Shailene Woodley Reacts to Backlash Over Sharing Melania Trump’s Letter About Husband Donald Trump
Shailene Woodley is addressing her controversial repost.
The Secret Life of the American Teenager alum sparked backlash in July for sharing former First Lady Melania Trump's letter about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, on her Instagram Story.
"Oh my God. Literally, I read it and I was like, 'This is so beautiful,'" Woodley told Bustle in an interview published Sept. 9. "I was in circles of people that I deeply respect—friends, colleagues, progressive, very intelligent thinkers, shakers and movers—and many of them were saying, 'He missed! F--king assassin missed! Maybe it was a setup. Maybe it was a conspiracy.'”
During a July 13 campaign rally for Trump—the republican candidate in the 2024 Presidential Election—Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots into the crowd, killing spectator Corey Comperatore and injuring others. The 45th president, who was onstage when gunfire broke out, was shot in his ear during the incident.
The gunman was later killed by Secret Service.
"I was going, 'Have we forgotten that two human lives were taken?' Two people died," Woodley recalled to the outlet. "That is sad. That is devastating. I could not understand how people were speaking about something with such passion for death."
As for the former first lady’s letter, in which she addressed the impact her husband's death would've had on her and their 18-year-old son Barron Trump, Woodley noted she only posted the first page of it.
"Because the second page was more political," she said. "The first page was very much like, 'Look, underneath the political mask is a man, a grandpa, who comes home to his children, his grandchildren, and plays music. The man underneath that mask is my husband.'"
"I posted that letter because I thought it was a beautiful message of human compassion, and then I forgot about it because I have a life and I don’t live for what social media says," the 32-year-old continued. "Then a week later, I got a text from a friend that said, 'Are you OK?' I Googled my name, because I’m like, 'Oh f--k, what did I say?'"
That's when she saw the discourse about her repost.
"There were all these news articles about Melania Trump, and I was like, 'Oh my God, that is now this? Hundreds of articles because I posted about a woman saying she’s grateful her husband is alive? Really?'" Woodley recalled. "It made me shake my head. If [who I am] is not coming through in the way that I’m intending, I’m not going to participate on social media."
"I participate in my own ways now that maybe are less public because I want to add to the right noise," she added. "I don’t want to add to unnecessary noise."
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