Donald Trump Somber As He Skips Trial To Support Melania At Her Mother's Funeral

Former president Donald Trump made it clear that family comes first before any trial by attending his mother-in-law Amalija Knavs' funeral.

This means he missed a day of his $10 million defamation trial with E.Jean Carroll.

Trump also, for the third time, slammed Judge Lewis A. Kaplan for denying his request to move the trial to accommodate the funeral.

In the business mogul's victory speech at the Iowa caucus, he praised Knavs and called her an "incredible, beautiful mother." Knavs, who's survived by her husband, two daughters, and grandson, was close to Trump while alive and even lived at his estate.

Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, laid her mother, Amalija Knavs, to rest in Florida on Thursday morning. Melania announced last week that Knavs had died after an illness at 78 years old. The family laid her to rest after a service at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach.

Photos shared showed Melania looking straight-faced while wearing a black suit and dark sunglasses. She was standing with her father, Viktor Knavs, and her son, 17-year-old Barron Trump. They stood by as pallbearers carried Knavs' coffin, which was covered by pretty white flowers, into the church, which isn't far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

Trump was also photographed outside the church, wearing a navy blue suit and black tie. The presidential hopeful looked somber as he supported the former first lady at her mother's funeral.

More members of the Trump family were also present at the funeral, including Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. More guests included Tiffany Trump and Kim Guilfoyle, fiancée of Donald Trump Jr.

Trump's attendance at the funeral means he missed one day of his defamation trial with writer E. Jean Carroll in New York. The trial is to determine how much damage the former president owes Carroll after being found guilty of sexual abuse and defamation.

Trump had requested a delay in the trial to attend the funeral, which was denied by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. He's since gone on several rants against the judge, calling him a "nasty man," a "bad person," a "Trump-hating guy," an "animal" and branding him a "Clinton appointee."

During a press conference in New York on Wednesday, after a full day in court, he further abused Kaplan for his decision. He said, "And we would have assumed that for a trial like this, it's not an emergency in terms of timing, the judge would have been very nice, and they would let me go because I want to be at every trial day because I saw what happened in the first one where I was asked not to go by the lawyers very much."

With the trial and his mother-in-law's funeral, Trump hasn't had the best January, but there's been one good thing recently: he won the Iowa Caucuses on Monday night.

During his victory speech to the excited crowd, the businessman praised Knavs again for her impact on his life and their family.

He said, "I want to thank her incredible, beautiful mother who passed away a few days ago. And she's up there, way up there. She's looking down, and she's so proud of us. And I just want to say to Amalija, you are special, one of the most special people I've ever known."

During Knavs' life, she was a very private person but showed her support to Trump and Melania frequently. She and her husband, Viktor, were occasional visitors to the White House during Trump's presidency and at official events. Knavs was even at the launch of Melania's "Be Best" campaign in 2018.

The New York Times reported that Knavs and Viktor became naturalized US citizens that same year. Melania was her parents' sponsor through the process that allows adult citizens to process green cards and permanent residency for their relatives.

Knavs and her husband raised Melania and her sister, Ines, in Sevnica, a rural industrial town that used to be in Communist-ruled Yugoslavia. In the years before her death, the couple lived with Trump, Melania, and their family at the Mar-a-Lago estate.