Melania Trump relives traumatic experience of watching rally shooting footage with Barron in memoir: Deep sense of distress
Former first lady Melania Trump recalled the horror of watching the first assassination attempt on her husband’s life at a Pennsylvania rally — and the “traumatic” experience it was for their teen son Barron to see the replays.Before former President Donald Trump, 78, arrived at the campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, his wife of 19 years had told him “good luck, be safe” and that she would be watching, Melania wrote in her new memoir, “Melania,” according to an excerpt obtained by The Post.The former fashion model, 54, had the event on television paused when she suddenly received a chilling call from her chief of staff who told her, quivering, that “there was a shooting.” Melania then remembered watching “the chaos unfold” on her screen as a gunman opened fire, and her husband instinctively reached for his head as a bullet grazed his ear, she wrote.
“‘He’s on the ground,’ I called out.‘Are you sure he’s OK?’” Melania remembered saying as the Republican presidential candidate was immediately surrounded by Secret Service agents on stage.Trump would emerge on his feet with blood streaming down his face before being whisked away by his security detail.
The gunman, 20-year-old Michael Thomas Crooks, was immediately killed by a Secret Service sniper.Melania wrote that she frantically made calls to Trump and his Secret Service detail, who informed her that they were at the hospital.When she finally got her husband on the line, Trump’s first words were a reassuring, “I’m Ok,” she wrote.The most difficult part about the ordeal, she penned, was breaking the news to their 18-year-old son Barron, who had to relive the nightmare over and over again as the harrowing shooting footage was repeatedly shown on the news and across social media.“We replayed the footage and watched it together.
We were both in shock.As we tuned into the news coverage, I felt a deep sense of distress,” Melania wrote.“Can I explain how t...