Many thanks to your wife, first lady of the United States. Uh she signed a letter to Putin about our children. Even out of sight, first lady Melania Trump’s influence felt as Ukraine’s President Vladimir Zalinski and European leaders gathered at the White House for peace talks. Zalinski thanking the first lady for writing a letter to Russian leader Vladimir Putin advocating for the safety of children, delivering a letter from his own wife to Mrs. Trump.
My wife, she first lady of Ukraine. She gave the letter. It’s not to you, to your wife. It comes after President Trump handd delivered the first lady’s letter to Putin on Friday during their highly scrutinized meeting. She loves children and she hates to see uh she hates to see something like this happening.
We want to see something other than funerals. No, she felt uh it was a beautiful letter. He it was very well received by him. In the letter, the first lady references the plight of children caught in this war, saying in part, “In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone.
You serve humanity itself.” Stopping short of addressing Ukrainian children abducted in the war directly. Ukraine has called the kidnapping of at least 20,000 of its children taken to Russia or Russian occupied territory a war crime. In reference to the first lady’s letter, Zalinsky saying on X, “Her voice matters and her care gives strength to this cause.
We are working tirelessly to bring every child home.” The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin in part for his role in abducting Ukrainian children. In the past, Moscow claims it has been protecting vulnerable children caught in the war. Mrs. Trump has made young people the focus of her work as first lady at home leading her be best campaign focused on online safety and opioid abuse in March seen at the signing of the take it down act advocating for the bill designed to require social media platforms to remove
non-consensual intimate imagery or revenge porn. Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themselves freely without the looming threat of exploitation or harm. Most recently, President Trump saying he and the first lady have been troubled by the images of famine coming out of Gaza. She thinks it’s terrible and she sees the same pictures that you see and that we all see.
There’s nothing you can say other than it’s terrible when you see the kids. What Melania is doing is is really unusual for a first lady to directly try to intervene in armed conflict is unprecedented. You know, the way Melania is doing it is in keeping with her platform as first lady, and it’s it’s about helping children. It’s very apolitical.
Although the world’s attention might be on the president’s efforts on a pathway to peace, the first lady’s influence already part of the conversation. We don’t hear from Melania very much. So when we do, it matters more. So I think we’ll continue to see her focusing on issues that she personally cares about.
Monica Alba joins us now from Washington. Monica, you know, Melania has a very unique approach compared to other first ladies. And it’s interesting, she’s taken sort of this this leadership role, if you will, in sending that letter to Vladimir Putin, but we still haven’t seen her in quite a while.
It’s a departure from from other first ladies. Exactly, Tom. She is famously quite private and in fact you aren’t seeing her as much as you did in the first administration and that is a choice that she is making but behind the scenes I am told that her influence on the president’s decision-making process is simply unparalleled that she makes her views very clear and she is constantly communicating them to the president when it comes to the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and that is why she has become the president’s closest confidant even if she isn’t doing it out loud. or as front-facing as some other first ladies have done in the past. Tom. All right, Monica Albus. Monica, thank you.
