Robert Stewart Trump (August 26, 1948 – August 15, 2020) was an American businessman and investor. He was the younger brother of former U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

Early life and education

Robert Trump was born in Queens, New York City, on August 26, 1948, to Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod. He was the youngest of their five children; his siblings were Maryanne, Fred Jr.,

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

, and Donald. He graduated from St Paul's School in Garden City, Long Island. Trump attended

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campus ...

, where he majored in economics; while there, he played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to ...

and was the

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

and team captain in 1969.

Career

Trump joined his father's business and came to manage the

Trump Organization Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...

's real estate holdings outside of Manhattan. Following Mark G. Etess's death in an October 10, 1989, helicopter crash on a

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May to the New York state line at Montvale. Its name refers to New Jersey ...

median in Lacey Township,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware R ...

, Donald Trump appointed Robert Trump to serve in Etess's former position. Etess had been the top executive at the

Trump Taj Mahal The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City (formerly Trump Taj Mahal) is a casino and hotel on the Boardwalk, owned by Hard Rock International, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The casino, originally known as the ''Trump Taj Mahal,'' was inaugur ...

, Robert Trump's special sporting events coordinator, and was the master of super deals in sports and entertainment for Donald Trump.) and the KGB controller

Sergey Chemezov Sergey Viktorovich Chemezov (russian: Сергей Викторович Чемезов; born 20 August 1952) is the CEO of Rostec Corporation, a state-owned defense conglomorate. A former KGB agent and high-ranking general, Chemezov befriende ...

's Sovintersport which held a monopoly on Soviet sports. As

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

officers, both

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

and Chemezov, who were friends, lived in the same apartment building in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

when they formed Sovintersport in the 1980s. He served on the board of directors for

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland, and founded in 1999. The company owns publisher Bethesda Softworks with its development unit Bethesda Game Studios (developer of '' The Elder Scrolls, ...

, parent company to

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited, and in 1999 became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media. In ...

, a position he occupied from 1999 until his death in 2020. During his tenure as a director, ZeniMax published several series, including ''Fallout'', ''

The Elder Scrolls ''The Elder Scrolls'' is a series of Action role-playing game, action role-playing video games primarily developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The series focuses on Nonlinear gameplay, free-form gameplay in an ...

'', ''Doom'', and ''

Wolfenstein ''Wolfenstein'' is a series of World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlier titles are cent ...

''. His role at the company was highlighted by media outlets in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, when his brother linked video games to violence and subsequently met with various industry chiefs, including

Robert Altman Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New H ...

, CEO of ZeniMax. In addition to being a board member at ZeniMax, Trump was also an investor in the company. In the years prior to his death, Robert Trump was the president of Trump Management, a business owned by the Trump siblings, including Donald and Robert, as well as their sisters Maryanne Trump-Barry and Elizabeth Trump-Grau. At some point, Trump worked as a real estate developer.

Mary Trump book lawsuit

In June 2020, Robert Trump filed a lawsuit seeking to preclude the upcoming publication of the book by his niece, Mary L. Trump, '' Too Much and Never Enough''. Trump's lawsuit was based on a 2001 confidentiality agreement Mary Trump signed in settling a lawsuit related to her grandfather, Fred Trump's, will and estate. Justice Hal B. Greenwald of the New York Supreme Court ruled in July 2020 that the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, was not a party to the 2001 NDA, and its rights to publish the book were not restricted by that agreement. Greenwald affirmed that Mary Trump's contract with the publisher gave her no ability to halt publication at that point. The book was published as scheduled on July 14, 2020.

Personal life

Robert Trump lived in Millbrook, New York. In 1984, Trump married Blaine Beard, whom he met at a

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artém ...

fundraiser. He had a stepson Christopher Trump-Retchin. The two filed for divorce in 2007, and the divorce was finalized by 2009. Trump married his second wife, Ann Marie Pallan, in January 2020. Robert was a longtime friend of Robert A. Altman.

Relationship with Donald Trump

In 1990, Donald Trump put Robert in charge of the

casino in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

. The casino experienced significant problems with its grand opening, especially the slot machine financial controls, that took months to rectify. According to Jack O'Donnell, a former Trump Organization executive, at one of the meetings, "Donald Trump screamed at his brother, putting the blame for the slot machine debacle entirely on him." Robert Trump remained a loyal supporter of his brother's political career. In a 2016 interview, Robert Trump stated: "I support Donald one thousand percent." Fox commentator, Eric Bolling, following Robert's death, had stated that he and his wife Ann Marie Pallan were vigorous supporters of Donald. Trump himself stated on '' Fox & Friends'' that he was his biggest fan and would hear about his immense support from others too.

Illness and death

In June 2020, Trump reportedly spent a week in intensive care at Mount Sinai Hospital in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. On August 14, 2020, the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 ...

announced that he had again been hospitalized with a fatal stroke. Donald Trump visited him that day, later stating that Robert was seriously ill and was "having a hard time". Robert Trump died at

NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

in Manhattan the following day, August 15, 2020, at age 71. '' The New York Times'' quoted a family friend as saying that Trump had recently started experiencing intracerebral hemorrhaging after a fall. Mary L. Trump, in an interview with

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...

a few days before his death, said that Robert had been sick and hospitalized "a couple of times in the last three months." In a written statement, Donald Trump said, "He was not just my brother, he was my best friend." A

funeral service A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

was held for Robert on August 21, 2020, in the East Room attended by 150 guests. This was the first time in almost a century that a president had held a funeral in the East Room. White House officials stated that all expenses would be privately paid by President Trump.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trump, Robert 1948 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American investors American people of German descent American people of Scottish descent American real estate businesspeople American technology chief executives American video game producers Boston University Terriers men's soccer players Businesspeople from New York City People from Millbrook, New York Robert Trump The Trump Organization employees Association footballers not categorized by position Association football players not categorized by nationality