Vanessa Trump taken to hospital after powder scare
NEW YORK — Donald Donald Trump Jr.’s wife was taken to a New York City hospital on Monday as a precaution after she opened an envelope addressed to her husband that contained an unidentified white powder, though police later said the substance wasn’t dangerous, authorities said.
The frightening episode happened after 10 a.m. when Trump, 40, opened the letter addressed to the president’s son at her mother’s midtown Manhattan apartment, investigators said. She called 911 and said she was coughing and felt nauseous, police said.
“Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed after the incredibly scary situation that occurred this morning,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter. “Truly disgusting that certain individuals choose to express their opposing views with such disturbing behaviour.”
The New York Fire Department said it treated three patients who were then taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Police said the envelope contained a letter but provided no other details.
New York detectives were investigating.
Secret Service Special Agent Jeffrey Adams said in a statement that agents were investigating “a suspicious package addressed to one of our protectees” in New York but said he couldn’t comment further.
Vanessa Trump, a former model, and Donald Trump Jr. have five children, none of whom were home at the time of the incident.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that the president spoke by phone to Vanessa Trump about the incident.
The Trump family has had to deal with a number of similar scares. In March 2016, police detectives investigated a threatening letter sent to the apartment of Donald Trump Jr.’s brother, Eric, that also contained a harmless white powder. Envelopes containing powder were also sent to Trump Tower twice in 2016.
Hoax attacks using white powder play on fears that date to 2001, when letters containing deadly anthrax were mailed to news organizations and the offices of two U.S. senators. Those letters killed five people.