Melania Trump carves solo path in Africa visit
Melania Trump leaves Washington -- and her husband's shadow -- Monday
for a four-country tour of Africa that will give the glamorous and at
times enigmatic first lady a chance to carve her own diplomatic path.
The trip to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt, which sees Trump returning
to Washington early October 7, will be her first big solo international
trip.
Unlike her popular predecessor Michelle Obama, former fashion model
Melania has kept largely to the background as Donald Trump alternately
wows and dismays in a presidency he has turned into the biggest show on
earth.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said Melania Trump's Africa tour will be a
"diplomatic and humanitarian visit" focused on her #BeBest campaign for
"children and their well-being."
There was little other information available about the trip, with only hours to go.
In typical fashion, it was Donald Trump who seized the headlines,
telling journalists last week that his wife was "making a big trip to
Africa."
"We both love Africa. Africa is so beautiful, the most beautiful part of
the world, in many ways," continued the president, who was once
reported to have dismissed the continent as a collection of "shithole
countries."
But even if Donald Trump stole her thunder, there's no doubt that Melania Trump means to take ownership of the visit.
At a time when her husband's government is pushing for radical
reductions of US aid around the world, Melania will "showcase" the work
of the huge US Agency for International Development, or USAID, Grisham
said.
"This is her trip, her initiative," Grisham added.
- She cares -
Melania Trump held a #BeBest event at the United Nations last week,
during the world body's annual gathering. However, the 48-year-old first
lady has been more noted for her absences during a hectic presidency in
which Donald Trump is almost omnipresent on social media, television
and front pages.
With little more than a month to go before the Republicans risk major
losses in Congressional elections, Trump is holding rallies around the
country several times a week.
But Melania Trump is not by his side.
When he made a heavily publicized trip last month to North and South
Carolina to assess damage from Hurricane Florence and to comfort locals,
she was also missing.
"We haven't seen a sign that she is willing to embrace being a political
asset," said Anita McBride, a former chief of staff for Laura Bush, the
wife of president George W. Bush.
"The ability and the opportunity is there. Whether she chooses to use it will be another question."
Even what was arguably Melania Trump's most memorable public appearance
came wrapped in mystery and controversy, yet again raising the question
of what kind of first lady occupies this controversy-filled White House.
It was June and her husband's policy of discouraging illegal immigration
by separating children from their parents at the Mexican border had
turned into a political firestorm.
Melania Trump made a surprise visit to Texas to visit some of the
children, and even more unexpectedly the back of her jacket bore these
words scrawled in white: "I really don't care. Do U?"
No one knew what she meant.
"She's a woman of few words," McBride said.
"The one exception is when she wore that jacket. I will never understand that."
But with the Africa trip, it seems clear what the first lady wants to show: she does care.
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