Unsurprisingly, Melania was a no-show for the first day of jury selection in her husband’s felony hush-money trial. Now the question is, will she show up at all?
Doesn’t look like it!
The ex-FLOTUS, who’s barely been seen with the disgraced ex-president since he launched his third campaign in late 2022, is not expected to appear at Manhattan Criminal Court.
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In fact, she hasn’t appeared at any of Donald Trump‘s legal proceedings, including his arraignment in the Stormy Daniels case last April, or commented on his myriad of legal troubles.
Melania’s actual feelings on her husband’s highly publicized affair, however, are a little more difficult to figure out.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, her ex-BFF and former White House aide, implied in a string of social media posts over the weekend that Melania doesn’t give AF about Donald’s extramarital activities.
On Sunday, Wolkoff posted a now-viral photo of Mrs. Trump, which she snapped on a private plane at some point during Donald’s presidency. “Sat across from Melania Trump on her airplane and took this photograph on my iPhone,” she wrote. “Believe me, she knows …”
Wolkoff followed up her missive with the following message: “she and he are one of the same.”
Earlier in day, Wolkoff relayed another story that indicates Melania was apathetic about the scandal. She says the ex-FLOTUS called her in the aftermath of Stormy’s 60 Minutes interview, in which the former adult film star described her relationship with Donald for the first time.
But Melania apparently wasn’t concerned with the content of the interview. Instead, she was preoccupied with Stormy’s visual presentation.
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“You think Melania ever mentioned Donald? Nope!,” she posted. “Melania wanted me to know that, ‘Annie Leibovitz was photographing the ‘Porn-Hoooker’ {Stormy} for Vogue.’
“That’s Melania.”
Donald, of course, isn’t being prosecuted for his affair with Daniels, as unsavory as that may be. The first former U.S. president to ever face criminal charges, Trump is being accused of falsifying business records to cover up his affair, which, according to Daniels, lasted less than five minutes.
He’s facing four criminal indictments overall, with the other cases covering his role in the January 6 insurrection, trying to overturn Georgia’s election results and his egregious mishandling of classified docs. In total, Trump has been indicted on roughly 90 felony counts.
The New York judge overseeing the Stormy case issued a gag order ahead of the trial, which Trump already appears to be violating. He’s attacked his former fixer Michael Cohen, one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, and Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter.
Melania, meanwhile, isn’t speaking publicly about the embarrassing episode. Former White House press sec and Melania aid Stephanie Grisham said recently on MSNBC the West Wing was “extremely concerned” about the FLOTUS’ reaction to the scandal.
Appearing on CNN, Grisham said Melania didn’t take news of the affair “lightly at all.” In fact, she didn’t even want to be seen with her husband at the time.
“We went to the State of the Union separately. She refused to walk out to Marine One with him because she didn’t want to be like Hillary Clinton and standing by her man,” said Grisham.
It’s apparent that Melania still isn’t thrilled about being spotted with her 77-year-old hubby.
Up to this point, she’s attended just two of Donald’s campaign events, and given a total of one interview… to Fox News… almost a year ago.
“He has my support, and we look forward to restoring hope for the future and leading America with love and strength,” she said last May during an interview to plug her latest line of NFTs.
But so far, she has been coy about her plans. During a rare public appearance with him last month outside of a Florida polling station, she was noncommittal when asked whether she would be seen more often.
“Stay tuned,” she replied.
Prior to that, the last time she had been seen with Donald in public was when she refused to share a car with him after her mother’s funeral in January.
Grisham added the extensive coverage of the affair and upcoming trial is humiliating for Melania.
“This is very, very embarrassing for her. It’s humiliating for her,” she said. “And I can guarantee you that she’s not happy right now and that he’s quite worried about that.”
Melania has only addressed the Stormy situation once, in a 2018 interview with Good Morning America. The former model claimed the allegations were not a “concern and focus” of hers, and also said she had “much more important things to think about and to do.”
Apparently, that’s still the case. Donald is sitting in a courtroom all alone, with Melania nowhere to be found…once again.