A top aide to first lady Melania Trump has claimed she is the “single most consequential” presidential spouse in American history.
Exclusive Senior Adviser Marc Beckman made the claim on Newsmax’s Bianca Across the Nation Tuesday, telling anchor Bianca de la Garza: “I believe that our first lady, the current first lady, Melania Trump, is the single most consequential first lady in the history of our nation.”
It was a comment that was met by a laughing emoji and other snide comments online.
Beckman elaborated: “You talk about her commitment to children. It’s not just with American kids, it’s kids all over the place.
“So, for example, it’s fair to argue that she has had more impact, substantive impact as it relates to the peace process between Ukraine and Russia by single-handedly executing on four reunifications between Ukrainian and Russian children and their families. What more substantive has occurred?”
Beckman continued: “If you look at everything that NATO has done, all of the world leaders, they continue to attack. We see drone attacks every single day, more weapons going forward. But our first lady has reunited these individuals four times now, and she’s working on a fifth.”
Melania Trump revealed last October that she had opened back channel negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure the return of children taken from Ukraine since the invasion of February 2022, after her husband presented the Kremlin leader with a letter from her raising the subject.
The first lady has since been credited with helping to reunite 26 youngsters with their families, according to Dmytro Lubinets, the war-torn country’s human rights ombudsman.
While her intervention is very much to be commended, the total is well short of Kyiv’s own Bring Kids Back initiative, which has repatriated 2,373 by its own estimate.
Melania has made a number of other positive contributions over the course of her two spells in the White House, notably launching her “Be Best” initiative to promote children’s wellbeing and championing the bipartisan Take It Down Act, targeting the spread of revenge porn and explicit deepfakes online. However, she has also been criticized for not living at the White House and will miss many of her husband’s events.
Melania’s efforts were not enough to save Beckman’s comments from being received with scorn from others, however.
“As you watch this remember someone thought this made sense to say out loud and on television…” MS NOW pundit Jen Psaki wrote on X in response to the clip.
“Wow, he actually said this with a straight face!” said Atlantic contributing editor Norman Ornstein on the same platform.
“F***in HILARIOUS,” added national security expert Malcolm Nance.
Other commentators reacted by volunteering alternative first ladies they considered more worthy of acclaim such as Edith Wilson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
Many more, including tennis great Martina Navratilova, just laughed.
