Former first lady Melania Trump blamed “opposition leaders and the mainstream media” for creating the conditions that led to the two assassination attempts on former President Donald J. Trump.
In an interview with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt that aired on Thursday morning – the press-hating Mrs. Trump’s first media appearance in more than two years – she repeated what her husband said about the attacks, without using the harsher language.
Mrs. Trump, who is about to publish her memoir, is an intensely private person. Even as first lady, her public appearances were sporadic and she lived a life largely secluded from outside scrutiny. Her life outside the White House has been similarly isolated, a reality that came through in the interview.
She has been largely absent from campaign activities and was not near her husband during the two recent assassination attempts. When a gunman was detained while he was playing golf at a Florida club on September 15, Mrs. Trump, who was in New York City, called him “right after seeing it on TV” to make sure he was safe.
She also said Trump’s second term as president won’t be disruptive, apart from his social media presence: “There might be some strong tweets, but everything else is great for the country,” she said.
Here are some takeaways from her interview.
She defended Trump’s record while being vague and selective about details.
Asked for her reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Mrs. Trump said her husband’s track record speaks for itself.
“As Commander in Chief, my husband led the country with peace and strength,” Mrs. Trump said vaguely, without offering specifics about what her husband’s administration had accomplished. In contrast, under Mr. Biden, she argued, “the country is suffering.” “People are not able to buy the basics for their families.”
She maintained that the United States had prospered and been “war-free” under Trump’s administration, echoing her husband’s assertions that there had been relatively few military conflicts overseas, particularly during his presidency.
By the end of Trump’s term, about 13,000 U.S. troops were in Afghanistan, and records show that at least 65 active-duty soldiers had died in hostilities during his presidency, in part as a result of his administration’s efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
In reviewing her time in the Trump administration, Mrs. Trump also omitted an obvious reference to the coronavirus pandemic that devastated the U.S. economy and killed hundreds of thousands of people before Trump lost the 2020 election.
She also made it clear how she felt about Trump’s decision to run for reelection, saying, “I support him.”
Both Trumps blame others for political conflict.
Mrs. Trump rarely speaks publicly but when she does she almost always defends Trump’s incendiary political tactics and, as she said Thursday, argues that his actions demonstrate “strong” leadership.
In the interview, Mrs. Trump condemned the assassination attempt and said she did not watch on television when a gunman opened fire at the rally on July 13, but that she eventually reached her husband by phone and was assured by a Secret Service guard that he would survive. “I think something was watching over him,” she said. “It’s almost as if the country really needed him.”
She said she wrote a “beautiful letter” after the incident calling for an end to the violence. “Now is the time to come together again,” she wrote at the time. She declined to speak at the Republican National Convention because “in a way, that letter was my speech.”
But on Fox, Mrs. Trump blamed who she believes is causing the conflict.
“It is truly shocking that such terrible violence is being perpetrated against my husband, especially when we hear opposition leaders and mainstream media branding him a threat to democracy and calling him vulgar terms,” she said. “They are only fueling a toxic atmosphere and empowering those who want to harm my husband. This has to stop. The country needs to come together.”
For now, not many details about the book tour have been revealed.
Mrs. Trump’s memoir, titled “Melania,” could include specific details, such as what she saw after FBI agents raided the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where she shares her husband. The book could also reveal her thoughts on the many wives of world leaders she met during her time as first lady. She could also tell readers more about what Mr. Trump is like in private.
But when Earhart raised those questions in the interview, Mrs. Trump was more cautious than hinting at what might actually be in the book.
Asked to reveal what the FBI found after searching her home, the former first lady gave general responses and claimed it was an invasion of privacy.
“I saw some disgusting things that nobody wants to see,” Mrs. Trump said, “and it makes me angry because nobody should have to put up with something like that. Someone, I don’t even know who it was, how many people it was, went through my belongings.”
She also said that people who dislike her husband don’t understand that Trump is a “family man” who likes listening to music and “he loves being a DJ”.
She didn’t give many other examples.
