald values loyalty above all else, so the fact that his own sister slates him will probably sting.

Not that he’s going to state that publicly, of course:

After this story posted online Saturday night, the White House issued this statement from the president that said in full: “Every day it’s something else, who cares. I miss my brother, and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before!”

A real lack of vigour in that response.

Also in the audio recordings was Barry relaying a story about how her brother tried to take credit for her rising through the professional ranks:

She wasn’t done, either:

Does Donald read much? I mean, I think we know the answer to that…

If you ain’t watching Fox News, how else can you pass the time?

Golfing usually does the trick.

[source:washpost]