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Melania Trump Doesn’t Care That Her ‘Be Best’ Message is ‘Hypocritical’ As Her Husband Attacks a Child

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Melania Trump and her “Be Best” initiative are once again facing accusations that she’s hypocritical in her concerns about people being unkind to children online or using them in political debates after her husband Donald Trump mocked teen climate activist Greta Thunberg for being named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Last week, Melania Trump, along with the White House and Republicans, excoriated Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan for making a comment about Melania and Donald’s 13-year-old son, Barron, during her impeachment hearing testimony.

“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” Melania Trump wrote on her @FLOTUS Twitter account last week. “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”

On Thursday, President Trump tweeted that it was “so ridiculous” that Thunberg, who is 16 and has Asperberger syndrome, had received the Time magazine honor. He said, “Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”

Following Trump’s statement, Twitter users hit out at Melania Trump, asking whether she would similarly upbraid her husband for engaging in an “angry” attack on a minor. The first lady has thus far been silent on the controversy.

Critics also noted her “hypocrisy” in saying that Karlan should be “ashamed” of herself while her husband is often referred to as the “biggest cyberbully on the planet.”

“Melania, we agree. Children are off limits,” U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters tweeted. “Tell your husband to #bebest and go enroll himself in anger management instead of attacking such a brilliant and courageous teenager fighting for climate change.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama more or less told Thunberg to ignore the haters, though she more generously called them “doubters.” She tweeted: “@GretaThunberg, don’t let anyone dim your light. … you have so much to offer us all. Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.”

But it remains to be seen whether Melania Trump will be much affected by people’s criticisms. The thing is, the contradictory, “hypocritical” anti-cyberbullying message of the first lady’s Be Best initiative has long been known to her — and she doesn’t care.

That’s according to “Free, Melania: The Unauthorized Biography” by CNN correspondent Kate Bennett.

“She knew that she would get blasted for including cyberbullying in her overall Be Best program … but she did it anyway,” writes Bennett, who covers the first lady on a daily basis.

“Her husband even told her it would be a bad idea,” Bennett continued. “Trump was not unaware that his personal habit of trashing people on Twitter would open his wife up to a ton of backlash for taking up the cause. He warned her against doing it. She did it anyway and has faced the consequences.”

Indeed, Melania Trump’s decision to double-down and forge ahead with a message that even her husband sees as problematic is characteristic of her “stubborn,” “independent” nature, Bennett wrote.

“That she picked something to rally around that brought with it added complications because of her husband, thus making the fight against it more difficult, says a lot about who she is,” Bennett said. “Because, like Trump, Melania relishes a good ‘Come at me’ challenge. Go after her, if you will. She doesn’t really seem to care.”

Since Trump’s tweet about Thunberg, Melania has not commented about her husband’s attack of Thunberg. Her only tweet, meanwhile, has involved a more traditional first lady project: Helping her husband host the annual Congressional Ball at the White House.

Bennett also reported that Be Best, though supposedly 16 months in the making, doesn’t resemble a fully established program.

“To this day it has no publicly stated framework, timeline, or markers for progress,” Bennett said. “Melania has done events to promote her platform, but she has mainly done so in conjunction with other government entities that already have programs that dovetail with Melania’s Be Best initiative.”

UPDATE:

Melania has finally released a statement:

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