Journalist Slams Melania Trump Over Her Latest ‘Be Best’ Push

Melania Trump has mostly stayed out of the public eye during her husband’s second go-round in the White House. She’s not really diving into the usual first lady duties this time, but she’s got a few things she’s passionate about, like her Be Best campaign, which tackles stuff kids deal with these days.

Just last week, Melania popped up at a White House event focused on AI, talking about how she wants to guide America’s kids through this tech world responsibly. But not everyone was thrilled with her speech.

Arwa Mahdawi, a columnist for The Guardian in the US, didn’t hold back in her takedown, basically saying Melania’s only looking out for number one.

When Melania and Donald Trump headed back to the White House, she decided to play the first lady role her own way. She’s kept a low profile, so much so that folks started whispering about whether things were okay between her and the president.

Even if she’s not the classic first lady type, Melania’s still got her hands in some projects. Her Be Best initiative, which she kicked off in her first term, is still chugging along.

According to the website, the campaign aims to spotlight big issues kids face, encouraging them to be their best selves while hammering home the value of emotional, social, and physical well-being. It zeros in on three key areas: overall health, staying safe online, and fighting opioid abuse.

Melania Shows Up to Talk About Helping Kids with AI

Last week, Melania made one of her infrequent appearances for Be Best. On September 4th, a Thursday, she led a session with the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education. There, she chatted about how parents and kids can team up to handle AI.

“The robots are already among us. What was once sci-fi is our reality now,” Melania said. “As parents and leaders, we’ve got to steer AI’s development carefully. In these early days, we should handle AI like we do our kids: give it power, but keep a close eye on it.

“We’re in an amazing era,” she wrapped up. “And it’s up to us to get America’s children ready for it.”

It’s awesome to think about prepping kids for new tech and warning about its risks, but Melania’s talk didn’t win over everybody at that AI education task force meeting.

The very next day, Arwa Mahdawi from The Guardian dropped a lengthy column on the first lady, hinting that Melania might have ulterior motives with AI that have zilch to do with the kids.

Mahdawi pointed out that Melania, who she said was reading “from a script tucked into an old-school binder,” might not be the ideal guide for responsibly managing AI and protecting kids from its downsides. And she didn’t stop there—she threw shade at both Melania and Donald, calling the whole thing out as pure hypocrisy.

Columnist Rips Into Melania and Donald After AI Talk

“But if she’s really into this, maybe she should skip the task forces on shoving AI into kids’ education and just tell her husband to quit slashing public schools,” Mahdawi wrote. “For instance, the Trump folks are trying to cut funding for Head Start, that program for low-income families’ little ones, and they axed a grant that used to support kids’ shows like Sesame Street.”

She wrapped it up by bringing in Geoffrey Hinton, the guy often called the “godfather of AI,” who told the Financial Times on Friday that AI “will make a handful of people way richer and leave most folks worse off.”

Mahdawi’s final jab: “And that’s probably exactly why Melania Trump and the bunch of billionaires and tech bigwigs hanging around her at the White House are all hyped up about it.”

What do you make of all this? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!