If your husband was a legally adjudicated sexual predator who cheated on you with an adult film star shortly after you gave birth to his son, and then allegedly paid her hush money to cover it up in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election, and then went on trial for those hush money payments, while also facing a litany of other criminal charges, what do you think you would do?
In Melania Trump’s case, the answer seems to be: ignore all that hoo-ha and sell a $245 necklace to celebrate Mother’s Day. On Sunday, the notably un-effusive first lady announced that she had “designed the ‘Her Love & Gratitude’ necklace to express immense gratitude and honor all mothers”. The necklace features a flower pendant made of gold vermeil (sterling silver with a solid gold plate) and can include a custom engraving. Best of all, every purchase comes with a limited-edition digital NFT collectible that is minted on the Solana blockchain. Just what every mother wants!
It costs about $40 to produce a gold vermeil necklace, meaning Melania is making a pretty decent profit on the jewellery line. Where’s the money going? Might it perhaps be going towards her husband’s considerable legal fees?
The former president certainly needs as much spare cash as he can get his little hands on: his expenses are mounting up. In February, Donald Trump’s legal bills were estimated to be in excess of half a billion dollars, the majority of that being a $454m bond he was ordered to pay by a New York court after a judge found that Donald, Eric and Donald Jr, along with certain other Trump Organization employees, engaged in a long-running scheme that overstated the value of their assets. On appeal, that bond was to cut to a mere $175m but the expenses keep coming. Save America, a Pac controlled by Donald Trump, has been helping foot the bills but, after spending nearly $3.7m on legal fees in March, it’s starting to look like it’s running out of cash.
In short: Trump is desperate for funds. He’s already shilled sneakers and hawked Bibles. He certainly would not be above raiding Melania’s necklace money.
Whether Melania intends to share her profits with her husband is another matter. Stephanie Grisham, who used to work for the first lady and now appears to have made a lucrative career out of reminding everyone of this fact, doesn’t think that’s likely. “I try not to laugh at the thought that she would be raising money for his defense,” Grisham told CNN on Monday. “She’s doing it for herself.”
Grisham added: “Had I been advising her, I would have said a couple of things: no 1, this is the first day of your husband’s criminal trial and you’re going to hawk some jewellery. Probably not a very good look.”
But who cares about looks, eh? Over the years the Trump family has made it very clear that, as long as a payday is involved, optics aren’t important. They don’t really care. Do U? Every single one of them seems to have some sort of grift going at all times.
Donald Trump Jr has sold $500 videos to fans on Cameo. Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lara Trump, the significant others of the ex-president’s two older sons, were each discreetly paid $180,000 a year to help with their father-in-law’s 2020 re-election campaign. Lara, it seems, is keen to keep milking that cash cow: she has been a prominent presence in the 2024 campaign and is co-chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), vowing to “spend every single penny” of RNC funds to re-elect Trump to the White House. Eric and Donald Jr have also recently taken on vetting roles in the early planning for a second Trump administration’s transition team. It’s not clear if they’re getting paid for this but it certainly wouldn’t be surprising. Melania, of course, has been busy selling NFTs since leaving the White House – the necklace is just her latest offering.
Let’s honor and celebrate all mothers with love and gratitude. https://t.co/ESihnAQ8kg pic.twitter.com/Nj3IKfwzG1
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) April 21, 2024
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The only Trump who seems to be taking it uncharacteristically easy right now is Ivanka. The former first daughter has kept a low profile since leaving the White House and seems to permanently be on vacation. Mind you, she deserves a little rest, doesn’t she? Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, worked very hard as unelected advisers to the president during Trump’s term – evidenced by the fact that they reported up to $640m in outside income while serving in the White House.
That, of course, is small potatoes compared with what Kushner did next. After leaving the White House, Donald Trump’s son-in-law started a private equity firm, Affinity Partners, that received a reported $2bn investment from the sovereign wealth fund led by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (who, after being linked to the murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, is sometimes called Mohammed Bone Saw). Kushner cozied up to Prince Mohammed during the Trump presidency and it seems the relationship paid off. Certainly Saudi Arabia must have had some reason to trust Kushner, who doesn’t have much of a track record in private equity.
Javanka, who have an estimated net worth of over $1bn, are so flush that there’s even been some speculation that they might help Donald Sr out with his legal fees. It certainly seems fair for them to chip in, since his Save America Pac has helped cover the costs of the lawyers representing Ivanka in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against the Trump Organization. Whether they will actually dip into their pockets to help Donald, however, isn’t clear. Melania better sell as many necklaces as she can.