Melania Trump Issues New Plea to Women Voters Amid Donald’s Polling Woes

Former first lady Melania Trump issued a new plea to women voters on Sunday amid her husband former President Donald Trump’s polling woes among that demographic.
As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, polls have shown a close race between Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, as the race could be decided by small numbers of voters in crucial swing states.
As abortion and other reproductive rights remain a top issue amid the election, women voters have become a key group for the two candidates as Harris has made defending abortion rights central to her campaign and said that reproductive rights nationwide may be threatened by a second Trump presidency.
In a Sunday interview with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo asked Melania what she would say to women in this election cycle.
The former first lady said that while she understands that some may see her husband as “tough,” he “wants to make their life better.”
“They need to know that he is passionate about this country, passionate about women and men as well. He wants to make their life better, safe, prosperous. He’s warm. He loves people and I understand that maybe sometimes they see him tough and some tweets maybe they would not like it and they didn’t like it,” Melania said. “He only wants good for this country.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump and Harris’ campaign via email for comment.
Melania’s remarks come after she revealed a staunch defense of a woman’s right to an abortion in her upcoming memoir.
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” the Republican nominee’s wife writes in her book, titled Melania, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” the former first lady adds, according to the British newspaper, which obtained a copy of the book ahead of its publication on October 8.
Speaking on this in Sunday’s interview, Melania said her husband knew her position on the issue “since the day we met.”
“I believe in individual freedom, I want to decide what I want to do with my body, I don’t want government in my personal business. As I said in the book…what does really my body, my choice means because timing really matters and also the restrictions,” Melania said.
When asked by Bartiromo how she thinks Trump and other Republicans have handled the issue of abortion, Melania said her husband “let me be who I am and let me believe what I believe…He has different beliefs and he will do what he believes.”
She added that she is not worried about voters saying they will not vote for Trump’s ticket because of this issue since “everybody needs to decide what they want to do.”
The revelation that Melania’s views on abortion appear to differ significantly from her husband’s comes as women voters have been seen as a key group, with Trump recently gaining ground among them.
According to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, conducted between September 27 and October 1, Trump holds a 13-point lead among non-college educated white women, a key demographic expected to play a decisive role in the election, with 55 percent of the vote to Harris’ 42 percent. The poll surveyed 1,294 likely voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
However, Harris holds a 15-point lead over Trump among women to address inflation and lower the cost of living, according to a poll published on Friday.
An American University survey of 829 registered women voters conducted from September 20 to 24, found that Harris’ favorability has increased by 12 points since last year. Now, 55 percent of respondents view Harris favorably while 41 percent hold an unfavorable opinion of her. Meanwhile, 40 percent of women view Trump favorably while 57 percent have a negative opinion of him. Among independents, Trump’s ratings drop more significantly, with 34 percent having a favorable view of him, compared to 51 percent for Harris.
A majority of women support Harris over Trump on economic issues, the top concern in this year’s election and a topic that Trump has typically been leading on. The poll found 51 percent of respondents trust Harris to address inflation and the high cost of living, compared to 37 percent who trust Trump, 3 percent who trust both candidates equally, and 9 percent who trust neither.
As of Sunday afternoon, Harris is leading Trump nationally by 2.6 points—48.4 percent to 45.9 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate polling.
This comes as Trump has recently gone 12 days without leading a national poll, marking his longest stretch without being in the lead.
The former president’s last lead against Harris in a national poll was on September 22, according to FiveThirtyEight. Before September 22, the longest stretch Trump had gone without leading a national poll was 11 days, between August 14 and 25.