When attorneys delivered their closing arguments in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial on Tuesday, three of the former president’s children — Tiffany, Eric, and Don Jr. — were seated behind him in a show of support. But it was the absence of his wife, Melania, and his daughter Ivanka that caught people’s eye. In the seven weeks of the trial, neither woman ever came to court or spoke publicly about the proceedings.
On Thursday, after a jury found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records connected to hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels, Ivanka finally spoke out. Following the verdict, she posted a childhood photo of herself sitting on her dad’s lap to her Instagram Stories with four words scrawled across it: “I love you dad.” Her brother Don. Jr. fired off dozens of passionate posts on X, Facebook, and Truth Social about his father being treated unfairly. Trump’s campaign website redirected people to a fundraising page declaring that Trump is a “political prisoner” who was “just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial.” Meanwhile, Melania seems to be choosing silence. As of Friday morning, she hadn’t commented on the trial or the verdict.
Earlier this week, Stephanie Grisham — Melania’s former chief of staff and press secretary — told CNN that Melania’s and Ivanka’s silence about the trial is the type of thing that would “absolutely” bother Trump. “If Mrs. Trump wasn’t at some event and it was really noted, he would definitely bring it up with her. So I’m sure in this context, it’s definitely really bothering him,” she said.
