Melania Trump said police should have arrested Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot former President Donald Trump, before he was able to attempt to assassinate him in an advertisement for her forthcoming book, Melania.
She also implies that law enforcement was working against the former president.
“There is definitely more to the story,” she said. “And we need to uncover the truth.”
Melania posted the video from her official X account this morning, where she has been advertising her book since July. In it, she also says that the “silence” around the shooting “feels heavy” before the video fades to a copy of her memoir and a link to purchase it.
She also links to her website, which doesn’t mention the assassination, but does hype three editions of her new memoir.
Both ideas—that police purposely didn’t arrest Crooks so he would be able to shoot Trump and America having forgotten that the former president was shot at all—have been popularized in conservative circles since the shooting in July.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, far-right Trump fans declared the attempted assassination an “inside job.” Reporting on the event since revealed Crooks’ father called the police to alert them of his son sometime before the shooting, the Pennsylvania state police chief said officers left their post where they would have seen Crooks before the shooting, and an officer came “face to face” with Crooks minutes beforehand.
The Secret Service also took notice of Crooks 20 minutes before he shot.
But since the shooting, many major political events flooded the news cycle: Trump picked Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) to be his running mate, President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, Vice President Kamala Harris began her run for president, Harris cinched the nomination, and now Trump and Harris are set to go head to head in their official first debate.
But some Trump supporters, and it seems Melania, too, think that the decreasing focus on the Trump assassination attempt is purposeful.
“Trump was shot one month ago and we still don’t have answers or accountability,” a Trump supporter tweeted last month. “The media is flooding the news cycle to distract you. Don’t let them.”
And Melania Trump was flooded with praise for her message.
“I stand with Melania on this one,” Ryan Fournier, the chair of Students for Trump, replied. “We need and deserve answers.”
“Melania has interesting questions that need answers,” another X user said.
“Melania wants answers,” an X user responded. “We all do.”
Melania’s book will go on sale on September 24. But given it was announced just weeks after the assassination attempt, it’s unclear if the book will even address the incident.
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