Ivanka Trump was a no-show during the former president’s weeks-long hush money trial. When her father was convicted on 34 felony charges Thursday, the former White House aide had little to say, offering just four words of support: "I love you dad," shared alongside a photo on Instagram of her and her dad when she was a child.
Ivanka's older brother, Donald Jr., who had filmed himself in the courthouse Wednesday, had much more to say. Within a few hours of the verdict, he fired out a slew of profane social media content: 14 posts on X, seven on Truth Social, a video on Instagram, and four more posts on Facebook for good measure. All were in support of his father, who is now the first former American president to be convicted of a crime.
“Such bullshit,” read his first tweet on X, just after the verdict came out.
“Guilty on all counts. The Democrats have succeeded in their years long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole. November 5 is our last chance to save it,” read the next tweet. And finally, as if to tie a bow on the whole thing, another post on the matter read “Sentencing is 4 days before the GOP Convention...They're not even trying to hide the ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!!”
Melania Trump, the former first lady, remained silent.
“Every member of Donald Trump’s immediate family has now expressed support for him, showing up at the courthouse or, in Ivanka’s case, posting on social media,” Olivia Nuzzi, Washington correspondent for New York magazine, posted on X Thursday. “The exception is Melania Trump, who never attended the trial and has said nothing about today’s guilty verdict.”
Trump’s former White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, speculated on CNN that both Ivanka and Melania’s absence from the trial would have “absolutely” bothered Trump. “If Mrs. Trump wasn’t at some event and it was really noted, he would definitely bring it up with her. So I’m sure in this context, it's definitely really bothering him.”
In fact, throughout the trial, one repeat question from reporters that the former president continued to ignore was: “Where is Melania?” Trump even attended a Mother’s Day lunch at Mar-a-Lago on May 12 without her.
