Melania Trump showed some rare support for her husband, former president Donald Trump, in an interview alongside Fox News host–and longtime friend–Sean Hannity.
The former first lady has become increasingly outspoken as she hawks her forthcoming new book, Melania. Earlier Wednesday, a report in The Guardian revealed Melania Trump’s pro-choice views on abortion; a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.
She sat down with Hannity on Tuesday, the Fox host revealed. The interview will be split into two parts, with the first aired on Wednesday night. The interview sees Trump heaping adulation and affection on her husband.
Clad in a white suit and black blouse, Trump explained the “long process” of politics, claiming, “you just need to be in it and enjoy it as much as you can.” She said you need to take it “day by day” but “very focused” and be prepared “for surprises.”
She added that she was “very calm” on election day in 2020. “That’s maybe my personality,” she said, “I know on the election day it’s all in people’s hands, people decide what they want for this country, and it will be again this year on November 5th.”
Trump confirmed she told husband Donald when he told her of his intentions to run for politics, “you’re going to win,” claiming “I saw how people reacts to him, and his passion for this country, and we travel all around the world and he was making speeches at that time and I saw what the people want. I think the country was ready for a change, they wanted to have somebody that wasn’t in politics all the time, and I saw it, I saw in him as well, that he really wants to do it that time. He was talking for many, many years but he really felt 2016 was the right time.”
She said of this time around: “The world and especially the United States is more divided than ever before, we are dealing with much more danger and especially we see what’s going on on the world and the threats that we get and my husband, what he went through in the last few months.”
Trump urged both Republicans and Democrats to “listen [to] each other” claiming that despite the different beliefs on each side, “we need to respect our freedom of speech, our individuality, I think it’s very important that ideas are heard, that we have very straight forward communications and we share the idea, we debate, because I think with that we could have innovation and success in this country. I feel it’s troubling… in this country that we are cancelling people that they don’t agree on certain issues.”
Hannity did not press the former first lady on MAGA’s provocations against the LGBTQ+ community, or husband Donald’s framing of “Black jobs,” instead admitting his apparently close relationship with the former president.
Melania Trump also did not speak of the many false accusations stated by the former president during his presidential campaign, instead blaming the media. “I saw how they treated him, how the media was against him,” she said. “I think they are afraid of his strength, and he was leading this country with peace through strength. So as soon he announced that he’s running for the presidency, everything really changed. And I saw it, and I said, you know, this will not be very pleasant.”
“I always said to him, ‘what is next?’ So in one way you’re not surprised, and every event that it happened, I’m thinking, ‘What is next, what are they trying to do?’ And you always fear the worst.”
Read More: Melania Trump Gets Remarkably Candid in Rare Fox Interview