Trump poison scare

President’s daughter-in-law falls ill after powder sent to home

DONALD Trump’s daughterin-law was taken to hospital in New York yesterday after she opened a package containing a white powder which had been sent to her husband.

Vanessa Trump, who is married to the President’s oldest son Donald Jr, felt nauseous after opening the envelope.

The packet was addressed to her husband and had been sent to the apartment of her mother, Bonnie Haydon, in East 54th St in Manhattan.

Mrs Haydon and one other person were also taken to the Weill Cornell Medical Centre as a precaution.

Mrs Haydon is understood to have handled the envelope, which was postmarked Boston, before passing it to her daughter. A hazardous materials team, trained in decontamination procedures, was called in.

The white powder turned out to be harmless cornflour, while the envelope contained a letter claiming the stunt was payback for past actions of Donald Jr, the New York Post reported.

Former model Mrs Trump, 40, married Donald Jr in 2005. None of their five children was with her at the time of the incident yesterday morning.

President Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen said: “How disturbed must a person be to do what they did to a mother of five young children? This dangerous and reckless act goes beyond political differences.” The incident recalled the terror campaign in the days after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, when letters containing lethal anthrax spores were sent to the offices of several politicians and media outlets, resulting in five deaths.

In 2016, white powder was sent to the home of another of the President’s sons, Eric.

Donald Trump Jr has been in the public eye for his role in 2016 meetings with a Russian lawyer and others where the Trump campaign was offered potentially damaging information about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.