It seems First LadyMelania Trumpis among those who differed with PresidentDonald Trumpover his decisionto mock16-year-old climate activistGreta Thunbergon Twitter.
Inan unusual public statementacknowledging any disagreement between the first couple, Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman told CNN reporter Kate Bennett: “It is no secret that the President and First Lady often communicate differently — as most married couples do.”
Bennett had asked abouta Thursday tweetfrom the president, 73, in which he said it was “so ridiculous” that TIME named Thunbergtheir “Person of the Year.”The Swedish teen has becomea global facefor the urgency of addressing climate change.
“Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!” President Trump, a climate change skeptic who has claimed it is a “hoax,” sarcastically wrote Thursday. “Chill Greta, Chill!”
Mrs. Trump, 49, has made fighting cyberbullying a major part of herBe Best initiativeas first lady, focusing on children’s welfare. However, she has regularlybeen accused of hypocrisygiven her husband’s penchant for personally attacking others using social media.
From left: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in November.Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock
What’s more, the first lady used Twitter earlier this monthto express her disapprovalover a joke made about her 13-year-old son,Barron, at an impeachment hearing.
A law professor speaking before the committee had said, “The Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.” (The professor later apologized.)
“A minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics,” Mrs. Trumptweeted on Dec. 4. Referring to the professor, she wrote, “Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it.”
In the statement to CNN this week about the president’s mockery ofanotherteenager, Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman said, BeBest “is the First Lady’s initiative, and she will continue to use it to do all she can to help children. … Their son is not an activist who travels the globe giving speeches. He is a 13-year-old who wants and deserves privacy.”
Greta Thunberg.Drew Angerer/Getty
Mrs. Trump has reportedly expressed her misgivings about her husband’s Twitter habits in the past.
She toldNew York Timesreporter Katie Rogers last year,according toNewsweek, “I don’t always agree with his tweets and I tell him that.”
“[The first lady] told me she sometimes takes the president’s phone away,” Rogers tweeted at the time, perNewsweek.
Hours after the president’s dig at Thunberg, his campaign tweeted an edited version of her TIME cover with Trump’s face on it instead.
Meanwhile, former First LadyMichelle Obamahad her own thoughts on the matter. Shetweeted supportto Thunberg on Friday, writing, “Don’t let anyone dim your light. … Ignore the doubters and know that millions of people are cheering you on.”
Thunberg, too, has responded to the argument that her climate activism is political.
“If anyone thinks that what I and the science are saying is advocating for a political view – then that says more about that person than about me,” she wrote in one tweet. “That being said – some are certainly failing more than others.”
source: people.com
