January 11, 2021

Melania Honors Dead Pro-Trump Rioters and Claims She’s the Victim

Her first statement since Wednesday’s mob violence.

Ken Cedeno/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On Monday, nearly five days after pro-Trump insurrectionists unleashed violence on the Capitol, Melania Trump broke her silence, blasting what she described as “unwarranted personal attacks” leveled against her in the wake of last week’s chaos. The first lady also memorialized the four dead rioters who had participated in the mob before mentioning the two Capitol police officers, Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, who died following the mayhem.

“I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda,” Trump said in a statement. “This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain.”

While the statement makes gestures at healing and reconciliation, it does little to dispense with Trump’s apparent sense of victimhood and her deliberate elevation of those who committed violence in her husband’s name. It comes just as Ashli Babbitt, one of the women killed in Wednesday’s violence, is quickly becoming a rallying call for far-right extremists eager to paint Babbitt as a martyr for their movement. Trump’s name-checking is all but certain to fuel her canonization, as extremists plan for more violence ahead of Inauguration Day.

As her statement was released Monday morning, some news outlets ran it with the frame the first lady had all but certainly hoped for:

That tracks with Trump’s uncanny ability, like first daughter Ivanka Trump, to plant media stories with portraits of a more gentle, moderating force against the president’s worst instincts. Those efforts were described as recently as this morning in the New York Times: 

Among those said to be furious with the president was Melania Trump, the first lady. While she has stayed quiet publicly, people close to the situation said she was upset with her husband for what had taken place, as well as his decision not to attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration.

Trump’s on-the-record remarks on Monday, however, tell quite a different story. 

This post has been updated.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate