Melania promotes USAID in Africa

But Trump wants to cut its funding

LILONGWE, Malawi — Melania Trump spent Thursday in southern Africa promoting the work of a U.S. international development agency whose funding President Donald Trump has twice proposed slashing by nearly a third. Lawmakers essentially ignored those requests.

Mrs. Trump toured classrooms at Lilongwe’s Chipala Primary School, which gets textbooks and other education assistance from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A batch of 1.4 million books donated Thursday brought to nearly 10 million the total Malawi has received in recent years under USAID’s national reading program, officials said. Malawi’s education minister said the partnership had “significantly” improved student literacy.

But the Trump administration sought a roughly 30 percent cut in funding for the State Department and USAID in its first two budgets. Widespread bipartisan opposition in Congress averted the reductions.

But none of that was up for discussion as Mrs. Trump visited with happy schoolchildren and their teachers in the Malawian capital.

“I wanted to be here to see the successful programs that [the] United States is providing the children and thank you for everything you’ve done,” the first lady said at a book donation ceremony in the school library.

She had just finished touring several outdoor classrooms. Chipala has more than 8,500 students but just 77 teachers, for a ratio of 111 students per instructor, according to the U.S. government. With just 22 classrooms, many students are forced to take their lessons outdoors, seated shoulder to shoulder in their uniforms on loose, red dirt.

Mrs. Trump watched several teachers conduct lessons for the equivalent of second- and third-graders.

“Meeting those children and understanding their different way of life is why I wanted to travel here,” Mrs. Trump told U.S. Embassy employees at a gathering at the U.S. ambassador’s residence. Her own 12-year-old son attends a private school in Maryland.