'Donald Is Cruel:' Maryanne Trump Barry Dishes On Everything We Already Know About Her Brother

Too bad Trumpists won't care.

In the beginning, Mary Trump did not reveal her source on the information that Trump had someone take his SATs for him — she simply said it was simply "somebody who would have absolutely no reason to make it up."

Turns out, that's true — the source of that information was none other than Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump's older sister. The tape of Barry telling this story to Mary Trump, along with several other anecdotes, was obtained by the Washington Post , which published a report on Saturday night.

Let's take a look at some of the dishier parts, shall we?

Here's what she said about his whole "putting kids in cages at the border" thing:

"All he wants to do is appeal to his base," Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. "He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this."

Of course, there are lots of very religious people who don't want to help anyone at all, and many non-religious people who do (Hi!). But no, Donald Trump, regardless of his beliefs about the supernatural, does not want to help anyone.

Barry also does not much care for all of his tweeting and lying:

Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. "His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God," she said. "I'm talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit."

More interesting, however, are her anedotes about what a little snot he was and how she did his homework for him.

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."

And how he is phony and cruel.

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."

And, of course, the story of how someone took his exams for him.

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. "I even remember the name." That person was Joe Shapiro, Barry said.

Donald Trump was friends with a person at Penn named Joe Shapiro, who is deceased. Shapiro's widow and sister told The Post last month that he never took a test for anybody, including Trump. Mary Trump has said it was a different Joe Shapiro, but that person has not surfaced.

Of course, while this may be very satisfying and carthartic for us ... the Trumpists over on the AskTrumpSupporters subreddit, at least, do not give a flying shit. Either they don't believe her, or they do believe her and they do not care.

Reddit 

I believe the claims, always thought there's no way he had any education, based off of how he speaks and rich people going to fancy colleges barely ever is legit.

It doesn't change my opinion of him since I already presumed what his sister has been saying about him.

A particularly hilarious defense read:

She clearly does not know her brother and hasn't been in his inner circle for years. Therefore is worth about as much to me as any given outsider's opinion. Many families are like that. President Trump is a voracious reader and everyone in his inner circle knows that.

Absolutely no one says this. And yet this person believes it. Probably believes it with their whole heart and soul.

It's hard, I think, to believe that people are either stupid enough to believe that Trump is a "voracious reader" or that they would not care that he is, very obviously, quite stupid.

The fact is — anyone who would not vote for Trump because he is cruel or phony or a bad person or very stupid is already not voting for him. As satisfying as it is for us to read these things, they don't care and they're not going to care. They don't care about his character, they don't care that he is not sincerely religious, they don't care that he is not particularly smart. If anything, not being smart helps him, because America hates smart people.

For whatever reason, Trump is basically immune to the effects of negative publicity, so if we want to win this, we've got to focus on how life will be better for everyone without him.

Anyway! This is now your open thread! Enjoy!

[ Washington Post ]

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