Over two weeks after the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, the former president has remained unflinching as he attended political events and squeezed in some time for golf as well, according to a new report.
The FBI search at his Florida residence could potentially be a politically embarrassing moment for the former president, but life has gone on as usual, reported Politico magazine on Thursday.
Mr Trump has stationed himself at his Bedminster office and held meetings with his aides and lawyers. At the same New Jersey property, he has played golf too.
The former president has also marked his attendance at politically relevant events for GOP allies, including a political fundraiser for Jeff Van Drew, the congressman and Republican leader from New Jersey and Kristina Karamo, who is running for Michigan’s secretary of state.
Those who have seen him, like GOP members, aides and media personalities, said the former president is frustrated but “cheerful”, stated the Politico report.
This comes at a time investigators continue to probe 2020 election interference in Georgia. Former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani called Mr Trump a target of a criminal probe earlier this month.
The unprecedented FBI search has also not deterred Mr Trump in gloating with his club guests the defeat of his Republican nemesisLiz Cheney in the Wyoming primary race.
Mr Trump has reportedly cheered people up with pep talk at his club’s caddie-member golf tournament, called up trusted friends and members of Congress and recorded a video message memorialising former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in a video message for bereaved guests at the Unification Church in South Korea, which has bankrolled American conservatives.
Akin to angry tweets during his presidency and the 2020 presidential elections, Mr Trump has also carried forward with his thoughts in the form of furious “truths” on his social media platform Truth Social in the last fortnight.
A steady flow of political campaigning has also continued on his “Save America” website with potshots at the FBI for what he called the “break-in at Mar-a-Lago”.
“They demanded that the security cameras be turned off, a request we rightfully denied. They prevented my attorneys from observing what was being taken in the raid, saying ‘absolutely not’,” read one of the statements issued by Mr Trump.
He added that the FBI agents took documents “covered by attorney-client and executive privilege, which is not allowed”.
“They took my passports. They even brought a ‘safe cracker’ and successfully broke into my personal safe, which revealed…nothing!” Mr Trump said.
He also chimed in a “truth” for his son-in-law Jared Kushner for the release of his book about his time at the Trump administration.
“I am extremely proud of everything we accomplished in the White House—energy independence, the largest tax and regulation cuts in history, rebuilding our military, taking proper care of our Vets, Space Force, no inflation, and so much more,” the former president said.
He has dined on the patio of his New Jersey estate in Bedminster and tried to expand his legal team but in vain.
One thing the report pointed out was peculiar for Mr Trump was his staying away from the limelight since the search even as other family members and close allies have interacted with the media.
Mr Trump will make his next public appearance only in September at a Save America rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Soon after the FBI search, Mr Trump plead the fifth after he was called to testify on an investigation against his business dealings being undertaken by New York attorney general Laetitia James.
Over “100 documents with classification markings, comprising more than 700 pages” with information at “the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials” were recovered during the FBI search, according to US Acting Archivist Debra Wall.
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