Melania Trump Gives a Rare Interview: 3 Takeaways

Melania Trump, the former first lady, said that she blamed “leaders from the opposition party and the mainstream media” for creating conditions that led to two assassination attempts against former President Donald J. Trump.

In an interview with Ainsley Earhardt of Fox News that aired on Thursday morning — the first such media appearance the press-averse Mrs. Trump has made in over two years — she echoed what her husband has said about the attempts, without the sort of harsh language he has used.

Mrs. Trump, who is promoting a memoir, is intensely private. Even as first lady, her public appearances were sporadic and she lived a life that kept her largely ensconced from outside scrutiny. Her post-White House life has been similarly isolated, a reality that came through in the interview.

She has been largely absent from the campaign trail and was not near her husband during both recent attempts on his life. After a man with a gun was detained while her husband was playing golf at his Florida club on Sept. 15, Mrs. Trump, who was in New York City, called to make sure Mr. Trump was safe “as soon as I saw it on television.”

And she said a second presidency for Mr. Trump would not be disruptive beyond his presence on social media. “Maybe some, you know, strong tweets. But everything else great for this country,” she said at one point.

Here are a few takeaways from her interview.

Mrs. Trump, asked about her reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, said that her husband’s record spoke for itself.