'All for show': How Trump uses his family during hush money trial

During his opening statements in Donald Trump's hush money/falsifying business records trial, defense attorney Todd Blanche tried to paint the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee as a family man.

Blanche told jurors, "He's not just our former president. He’s a husband. He's a father. And he's a person, just like you and just like me."

But on X, formerly Twitter, New York Post reporter Ben Kochman responded to Blanche's comments with an April 22 post noting that "Trump's family is not here with him in court today."

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That same observation is the focus of an article published by Politico on May 6.

Politico's Adam Wren emphasizes that members of Trump's family have, for the most part, been absent during the trial.

"To survive the most sordid of the legal cases against him," Wren explains, "Donald Trump is relying on unseen — and unwilling — character witnesses: his family. In the opening weeks of Trump's criminal hush money trial, the former president has attempted to brandish his family-man bonafides amid a slew of salacious testimony."

Interviewees quoted in Wren's piece argued that if members of Trump's family do show up in the courtroom during his trial, it's a calculated move.

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Stephanie Grisham, the third White House press secretary in the Trump Administration and an ex-press secretary for former First Lady Melania Trump, told Politico, "If there's anything that the whole Trump family understands, it's optics. And the moment people started to notice no family around, Eric (Trump) showed up to the last court date. It's all for show."

Veteran journalist/author David Cay Johnston, similarly, told Politico, "With Donald, everything is transactional, including his family relationships. Lots of people have had their spouses who know they're going to be humiliated show up in court. But not Donald."

Former First Lady Melania Trump hasn't been at her husband's trial, which doesn't surprise Grisham.

The ex-Melania Trump press secretary told Politico, "It doesn’t surprise me she's not at the trial. I wouldn't imagine she would be at any trial; that's just not her scene."

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Read Politico's full report at this link.

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