‘I’m not going to tell you what to do’: Trump breaks silence over abortion rift with Melania

Donald Trump has broken his silence over his apparent rift with wife Melania Trump around abortion rights, insisting that he told her “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”

In her upcoming memoir, as well as a video posted on X this week, the former first lady has signaled her support for a woman’s right to choose – a stance that appears to put her at odds with her husband and the Republican party.

On Thursday, the former president – who admitted he hadn’t read his wife’s book at a campaign rally last month – was asked about their differences in opinion.

“We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,” Trump told Fox News’s Bill Melugin.

“But I said you have to stick with your heart. I’ve said that to everybody, you have to go with your heart.”

After being noticeably absent from Trump’s campaign trail this election cycle, the former first lady has reentered the spotlight in recent days to plug her new book Melania.

In an excerpt of the memoir obtained by The Guardian, Melania writes of her belief that a woman should be granted “authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she writes.

“A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

She continues: “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”

In a video promoting Melania posted on Thursday, she then declared that