WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump unveiled a new initiative focused on children on Monday in the White House Rose Garden.
Called “Be Best,” the project is designed “to educate children about the many issues they are facing today,” she told reporters at the event.
Trump’s rare appearance before the press to announce a seemingly modest set of proposals is a reminder of the unique challenges she has faced as first lady, filling an arcane role fraught with gender stereotypes and a lack of definition, compounded by her husband’s extreme divisiveness and outsized penchant for chaos.
Originally not scheduled to attend, the president himself joined the first lady at the lectern, just one day after The Washington Post reported that the couple spend much of their time in the White House apart, leading mostly separate lives.
The first lady famously pledged early in her husband’s presidency to make combating cyberbullying a priority and has devoted some speeches and White House events to the subject over the past year. Predictably, her efforts have faced mockery at every turn — any mention of cyberbullying conjures her husband’s frequent Twitter tirades and ad hominem attacks.