Melania Trump condemns bullying — and raises some eyebrows — in her first U.N. speech
She did not mention her husband, who has been called a bully-in-chief
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Krissah Thompson.
On Wednesday at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations luncheon in New York, first lady Melania Trump urged the world to “ensure that our children’s future is bright.”
“No child should ever feel hungry, stalked, frightened, terrorized, bullied, isolated or afraid, with nowhere to turn,” Trump said. “We must teach each child the values of empathy . . . kindness, mindfulness, integrity and leadership which can only be taught by example.”
Children are “watching and listening,” Trump said at the luncheon, which she hosted for the spouses of world leaders. Adults, she said, must lead by example.
In her speech, the first lady did not mention her husband.
President Trump has drawn frequent criticism that he himself is something of a bully-in-chief:
- The president has called his political opponents names, from “Low Energy Jeb” to “Pocahontas” to “Little Marco.”
- He claimed that MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a facelift” and dubbed her “low I.Q. Crazy Mika.”
- He recently promoted a spoof video on Twitter purporting to show him striking Hillary Clinton in the back with a golf ball.
Trump has stood by her husband’s tweets in the past. And when he was under fire for past crude remarks he made about women, she explained it away as locker-room talk.
Yet at the luncheon, Trump emphasized that it is “our generation’s moral imperative to take responsibility for what our children learn.”
“We must turn our focus right now to the message and content they are exposed to on a daily basis, social media, the bullying,” she said.
Last year, late in her husband’s campaign, Trump floated the idea of taking on the cause of cyberbullying. Wednesday was the first time since she entered the White House that she revisited the topic.
Her speech, which lasted seven minutes, was devoid of clear policy prescriptions or a push for any specific program, though she said she plans to follow up with social media leaders and educators on the topic.
Trump was involved in crafting her remarks and designed the luncheon alongside New York event planner David Monn, her communications director, Stephanie Grisham said.
It came amid a busy week for Trump. On Thursday, she visited hurricane-devastated Florida and hosted a reception for the White House Historical Association. On Friday, she visited a youth center at Andrews Air Force Base, and on Saturday she will make her first solo trip abroad as first lady to Toronto for the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games.
Many first ladies choose to focus their advocacy on children. Throughout its history, the United Nations has been an important forum for first ladies to advance their ideas and policy agendas.
- Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the United Nations Human Rights Commission the year after she left the White House, cemented her legacy as a human rights activist through her work on the commission.
- One of Hillary Clinton’s defining moments as first lady came when she addressed the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, declaring that “women’s rights are human rights.”
- In 2014, Michelle Obama delivered the keynote address at a United Nations event focusing on providing girls around the world with quality education.
