Melania Trump, the once and future first lady, revealed that current first lady Jill Biden reached out to her following the July 13 assassination attempt against President-elect Donald Trump in Butler, Pa.
But Trump also said she doubts Biden was being sincere — given the inflammatory rhetoric Jill had unleashed just a few days earlier.
“I do question, however, whether Jill’s concern was genuine, as a few days prior she referred to my husband as ‘evil’ and a ‘liar,’” she told French outlet Paris Match in an interview just before the election.
“It was obvious that the onslaught of rhetoric from Democrat leaders and the mainstream media was so deeply embedded in our nation’s consciousness it prompted an attempt to assassinate Donald.”
President Biden, 81, similarly spoke to Donald Trump, 78, just after a bullet grazed his left ear and came within a quarter-inch of ending his life.
Throughout her husband’s third White House bid, Trump, 54, largely eschewed the limelight, though she began making more public appearances during the tail end of the 2024 cycle after she published a tell-all memoir.
She had appeared with her husband at the Madison Square Garden rally just days before the Nov. 5 election.
On Wednesday, Trump opted to forgo the traditional tea between first ladies during the transition, while her husband sat down with President Biden to go over the switch.
“Mrs. Trump will not be attending today’s meeting at the White House. Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success,” Melania Trump’s team said in a statement Wednesday.
A key motivation for skipping tea with Jill was the 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, sources told The Post.
She also hit back at rumors that she might not move back into the White House with her husband full-time come January. Her office stressed that “several unnamed sources in the media continue to provide false, misleading, and inaccurate information.”
Melania Trump had met with former first lady Michelle Obama for tea in the Yellow Room in the wake of her husband’s 2016 victory but did not extend the same courtesy to Jill Biden following the 2020 election.
During her interview with the French publication, Melania Trump recounted feeling relief that “my husband was safe” right after his brush with death — but decried the political environment that led to the attack on him.
“They want Donald out. They won’t stop. Has the concept of ‘respect’ become antiquated?” she pondered. “The Democrat political engine peddles harsh words, vile names, and labels our nation’s 45th president ‘a threat to democracy.’”
President Biden has characterized the incoming Republican as a threat to democracy and Jill Biden lambasted him as a threat to women.
“People today are so desensitized they actually joke about killing a former US president,” she went on. “It is undeniable that this type of speech created a toxic political environment.”
In lieu of tea with Melania Trump, Jill Biden, 73, gave her husband a letter to convey congratulations on the 2024 election and inform her that her team is prepared to help with the transition.
Jill Biden also joined her husband in welcoming Donald Trump into the White House on Wednesday.
