Melania Trump complains about attempts to ‘silence’ husband and cost of food in new video

Melania Trump has had her say on the current cost of living crisis, political divisiveness across the US and the Biden administration’s alleged attempts to “silence” husband, in a new video plugging her tell-all, self-titled memoir.

The former first lady has been noticeably absent from her husband’s presidential campaign trail and numerous court appearances across 2024.

Her brief appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July marked one in a handful of times she has stood by her husband’s side since he relaunched his re-election campaign.

Now, the 54-year-old former model has now decided to use it as a springboard to promote her upcoming book, Melania.

Sharing a video to X on Sunday, the former first lady commented on the state of the US since her husband lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden – all before her monochrome book flashes onto the screen.

“The 2020 election results changed our lives forever,” Melania began in her narration over the black and white, text-first promo video released on Sunday.

“It impacted our quality of life, cost of food, gasoline, safety and even the geopolitical landscape,” she continued.

Melania didn’t appear once at Trump’s five-week long criminal hush money trial earlier this year, which saw the former president convicted of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to quash affair rumors. Donald Trump denies all the charges and also denies having an affair with Daniels.

However, the former first lady claimed that her husband has been impeded by a lack of free speech – hinting at a gag order issued by Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over the New York criminal case, which prevents Trump from speaking about people involved in the case.

Trump’s lawyers also argued “free speech” in a separate failed attempt to have charges against the former president thrown out in Georgia over his election interference case.

“America is more divided today than ever before. It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech, as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband,” Melania concludes before an image of her upcoming memoir bursts onto the screen.

Her latest video plug marks a second social media advert in a week, as she ramps up publicity ahead of publication on September 24.

The book is billed on Melania’s website as an “intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life”. In a separate advert for last week, the former model said that she was a “private person” and the book presented an opportunity for her to tell her “truth”.

A standard copy of Melania will sell for $40, while a signed copy will set someone back $75. And for those looking for bonus photos, that will cost $250.

“May your experience reading my book be as enjoyable as the writing process was for me,” she wrote earlier this year on X.

It comes just weeks after Trump released a book of his own: Save America.

The photo-led, coffee table book is retailing at $99 for a standard copy, with customers having to fork out an additional $400 if they’d like a signed copy, according to its publisher Winning Team Publishing.