Trump hasn’t read wife Melania’s new book because he is ‘so busy’
Donald Trump has admitted he has not read his wife Melania’s book because he is “so busy” on the campaign trail.
The Republican candidate urged his supporters to buy his wife’s “great” upcoming memoir at a rally on Long Island, New York on Wednesday night.
“People love our first lady. Go out and get a book. She just wrote a book,” he said.
“I hope she said good things,” he continued, admitting “I don’t know”.
“I didn’t [read it]. So busy,” he added.
The former First Lady’s memoir is due to be released in the next fortnight, her first major foray into the national spotlight since quitting the White House in Jan 2021.
Mrs Trump, 54, has cut an elusive figure since, and has been largely absent from her husband’s third presidential run.
She has broken her silence in the last few days to tease the publication of her book in a series of social media clips, including defending her decision to model nude.
The memoir will detail her early “courtship” with Trump, 78, as well as “behind-the-scenes stories from her time in the White House” and her thoughts on “life in the spotlight, and experiencing the joy of motherhood”.
Mrs Trump acknowledged that she was a “private person” in one video, but said as “the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts”.
“I believe it is important to share my perspective,” she added.
Speaking at his rally on Wednesday night, Trump joked to the crowd: “If she says bad things about me, I’ll call you all up and I’ll say, ‘Don’t buy it. Get rid of it’.”
It was his first rally since a second apparent assassination attempt on his life on Sunday, during which a gunman hid in the shrubbery while Trump played a round of golf at his West Palm Beach, Florida resort.
Discussing the incident in a Fox News interview on Thursday, the former president suggested he would have confronted his would-be assassin with his golf club if his Secret Service unit had not intervened first.
Trump said “if I knew” the gunman was there, he would have attempted to take him out with a 3-wood golf club.
“Actually, the Secret Service did a great job. They saw the barrel of a gun, big gun, and it came out through bushes. And how many people would see that?” he told the network.
During the wide-ranging interview, he also claimed the media would not credit his debate performances even if he were Sir Winston Churchill.
“He was a great debater, by the way. If I were an elegant debater, if I were Winston Churchill, they would say, well, he was OK, but he wasn’t special tonight,” he said.
He also repeated his claim that US fighter pilots have told him they believe that UFOs exist after seeing a “round object going four times faster than my F-22”.
