Melania, Ivanka and Barron Trump are among the family members who gathered at Trump Tower but did not appear at Donald Trump’s press conference, where he criticized his conviction in a case involving a hush payment made to a star. porn to keep quiet about their affair.
The former first lady has remained silent during the trial and the 34-count guilty verdict against her husband. Ivanka posted a message of love for her father on her social media.
But Melania and her 18-year-old son are at home in New York, where Trump has camped out dealing with his trial in Manhattan.
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are also in Trump Tower, DailyMail.com has learned, as the family gathers around their patriarch in the wake of his conviction.
Eric Trump, who has been in court most days with his father, and his wife Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, were present at the news conference as the former president criticized the case.
Lara shared a video on social media of her and Eric’s two children hugging Donald Trump and giving him hand-drawn drawings. The video appeared to have been recorded in Trump’s apartment in Trump Tower.
Melania Trump and Barron Trump, seen above at Mar-a-Lago on Easter, are at Trump Tower
Melania and her son Barron are the only Trump insiders who did not appear in court with the former president or post messages of support on social media.
Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany made appearances in the courtroom. Ivanka Trump posted a four-word message on Instagram Thursday night in support of her father: “I love you dad.”
The former first lady was last seen in public with Donald Trump on May 17, when her son Barron Trump graduated from high school.
Meanwhile, Trump criticized his conviction.
‘This is a case where if they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone. “They are bad people,” he said.
He also admitted that he had become very angry with his lawyers.
And he called Judge Juan Merchán a ‘devil’.
Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11. He faces probation or up to four years in prison.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told CNN she hopes to see Melania at her husband’s sentencing, acting as a “distraction.”
Wolkoff worked with Melania in the White House in the early years of the Trump administration. The two had a friendship dating back to their days in New York, but they parted ways during Trump’s presidency. They no longer speak and Wolkoff wrote a tell-all memoir about his time with the Trumps.
‘I think she’ll show up and be the art of distraction. “She will shine a bright light on Melania when she is needed most, when other things happening in Donald’s life need to be overshadowed,” Wolkoff said.
Eric and Lara Trump watch Donald Trump’s press conference
Ivanka Trump is also at Trump Tower to support her father
‘This is a case where if they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone. “These are bad people,” said Donald Trump.
Trump will be sentenced four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he will formally accept the Republican presidential nomination.
It is unclear whether Melania will attend the convention or address it as she did in 2016 and 2020. Barron Trump was originally selected as Florida’s delegate, but Melania later announced that she would not serve as such due to “prior commitments.”
He did not elaborate on what those commitments were. Barron Trump graduated high school earlier this month. The Trumps have not said where he will go to college or what his future plans are.
All of Trump’s other children, except Ivanka, are delegates to the convention.
The New York case involved Donald Trump paying porn star Stormy Daniels to silence her during the 2016 election over allegations of an affair.
Trump denies sleeping with Daniels, who he claimed happened in 2006, shortly after Melania gave birth to Barron.
But Trump’s fixer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 during the election to keep her quiet about the story.
Trump was convicted of falsifying business records in reimbursing Cohen.
When the payment was revealed in 2017, Melania was said to have been shocked.
She made her feelings known by canceling the interview with Trump, refusing to go with him to the World Economic Forum in Davos even though she was scheduled to attend. Instead, she camped behind the walls of Mar-a-Lago, her Palm Beach estate.
But Melania Trump was believed to be following media coverage of the trial. However, it was also believed that she saw it as her husband’s problem and not hers.