where's melania?

Is Melania quietly poisoning her husband’s defense in his hush money trial?

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A plane with a banner that reads "Where's Melania?" flies over the stadium before the Cy-Hawk football game at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023 in Ames.

“Where’s Melania?”

That’s been the unofficial slogan for Trump’s latest presidential bid as the former first lady has been almost completely MIA from the campaign trail. Now, it’s also becoming the catch phrase in his hush money trial currently underway in New York City.

During opening statements this week, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, who most people agree has been doing a pretty crappy job so far, tried to brand the thrice-married father of five as a devoted family man who only wants what’s best for his loved ones.

“He’s a man. He’s a husband. He’s a father,” Blanche told the jury on Monday. “He’s a person just like you and just like me.”

(He’s also, of course, the first president in U.S. history to be put on criminal trial. But Blanche would rather not talk about that.)

Related:

Melania appears to have come to the startling realization that she, too, is being screwed over by her husband

That’s always been the thing about Donald Trump. He screws over everyone in the end. Why should his third wife be any different?

The “family man” defense is a particularly odd one considering Trump, who cheated on his first wife with his second wife and then met his third wife while he was still married to the second one, is on trial for allegedly paying $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to cover up what sounds a lot like adultery.

It’s also odd considering that, just last year, he was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and ordered to pay nearly $90 million in damages for defaming her after she went public with the story in 2019.

And it’s odd considering that his current wife, Melania, hasn’t accompanied him to any of his court appearances and doesn’t seem to the least bit interested in doing so. As MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out this week, even “Jeffrey Dahmer’s parents were there every single day” for his trial. 😅 

In a column published this week by Salon, legal analyst Amanda Marcotte said Melania’s absence is likely hurting Trump’s “family man” defense because, unfortunately for him, jury members have eyes and can see that she’s not there to support him in what is arguably his greatest time of need:

It’s hard to sell Trump as a loving family man who regrets his adultery when the family in question is missing in action. The task became even harder after David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher who was in on the conspiracy, took that stand on Monday and Tuesday.

…Pecker at one point described Trump during the period as an “eligible bachelor” who “dated the most beautiful women.” But, of course, Trump was not a bachelor. Trump married his current wife in 2005. Both the women whose stories Pecker was involved in silencing claim that they slept with Trump in 2006, the year that Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s only child. 

But while Trump was technically not a bachelor, the comment speaks to a deeper truth evident in Pecker’s testimony: Trump simply does not care about his wife or children. He wasn’t worried about their feelings and didn’t seem to think of them much at all during all this conspiring.

But even though the 53-year-old ex-FLOTUS isn’t standing by her man publicly, those who know her best say she’s likely keeping a very close eye on things from the comfort of her penthouse apartment at the top of Trump Tower, conveniently located just 15 minutes from the courthouse.

Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett this week, Melania’s former chief of staff Stephanie Grisham said her old boss is “watching every ounce” of her husband’s trial.

“I can guarantee she is watching every ounce of coverage,” she said, adding, “Melania is very much about proof, show proof. And so if some more damaging stuff should come out that she didn’t know about because, of course, her husband continues to deny all of the details here, about Stormy especially.”

When asked about how Melania might react to any new developments that are revealed in the coming weeks, Grisham responded, “If some other stuff comes out, I think that’ll be really interesting to watch because you can’t really dispute things that are in writing and that’s something she always paid quite a bit of attention to, was proof.”

Donald Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The trial is expected to last about six weeks. If convicted by the jury, he faces up to four years in prison.

What do you make of Melania’s absence? Sound off in the comments below…

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