Melania Trump, media-shy wife of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, stood up for her brusque husband in a magazine interview, telling the interviewer her husband is “not Hitler”. During the interview for DuJour magazine, published Tuesday, she also accused another reporter of “provoking” her fans to an anti-Semitic response.
Ms. Trump, a former model, was asked what she thought of comments by comedian Louis C.K. comparing her husband to Adolf Hitler for his stance on Muslim immigration. Trump, notorious for “stirring up strife” with hateful speech, as Proverbs says, proposed banning Muslim immigration the US, though he recently walked his proposal back to a mere “suggestion”. Ms. Trump acknowledged she did not know who the comedian was, nor had she heard his comments, but she rejected the comparison out of hand.
“No,” she told interviewer Mickey Rapkin, “we know the truth. He’s not Hitler. He wants to help America. He wants to unite people. They think he doesn’t but he does. Even with the Muslims, it’s temporary.”
Trump’s concern, she explained, is security and preserving American identity. Perhaps, she conceded, he might be a bit abrasive in his approach, but he only wants what’s best for America.
“Maybe he needs to say it in a softer way. He doesn’t go after religions. He feels like we need to know who’s coming to this country. If not, we don’t have a country. That’s how he feels. We see how he is, and he wants to unite the country and bring people together and bring jobs back.”
Rapkin asked Ms. Trump if she’d be willing to come to his defense if her fans harassed him following the interview, as they did to GQ reporter Julia Ioffe who had interviewed her previously. She accused Ioffe of “provoking” the anti-Semitic response she received.
From my inbox. Subject line: “They know about you!” pic.twitter.com/zp3v2GjTeI
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 28, 2016
.@GideonResnick @OKnox Oh, I thought this one reminding me to swallow my diamonds was from you! pic.twitter.com/Ri6tZsyHXx
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) April 28, 2016
In her magazine profile of Ms. Trump, Ioffe revealed that the former model had a half-brother back in Slovenia, one their shared father had never acknowledged. Ms. Trump was not pleased. “I have thick skin. It doesn’t bother me if they write about me because I know who I am. But what right does the reporter have to go and dig in court in Slovenia in 1960 about my parents? They’re private citizens. If they go after me, it’s different. But to do that, it’s a little bit nasty, it’s a little bit mean.”
However, Ms. Trump told Rapkin, “I don’t control my fans, but I don’t agree with what they’re doing. I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. She provoked them.”
