USA TODAY International Edition
Melania Trump lays out ‘Be Best’ agenda for kids
Nearly one year after she arrived at the White House and 16 months after the Trump administration took office, first lady Melania Trump on Monday announced her FLOTUS agenda to improve the well-being of children, a campaign she calls “Be Best.”
With her husband in the audience, Trump, 48, said in a speech in the Rose Garden that her focus for the next few years will be on what has been a consistent if low-key theme of her term thus far: Making America safer for the emotional, physical and social health of kids.
“Be Best is an awareness campaign dedicated to the most valuable and fragile among us, our children,” she said.
“There is one goal: To educate children about the many issues they are facing today,” she said. “If we truly listen to what our kids have to say, whether it’s their concerns or ideas, adults can provide them the support and tools they need to grow up and be happy, productive adults.”
Her speech was preceded by a brief video tracing her travels and her research in the past year to prepare for her initiative launch.
She said there would be three main pillars of her campaign: Child well-being, social-media use and the consequences of the opioid addiction epidemic.
Her comments on social media and its often “negative” use were notable, given her husband’s expansive use of Twitter to advance his agenda and attack his enemies.
“Social media is too often used in negative ways, but when children learn positive behavior early on it can be used in productive ways,” she said. “We have the responsibility to educate and remind (children) when they use their voices to choose their words wisely and speak with respect and kindness.”
President Trump praised her “beautiful and heartfelt” speech, then signed a proclamation declaring Monday “Be Best Day.”
The timing of the first lady’s announcement was awkward: Last week, it emerged that, despite his denials, her husband did know about and repaid his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the $130,000 Cohen gave to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged fling with Trump years before the 2016 presidential election.
The president denies Daniels’ claim but wanted to keep them from his wife and from the public in the weeks before the election, according to the president’s new lawyer, ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, in TV interviews last week.
Trump said nothing about the matter. Neither Trump took questions about her announcement.
The first official announcement of Trump’s plans took place later than is traditional because she arrived in Washington late, after her son, Barron, 12, finished the school year in New York.
Trump has taken an inconspicuous approach compared with some of her predecessors, in part because she didn’t become a full-time first lady until last June. Also, she’s more reserved than her predecessors and not entirely comfortable with public speaking.