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Former President Donald Trump gave a brief update on how his son, Barron, was holding up following his father’s conviction on 34 felony counts regarding a ‘hush money’ payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump was speaking to Phil McGraw, a.k.a. “Dr. Phil,” during the latter’s podcast on Thursday when the former president and likely 2024 GOP nominee was asked how his family was holding up throughout the ordeal.
“It’s not easy,” Trump said in response to a question about how his youngest son is handling everything. “He’s a great kid, he’s a good student, he got accepted to different colleges. Some of those colleges all of a sudden, they’re rioting all over the place. But he’s a good boy. He’s a tall boy, very tall, and he’s a great kid. Good-looking kid. And, you know, he’s going to be at college,” he continued.
In reference to the allegations, Trump said his son “doesn’t say it, and I think he doesn’t say it because he doesn’t want to hurt me, and he thinks it’s possibly a hurtful conversation.”
“But it has to affect my family, and I think that’s really very unfair. Because I have a very good family; I have good kids, I have a wonderful wife,” Trump continued, going on to again call the charges “fake” allegations.
“It certainly is not a good thing. It affects me more than it would if it were just about me. I wish it would be just about me,” he added.
During a recent interview with Fox News, the former president reiterated similar statements, particularly about his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump, after the conviction was handed down on May 30.
In that interview, Trump said that Melania Trump is doing “fine” but added that the trial was “very hard for her.” He noted further: “It’s tougher, I think it’s probably in many ways, it’s tougher on my family than it is on me.”
Trump has vowed to appeal the verdict to New York’s appellate court, though all of the judges have been appointed by Democrats and many are Democrat donors, according to a report on Friday.
Meanwhile, Trump’s trials and legal travails have not harmed his polling or his fundraising ability.
Despite facing concerns about his age and backlash from the Israel-Hamas conflict, Biden and the Democratic National Committee continued to outpace their Republican counterparts in fundraising by millions of dollars. While Trump led Biden in national and key swing state polls, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Trump campaign grappled with financial struggles, The Daily Caller noted on Thursday.
However, over the past two months, the RNC and Trump campaign have begun to chip away at the cash advantage Biden once held. With Trump’s camp consistently announcing record-breaking fundraising numbers, one of Biden’s few apparent advantages in a closely contested election could diminish, strategists told the outlet.
“Democrats will keep up. It’s not going to be a blowout, money-wise, but they expected Trump to lose the ability to raise money by charging him with these over-the-top prosecutions,” Mark R. Weaver, a GOP strategist, told the Caller. “They didn’t realize that the liquid they were throwing on the fire was not water, but gasoline,” he added.
Trump’s fundraising efforts started after the GOP primary ended. In April, the RNC and the campaign raised $76 million, which was about $25 million more than Biden and the DNC raised. It was the first time this election cycle that the Trump campaign surpassed their competitors in monthly fundraising.
In the hours following Trump’s guilty verdict late last month, an influx of support caused the campaign’s donation site to crash. Within 24 hours of the verdict, the campaign raised $54.8 million. By the end of the month, the campaign reported total donations of approximately $141 million. The Caller noted that details on the fundraising totals for both campaigns in May are still pending, as FEC filings have not yet been released.
