Melania wraps up Africa tour in Egypt
Tight security in place across the capital for Melania’s five-hour whistle-stop visit
US First Lady Melania Trump held talks in the Egypt capital yesterday, on the final leg of a solo fournation tour of Africa that will also see her visit the pyramids.
The low-key tour, during which she has made no comment to reporters, has contrasted with the political tumult back home where her husband, US President Donald Trump, was set to score a big political win after days of acrimonious deadlock inside and outside the Senate over his Supreme Court pick.
The former model was welcomed at Cairo International Airport by Egyptian First Lady Intissar Amer Al Sissi.
Security was tight, with police deployed along the route and on rooftops as her convoy drove from the airport to the presidential palace. The visit comes as security forces face a persistent jihadist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula across the Suez Canal to the northeast.
The First Lady held a onehour meeting with President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and his wife at the palace, the longest of her tour, and was then driven ■ to the US embassy before heading to the Pyramids of Giza.
On her five-hour whistle-stop Cairo visit, she was also scheduled to see the new National Museum under construction.
On the previous leg of her tour in Kenya, her choice of a colonial-style pith helmet while on safari drew some criticism on Twitter, with one person comparing her look to that of a “colonial administrator”.
Melania, in Africa to promote her children’s welfare programme, began her trip in Ghana visiting mothers and newborns, and toured a former slave trading fort. She then made a brief stop in Malawi, visiting a primary school.
On Thursday, her husband tweeted: “Our country’s great First Lady, Melania, is doing really well in Africa. The people love her, and she loves them! It is a beautiful thing to see.”
Back in Washington, the US Senate was expected to give President Trump a big political win later yesterday by confirming conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh, embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, as the next Supreme Court justice.