Melania Trump Declares Her Independence Again, With Solo Africa Trip

Melania Trump declares her independence, again, with solo Africa trip

First lady Melania Trump warns of 'destructive and harmful' power of social media BY JAMES HOHMANN with Joanie Greve THE BIG IDEA: First lady Melania Trump, who has appeared increasingly emboldened to assert her independence from President Trump, referred to the concept of a “global society” twice on Monday, as she decried cyberbullying in the morning and when she announcedplans last night to travel to Africa without her husband in October. “This will be my first time traveling to Africa and I am excited to educate myself on the issues facing children throughout the continent, while also learning about its rich culture and history,” Melania Trump said in a statement distributed by the East Wing. “We are a global society, and I believe it is through open dialogue and the exchanging of ideas that we have a real opportunity to learn from one another.” In January, Trump reportedly described African nations as “shithole countries” while telling members of Congress that he wanted to restrict immigration from the continent. The president denied it, even though multiple people in the room confirmed the comments. POTUS also spent years falsely peddling the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama, a native of Hawaii, was born in Kenya. In 2011, she defended her husband's birtherism. During the antibullying event in the D.C. suburb of Rockville, the first lady warned that sites like Facebook and Twitter “can be used in many positive ways but can also be destructive and harmful when used incorrectly.” “In today’s global society, social media is an inevitable part of our children’s daily lives,” the 48-year-old said. “It can be used in many positive ways but can also be destructive and harmful when used incorrectly. … Let’s face it: Most children are more aware of the benefits and pitfalls of social media than some adults, but we still need to do all we can to provide them with information and tools for successful and safe online habits.” She didn’t mention Trump. She didn’t need to. As the roundtable discussion was still going, her septuagenarian husband taunted former CIA director John Brennan as a “hack” on Twitter and dared him to file a lawsuit over his revoked security clearance. Just before her speech, the president claimed that Robert Mueller III, a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam and has devoted most of his life to public service, is “disgraced and discredited.” He also called the career federal prosecutors who work for the special counsel “Angry Democrat Thugs.” The president has personally attacked at least 487 people, companies or institutions on social media since launching his campaign three summers ago, according to a running tally by the New York Times. Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman joined that list last week after publishing “Unhinged,” a tell-all about her time working for him. Trump called her a “dog” and a “crazed, crying lowlife” on Twitter, among other insults. From the shadows to the spotlight: Melania Trump belatedly steps into her role as first lady This dissonance is jarring – and would have been inconceivable in recent White Houses. “It was as though Nancy Reagan had given a ‘Just Say No’ speech while her husband honored the occasion back at the White House by snorting cocaine during a live news conference,” columnist Dana Milbank wrote from the Rockville event. “Summit participants avoided mention of the cyberbully in chief — the equivalent of having a summit on election hacking with no mention of Russia.” The film producer Adam Best likened Melania Trump’s comments to someone saying, “My husband is an arsonist who keeps burning down everything in sight, but we really need to set a better example so kids stop playing with fire.” “It would be like a hot dog salesman's wife starting a national campaign aimed at highlighting all the gross stuff they put in hot dogs,” added CNN’s Chris Cillizza. Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, replied: In a separate statement, Grisham added: “She is aware of the criticism but it will not deter her from doing what she feels is right. The President is proud of her commitment to children and encourages her in all that she does.” Sort of like George and Kellyanne Conway, it often feels like Donald and Melania Trump are part of different administrations. Two weeks ago, the first lady issued a statement praising LeBron Jamesafter the president attacked the basketball star’s intellect. In June, during the family separation crisis created by her husband, the first lady visited a facility near the Mexican border where kids who had been taken from their parents were being held. She wore a jacket that said, “I really don’t care, do u?” Her parents became U.S. citizens this month by taking advantage of a family reunification policy that Trump derisively calls “chain migration” and is trying to stop other families from using. There are many other examples and illustrations of the first couple’s distance. “One person who has spent a considerable amount of time around her said Melania Trump was far more relaxed outside the presence of her husband than when he was around,” Katie Rogers, Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Maggie Haberman reported in Sunday’s Times. “She maintains a separate bedroom from her husband, and when the two travel, they stay in separate hotel suites.” Melania Trump has only about 10 aides, compared to the 25 who worked for Michelle Obama and Laura Bush. Her policy director was apparently pushed out a few weeks ago. It’s the smallest staff for any first lady since Mamie Eisenhower, per Emily Heil. Betty Ford wears a button expressing her support for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment in February 1975. (Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library) Taken together, Melania Trump is poised to become perhaps the most iconoclastic first lady since at least Betty Ford. In 1975, Gerald Ford’s wife lobbied for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the consternation of the White House political team. “Being ladylike does not require silence,” she said during a speech in Cleveland. Ronald Reagan was challenging the accidental president from the right for the Republican nomination. The former California governor’s team capitalized on Betty Ford’s outspokenness on issues like premarital sex to galvanize social conservatives such as Phyllis Schlafly, who picketed the Ford White House as part of her STOP ERA campaign. Internal polls conducted by the Reagan campaign in 1976 showed that Betty Ford was a drag on her husband among conservatives in several key primaries that Reagan narrowly won, especially in the South. Other first ladies have gotten burned when they staked out positions that put them at odds with their husbands. “In 1971, Richard Nixon had two Supreme Court vacancies to fill,” Jill Hummer recalled recently. “Pat Nixon wanted him to nominate a woman, and she went public about it. ‘Don’t you worry; I’m talking it up. … If we can’t get a woman on the Supreme Court this time, there’ll be a next time,’ she told reporters. Ultimately, Richard Nixon nominated Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist. Pat Nixon was upset and embarrassed that her advice, which she had boldly proffered publicly, had gone unheeded.” Finally, the timing of the Africa trip suggests that Mrs. Trump does not plan to be a surrogate for Republican candidates on the campaign trail during the run-up to the midterms. The East Wing isn’t saying yet exactly where or when in October she’s going, but it seems clear that she’d rather be overseas than on the stump promoting her husband’s policies.