Melania Trump is in Nashville today, visiting a children’s hospital. It’s part of her “Be Best” campaign, which is focused on “keeping children healthy and happy”.
The Tennessean reports:
Trump will participate in a roundtable discussion about neonatal abstinence syndrome and tour a neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. She also will meet with patients of the hospital, the White House said.
“Be Best” is not just about keeping children healthy and happy, though. From the Miami Herald:
The first lady did promote “Be Best,” which focuses on children’s well-being, social media use and opioid abuse, when she accompanied the president to London this month. She has also discussed it during surprise visits in the Washington area, including an unannounced visit to Microsoft’s Innovation and Policy Center in Washington last week.
“Be Best” is a massive generalization of topics which allows the First Lady to claim to have an initiative while keeping that initiative’s scope so broad as to encompass nearly anything. It’s a cause for someone who has no desire to associate with an actual cause. It is certainly a superior choice than the original anti-bullying campaign, which drew obvious criticism for hypocrisy as the President repeatedly used bullying tones and tactics upon most of his enemies, real and imagined.
Melania was mocked for the campaign name, which seemed to steal from an offhanded and not particularly insightful quote of Michelle Obama; and for a speech about her campaign which partially plagiarized a Michelle Obama speech. Ultimately, though, Melania’s lack of focus or apparent interest in the well-being of Americans has a concrete benefit, in that it hasn’t resulted in a costly, regulated and generally rebuffed attempt to remake the entire school lunch program to suit her preferences.
