Donald Trump has suggested his wife Melania Trump would not cry if he were shot in an assassination attempt.

The president made the prediction during a private fundraiser on Tuesday night, where he was pondering the 2017 congressional baseball shooting in which several people were shot including House minority whip Steve Scalise.

While discussing Mr Scalise’s injuries, the president described the Republican from Louisiana as a tough character, and took note of the way his wife reacted to his injuries.

She “cried her eyes out when I met her at the hospital that fateful day,” Mr Trump said, according to Politico. “I mean, not many wives would react that way to tragedy, I know mine wouldn’t.”

The quip came during a joint fundraising event at the Trump Hotel in Washington, where Mr Trump apparently touched upon a range of topics from the impeachment investigation he faces to the weekend killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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Mr Trump’s relationship to the first lady has been the subject of frequent scrutiny previously, with many suggesting that their body language has been anything but warm during past public appearances.

Most recently, however, the two made headlines after a video of them playfully placing candy on a child's minion costume went viral, during an annual White House Halloween trick-or-treating event.

The two were married in 2005, and have one child together, Barron, who is 13.