Do as I say and not as I do?
Donald Trump won’t be the only one moving into the White House come January 2017 as his wife Melania Trump joins a long-standing history of first ladies.
Throughout President Barack Obama’s two tenures in the Oval Office, Michelle Obama launched Let’s Move!, an initiative aimed at solving childhood obesity and Let Girls Learn, which is reinventing the precepts value of girls and women and their right to education. During her time as First Lady, Hillary Clinton initiated the Children’s Health Insurance Program. As for Melania? Well it is quite possible that they future First Lady has taken inspiration from her husband as she plans to tackle cyber bullying during Donald’s time in office.
"Technology has changed our universe," she said when addressing republican supporters in Pennsylvania during her husband's presidential bid last month. "But like anything that is powerful, it can have a bad side. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They are hurt when they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence."
“It is never okay when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied, or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground. And it is absolutely unacceptable when it is done by someone with no name hiding on the internet,” she continued.
Trump also said her and the soon-to-be-president’s son Baron fuels her passion for the cause.
While First Ladies generally target issues which are seen to be non-controversial and more-or-less black and white there is obvious reason for concern about Melania’s chosen cause.
Singer, actress and Clinton-supporter Lady Gaga was quick to point out Melania Trump’s apparent hypocrisy tweeting “@MELANIATRUMP to say u will stand for ‘anti-bullying’ is hypocrisy. Your husband is 1 of the most notorious bullies we have ever witnessed [sic].”
No details have been released by team Trump as to how exactly cyber bullying will be tackled but with her status of First Lady now firmly cemented we can certainly expect to hear more soon — perhaps starting with her husband as a role model.
