Melania Trump has explained the real reason she turned her husband Donald Trump’s hand off during a trip to Israel.
The moment at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport sparked a media frenzy after it took place in May 2017.
At that time, a video showed Melania He clearly pushes Trump’s hand away as he walks half a step behind him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.
But now Melania has quashed speculation that the gesture was indicative of the state of her marriage, chalking it up to a matter of logistics.
“The red carpet simply couldn’t accommodate four of us side by side,” he writes, in an excerpt obtained by the New York Times. “It was a small innocent gesture, nothing more.”
Melania Trump has explained the real reason she took her husband Donald Trump’s hand away during a trip to Israel. In the photo: the couple at Ben Gurion Airport in 2017.
The former First Lady addressed the incident as part of her memoir, Melania, which will be published on October 8.
The book addresses a series of controversies she faced during her husband’s tenure.
They include a fashion faux pas the former First Lady made by wearing a jacket with the slogan: “I really don’t care, do you?” while visiting immigrant children in Texas.
In her book, Melania explains that the message was intended as a stab at the media, whom she accused of twisting narratives.
The former First Lady explained that she personally pressured her husband to end his policy of dividing families at the southern border, which had led to the detention of thousands of immigrant children.
“The government should not separate children from their parents,” he remembers telling her. “This has to stop.”
One of the biggest revelations was his affirmation of the right to abortion, which contrasts with Trump’s conservative stance.
At the time, a video clearly showed Melania pushing Trump’s hand away as she walked half a step behind him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.
Melania dismissed speculation that the gesture was indicative of the state of her marriage, attributing it to a matter of logistics.
“A woman’s fundamental right to individual liberty and her own life gives her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she so wishes,” he writes.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body.”
However, on most other issues, she appears to hold similar views to her husband, including questioning the validity of the 2020 election result.
“You can’t keep counting votes for days, which is what they did,” he writes, seeming to explain his lack of condemnation for the January 6 assault on the Capitol.
He also talks about more personal topics, such as the impact of rumors that his son Barron Trump has autism, which were fueled by Trump critic Rosie O’Donnell in 2016.
Melania strongly denied the allegations and spoke of her pain at her son being dragged into the spotlight.
“There is nothing shameful about autism (although O’Donnell’s tweet implied there was), but Barron is not autistic,” he writes, according to an excerpt from the daily beast.
“I was horrified by such cruelty,” Melania continues. ‘It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism. I felt like I was attacking my son because he didn’t like my husband.’
In her upcoming memoir, Melania claims that the gesture was because the red carpet they walked on was too narrow.
She also addresses her stance on abortion, which differs from her husband’s more conservative approach.
Melania has often tried to maintain some privacy for her family and has so far taken a backseat to her husband’s campaign.
Trump previously told DailyMail.com that his wife cares deeply about the country, but he is hesitant to put her or anyone in her family on stage considering the two attempts on her life.
“It’s not as unpleasant to Democrats as it is to me. And I wish my family didn’t have to go out and deal with some of the things that you know happen,’ she said.
