"She wasn’t a member of my family. She, I guess, dated my son a long time ago."

Said Trump, about Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Don Jr. from 2020 to 2024. 

Trump's cold distancing is quoted in "'Honey Please’: The Steep Rise and Sudden Fall of Kimberly Guilfoyle. President Trump cut her loose after damaging news reports about her tenure as ambassador to Greece. Once a prominent Trump insider, she suggested she will now fight to defend her reputation" (NYT).

Ms. Guilfoyle was a Trump insider with a prominent role in the family and its political operation. The president’s swiftness in firing her showed his willingness to cut off anyone who becomes a liability and an embarrassment. But it also left her with little reason to remain loyal to the president and his family at a time when Mr. Trump’s political authority is ebbing....

Her stint in Greece is over. It served its purpose: 

"If I do attend, I get killed. If I don't attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I'm talking about."

Trump has his own way of talking.

Reporter: Are you attending your son’s wedding?

Trump: He’d like me to go. I’m going to try. I said, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran and other things. He’s a person I’ve known for a long time. pic.twitter.com/lGdjvU7oD0

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 21, 2026

You'd think that after 3 assassination attempts, he's eschew the murder metaphor, but no. He's not going to say "I'll be harshly criticized," like a typical high official. He's going to say "I get killed." Not even "I'll get killed." Present tense: "I get killed."

He also calls his son "a person I’ve known for a long time."

By the way, I've seen man bellies that look like pregnancies, but the protruding navel is really too much, especially right next to the President's head. Where's the dignity?!

For more of the video and an explanation of the event, see "WATCH: Trump, Zeldin announce looser rule on refrigerant greenhouse gases" (PBS). The belly is not Zeldin's.

"It was an announcement made amid a swirl of tabloid speculation: Kimberly Guilfoyle, a loyalist of President-elect Donald J. Trump and — more pointedly..."

"... the fiancée of his son Donald Jr. had been named ambassador to Greece. The timing of the move — early Tuesday evening — would have been unremarkable except for what preceded it: rumors that the president-elect’s eldest son was dating a socialite, Bettina Anderson. The new relationship was seemingly documented in a series of photos published earlier on Tuesday by the British tabloid The Daily Mail, which described them as 'incontrovertible proof the soon-to-be First Son has moved on' with a 'stunning '"it girl."'"

From "Amid Rumors of a Breakup, Kimberly Guilfoyle Is Appointed Ambassador to Greece/The announcement came as Donald Trump Jr. has been seen with the socialite Bettina Anderson in Florida" (NYT).

Don and Kimberly got engaged 4 years ago. I don't trust long engagements! What's supposed to be going on? Either you're getting married or you are not. Don't live in limbo. Are you testing commitment... by being half-committed?

Bobby surrenders.

Make America Healthy Again starts TOMORROW. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/LLzr5S9ugf

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 17, 2024

"Donald J. Trump’s... impassioned defense during closing arguments... attacked both the New York attorney general who brought the case and the judge overseeing it...."

"[He] cast[] himself as a victim of what he claimed was their partisan crusade against him.... He took the microphone, said that he did not see how he could stick to the facts and the law when the case went beyond them and then monologued for five minutes. He attacked the judge, saying, 'You have your own agenda.' He went after Ms. James, accusing her of perpetrating 'a fraud on me.' Perhaps the most surprising feature of Mr. Trump’s closing argument was that he stopped willingly after five minutes. When the lunch break arrived, Justice Engoron asked him to finish, and Mr. Trump obliged...."

From "What to Know After Closing Arguments in Trump’s Civil Fraud Trial/A judge’s decision lies ahead, and appeals are highly likely. But this case could end Mr. Trump’s decades-long role in the New York real-estate business" (NYT).

The NYT writers find it "surprising" that Trump — who disrespects the Attorney General and the judge — respects lunchtime.

This part of the article makes me think it's clear what the judge is going to do:

"With his own lawyers questioning him, [Donald Trump Jr.'s] testimony adopted a rhapsodic tone that aimed to create a parallel universe..."

"... from the one that operated in the previous six weeks of the trial, when the attorney general’s office laid out its case. Whereas [Letitia] James’s office presented spreadsheets, emails and financial statements, Mr. Trump’s lawyers showed him dozens of pictures of luxury properties, and he opined about them lovingly and at length....  The judge who will decide the nonjury case, Arthur F. Engoron, has often been impatient with the Trumps and their lawyers.... But on Monday, Justice Engoron brushed aside objections from state lawyers to Mr. Trump’s testimony, saying, 'Let him go ahead and talk about how great the Trump Organization is.' Mr. Trump began at the beginning, describing his great-grandfather developing hotels in the Yukon during the gold rush.... ... Justice Engoron was patient and seemed to find something of a rapport with Mr. Trump. Several times, Mr. Trump turned his head and body toward the judge and spoke directly to him, often prompting the judge to smile...."

From "The former president’s son said the family’s properties showed his father’s brilliance" (NYT).

Hmm. That smiling. Is the judge falling (a little) in love with Trump or is the judge getting off on the prospect of depriving this man of his New York properties?

"'I know nothing about GAAP,' Trump Jr. said, alluding to generally accepted accounting principles. 'I leave it to my CPAs.'..."

"When asked by [the prosecutor] about one of the statements, Trump Jr. testified Wednesday that accountants were responsible for '[putting] together a document of this nature' and denied taking part in the preparation of a statement of financial condition from 2017. 'The accountants worked on it,' he added. 'That’s what we paid them for.'"

From "Don Jr. Has a Conveniently Fuzzy Memory of Trump Org Finances: 'I Leave It to My CPAs'/The executive vice president introduced himself simply as a 'real estate broker' while on the witness stand, and claimed to 'know nothing' about basic accounting principles" (Vanity Fair).

So frustrating for Trump haters. Don Jr. just said the obvious thing. He trusted the experts. And the Vanity Fair writers strain to make it seem nefarious — "alluding to," "conveniently," etc.

"Remember in the Lion King when Scar cheated to win the title as king? And the pride land was overrun with the hyenas? And all of the lions lost everything they had built and maintained? Just asking. No reason."

Tweeted Donald Trump Jr., quoted in "Ivanka praises her own work in farewell message as bitter Don Jr compares Biden to The Lion King’s Uncle Scar/Members of the Trump family signed off after four tumultuous years in the White House" (The Independent).

Don't compare human beings to animals. Don't say "pride land was overrun with the hyenas"! Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration, and "pride" resonates with white pride and Proud Boys. Why would you do that? Sheer stupidity?

By the way, "The Lion King" is racist on its own. I've said that all along (having taken children to the original Disney cartoon and then to the Broadway show), but here's a 2019 article in Fast Company, "The original ‘Lion King’ had a racist hyena problem":