Melania Trump breaks silence over Donald’s assassination attempt with plea for Americans to come ‘together as one’

Melania Trump has broken her silence over the assassination attempt on her husband Donald Trump, making an impassioned plea for Americans to come “together as one”.

“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change,” the former first lady wrote in a statementshared on X on Sunday.

“I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband,” she said in a statement.

Follow our live blog for updates on the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump

Melania went on to call for unity across the country in the wake ofthe shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday – a shooting that he survived but which left one spectator dead and two others critically injured.

“I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans. 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 wrote.

“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she continued.

“The core facets of my husband’s life — his human side — were buried below the political machine.”

The former first lady described her husband as a “generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”

The suspected shooter, later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire jsut after 6pm from the rooftop of a nearby building, just outside the paremeters of the rally.

Trump was around 15 minutes into his speech