Melania Trump Seen With Donald for First Time Since His Arraignment at Mar-a-Largo Easter Brunch

The former president was arraigned on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to two women, including adult film star Stormy Daniels

Donald Trump and his family are celebrating the Easter holiday as usual after his arraignment.

In photos and video published by the Daily Mail, Melania Trump, 52, is shown joining her husband for their traditional Easter brunch Sunday at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., one of the family’s biggest events of the year that traditionally includes club guests for brunch and an Easter egg hunt.

The couple walked into the club’s ballroom to a standing ovation from the crowd, according to the outlet, then proceeded to sit next to each other and chat during the meal.

The former president, 76, was arraigned on 34 felony counts in New York City on Tuesday following an investigation into alleged hush money payments he made to two women, including adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts, is the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.

Easter Brunch is a family affair that’s known to bring all of Trump’s children together, with the exception of Ivanka, who practices Judaism. For Tiffany — who grew up in California with her mother, Marla Maples — visiting her father for Easter has been a tradition dating back to her youth. In periods of time when Tiffany would reportedly “go months without speaking” to her father, the holiday acted as a reunion of sorts.

Related:Who Is Karen McDougal? All About the Former Playboy Model Tied to Donald Trump’s Indictment

Just hours after Trump’s arraignment, he delivered a speech to supporters back in Mar-a-Lago. “I never knew something like this could happen in America,” he said, echoing previous statements he has made intended to undermine the integrity of U.S. government. “The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those that seek to destroy it.”

He later added, “This is a persecution, not an investigation,” noting that he’s spent “hundreds of millions of dollars” on the case. “But our heads are held high,” he said. “They want to settle the case, but I want no part of that. So here we are now.”

The speech included thanks to his children, but notably not to his wife.

 

Trump’s criminal charges are linked to an alleged affair with Daniels, rumors of which surfaced in 2018, when the Wall Street Journal reported the then-president had arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels a month before he won the 2016 election so she’d keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter they’d had years earlier.

While Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen initially denied the claims of an affair, Cohen later admitted there was a payment made to the porn star.

Calling it “a private transaction,” Cohen told The New York Times that he paid Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket in 2016. He said Trump had not reimbursed him.

 

Trump has since admitted he authorized the $130,000 payment, but has continued to deny the underlying claims that the two had an affair or that the payment was in any way connected to his campaign.

Sources told PEOPLE that the weekend before his indictment, Trump was seen golfing and greeting supporters at his private, members-only Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. And despite him posting on social media that he would be “arrested” weeks ago, the news of the indictment still came as something of a shock.

“Trump was shocked and furious when he first heard the news of his indictment Thursday,” a political source told PEOPLE on Tuesday. “He wasn’t expecting it now, or maybe ever.”

 

For Team Trump, the courtroom drama may not change much, a social source told PEOPLE before details of the indictment were made public.

“They think it’s a political witch hunt and nothing will change their minds,” the source said.

 

– People.