SOURCE:
THE HILLURL:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/264579-report-trump-helped-draft-will-that-excluded-his-brothersby: Rebecca Kheel
Donald Trump’s tumultuous relationship with his older brother was capped off by the brother’s children being cut out of Trump’s father’s will, according to a Saturday report in The New York Times.
Freddy Trump, who eschewed the family business in favor of becoming a pilot, died in 1981 at the age of 43 after years of suffering from alcoholism.
Looking back at his brother, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump told The Times he learned from his brother’s mistakes and that he realizes his brother was better off as a pilot.
“He would have been an amazing peacemaker if he didn’t have the problem, because everybody loved him,” he said. “He’s like the opposite of me.”
When Donald Trump’s father, Fred Sr., died in 1999, the roughly $20 million inheritance was divided up among his children and their descendants, “other than my son Fred C. Trump Jr.,” according to the Times.
Donald Trump had helped draft the will. At the time, Freddy Trump’s children sued, claiming Donald Trump and his siblings had used “undue influence” over their grandfather, who had dementia.
Donald retaliated by withdrawing the medical benefits he had promised to his nephew’s infant son, who suffered from seizures that led to cerebral palsy, according to the Times.
“I was angry because they sued,” Trump told the Times. The suit was settled “very amicably,” he added.
The Times article also details Freddy Trump’s struggles trying his hand at the family real estate business. He helped his father build Trump Village in the 1960s but was berated for installing expensive new windows instead of repairing old ones, according to the Times.
When he left real estate to become a pilot, Donald Trump gave his brother a hard time and told him to come back to the family business.
“I was too young; I didn’t realize,” he told the Times. “Now I give speeches on success, and I tell people, ‘You’ve got to love what you’re doing.’”
Trump also said he has never tried alcohol or cigarettes because of his brother’s struggles.
When asked whether he thinks his brother’s drinking was caused in part by his bad experience with the family business, Donald Trump responded: “I hope not. I hope not.”