At this point, we should all realize that Melania Trump is not some kind of “resistance” hero. As First Lady, she was not secretly working to undermine the Donald Trump administration; she mostly kept to herself, except for when she wore an offensive jacket and accidentally revealed she doesn’t “give a fuck” about Christmas.
But I do respect one thing about Melania: She did not express any support for her husband whatsoever as he was tried and convicted on 34 felony counts for paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, the porn star with whom he allegedly had an affair while married to Melania.
At first, Melania’s absence from the courthouse wasn’t too conspicuous. She primed us to expect that she’d steer clear of the hush-money trial by skipping nearly every Trump political and court appearance for more than a year. In fact, Melania has given barely any indication that she backs Trump’s 2024 campaign: She gave a single pro-Trump reelection statement to Fox News Digital, joined her husband to vote in Florida’s GOP primary, and showed up to a few of the campaign fundraisers held at her own home.
In the past week, the Trump family quietly turned up the pressure on Melania to offer some sign of support for the former president. Eric had regularly attended court with his father, sometimes bringing his wife, Lara. Don Jr. made it to court twice, though he’s been recovering from knee surgery, and he’s been shoutily defending his father online all along. During Tuesday’s closing arguments, even Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, were by Donald’s side.
That left only three members of Trump’s immediate family who hadn’t publicly offered any words of encouragement: Ivanka, Melania, and Barron (who does not count because he’s a high-schooler who’s never spoken publicly).
Then, at the very last minute, Ivanka broke. When the verdict came down on Thursday afternoon, her Instagram Stories featured a video of her son swinging a golf club to the Eagles song “Take It Easy.”
Perhaps realizing that’s too chill a vibe for the day your dad becomes a convicted felon, on Thursday evening she posted this:
Does Ivanka think the jury got it right? Does she agree with Don Jr. that “the Democrats have succeeded in their yearslong attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole”? Unclear! All we know is that she officially continues to love her dad.
And what about Melania? Well, she wasn’t at court when the verdict was read; Eric was the only family member in New York with Donald on Thursday. And nearly 24 hours later, she hasn’t released a statement or even posted a four-word message affirming her general affection for Donald J. Trump. She has only posted twice on Truth Social and Instagram in the last week, one to mark Memorial Day:
And one to promote her ugly jewelry line:
Maybe Melania has been supporting Donald behind the scenes all along. But her public silence on the matter certainly send the message that we should add her husband to the list of things she “doesn’t give a fuck” about.
