Nearly a month and a half after Trump’s inauguration, Melania Trump has finally made her first solo charitable appearance as First Lady of the United States of America, and it was almost as awkward as that time she plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
On Thursday, Melania left Trump Tower to pop into a children’s hospital in New York, where she greeted patients and read Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go, which she had an assistant carry for her in a white box decorated with a gold ribbon.
“I came to encourage you to read,” Melania, who did not remove her coat during the entire visit, told the sick children, “and to think about what you want to achieve in life.”
Related: Melania Trump is “miserable” as First Lady, hides inside $100 mil apartment most days, sources say
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She then proceeded to read, without the slightest trace of irony, “You’ll be as famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.”
After finishing the story, she went around the room to take photos with the kids, most of whom didn’t appear to be feeling the #PowerOfTheFirstLady.
“You feeling good?” Melania asked a young child with cancer.
At one point, she reached for a girl’s hand. The girl tried pulling away, but Melania grabbed onto her anyway, then said, “Stay well. OK? Stay well.”
Another child refused to give her a hug, shaking her head no while the First Lady smiled uncomfortably. See it in the video below:
MOMENTS AGO: First Lady Melania Trump reads to children in New York City https://t.co/5Vm0uigWk5 pic.twitter.com/5w0oATnx2W
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 2, 2017
“I hope you’re all feeling well. I pray for you. You are in my thoughts. And just get better very fast, OK?” the First Lady told the kids before making a hasty departure.
After her visit, she issued a statement advocating for sick children to spend more time in nature to help speed up their recoveries:
I am a passionate believer in integrating and interpreting nature’s elements into our daily lives to create a warm, nurturing and positive environment. I believe that these same natural benefits can be instrumental to enhancing the health and well-being of all children. It is important to me that children can recognize, identify and express their feelings in order to promote their mental wellness and healing process.
Hey, Melania, wanna know what else helps a child’s healing process?
Health insurance.
Related: Kellyanne Conway says it’s none of anyone’s business where absentee First Lady Melania Trump lives
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niles
Dear sweet suffering child, my husband is trying to take away your parent’s health insurance, but stay well, stay well.
1EqualityUSA
yeah, and roll around in nature with that low white blood cell count. Their answer to lowering cost?
helena_havelock
I LOVE your screen name!! I returned from lunch one afternoon and one of the guys said that someone by the name of Jack Meoff had called me while I was out. I replied, “Jack Meoff? Who the hell is Jack Meoff and what did he want?”, or something to that effect. Hysterical laughter ensued, of course.
DCguy
Watch the Trump Trolls come in here freaking out, claiming that liberals are big meanies for DARING to be sexist and say anything about Melania Trump. Well trolls how about this.
She claimed that she wrote her speech which turned out to have been stolen.
In a lawsuit she is saying that she missed out on a once in a lifetime marketing opportunity to cash in on being first lady.
She basically told uninsured children to “Eat Cake”. The woman who spends her days inside a skyscraper in NYC is telling kids that nature and getting outside is more important than insurance.
But of course to point out anything she has said will be met with hysterical false outrage and screams of sexism! Because the Trump trolls know, that they can’t defend anything she has done or said, and the only way to avoid getting exposed is to try to figure out how to avoid the topic of Melania entirely.
Hey Melania, if nature is so great, then give up your doctor, stop using unatural hair care products, stop using unnatural make-up, stop spending all day inside, stop taking medicine that is anything more than fresh air and sunshine you evil hypocrite.
BriBri
Bitter much? Try to be germane to the story and not the usual hackneyed regurgitation.
DCguy
Actually @BriBri I commented directly on the topic…..oh wait, I forgot, you need to deflect from the topic so if you don’t use the lie of it’s sexist to talk about Melania, you try the B.S. that anybody who talks about the Trump’s is jealous or bitter.
Look, you are an anti-lgbt right wing troll, you want to shield a woman who basically said children don’t need lifesaving medical care if they go outside in the fresh air. So give it up, go away and by all means, you are welcome to f*ck yourself.
1EqualityUSA
Germane, BriBri, when Brian Williams used this last week, both my spouse and I said, “Germane, ew.” I love words, just not that one, especially when regurgitated by a troll or a painfully uncomfortable second rate newsman who got a pity thrown his way by MSNBC.
whatevz
This is probably not as awkward as getting sexually assaulted on a daily basis by an orange 70 year old racist who probably can’t get it up because all he wants to do is bone his daughter. That’s the price a dumb foreign escort has to pay to live in a tacky gold tower I guess…
Heywood Jablowme
She should have sent one of her nannies. The kids might have liked that better.
davidkohl
Again, no surprise here. You cannot expect grace, breeding, poise, compassion and empathy from someone who has no understanding of those words. She used whatever talents she had to escape from a background of poverty and little education – we can’t expect anything remotely resembling class from this ‘First Lady’. She deserves all the mockery she gets.
He BGB
Mommy, that lady with the funny voice scared me!
Kieran
The misogynistic attacks against Melania Trump are troubling. Stop fomenting the stereotype that gay men hate women.
whatevz
gay men love women, we even love stupid foreign prostitutes but we don’t like dumb women who can’t write their own speeches and defend 70 year old vd infected white supremacist racists that brag about wanting to have sex with their own daughters…
DCguy
Sweetie, I LITERALLY posted above that you anti-lgbts can’t handle the facts so try to pretend that ever commenting on Melania is sexist. I also pointed out why this line of defense doesn’t work based upon her comments and actions.
So please try to read before you regurgitate the same avoidence tactics of the intellectually bankrupt bigoted right wing.
davidkohl
I don’t ‘attack’ this woman because she is a woman – I ‘attack’ her because she is a supporter of her hate peddling, racist, sexist, homophobic, tax-dodging, uneducated illegitimate ‘President’ husband. She is charmless, graceless, and unfit as a successor to Mrs.Obama a real ‘lady’ in every sense. She is a legitimate target. I am a gay man and I do no hate women. I admire and respect women as much as I do men – if they deserve it. No respect or admiration is due to either the husband or wife in this case. They deserve each other.
dwes09
Please actually indicate what about the attacks on Melania are sexist. Sexist attacks are what Trump does when he is dismissive of women based on their looks, age and weight. Melania is not a person of substance, intellect or class. To mention that she is a woman while noting actual faults is hardly sexist.
The justified attacks are not at all troubling, but your inability to think critically certainly is! You regressives destroy the stereotype that gay men are of higher average intelligence than heterosexual ones (though it is not far fetched to assume that you are hetero, and just another troll claiming gayness).
toddlicious
I’d hardly call that reading…. what a joke. Poor kids.
DCguy
And reading is what?!……..FUNDAMENTAL!
Jack Meoff
Kids can pick up on insincerity and will react accordingly. She needs to steer clear of kids of she wants t bluff her way through this first lady gig.
helena_havelock
I LOVE your screen name!! I returned from lunch one afternoon and one of the guys said that someone by the name of Jack Meoff had called me while I was out. I replied, “Jack Meoff? Who the hell is Jack Meoff and what did he want?”, or something to that effect. Hysterical laughter ensued, of course.
helena_havelock
Watching her attempting to interact with the children there was rather uncomfortable. She doesn’t seem to have a natural rapport with them which makes me wonder how she mothers her own child who, by the way, has not just his own room, but his own floor in the three story penthouse. It all seems so odd that it’s difficult to get a clear picture of the dynamics within the entire tRump family.
DCguy
She is in a loveless marriage, and by the fact that the older a father is, the more likely a child is going to be autistic, and the fact that Trump has become an anti-vaxxer, AND the fact that they are desperately keeping Barron away from the media it would be a very good bet that their son is autistic.
So she is in a cold loveless relationship since her 20’s, and has a child who may not be affectionate in the traditional sense, the woman doesn’t have a lot of ways to actually learn affection.
Maybe that would explain her lack of concern for children dying without insurance.
Neonegro
And you people wonder why gays are not taken seriously.
Grown azz man crying like teenage girls over a hospital visit by the first lady.
You sound like bitter women which supports my theory that a large part of the male gay population are actually transgender.
No other way to explain the constant bitchiness and effeminate way of talking and walking.
dwes09
Yet another example of impaired intellectual capacity by the “neonegro” troll.
Gay people are not taken seriously because we are seen as transgressive and as sinners by “good people of faith”. We are seen as being “contrary to natural law”.
But you never have been one to let reality or an actual analysis of events interfere with your imagination.
davidkohl
First point – she is NOT the First Lady – The Odious Man did not get the most votes in a two person race. That election result has to rank alongside the worst, undemocratic outcomes in even the most corrupt countries.
Secondly – she is NOT a ‘Lady’ in terms of intelligence, grace, charm, compassion and selflessness.
Thirdly – I am a gay man who is neither effeminate nor bitter.
Fourthly – and best of all – I am NOT an uneducated, racist, sexist , homophobic, tax-dodging, selfish, greedy, foul-mouthed idiot. All of these adjectives describe The Odious Man and his family…oh and you Neoegro
DCguy
Look how desperate the right wing trolls have gotten.
“Gays” are not taken seriously because we dare to say something about a woman who said that children shouldn’t have medical insurance but should walk outside get fresh air and that would keep them of dying from leukemia.
Stop bothering troll, your bigotry and anti-American hatred is old news and boring. Begone, before somebody drops a house on you too.
Neonegro
Actually davidkhol you are UNEDUCATED.
Have someone explain to you how the president of the United States is elected.
Neonegro
Wrong dwes09, Gays are not taken seriously primarily because they are seen as effeminate and less than men.
They may be hated because of religion and other reasons.
But no one respect grown azz man acting like teenage girls.
gggreggg
does anyone miss Michele O yet???? (I sure do!)
DCguy
Yeah, since the day they left.
1EqualityUSA
Why do I get the impression that she marinates herself in strong scents, bitter scents, scents that bring youngsters on chemotherapy to the brink of blowing chunks? I bet the chair she sat in had to be moved to the porter’s closet to be terminally cleaned. If your husband is responsible for taking away health insurance, the last place his wife should visit is a hospital. Clueless. Yes, I miss Michelle Obama. She was a natural. She was down-to-earth and fun with her groups. She motivated her packs. Children know these things.
Stilinski26
Lol I thought gays in USA were meant to be supporting immigrants but here they are making fun of a woman claiming she can’t read because English is not her first language.
davidkohl
This particular woman needs no help. And it is not making fun of her English – it is pointing out that her vile husband makes a point in attacking immigrants who cant speak English well enough in his opinion, claiming that means they will fail to integrate and making suggestions of all sorts of terrorist activity link to this. When you do things like that you can expect a response – this woman applauds his attacks on ‘foreigners’ despite the fact she is one herself. She is a legitimate target by being vile hypocrite and hate peddler.
BigWill
“I believe that these same natural benefits can be instrumental to enhancing the health and well-being of all children.”
Good lord. Can you imagine if Michelle Obama had said that? The rightwing nutters would have lost what is left of their collective minds. They carried on for eight years because Mrs. Obama suggested that in a country where over 60% of people are overweight or obese that maybe kids should eat healthier, right Fake Biracial Bisexual…I mean Mo?
DMscrub32
We gays can be mean, but it can be better placed than an article about the First Lady reading to children. Not my style guys
davidkohl
Its not about being mean – its about using every opportunity to mock, vilify, hassle and otherwise point out the repulsiveness of this illegitimate ‘administration’ and its vile leadership – she chose to be a part of that and , therefore, is a target. That ‘photo-op’ was designed to soften her image and divert attention from The Odious Man in the White House as he gets crazier by the hour. It failed. Again – by any democratic standard – she is NOT the First Lady. She lacks the presence, grace, charm, intelligence, compassion and empathy that is required for that position. I dont understand why some Trump opponents are so soft on the people who support him – they are just as guilty and repulsive as he is. He could not be where he is now without those people supporting him. She is guilty – and not just by association. By actively applauding and supporting him.
femonanon
I did not interpret the exchanges in the negative light that is being presented here at all. I am not a Trump fan but the girl that she shook hands with looked tickled pink afterwards and the little girl seemed like she was just too sick to be there. Poor kids.
jukk888
I cannot believe people and the press are promoting so much hate. These children were taught to hate Melania by haters. She may have a reputation, but why should adults teach kids to hate certain adults. Melania showed no bad intention and only showed affection. Shame on everyone who promotes hate to children.
1EqualityUSA
Hate is yanking insurance away from 20 million (+) people.