Donald Trump's former White House director of communications has said the absence of family at the Stormy Daniels hush money trial "bothers" the former president "way more than anybody is letting on."
Anthony Scaramucci, told MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday: "Eric Trump showed up yesterday, but no one's in the court...family members have said they're not going to go work for him back in the White House. Melania is absent, and I think this plays a bigger part of the story, and it's a bigger toll on him than people imagine."
Trump has been in court every day since his trial started over two weeks ago. But Trump's second eldest son, Eric, was the first family member to appear so far, on Tuesday.
Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee, is facing 34 counts of allegedly falsifying business records relating to hush money payments made to adult film star Daniels, to keep her quiet about her rumored affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump denies all charges, as well as an affair with Daniels.
On Wednesday's Morning Joe, co-host Jonathan Lemire asked Scaramucci how Trump is dealing with having to remain silent on certain things while the trial plays out.
The former president is under a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, which bars Trump from publicly commenting on aspects of the case and he has already been fined $9,000 for contempt after violating the ban. Merchan also threatened Trump with potential jail time if he continues to reject the court's orders.
"How hard must be this [sic] for him—someone who is always seemingly in control, can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants—suddenly he can't. What kind of toll do you think this has taken?" Lemire probed.
But Scaramucci said he believes Trump's lack of control has had less of an impact than the virtual absence of his family at the trial.
"I think it's taking a toll, but what I'm surprised about is the lack of investigation around what's going on with him and his family," Scaramucci said. "Whether you like him or dislike him, he worked with his family on real estate, he worked with his family on The Apprentice, he brought his family into the White House.
"They are not there with him, and I think that's something that bothers him way more than anybody is letting on."
Scaramucci served just 11 days in the Trump administration in July 2017 and has since emerged as a vocal Trump critic. He was appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe show to publicize his new weekly appearances on U.K. podcast The Rest is Politics, in which he will offer analysis of the presidential election.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
Former U.S. attorney and University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade previously told Newsweek that she believes Trump made the right decision to keep his family out of the courtroom, framing it as if it was Trump's choice.
"I think Trump is making the right decision to have no family in court. I think juries can see through the manipulative tactic of bringing family members to court as props to elicit their sympathy," McQuade said. "A person who really loves their family would not subject them to the pain of listening to ugly accusations and evidence against him."
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Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more
