Presidential races

On trail, Melania Trump says her husband will treat everyone equally

by Lisa Hagen

Melania Trump on Monday night said her husband will treat people equally, regardless of gender.

She joined the campaign trail Monday, on the eve of the Wisconsin primary, to rally for support for the GOP front-runner.

She has typically shied away from the campaign spotlight but has spoken briefly before at Donald Trump’s events.

Melania Trump spoke for about a minute and touted her husband as a “good man” and a “good businessman.” She also joined her husband during a Fox News town hall that aired later Monday night. 

She was recently embroiled in a feud between Trump and rival Ted Cruz sparked by an anti-Trump super-PAC ad featuring her posing nude in 2000 for British GQ.

Trump, in turn, retweeted a picture comparing Heidi Cruz and his wife.

Cruz, a Texas senator, has repeatedly denied any connection to the super-PAC and has pushed back, saying “real men don’t attack women.” In a Fox News interview airing Monday night, Cruz accused Trump of having a problem with strong women.

When Fox moderator Sean Hannity asked Melania Trump about the ad during a Monday night town hall, she said: “I have a tough skin. I think it’s not fair that they’re attacking family, wife or children.”
 
When asked about advice she would give her husband, she repeated a line about his Twitter habits.
 
“Sometimes I feel the retweets sometimes get him in trouble,” she said to laughter from the audience. “Stay away from retweets, if he would only listen, but he’s doing great.”
 
She also suggested he needs to act more presidential but said, “If somebody attacks him, he will punch back 10 times harder.”

At the Monday rally, Melania Trump said: “No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal.”

When the GOP front-runner took the stage in Wisconsin, he reiterated his call for John Kasich to drop out, saying the Ohio governor takes away more votes from him than Cruz.

“I don’t think he’s a player here,” Trump said, “and you do what Marco [Rubio] did, which was great, and you do what Rand Paul did … and you get out.

“But if we have to live with him, we’ll still beat him easily,” he added.

Trump, who leads Cruz by 262 delegates, according to The Associated Press delegate tracker, blasted the fact that the Texas senator could end up receiving 10 more delegates from Louisiana despite Trump winning the state’s primary.

“I don’t care about rules folks. I go out. I campaign. We win. We get the delegates,” Trump said. “But in the meantime, we have millions more votes than Cruz.”

The real estate mogul also predicted he could wrap up the GOP nomination before the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer.

“I think we close it out before the convention,” Trump said. “If we get the delegates, we pull out a knockout. I can see that happening.”

Trump and Cruz are in a tight race for the Badger State. Cruz leads Trump by about 4 points in the RealClearPolitics average. A new poll released Monday found the Texas senator leading by 5 points, closing the gap from a Fox Business survey last week, which had Cruz ahead by 10 points.

“We’re here constantly, but we are making so much progress and it’s been so inspiring to see the people,” Trump said about Wisconsin.

Updated at 10:23 p.m.

Presidential races