Melania Trump hires staff in attempt to continue much derided ‘Be Best’ initiative
Former first lady’s husband was banned from Twitter for incendiary rhetoric despite anti-bullying campaign
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Your support makes all the difference.Melania Trump has reportedly hired staff and is looking for Florida office space in order continue her much derided “Be Best” initiative.
The former first lady, whose husband was banned from Twitter for his incendiary and dangerous rhetoric, launched the campaign midway through the Trump presidency in a bid to tackle cyberbullying.
Ms Trump’s new office will feature three of her White House staff members, including her former director of operations Hayley D’Antuono, according to CNN.
Sources said Ms Trump was currently working out of her and Mr Trump’s now-permanent residence of Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach.
Trumpeted as her signature initiative as first lady, Be Best nevertheless apparently failed to have much of an impact on the American public.
Though Ms Trump visited children’s hospitals, schools, health centres for babies born addicted opioids, and hosted talks at the White House about cyberbullying, CNN reported the first lady would often go weeks without any Be Best events.
Shortly before the end of Mr Trump’s presidency earlier this month, Ms Trump sung the praises of her campaign, saying it reflected the “values and spirit of the American people”.
But her claims were met with derision by critics, who pointed out her husband had days earlier incited a deadly riot at the US Capitol.
“You have been married to the greatest bully on the planet, who you watched publicly and perpetually harass people on social media to such a degree that millions were physically and emotionally traumatized, and many died,” American pastor John Pavlovitz said to Ms Trump in a tweet.
“It will be a joy to watch you leave.”
Others pointed out that Ms Trump's campaign launched at the same time her husband was overseeing the separation of immigrant children from their families at the US-Mexico border. Hundreds of children are still unaccounted for as a result of that policy.
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