Melania Trump and her son Barron have reportedly flown to New York to comfort Donald Trump as he’s found guilty in a criminal trial (Picture: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Melania Trump has disappeared from the public eye during Donald Trump’s criminal trial over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels in New York.
Other family members have shown up to show their support for the former US president, who was found guilty of all 34 charges.
But his wife is nowhere to be seen – and that is understood to be getting on the politician’s nerves.
Trump’s former press secretary, Stephen Grisham, told CNN: ‘Oh absolutely, I know it bothers him’.
His former employer could face prison after being found guilty on all counts of falsifying business records in a verdict he described as a ‘disgrace’.
The court heard from 22 witnesses over six weeks, including the adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
Her alleged sexual encounter with Trump – and his alleged payments to her to stay quiet about it before the 2016 election – was at the centre of the case.
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Such ‘hush money’ payments aren’t illegal, but prosecutors said Trump improperly recorded the £104,000 payment as legal expenses.
While falsifying business records is usually a lower-level misdemeanor, he faced felony charges due to his alleged illegal attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election.
His wife’s former longtime adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told CNN: ‘I didn’t think we were going to see [Melania].
‘The only time I really did believe that perhaps she would show up would be maybe at the verdict to shine a light away from what was actually happening, so the attention would be taken away from the reality of what her life was going to be.’
Are Donald Trump and Melania still married?
Donald and Melania’s ‘transactional’ marriage is still going (Picture: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Donald Trump married Melania, a Slovenian-American citizen, in 2005, and they had a child, Barron, a year later.
Melania has never been the most visible of partners during his political career.
Ms Wolkoff previously described their marriage as ‘transactional’ in a bombshell CNN interview.
Melania and Donald remain married.
What has Melania been doing?
Whatever Melania has been doing, it’s not been appearing by her husband’s side as he faced criminal charges (Picture: Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)
Melania has never been one to jump into Trump’s political limelight.
Although she encouraged him to run for president in 2016, she preferred to play roles behind the scene over appearing at campaign rallies.
Life as First Lady of the United States often necessitated public appearances, but she’s faded away since her husband left office in 2020.
She’s reappeared with Trump at campaign stops as he’s sought to secure the Republican nomination for this year’s election.
But it’s been some time since she’s been seen at his campaign events, with a notable absence from his victory part on Super Tuesday when he won all but one of the 15 state primaries.
Melania also hasn’t shown up at the criminal trial in New York, despite other family members doing so, with the notable exception of his daughter Ivanka.
That’s prompted reporters to ask Trump, ‘Where’s Melania?’, as Trump appears at the courthouse.
He always ignores it, but an ever-curious public doesn’t.
Melania has reportedly flown to New York with their son Barron to comfort Trump as the verdict was announced.
Wolkoff said: ‘She is probably putting a mirror up to show him that his brazen attempts of trying to subvert our democracy and his attempt to hush everyone into believing that he did or did not sleep with Stormy Daniels, has nothing to do with the fact that this was about election interference.’
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