REDMOND, Wash. — First lady Melania Trump shifted her focus to parents as she promoted her “Be Best” initiative in two states on Monday, questioning how many adults comprehend what their children are doing online.
“We need to educate the parents, as well,” Trump told Microsoft executives in Washington state. “Maybe some of them don’t even know about it and just let the kids play.”
Trump visited the tech company to learn about how parents can better monitor their children’s online habits.
Dave McCarthy, the general manager of Microsoft Games, showed the first lady how parents can control what websites their children visit and how long they spend online. Trump asked him if it’s possible to limit who children are playing video games against online. President Trump has said their young son, Barron, plays video games.
Notably, the president himself does not use email and rarely uses a computer.
“I feel that sometimes children know more than parents,” the first lady said.
Earlier in the day, Mrs. Trump surprised schoolchildren in Tulsa, Okla. She visited a pre-K classroom and spoke with students about showing kindness to one another.
“Being kind to your friends, it very important, right?” she asked a group of young children. “We don’t like that word ‘hate,’ correct?” she told other students.
The visit comes as her husband has spent days stewing in anger on social media, often lashing out at his adversaries.
[Also read: Melania Trump gifted necklace from Kenyan patient while delivering valentines]
I have now spent more time in Vietnam than Da Nang Dick Blumenthal, the third rate Senator from Connecticut (how is Connecticut doing?). His war stories of his heroism in Vietnam were a total fraud – he was never even there. We talked about it today with Vietnamese leaders!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2019
Presidential Harassment by “crazed” Democrats at the highest level in the history of our Country. Likewise, the most vicious and corrupt Mainstream Media that any president has ever had to endure – Yet the most successful first two years for any
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019
For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019
Ahead of the first lady’s first solo overnight domestic trip, her office asserted that her initiative cannot be tied to her husband’s use of social media amid months of scrutiny over whether the president is undermining her platform.
“One thing really doesn’t have anything to do with the other,” Trump’s communications director Stephanie Grisham said in an interview with CNN on Saturday.
Myra Gutin, a first lady historian at Rider University, told the Washington Examiner it is unusual for a president’s wife to champion a cause in conflict with her husband, but it is not unprecedented for the first lady to differ from her husband on certain issues. Gutin cited Eleanor Roosevelt’s stances on civil rights issues and Betty Ford’s advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment. Laura Bush acknowledged she and her husband disagreed on issues but declined to tell the press what they were, Gutin said.
