Melania Trump Will Pick Up and Move to White House Next Week, Drop Promise to Fight Bullying

‘Our Culture Has Gotten Too Mean and Too Rough, Especially to Children and Teenagers’ –Melania Trump, Nov. 3, 2016

Just days before the election, Melania Trump delivered a rare speech, in a Philadelphia suburb, promising to take up the fight against cyberbullying and make it her focus as First Lady. Next week the First Lady will move into the White House, but she will not be bringing the promised focus on bullying with her.

“Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers,” Melania Trump told her husband’s supporters in a speech widely-heralded by the Trump campaign. “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’s done by someone with no name hiding on the internet.”

She received strong praise from the right and charges of hypocrisy from the left.

ThinkProgress called her speech “absurd for a couple obvious reasons. Her husband’s presidential campaign has elevated online trolls and cyberbullies to unprecedented heights. Donald Trump’s legion of adoring trolls, many of whom don’t use their real names, have bullied journalists, rigged online polls in his favor, amplified Trump’s unfounded conspiracy theories, and espoused hateful, threatening views. Their voices have been amplified by Trump himself via retweets or appropriation of white supremacist imagery and memes for use on his account.”

Second, Donald himself has been one of the worst offenders when it comes to the “too rough” culture Melania decried. Last year, the Republican presidential candidate infamously mocked a disabled reporter. As Megyn Kelly has pointed out, he’s smeared women at various times as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” In recent weeks, he’s repeatedly suggested that several women who have accused him of sexual assault aren’t attractive enough for him in the first place.

And that’s not to mention Trump’s notorious reputation as a cyberbully. To cite just a few of almost countless examples: He’s attacked numerous political pundits for being “dumb,” ridiculed Better Midler for being an “extremely unattractive woman” with an “ugly face [and] body,” and even denigrated the appearance of Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife. He’s used Twitter for nefarious ends ranging from slut-shaming to casually using racial slurs against his political opponents.

Just one month ago, the White House insisted the First Lady’s focus on battling cyber-bullying was still a go.

“Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, says the anti-cyber bullying effort is still a work in progress,” USA Today reported.

“Mrs. Trump is being very thoughtful when it comes to building out her initiatives,” Grisham said in an email. Also, her staff now numbers 10, and she’s taking her time hiring because she values “quality over quantity.” 

But as of this week, Melania Trump’s anti-cyber bullying advocacy is “404,” “DOA,” or, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Its absence has been fodder for the President’s critics.

 

“It’s still not clear exactly what initiative Melania Trump will make her platform — during the campaign, she said she would use the role of first lady to speak out against cyberbullying,” Politico reports. “But that initiative has since been cast aside, another White House official said.”

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