- Melania Trump does not refer to George Floyd by name in her memoir.
- Trump refers to Floyd as a “Black Minneapolis resident” and references “his tragic death.”
- She writes more about protests outside the White House than the circumstances of Floyd’s murder.
Former First Lady Melania Trump addresses the murder of George Floyd in her memoir without ever writing Floyd’s name. Instead, she refers to him only as a “Black Minneapolis resident” and through the general pronoun “his.”
“On May 26, a pivotal incident unfolded as a nine-minute video circulated on social media — a cell phone recording showing the killing of a Black Minneapolis resident by a white police officer,” Trump writes. Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, but Darnella Frazier posted the video of his death to Facebook and Instagram at 1:46 am on May 26, 2020.
Two sentences later, Trump again refers to Floyd without his name: “In the aftermath of his tragic death, the firing of all four officers involved in his arrest did not quell the public outcry for justice.”
Trump goes on to criticize the protests responding to his murder and the “inflammatory rhetoric of Black Lives Matter leaders.” She eventually describes the demonstration outside the White House on May 29, 2020 and her experience taking shelter in the bunker. In total, Trump devotes three paragraphs to the circumstances of Floyd’s murder and more than three pages to the protest on May 29.
