Hours after a failed assassination attempt on ex-President Donald Trump’s life, his wife, Melania, has appealed to Americans to 

“ascend above the hate, the vitriol” and the seemingly simple “ideas that ignite violence”, stressing the need for a world where “love transcends.”

Mrs Trump said she realised her life and that of her son, Barron, was about to take a “devastating” turn as she watched a pellet of bullets move in her husband’s direction at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Saturday evening. Although Mr Trump did not sustain critical injuries, the bullets grazed his ear and caused it to bleed across his face.

Mrs Trump flayed the shooter as a “monster” who could not see her husband beyond an inhumane political machine, not knowing he had a “human side” buried deep under all the politicking that the majority got to see.

She described the former American leader as a “generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”

Differing political ideologies, according to Mrs Trump, should not trump love, compassion and kindness as they are necessities through which we traverse life.

“Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love,” Mrs Trump said in a statement on Sunday.

“American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.”

The former first lady expressed her gratitude to the Secret Service agents whose timely intervention to shield the president stopped the situation from getting worse.

The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was gunned down by security agents at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where two others were critically injured.