Donald Trump's younger brother Robert dies aged 71

President Donald Trump's younger brother Robert died on Saturday at the age of 71, after reportedly suffering a brain bleed.

Donald Trump described his sibling as "my best friend", and had hurried to his bedside in a New York hospital on Friday afternoon, when the severity of his condition became apparent.

He had suffered a fall, and in recent weeks was unable to speak, a family source told The New York Times.

Robert spent 10 days in another New York hospital in June,in the neurosciences intensive care unit, The Daily Beast reported.

Ivanka Trump said on Twitter: "Uncle Robert, we love you."

Eric Trump described him on Saturday afternoon as "an incredible man - strong, kind, and loyal to the core."

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and the president's lawyer, also paid tribute, describing Robert as a man with "a big heart" who did a lot "to help New Yorkers in need".

Robert was widely described as a charming, affable member of the Trump clan who, unlike his two older brothers, was spared the crushing weight of expectations of taking over the family business.

The youngest of five, Robert initially worked on Wall Street before eventually joining the Trump Organization, where he was a low-key and unpretentious figure involved in the real estate side of the business.

Donald Trump once described his younger brother as "much quieter and easygoing than I am," saying he was "the only guy in my life whom I ever call 'honey'."

Gwenda Blair, a Trump family biographer, said: "When he worked in the Trump Organisation, he was known as the nice Trump. Robert was the one people would try to get to intervene if there was a problem."

In 1989 Donald put his younger brother in charge of his ill-fated Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and reportedly erupted in fury when the slot machines did not work for the opening.

The row was said to deeply upset Robert, and the pair were distant for some time - reuniting by the time Donald announced his run for president.

Robert then became one of the president's most loyal defenders.

In rare public remarks, he described himself as a big supporter of the White House run, when cornered by The New York Post at an airport in 2016.

"I support Donald one thousand percent," Robert Trump said.

In recent weeks he led family efforts to stop the publication of a book by their niece Mary - a book he described as "an attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family".

He did not have any children, but helped raise Christopher Hollister Trump-Retchin, the son of his first wife, socialite Blaine. Robert and Blaine were married for 25 years until their divorce in 2009.

"Thank you for the wonderful memories... We had a great run until the painful ending," Blaine said.

In early March of 2020, he married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan, and the pair lived between a Long Island mansion and an upstate New York home.

Robert is survived by his brother and two sisters.

The eldest Trump sibling and Mary's father, Fred Trump Jr., struggled with alcoholism and died in 1981 at the age of 43.

The president's surviving siblings are Elizabeth Trump Grau, 78, and Maryanne Trump Barry, 83, a retired federal appeals judge.