Melania Trump stands by her man in Milwaukee
GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump kisses his wife, Melania, at a campaign rally April 4 in Milwaukee. (Photo: JIm Young/Reuters)
By Holly Bailey
MILWAUKEE—Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, has been a mostly silent presence on the campaign trail so far, offering a rare hello here and there as she’s joined the GOP presidential frontrunner at debates or the occasional rally.
But on Monday night, she joined her husband on stage here and offered her most significant remarks to date, defending Trump against charges that he treats women disrespectfully.
Gliding to the podium in a short baby-blue dress, the former model and mother of Trump’s youngest son, Barron, showered her husband with praise, calling him a “hard worker” who is “kind” and has a “great heart.” “He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s a great communicator, he’s a great negotiator, he’s telling the truth, he’s fair,” she added.
But in what appeared to be a direct response to critics who say Trump has a problem with women, she defended him as a “fighter” unafraid of defending himself against anyone, no matter their sex.
“As you may know by now, when you attack him he will punch back 10 times harder. No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal,” Melania Trump said. “He’s a fighter, and if you elect him to be our president, he will fight for you and for our country. He will work for you and with you, and together we will make America strong and great again.”
Her remarks lasted roughly a minute — but they were her lengthiest remarks of the campaign to date. They came on the eve of Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary, where polls show Trump trailing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. And they came just hours after Cruz held an event with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, a frequent Trump nemesis, where he slammed his rival for having a problem with “strong women.”
“It makes him feel really tough. It makes him feel like a very, very big man to threaten people. And in particular, he seems to have a problem with strong women,” Cruz said. “I don’t know why that is, but it seems to really bother him.”
The real estate mogul’s approval ratings have been low with women for some time, and polls show his numbers falling even further in recent weeks, in the wake of the contretemps over his tweets about Heidi Cruz, repeated jabs at Kelly and highly controversial remarks on the campaign trail over abortion.
A CNN poll released Mar. 24 found 73 percent of women have an unfavorable view of Trump, while a Mar. 17 Reuters poll found 50 percent of women have a “very unfavorable” view.
In Wisconsin, 76 percent of registered female voters have an unfavorable view of Trump, according to Marquette Law Poll released last week. And that appears to be helping Cruz, who led Trump among likely women voters 39 percent to 24 percent. Overall, the Texas senator led Trump by 10 points ahead of Tuesday’s primary, according to the Marquette poll.
In the last hours here before the election, Trump sought staunch the bleeding, bringing his wife to testify on his behalf during his final event here. He praised Melania as someone who will make an “unbelievable first lady” and called her remarks about him “special.” And then he predicted a come-from-behind victory in the GOP primary here, citing unidentified polls that have him surging “like a rocket ship.”
“Boom like a rocket ship,” he said.
