First lady Melania Trump has taken a strategic approach of limited public appearances centered on family-friendly matters during President Donald Trump‘s second term, a break from her usual public reticence.
Many of her rare public engagements are tied to events with a child-centric focus, with the latest being an executive order signing on foster care in the East Room on Thursday afternoon, which also launched her “Fostering the Future” initiative.
“Fostering the Future, a Be Best initiative, provides individuals from the foster care community with technology-based scholarships to attend colleges and universities throughout America,” the first lady said. “Fostering the Future sets these individuals on their career paths, but more significantly, it equips each scholarship recipient with a fundamental foundation of knowledge that will endure throughout their lifetimes.”
The first lady is not usually seen in the hallways of the White House, making her public appearances all the more notable for what she deems worthy of her time.
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER LAUNCHING FIRST LADY’S NEW FOSTER CARE INITIATIVE
She appeared at the White House to celebrate Halloween last month and handed out chocolate bars to young trick-or-treaters on the South Lawn with the president — another sign of her willingness to engage with children.
Yet the first lady’s efforts aren’t just for American children. In October, she also revealed that she had been in “an open channel of communication” with Russian President Vladimir Putin to help reunite eight children displaced by Russia‘s war in Ukraine with their families.
“Plans are already underway to reunify more children in the immediate future. I hope peace will come soon, it can begin with our children,” she said at the time.
The work to reunify Ukrainian children led Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to hand a personal letter from his wife to the first lady, thanking her for her efforts, during a meeting with the president in August.
“This is what’s so interesting about Melania Trump,” said Lauren Wright, a lecturer in politics at Princeton University and author of On Behalf of the President: Presidential Spouses and White House Communications Strategy Today. “She does make fewer appearances than previous first ladies, but almost the benefit of that … is when we do see her in public, pushing for something, it carries a lot of weight, and there’s even more attention on it.”
“I think part of her appeal is these events tend to seem very special, and they get a lot of attention. And when it is something like foster care or Ukrainian children, I think policymakers benefit from that,” she continued. “Government employees who are working on these issues benefit from that, and non-profit initiatives benefit from that because they have the attention that comes with the office of the first lady, which is an immense amount of attention.”
In September, the first lady hosted the second meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, during which she urged the Trump administration to educate the next generation of students on how to use the technology.
“We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children,” she said. “Cars now steer themselves through our cities, robots hold steady hands in the operating room, and drones are redefining the future of war.”
When the president and first lady traveled to the United Kingdom in September, the first lady joined Queen Camilla on a tour of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House before joining Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, on a tour of Frogmore House and Gardens.
Middleton, the first lady, and TV personality Dwayne Fields, who serves as chief scout for the Scout Association, gathered with children to shake a parachute filled with balls at Frogmore Gardens.
“This is beautiful,” the first lady said as she sat in a chair and examined artwork from the 4- to 6-year-old children of the Scouts’s division “Squirrels.”
During her first public remarks since the president returned to Washington, the first lady said, “Motherhood, the life-changing event that makes women invincible and exposed at the same time,” as she spoke from the East Room to celebrate military mothers in early May.
She briefly spoke about her love for her son, Barron Trump, before urging mothers to prioritize their own well-being, as a mother’s strength is “the bedrock of a brighter future for our children.”
“By caring for ourselves, we empower the next generation to thrive,” she said.
That same month, the first lady announced that $25 million had been secured in the fiscal 2026 budget to help foster children transition to adulthood as part of her “Be Best” initiative, which she launched during her husband’s first term to focus on children’s well-being and social media use.
“This is another essential measure that ensures the safety, welfare, and autonomy of those in the foster community,” she said at the time.
The first lady also welcomed children to the Kennedy Garden as part of the White House’s annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day celebration in May, one day after she joined the president in the Rose Garden to celebrate the signing of the bipartisan Take It Down Act. The legislation forces online platforms to remove AI-generated deepfake images and other forms of revenge pornography within 48 hours of complaints.
“I want to thank you, honey, you’ve done amazing,” the president said of the first lady. “You got it done, so I congratulate you.”
In April, the first lady and the president participated in the annual White House Easter egg roll, the first event the first lady hosted this year, on the South Lawn. The first lady read Bunny with a Big Heart to a group of eager children during the event, which featured nearly 30,000 colorful eggs.
Her limited engagements appear to be a continuation of her unusual approach as first lady, which began during the president’s first term, when she delayed moving to the White House and seemed less than enthusiastic about the role.
“It was brand new at first, and people weren’t used to not seeing the first lady all the time,” Wright said. “But ultimately, this is sort of a volunteer position. It’s unpaid. It’s nowhere in the Constitution. It’s not an official appointment that carries a specific job title.”
Wright added, “She sort of highlighted the aspect in which it really is up to each first lady how they want to approach the role, and how they want to shape the role, And so now, because of the Trump first term, there is more of an expectation that she’ll do things the way she wants to do, and the public might not see her; that’s become the new normal.”
Similarly, former first lady Jill Biden also took an unusual path by keeping her day job as a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, the first time a president’s wife had kept her job after entering the White House.
“She had a lot of logistical constraints on her time and so she didn’t appear in public as often as Michelle Obama did, for instance, not even close,” Wright said. “And so I think in their own way, both you, Biden, and Trump, our last few first ladies have created totally new expectations of the role, and opened up the possibilities.”
WHITE HOUSE REOPENS PUBLIC TOURS AS HOLIDAY SEASON BEGINS
However, Wright also offered a note of caution about presidential spouses who upend traditional approaches as first lady.
“It’s sort of a double-edged sword, because, as my research shows, there’s no more effective policy advocate,” she said. “There’s no more effective shaper of public opinion on policy, on how people view the president, how people view the administration. They are simply such effective messengers that it’s really hard not to deploy them all the time as much as possible.”