A 32-year-old interview featuring President Donald Trump’s late mother has taken social media by storm, with viewers marveling at the uncanny resemblance between Mary Anne MacLeod Trump and her famous son.
The clip from a 1994 episode of the Irish chat show “It’s Bibi,” hosted by Olive “Bibi” Baskin, resurfaced Wednesday, March 26, 2025, when an X user shared the footage. The video quickly went viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments from stunned viewers who couldn’t stop comparing mother and son.
In the interview, filmed at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City for a St. Patrick’s Day edition of the show, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump discussed her Scottish roots and journey to America. Dressed in a white blouse with a dramatic bow and a red and black plaid jacket, she explained her background with a distinctive Scottish lilt that social media users immediately recognized in her son’s cadence.
Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was actually born in the tiny village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis, about three miles from Stornoway, though in the interview she described it simply as “a little town called Stornoway, in the Island of Lewis way up in the Hebrides. A beautiful little island.”
The response on social media was immediate and overwhelming. Viewers flooded the comments with observations about her mannerisms, her distinctive hairstyle — which bore a striking resemblance to her son’s signature look — and her unmistakable presence on camera. Some comments took a humorous tone, with users joking about the physical similarities between mother and son.
Mary Anne MacLeod emigrated from the Isle of Lewis to New York City in 1930, arriving with just $50 in her pocket and taking work as a domestic servant. In the mid-1930s, while living with her sister in Queens, she met Fred Trump at a party. The ambitious young builder, already making a name for himself in New York real estate, swept her off her feet. The couple married on January 11, 1936, at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and had five children together, including Donald Trump and his late brother Fred Trump Jr.
In the 1994 interview, Mary Anne explained that her son was in Los Angeles at the time of filming. “He got a call from Steven Spielberg asking if he could come and make a cameo in some movie that Spielberg is doing. Of course Donald didn’t want to say no,” she said. The specific project she referenced remains unclear, as Trump never appeared in a Spielberg film.
President Trump has spoken fondly of his mother on multiple occasions. At a White House event celebrating military mothers ahead of Mother’s Day in May 2025, he reflected on their relationship, calling her “such an angel” who “could be very tough.”
During a meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland in July 2024, Trump discussed his mother’s deep connection to Scotland and her admiration for Queen Elizabeth II. “Whenever the Queen was on television, she wanted to watch,” he said. “And religiously, she’d come back to Scotland once a year, with my sister, Maryanne… they loved this part of the world.”
Mary Anne MacLeod Trump became a naturalized U.S. citizen on March 10, 1942, and became a fixture on the New York social circuit, working with various philanthropic organizations including Jamaica Hospital and charities serving disabled children and adults. She passed away on August 7, 2000, at age 88 at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, just over a year after her husband Fred Trump died at age 93.
The resurfaced footage has given a new generation of viewers a glimpse into the life of the woman who shaped one of America’s most recognizable political figures. For many watching the clip, the apple clearly didn’t fall far from the tree — not just in terms of the distinctive hairstyle, but in presence, speech patterns, and unmistakable showmanship.