Robert Stewart 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, and Donald. Trump attended Boston University where he majored in economics; while there he played soccer and was the MVP and team captain in 1969.

Robert Trump lived in Millbrook, New York. In 1980, Trump married Blaine Beard, whom he met at a Christie’s 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 March 2020.

In 1990, Donald Trump put Robert in charge of the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 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.” Eric Bolling after 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.

He served on the board of directors for ZeniMax Media, parent company to Bethesda Softworks, a position he occupied from 1999 until his death in 2020. During his tenure as a director, ZeniMax published series including Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Wolfenstein. 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, CEO of ZeniMax. In addition to being a Board member at ZeniMax, Trump was also an investor in the company.

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.

In June 2020, Trump reportedly spent a week in intensive care at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. On August 14, 2020, the White House announced that he had again been hospitalized, and that his brother, the President, would visit him. President Trump visited him that day, later stating that Robert was very ill and was “having a hard time”. Robert Trump died at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan the following day, August 15, 2020, at age 71, 11 days before his 72nd birthday; the cause of death has not been disclosed. The New York Times quoted a family friend as saying that Trump had recently started experiencing intracerebral hemorrhaging after a fall. Mary Trump, in an interview with Greenpeace a few days before his death, said that Robert had been sick and hospitalized “a couple of times in the last three months.”