If Donald Trump was still “absorbing” the news of indictment Thursday, he and his wife Melania put on a show of “happiness” to their guests at Mar-a-Lago, according to one of those guests.
“Beautiful evening here at the gorgeous Mar a Lago!” tweeted conservative media personality and Mar-a-Lago member Gina Loudon, sharing a photo of an uncertain-looking Trump at his private Palm Beach, Florida resort, with a smiling Melania Trump by his side, dressed in a very bright red dress. “Our REAL First Couple enveloped in the love of their friends and most loyal!”
Beautiful evening here at the gorgeous Mar a Lago!
Our REAL First Couple enveloped in the love of their friends and most loyal!
(Sorry to disappoint, corporate media 😜. Actually not. Screw you! This is a happiness you will never know, sadly). pic.twitter.com/IFsFU41lAd
— Dr. Gina (@RealDrGina) March 31, 2023
Meanwhile, Trump’s two older sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were publicly fuming Thursday evening. Trump Jr. even invoked the names of “Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot” to argue his belief that his father is being persecuted by despotic, corrupt government forces.
Trump Jr. called the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over his father’s hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels “communist-level (expletive).”
“This is stuff that would make Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot blush,” a bellicose Trump Jr. said on his own podcast, NBC News’ Ben Collins reported.
Eric Trump similarly complained via Twitter that the prosecution of the 45th president is “third world prosecutorial misconduct.”
This is third world prosecutorial misconduct. It is the opportunistic targeting of a political opponent in a campaign year.
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) March 30, 2023
Ivanka Trump initially was silent about the news about her father’s indictment, but issued a statement on Instagram Story mid-Friday morning, saying she was “pained” by the news.
“I love my father, and I love my country,” the former first daughter said. “Today, I am pained for both.”
Earlier this week, People magazine reported that Ivanka — known as Trump’s favorite child who served as his senior White House adviser — is “keeping her distance” from her father’s myriad legal troubles.
“Even though Ivanka loves her dad, she knows how impossible he can be,” a social friend of Ivanka Trump told People.
This social source also suggested that Ivanka Trump regrets aligning her identity so closely to her father’s turbulent presidency, which ended with accusations that he tried to illegally overturn Biden’s victory in the 2020 election and incite the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner have been embroiled in congressional hearings and were subpoenaed in the special federal counsel probe into the Jan. 6 insurrection. Now her beloved father is the first current or former American president to face criminal charges.
Two years out of working by her father’s side in the White House, Ivanka Trump is trying to focus on her new life in Miami, raising her three children and blotting out “the negativity,” People reported.
“She misses her active social life in New York, but is enjoying Miami and all that it has to offer,” the social source said. “She has started over and pursues interests in business, design, and being involved in the lives of her children.”
Earlier this week, she posted photos on social media to celebrate the 7th birthday of her youngest son, Theodore:
Happy 7th Birthday to our sweet Theo!
You bring so much joy and love into our lives every day with your kind, positive, and energetic spirit. I love you to the moon and back again !
May this year bring you laughter, love, adventure and many more trips to the skate park !… pic.twitter.com/82ecrQ4NAf
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) March 27, 2023
Ivanka Trump made a point in November of saying that she wouldn’t be involved in her father’s 2024 campaign for president, as she was in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. She released a statement saying, “This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”
The New York Times reported that Trump was “still absorbing” the news of his indictment at Mar-a-Lago Thursday evening, with people close to him saying that he and his aides were caught off guard by the timing, believing that any action by the Manhattan grand jury was weeks away. They even held onto the hope that an indictment wouldn’t happen at all.
Trump released a statement Thursday saying that the indictment, coming after he launched his bid for president, is “political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.” He blamed “radical left Democrats” and said this “witch hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden,” Fox News reported.
The exact charges are under seal won’t be known until Trump’s appearance in court Tuesday. CNN reported that Trump faces more than 30 counts related to business fraud, according to two sources familiar with the case.
Bragg’s office has been investigating the former president in connection with his alleged role in the $130,000 payment made to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Daniels had contemplated selling her story about having an affair with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe in 2006, a few months after Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron. Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair with Daniels.
With the indictment looming in recent weeks, Trump’s mood has ranged “from optimism and bravado to anxiety about his future,” the New York Times reported. On Thursday evening, the former president was “angry” but eager to project confidence and calm as he was seen having “a very public dinner” with Melania and her parents.
It’s hard to know what Melania was feeling as she appeared at the dinner and smiled at her husband’s side. Page Six reported last week that her mood in recent weeks has been “angry.” She also hasn’t very “supportive” of her husband’s legal woes, as she’s been consumed by worry about the welfare of 17-year-old Barron, Page Six and People reported.
“She wants to be away from it. She wants to protect (their son) Barron,” a source told Page Six.
“Melania is lying very low,” the Page Six source continued. “She hasn’t been coming out for the dinners and events at Mar-a-Lago. He is acting like everything is normal, but she hasn’t been social.”
Above all, the former first lady doesn’t want to hear talk about Daniels or hush money payments, a source told People. She and Trump maintain separate quarters at Mar-a-Lago, where the former model just wants to continue leading her own life, “surrounded by people who love her and who never talk about reality, or bad things about her husband,” the source said.
