Melania Trump gave a rare stump speech for her husband Donald Trump on Thursday in a Philadelphia suburb, detailing her plans as the nation’s next possible first lady.
She wants to help solve cyberbullying. Yes, you read that right. The wife of Donald Trump wants to get rid of online trash-talking.
“Technology has changed our universe,” she said. “But like anything that is powerful, it can have a bad side. We have seen this already. As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words—even lies. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They hurt when they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence. This makes their life hard and forces them to hide and retreat. Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and to teenagers.
“It is never OK 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 done by someone with no name hiding on the internet. We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other.”
The last time she spoke to her husband’s supporters, Melania Trump was ridiculed for pulling parts of her Republican National Convention speech directly from a speech once given by First Lady Michelle Obama. This time, the online response wasn’t much better, particularly because of her husband’s expertise at trashing rivals through his Twitter account. (If you need a refresher, the New York Times recently wrote about the 282 times Trump has trashed on Twitter a person, place, or thing.)
MELANIA TRUMP: Cyberbullying has to stop, “our culture has gotten too mean.”
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) November 3, 2016
DONALD TRUMP: pic.twitter.com/wFD0Bi1KbG
https://twitter.com/pvponline/status/794247180840112129
https://twitter.com/Montel_Williams/status/794247318396665858
https://twitter.com/aterkel/status/794254850213216262
As for the Trump campaign’s response to possible backlash to Melania Trump’s apparently non-ironic speech?
Asked Kellyanne Conway if she’s concerned Melania’s speech will draw attention to Trump’s controversial/inflammatory tweets. Her response: pic.twitter.com/iapQOy9Kix
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 3, 2016
They don’t seem too worried about it.
