We should all acknowledge at this point that Melania Trump is not a hero of the “resistance.” She was not surreptitiously opposing the Trump administration as First Lady; instead, she maintained a low profile, save for the time she wore a contentious jacket and unintentionally showed her indifference for Christmas.
People do, however, respect Melania for standing by her husband during his trial and conviction on 34 felony counts about payments of hush money made to Stormy Daniels, the porn star he is said to have had an affair with during their marriage.
At first, Melania’s absence from the courtroom was barely perceptible. She had avoided almost all of Trump’s political and legal appearances for more than a year, raising expectations that she would avoid the hush-money trial.
To be honest, Melania has not done much to help Trump’s 2024 campaign. She has not attended many campaign fundraisers at her house, made a single pro-Trump reelection statement to Fox News Digital, or joined her husband in voting in Florida’s GOP primary.
The pressure from the Trump family to show some support for the former president has been gradually increasing over the last week. Together with his father, Eric Trump frequently appeared in court; occasionally, he brought his wife, Lara. Even though he had knee surgery, Don Jr. managed to appear in court twice and has been actively supporting his father on the internet. Tiffany Trump and her spouse, Michael Boulos, supported Donald during the closing arguments on Tuesday.
Three members of Trump’s close family remained unsupported by the public: Ivanka, Melania, and Barron (who does not qualify because he is a high school student and has never given a public speech).
Then Ivanka broke her silence at the eleventh hour. Her Instagram Stories included a video of her son hitting a golf club while listening to the Eagles song “Take It Easy” on Thursday afternoon when the verdict was revealed.
Maybe sensing that this was too casual a reaction on the day her father was found guilty of a crime, Ivanka shared this on Thursday night:
Does Ivanka believe the jury’s decision was correct? Does she agree with Don Jr. that “the Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole”? It’s unclear! All we know is that she officially continues to love her dad.
And what about Melania? She wasn’t in court when the verdict was read; Eric was the only family member in New York with Donald on Thursday. Nearly 24 hours later, she hasn’t released a statement or even posted a brief message of support for Donald J. Trump. She has only posted twice on Truth Social and Instagram in the last week:
One to mark Memorial Day, and another to promote her jewelry line.
Maybe Melania has been supporting Donald behind the scenes all along. But her public silence certainly sends the message that her husband might be another thing she “doesn’t give a fuck” about.
