Kathmandu, Aug 16 :

• The US president visited his brother at a New York City hospital after he had become seriously ill
• The youngest of the Trump siblings remained close to the 74-year-old president

US President Donald Trump said that his brother, Robert Trump, died on Saturday night, a day after the president visited him in a New York hospital.

“It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” Trump said in a statement. In June, Robert Trump, 71, was hospitalised in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York for more than a week.

The youngest of the Trump siblings remained close to the 74-year-old president. He had been well enough in recent weeks to lead a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family which had been trying to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece, Mary, titled Too Much and Never Enough.

Fred Trump Jnr, the president’s older brother, died in 1981 at the age of 43 from complications related to alcoholism. His brother’s early death has had a profound influence on the president’s life, and he has said he never drinks because of it.