First Lady Melania Trump said she was doing 'very well' after her harrowing experience at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner, in which a gunman rushed the Secret Service checkpoint, throwing the dinner into chaos. The First Lady was asked about the experience on Tuesday as she hosted Queen Camilla alongside the tennis pavilion she helped renovate during President Donald Trump's first term.
The President and First Lady are hosting King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House this week for a state visit. Melania was asked twice by reporters how she was doing - answering the question on the second try as she posed for a group shot with the Queen and the children who participated in the program, staged on the White House's tennis court. 'Very well, thank you,' she answered.
In the aftermath of Saturday's shooting, the President spoke of how rattled Melania was. The President said the First Lady immediately recognized the sounds of gunshots as a 'bad noise,' and added, 'Melania is very cognizant.' 'It was a rather traumatic experience for her,' Trump said.
First Lady Melania Trump was seated next to her husband, President Donald Trump, when gun shots could be heard outside the Washington Hilton ballroom where the White House Correspondents' Dinner was being put on. The First Lady hadn't been on hand when her husband survived an assassination attempt in July 2024 while speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Since Saturday, suspect Cole Tomas Allen has been charged with trying to assassinate the President. The President and First Lady had to quickly recover from the scary incident and jump into host mode, with King Charles and Queen Camilla touching down in Washington on Monday.
The Trumps greeted the royals on Monday on the South Lawn and brought them to the Green Room for tea before giving Charles and Camilla a tour of the upgraded beehive, which is situated in the White House Kitchen Garden. The more formal day of programming came on Tuesday, which also offered the First Lady and the Queen an opportunity to do a spouses' engagement.
Melania wanted to showcase her Fostering the Future Together initiative, which, beyond supporting foster youth, also concerns young people and emerging technologies. When she and the Queen walked out onto a tennis court, several young people were wearing virtual reality headsets. The Meta Quest headsets were adorned with the Fostering the Future Together logo and allowed students to virtually visit some of the United Kingdom's most spectacular sites - including Buckingham Palace and Stonehenge.
Queen Camilla and First Lady Melania Trump participated in a Fostering the Future Together event at the White House tennis pavilion as part of the royal state visit. The First Lady also had on display pieces from the White House collection - including the Winston Churchill bust and a portrait of President John Adams, who also served as British ambassador - which students would look at using Meta glasses. Melania even tried on the Ray-Ban-branded glasses herself to look at two of the artworks. The Queen did not try on the glasses.
She did gift the kids books from British children's author Michael Morpurgo, giving participants copies of War Horse. The First Lady gifted the participants with challenge coins.
