Donald Trump’s campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination moved into high gear last weekend at the Iowa State Fair. His enormous private jet streaked across the sky, literally overshadowing a meet-and-greet with Florida governor Ron DeSantis, his closest rival, before depositing the former president on the tarmac in front of adoring MAGA crowds. It was top trolling, while the fun lasted.
Also cranking up: the expanding list of criminal charges against Trump. At 11pm last night, a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, unloaded the most comprehensive set of charges yet against Trump and 18 members of his barmy army of election–deniers. He was hit with 39 counts of 13 different charges, including racketeering, conspiring to commit forgery, making false statements and soliciting public officers to violate their oaths.
Using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), prosecutor Fani Willis has basically accused Trump of spear-heading a criminal enterprise and behaving like a mob boss in order to subvert the 2020 election in her state. The charges are perilous because under state law Trump cannot pardon himself if he wins the White House in 2024, or be pardoned by any other president. And some of those indicted may turn on him to save their own skins.
Trump has already been charged in three separate criminal cases for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, hiding classified documents and lying to overturn the last election. Of all the looming trials, the one in Georgia is certain to be televised, bringing reality TV, the very thing that made Trump a star, to a whole new level.
You might expect well-known members of the Trump family to be sharing the good times with him on the campaign trail, if not the bad times in court. Yet neither wife Melania nor favorite daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner have been seen in public with Trump, leading Newsweek to demand “Where is Melania,” and to speculation that the Kushners are giving him the cold shoulder.
When Trump launched his presidential campaign in November, Ivanka declined to attend, claiming she was “choosing to prioritize my children and the private life we are creating as a family” over politics. She had tried to persuade her father to call off the rioting mob at the Capitol and gave evidence with Jared to the January 6 commission.
Since leaving the White House, Jared has managed to secure $2 billion in investment commitments for Affinity, his private equity firm, from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund (and $1 billion more from others). With money pouring in and Mohammed Bin Salman as a friend, perhaps they no longer need Big Daddy?
Don’t be fooled. Trump has not been given the brush-off. In fact the more Trump has exerted his dominance over the Republican presidential field (he is now more than 30 percent ahead of DeSantis in the polls), the more “Javanka” and Melania have been quietly slipping back into the fold. The Trump family is first and foremost a family business. Calculations are being made about what is best for their respective brands. For now that involves coolly hedging their bets, in case Trump wins — or winds up in jail.
All three have been photographed by paparazzi enjoying the good life without Trump. Melania, 53, was out shopping in Manhattan last week in white sunglasses, white trousers, white Manolo Blahniks and a $6400 Chanel lambskin handbag. Her hair was sun-bleached. The message could almost be “I don’t care, do U?” – the up-yours slogan on the back of her jacket when in 2018 she visited migrant children at the US border as first lady.
Ivanka, 41, and Jared, 42, were spotted last week having fun with their children at a New York Mets game, swapping selfies on the field with the stars of the baseball team. Earlier this summer they were hanging out on a yacht with DJ David Guetta off the coast of Spain. So much for the notion that the Barbie and Ken of Trumpworld are persona non grata outside their home in Florida. When you are as wealthy as they are, nothing is off limits.
But they have also been slouching towards Bedminister (to paraphrase WB Yeats and Joan Didion), spending time at a cottage on the grounds of the New Jersey golf club where Trump likes to retreat from the humid Florida heat. On Saturday Ivanka and Jared attended the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tournament at Bedminster, while Trump was in Iowa. “They’ve been spotted more frequently this summer,” a former campaign adviser told Vanity Fair. “They’ve made it clear they’re supportive. They pop into meetings to say hi.” The source added, “Jared needs to protect his turf, especially in the Middle East,” in case Trump becomes president again.
Last month, the couple were also at an outdoor screening at Bedminster of the Sound of Freedom, a film about child-trafficking starring QAnon supporter Jim Caviezel, a huge hit with MAGA fans. Abrasive Trump acolyte Steve Bannon was present, even though he used to despise Ivanka and Jared in the White House, calling them the “railroad of all bad decisions” and Ivanka “the queen of leaks”.
So, too, was Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump adviser, who accused Jared of arrogance in her White House memoir, Here’s the Deal. “There was no subject he considered beyond his expertise,” she wrote exasperatedly. Bannon joked at the screening: “This movie can unite the country. It’s already united Jared, Ivanka, Kellyanne and Steve Bannon.”
Is everything sweetness and light then, at chez Trump? Well no, not quite, although Trump aides have been extolling Melania’s presence at Bedminster. They claim she frequently has breakfast and dinner with Trump and praised her in the gossip pages of the New York Post for keeping him “calm and focused” as his legal troubles mount. “Melania is even better than his regular golf games at keeping his temper in check. She provides a peaceful life when he needs it,” a source cooed.
According to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania’s disillusioned former White House adviser, it’s a “BS” storyline, probably created by Melania herself. “I was once the knucklehead who believed Melania when she convincingly ‘shared’ these stories with me over and over (Brainwash),” she tweeted. “Melania’s secret weapon? Her silence and her secrets.”
Melania is said to be concentrating on helping son Barron, 17, with his university applications this summer. A fiercely protective mother, she is terrified that the spotlight will fall on Barron when he turns 18 in March, at the height of the Republican primary campaign and potential Trump trials. She likes to spend much of her time with her parents, who have an apartment in Trump Tower in New York (Melania can slip into her own gold and marble penthouse through a side entrance and private elevator).
However, it emerged this month that Herve Pierre, Melania’s fashion stylist, received $108,000 for “consulting services” from the Save America Political Action Committee in the first six months of 2023, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The money was mostly contributed by small donors. She might not be present in the Trump campaign, but she is decidedly involved.
In an interview last week with the rightwing cable channel, Newsmax, Trump insisted Melania is backing him “100%”. He added: “She really is. She said the other day, ‘It is just so sad what is happening with our country.’” So far Melania has given just one perfunctory interview to Fox News Digital, saying, “He has my support and we look forward to restoring hope for the future and leading Americans with love and strength.”
As for the legal issues surrounding Trump, sources told People magazine, “She just wishes [they] would go away.” She is particularly bothered by the Stormy Daniels case, as Trump’s alleged infidelity occurred while she was pregnant with Barron. Melania also maintains a lofty disdain towards agony aunt E Jean Carroll, who is seeking further damages after being awarded $5 million for sexual abuse and defamation by Trump.
Be that as it may, the wheels of justice are turning and Melania has no desire to be married to a felon. Despite the indictments in Georgia, winning the election remains Trump’s best hope of staying out of prison. The Kushners also have a vested interest in Trump’s victory. With Hunter Biden, the president’s son, under investigation by a special counsel for shady influence-peddling, Democrats have vowed to look into all the business deals benefiting the Trump family, including Jared, from their time in office. One way or another, the Trumps are in it together.
