'Enemies around every corner': Trump family reportedly reeling from trials and spotlight
Former President Donald Trump's litany of civil and criminal proceedings in multiple jurisdictions and the political fallout from his controversial presidency have taken a toll on his adult children, according to a new Washington Post report.
"The presidency was painful for everyone in the family on some level. You have subpoenas, legal bills, investigations, testimony, terrible news stories, the constant spotlight," an unnamed source close to the Trump family told the Post. "They grew up famous, but it wasn’t like that. They’d never experienced any of that."
Despite their assistance with his 2016 and 2020 campaigns for the White House, Trump's adult children — Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany — are allegedly distancing themselves from their father's 2024 endeavor as he faces 91 felony counts in both state and federal courts. Both Ivanka and Trump's wife, Melania, have both made efforts to stay out of the limelight since the 45th president's 2020 loss to Joe Biden, and one of the Post's anonymous sources told the publication that the ongoing legal drama has caused the family to become "conspiratorial" and watchful of "enemies around every corner."
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While the ex-president isn't at risk of any jail time in his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York, that case is reportedly "the most deeply personal" to Trump as it concerns his children's inheritance.
"The trial strikes at his identity and the family. His kids, what he’s been able to build over years and years and years," Trump adviser David Urban told the Post.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in damages from the Trump Organization in the civil trial. The state is alleging that both Trump and his sons knowingly submitted false financial information to artificially inflate the company's net worth by more than $2 billion over a ten-year period, with the hopes of obtaining more favorable insurance rates and tax advantages. Over the next two weeks, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Trump himself will all be called to the stand to testify in the trial. Should Trump be found guilty of the allegations, both he and his sons would be held financially liable and would also be permanently banned from being officers in any New York-based company in the future.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung dismissed the legal proceedings against the former president as politically motivated.
"All of these witch-hunts are about the abuse of power by radical Democrats and Joe Biden to interfere in an election and go after their political opponent," Cheung said.