Former First Lady Melania Trump released a statement after her husband, former President Donald Trump, was shot during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13. Melania’s statement called for unity and kindness as she condemned the shooter’s action in the letter, which was shared on social media on Sunday. “I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,” she began her statement.
Melania wrote that she knew that her, Donald’s, and their son Barron’s life was “on the brink of devastating change” after the former president’s ear was grazed by a bullet. “I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband,” she wrote. “To the families of the innocent victims who are now suffering from this heinous act, I humbly offer my sincerest sympathy. Your need to summon your inner strength for such a terrible reason saddens me.”
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 14, 2024
Melania continued and speculated that the shooter saw her husband as an “inhuman political machine,” and she called Donald a “generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”
Throughout the statement, the former model shared a unifying message, calling for Americans to come together. “We have always been a unique union. America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one,” she said. “We are all humans, and fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another. American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.”
Melania also begged people to look beyond the partisan lines and see each other more humanely, while thanking those who have reached out. “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. “The winds of change have arrived. For those of you who cry in support, I thank you. I commend those of you who have reached out beyond the political divide – thank you for remembering that every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.”