Five takeaways from Melania Trump’s new book

In a newly released memoir, former First Lady Melania Trump shares her pro-choice stance on abortion, the moment she first met Donald Trump in a New York City night club and “cruel” rumours about her son having autism.

Ahead of the book’s release on Tuesday, several media outlets had published reports on some of its revelations, including her views on abortion – sparking backlash given her husband’s anti-abortion stance.

But the 256-page work, called Melania, mostly leaves out personal details of the former Slovenian model’s life.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the memoir.

The former first lady spends the first part of her book discussing her work as a model, which brought her to New York and paved the way for her first encounter with Trump.

It happened on a Friday night in September 1988, as Ms Trump visited the Kit Kat Klub in New York City during Fashion Week.

At a table in the VIP section, a man – Donald Trump – and his “attractive blonde” date came to greet her, she said.

“From the moment our conversation began, I was captivated by his charm and easygoing nature,” she said.

Trump asked for her phone number. She declined, instead asking him to provide his number, according to the book.

She would call him days later, leading to their first date at his Seven Springs property in Bedford, New York.

In one of the more personal sections of her book, Mrs Trump discusses allegations that her son, Barron, was autistic.

Comedian Rosie O’Donnell posted on social media suggesting then 10-year-old was autistic, linking to a video of his behaviour and body language at various events.

“I was appalled by such cruelty,” Mrs Trump writes in the book. “It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism. I felt that she was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband.”

She said that although “there is nothing shameful about autism”, her son, now 18, is not autistic.

O’Donnell later apologized for the post, which Mrs Trump said made her “furious”.

“I knew the tweet and video would go viral and I knew how much it would hurt him,” she said.

She added that the incident led her to launch her anti-bullying White House initiative, “Be Best”.

Though Mrs Trump may differ from her husband on reproductive rights, she largely echoes many of Trump’s stances, including on the 2020 election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

Her tone is slightly softer than her husband’s as Mrs Trump calls into question the results of the election, arguing that all votes should have been counted on Election Day.

Ballot counting took longer in 2020 because of a larger number of absentee votes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It was a mess,” Mrs Trump writes. “I am not the only person who questions the results.”

The book goes on to detail Mrs Trump’s day on 6 January, when her husband’s supporters breached the US Capitol.

She explains her decision not to denounce the violence, as her press secretary asked, claiming she was “not aware of the events unfolding” at the Capitol.

“Had I been fully informed of all the details, naturally, I would have immediately denounced the violence that occurred at the Capitol Building,” she writes.

Toward the end of her book, Mrs Trump details what it was like to witness a gunman’s attempted assassination of her husband as she watched on television.

Trump has faced two assassination attempts this campaign season, the first at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania as he spoke to the crowd.

Mrs Trump, who largely stays off the campaign trail, was in Bedminster, New Jersey, when the incident took place.

“I watched the chaos unfold: the gunfire, Donald instinctively reaching up to his head, and the immediate response of Secret Service agents shielding him,” Mrs Trump writes in her book.

After “what felt like an eternity”, she said, she finally spoke to her husband.

She said she was most worried for her son, who was also watching on television. “[E]ach time we saw Donald’s bloodied face, I had to remind myself that I had actually just spoken to him,” Mrs Trump said.

She went on to describe Trump’s survival as “nothing short of a miracle”.

Mrs Trump revealed some of the most controversial remarks from her book before it was actually published, posting on social media last week that women have a right to “individual freedom”.

In her memoir, she lays out her position on the issue.

“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,” she writes.

“A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” she added.

Mrs Trump has since faced a backlash for the remarks, including from anti-abortion activists within the Republican Party.

As Democrats have used the issue of reproductive rights to galvanize voters, Trump has flip flopped on the issue. He has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade, upending the constitutional right to abortion. Other times, he has criticised Republican abortion bans as too strict.

But Trump has said he encouraged his wife to speak her mind about the issue.

“We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe,” he told Fox News last week.