Melania: Smacking Trump’s hand in Israel wasn’t sign of marital ire

Former US first lady Melania Trump explained the infamous incident in 2017 when she swatted Donald Trump’s hand away when he tried to hold hers after stepping off a plane at Ben Gurion Airport, claiming that it was not a sign she was angry with her husband.

Melania’s small gesture went viral at the time and sparked heavy speculation about the state of her marriage with the former president, who is the Republican candidate in next month’s US election.

However, in Melania’s new memoir, due to be published Tuesday, she wrote that the gesture had nothing to do with any problems in her marriage.

In an excerpt obtained by The New York Times, Melania explained that after stepping out off the plane, the Trumps were walking along a red carpet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.

“The red carpet simply could not accommodate four of us abreast,” she wrote. “It was a minor innocent gesture, nothing more.”

However, video appears to show her continuing to walk next to Trump after swatting his hand.

She also explained why she wore a jacket with the words “I really don’t care, do u?” on its back while visiting migrant children in Texas in June of 2018.

Melania wrote that her choice of jacket was a comment on the media’s “skewed narratives” and “negativity” rather than the plight of migrant children who had been separated from their families, a practice she said she disagrees with.

According to The New York Times, Melania also revealed that she supports abortion rights, echoed her husband’s accusations that the last elections in which he lost to US President Joe Biden were rigged, said she did not denounce the January 6 Capitol riots in 2020 because she was not given full information at the time, and said false claims that her son, Barron, is autistic were the inspiration for her childhood welfare and online bullying campaign, Be Best.