Former President Donald Trump revealed that his wife Melania’s reaction to watching his failed assassination attempt live on television made him realize she “either likes or loves” him. In an appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Trump recounted Melania’s experience watching him get shot during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“She was watching,” he told host Laura Ingraham. “She was watching live. It was all over the place. It was on television.”
He also mentioned that the experience impacted her so deeply that she was unable to talk about that day with him.
“And I asked her that, I mean I wasn’t there, I was on the ground—when the world started to, when you could talk to people and said, ‘So what was your feeling,’ and she was ah, she can’t really even talk about it,” he continued.
“That’s okay, that means she likes me — she loves me. She could talk about it freely, I’m not so sure which is better. She either likes or loves me, that’s nice.”
Trump says Melania was watching the Butler rally live: “She can’t really even talk about it.” pic.twitter.com/fuoZuOOO62
— TENET Media (@watchTENETnow) July 30, 2024
The former first lady was terrified that “the worst had happened” when she witnessed the incident unfold, due to the way the Secret Service intervened.
“While many Americans have criticized the agents for their response that day, Trump praised them.
I just want to say one thing about the Secret Service… they were very brave. They were coming. Bullets were flying over me. I went down and they were — they were on top of me, I had a lot of very big, strong people on top of me.”
While he praised their efforts, the former president still noted that they failed to be more vigilant and communicate with local law enforcement when Matthew Thomas Crooks was first spotted.
“Should’ve been somebody on the roof, should’ve been communication with the local police and we’re seeing this guy, who was a very disturbed person… how about the Trump fans who were screaming about him?”
He added that the Secret Service counter-sniper who killed Crooks did a good job “but it should’ve happened nine seconds earlier.”
A day after the assassination attempt, Melania posted a heartfelt message on X, urging Americans to set aside their differences and come together, stressing that “love, compassion, kindness, and empathy are essential.”
“And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here, in this earthly realm,” she wrote.
Trump is scheduled to provide a “victim statement” to the FBI on Thursday. Last week, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after acknowledging her failure to adequately secure the area and protect the former president.
