One of the most notable features of Donald Trump’s tenure as a politician from the very beginning has been the presence of his family. From the campaign trail to the White House, Trump’s family has been a constant source of strength and support. However, it looks like that might have changed in a very striking way.
Amid growing legal woes, it’s been increasingly clear that Donald Trump has been on his own when facing lawyers, judges, and the media. Frequently, he travels alone, and it’s getting rarer for his family to so much as speak up on his behalf on social media.
What kind of trouble is Trump facing, and just what are the signs that he is facing them alone? Keep reading to find out!
Trump’s early legal woes
Once upon a time, Trump’s legal woes seemed confined to the occasional personal lawsuits filed against him. However, after he lost the 2020 election, and especially after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the legal difficulties Trump was facing began to ramp up, both in number and severity.
According to Reuters, some of the biggest legal obstacles Trump has been facing include a landmark criminal case in New York regarding allegedly falsifying records related to hush money payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. And speaking of records, Trump is also facing a civil case in New York regarding the Trump Organization, with charges involving an alleged “200 examples of misleading asset valuations between 2011 and 2021” as well as the embarrassing allegation “that Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars.”
Another persistent legal woe relates to Trump allegedly hiding government records in his Mar-a-Lago home. Finally, there is an investigation into Trump’s alleged involvement regarding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and his latest legal pitfall involves a new wrinkle in these very serious charges.
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The latest trials (literally) facing Donald Trump
The most recent legal hurdle Donald Trump is facing involves his involvement before and during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. As reported by the Independent, this is Trump’s “third criminal indictment within four months,” which is bad enough on its own. But it’s the substance of that indictment that indicates just how bad things could get for the former president.
In essence, this indictment indicates that Trump will be on trial for what amounts to a major conspiracy to subvert democracy. For example, the ex-president has frequently claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and that he didn’t actually lose, but “as the indictment alleges in a detailed, chronological accounting of the scheme, the former president was routinely made aware that his statements were false – by two attorneys general, Justice Department officials, an election security chief, his vice president, his campaign, and Republican governors and election officials who voted for and endorsed him.”
Furthermore, the indictment alleges that after Trump was made aware that he was going to lose, he “and his allies conspired with officials in states that he lost to invalidate ballots and use fraudulent electors to cast their electoral college votes on his behalf” in a plan that involves pressuring everyone from the Justice Department to Mike Pence to go along with all of this, with the January 6 Capitol attack being a “last-ditch attempt to reject the outcome.”
“An old man alone:” brutal commentary on Trump’s current state
With all these legal walls closing in on Donald Trump, it would make sense for his family to be there to support him in his greatest hour of need. However, over on Twitter, one reporter has pointed out how this hasn’t been happening in a particularly brutal way.
According to MSNBC reporter Chris Hayes, it’s “Really striking the degree to which Trump’s family has entirely abandoned him in public over the last few months as he faces one indictment after another.” Adding salt to the wound, the reporter added “No wife or sons or daughters by his side. Just an old man alone.”
The commentary is a real gut punch, but it seems to be true. That led us to wonder: just why would Trump’s family distance themselves from him at this time?
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Why would Donald Trump’s family seemingly hang him out to dry?
The reason why we’re not seeing much outward support for Donald Trump from the rest of his family may have a simple and somewhat cynical explanation. While Trump was president, many members of his family profited directly and indirectly from being related to the most powerful man in the world. Now that Trump is no longer president and is facing one disgrace after another, their very proximity to Trump could prove toxic, and overt support for him during these trials and tribulations could make such toxicity even worse.
As reported by Page Six, when Trump’s legal woes began in earnest this past March, an insider told them that Melania Trump “is lying very low” and “wants to be away from it.” Additionally, a source told them that Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner “want nothing to do with this” and that not only do they want to avoid being “hounded by reporters” but that “they want to put it in the rearview. They want it behind them.”
This doesn’t mean Trump is completely without family support, of course. Notably, Donald Trump, Jr., is reliably defending his father every day from the court of public opinion on Twitter. Then again, he also posted a picture of a New York judge’s daughter on Twitter back in April as a not-so-veiled threat against the prosecution of his father, so he might end up being the one family member that Donald Trump desperately wishes would stop coming to his defense.