First lady Melania Trump speaks at the B'More Youth Summit. Photo / AP
First lady Melania Trump speaks at the B'More Youth Summit. Photo / AP
Despite an almost assured adverse reception, first lady Melania Trump spoke about opioid abuse at the B'More Youth Summit in a city that President Donald Trump had derided as a "rat and rodent infested mess" in a July tweet.
She was met with boos and hisses from a crowd thatconsisted of mostly high school and middle school students. The boos were sustained for two minutes of her five-minute speech, and the audience spoke throughout.
The first lady did not acknowledge the reaction and carried on with her remarks, as the logo for her "Be Best" initiative was shown on the screen behind her. One of the initiative's focuses is combating youth opioid abuse, reports The Washington Post.
"Thank you to all of the students who are here," she told the crowd. "I am so proud of you for the bravery it takes to share that you have been strongly affected by the opioid epidemic in some way."
....As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
Trump wore a tan trench coat buttoned up to her neck and never untied or removed, as was her uniform on a much longer trip with second lady Karen Pence to visit the troops in South Carolina in late October.
This is the third time in a little over a month that Melania Trump has endured boos or protests while in Democrat-friendly territory.
In late October, loud boos erupted in Nationals Park as she and her husband were shown on the Jumbotron. Internet memes zoomed in on her changing facial expressions to try interpret how she was feeling at that moment.
First lady Melania Trump speaks at the B'More Youth Summit. Photo / AP
In early November, she was greeted by 150 protesters during her visit to Boston Medical Center to bring attention to a program to cuddle babies born with opioid dependency.
Many of them were hospital employees who were upset about President Trump's anti-immigration stance and who argued that the first lady's visit might signal to the hospital's many immigrant patients that the institution was aligned with the Trump administration.
The first lady did not engage with the protesters in Boston, and her event took place without her ever being in a position to see them.
President Trump's remarks about Baltimore this summer turned into a feud with the city's beloved congressman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, whose October death left the city reeling.
When the president last visited Baltimore in September, after his disparaging remarks but before Cummings' death, for a closed-door retreat for House Republicans, he was greeted with protests and a giant inflatable rat with his face attached.
No protesters gathered for the first lady's visit; the students, according to organisers and teachers present, who found out only today that she was coming.
