Donald Trump's 'seriously ill' brother admitted to hospital in New York
14 August 2020, 20:28
Donald Trump's younger brother Robert has been admitted to hospital in New York, according to the White House.
The US President was scheduled to visit his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Friday but will instead return to New York to see his 72-year-old brother at a hospital in Manhattan.
The White House did not immediately release details about why Robert Trump had been taken to hospital, but officials said he was seriously ill.
"I have a wonderful brother. We've had a great relationship for a long time, from day one," Mr Trump told reporters before departing for New York.
"He's in the hospital right now, and hopefully he'll be all right. But he's having a hard time."
Robert Trump recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family seeking to stop publication of a tell-all book - titled Too Much And Never Enough - by the president's niece Mary.
He has also previously worked for his older brother at the Trump Organisation.
The president claims her book violated a non-disclosure agreement she signed in connection to a financial settlement she received from the Trump family.
Mary is a daughter of the brothers' eldest sibling, Fred Trump Jr, who struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43.
No family members joined Fred Jr, known as Freddy, at the hospital on the night he died, she said, adding that Donald Trump went to the movies with another sibling instead.
Read more: Donald Trump's niece Mary's tell-all interview with LBC
Once a regular face in Manhattan's social pages, Robert Trump has kept a lower profile in recent years.
He married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan, in March, according to the New York Post. He divorced his first wife, Blaine Trump, more than a decade ago.
In a 2016 interview with the New York Post, he described himself as a big supporter of his brother's run for the White House, adding: "I support Donald 1,000%."
