Former First Lady Melania Trump discussed the upcoming presidential election during a rare interview with Fox News.
Trump chastised the Biden-Harris administration for failing to cultivate a prosperous nation over the last three and a half years while speaking with Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Erhardt. The interview – the former first lady’s first televised interview since 2022 – was released on Thursday.
“The country is suffering,” said Trump. “People are not able to buy usual necessities for their families. We have wars going on around the world. Soldiers are dying. They were dying under this administration because of weak leadership.”
“The border is open and dangerous,” she continued. “A lot of fentanyl is coming over, killing our youth. It's very hard to see.”
The former model contrasted the state of the nation when her husband, former President Donald Trump, was in the White House to its current status under President Joe Biden. Primarily, she underscored the economic challenges facing the average citizen.
“Inflation is high and, if we compare these four years under this administration compared to four years under my husband as commander in chief, he was leading the country through peace through strength,” she said.
“People were prospering. They had jobs. They could support their families, so I think the American people need to decide what they really want,” said Trump. “Maybe some strong tweets, but everything else great for this country, so it's all in the American people's hands on November 5th."
In addition to discussing border security and the economy, Trump reflected on the two attempts to assassinate her husband.
She said she did not see the moment her husband was shot in Bulter, Pennsylvania live and had to rush to rewind her livestream of the rally.
“Nobody really knew yet,” she recounted. “Because when you see him on the floor, and you don't know, you don't know what really happened.”
She praised the Secret Service for their actions at the July 13 rally and for preventing Ryan Routh from harming the Republican presidential nominee in Florida on Sept. 15. She called the agents “fantastic.”
“I think both of the events, they were really miracles. If you really think about it, July 13th was a miracle,” said Trump before using her hands to demonstrate how close Thomas Crooks’s bullet came to her husband’s brain. “Like, that much and he could, you know, he could not be with us."
Echoing her statement after the Pennsylvania attack, Trump attributed the assassination attempts to mounting political antipathy encouraged by progressive advocates and news commentators.
“We hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as threat to democracy, calling him vile names,” she said. “[They’re] only fueling a toxic atmosphere and all of these people that they wanted to harm — this needs to stop.”
The former first lady’s self-titled memoir, Melania, will be released on Oct. 1.
“Writing this memoir has been a deeply personal and reflective journey for me,” she said in a video on X on Sept. 5. “As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts.”
