1984 speak all around. Melania is a vulgar grifter enabling 45 and all of the ugliness which he, and the entire Trump family represent. To then veil this with the vapid and vaguely defined Be Best ‘thing’ is one more insult to American children and adults. Go away Melania, please. Just. Go. Away.
11
Unquestionably the classiest and most beautiful first lady this country has ever seen.....
I don't believe that even up for debate
1
Melania Trump seems be be having the least impact of any First Lady of my lifetime. That is evidenced by the fact that even this article’s author can’t seem to tell us what the “Be Best” campaign is supposed to accomplish.
19
Poor Melania, and after the Times reporting on Trump's appetite for debt and accompanining massive losses, that may actually be a true statement.
9
The Times just can't help itself being critical of everything Trump. The article's first four words are "Without clear policy goals.....".
Shouldn't this article be an Opinion piece or News Analysis?
4
@Kenny Schnabel
Can you tell us what the clear policy goals of Be Best are?
Stating that there are no clear policy goals of Be Best is not an opinion, it is a fact.
That's not being critical, that's just stating the obvious.
79
@Adamboo
See paragraph 8 of the article.
1
@Adamboo
Also, if you go to whitehouse.gov under Statements and Releases you can read a summary of the program and the exact transcript from today's event.
1
Apparently visiting sick children, inviting a few groups of kids who have accomplished something (without actually having to meet them) to the White Houseand traveling abroad makes Melania Trump makes her, in the view of Trump acolytes, "the most important and accomplished first lady in American history." After all, she "helped Amani and the other children decorate cookies and make cards." Is there any first lady in recent memory who hasn't made such appearances? As for her anti-opiod efforts they pale in comparison with Betty Ford's anti-addiction work, including the Betty Ford Clinic, and even Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No' campaign.
28
How in the world does Melania expect to be taken seriously when the entire concept of Be Best is undermined by her husband on a daily basis. It might have worked if Trump followed the Be Best guidelines.
19
Some people would rather a first lady be pretty and empty-headed. Have a lot of tea parties and wear six-inch heels. She definitely married a heel. That can't be fun. He belittles her too.
"heels are people that behave in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the standards of the match. Others exhibit unlikeable, appalling and deliberately offensive and demoralizing personality traits such as arrogance, cowardice or contempt for the audience. Many heels do both, cheating as well as behaving nastily."
6
Melania celebrates another year of reading fashion magazines.
11
I applaud the sentiment regarding bullying. But the effort of ms trump is really a joke. By being married to a person of low character who revels in bullying on a daily basis, voids any real seriousness to the project.
18
Superlatives is all she has. Nothing more.
At least it’s better than the second-by-second gutter sniping that comes from her disgrace of a husbands mouth. But not by much.
I used to say, I can’t wait until this nightmare is over. Now, I wonder if it will ever end.
16
There is something inherently missing in the phrase, “Be Best”... and, at what?
Just as unspecific the term is, so is the scattered, ambiguous campaign.
If children are the focus, you’re celebrating it on a day when parents around the country are either mourning their dead kids in school shootings or sitting in hospitals with their wounded ones.
This just marks the apathy, the tone deafness, the utter crassness of this WH.
Everything is smoke and mirrors, nothing has substance. Fanciful words, sycophants applauding and all the while— under the snowy facade, glitter, fluffy feathers, ornamentation is a rotting carcass.
Poor Melania— you can’t see the truth for what it is— now what could be more sadder.
14
“To educate children and parents about the issues they face."
Uh....they probably have a better idea about their problems than you do, lady.
14
How does Be Best ( horrible, bad English) help the children separated form their parents a the border, never to see them again, those who died on our watch in detention, those who just want something better so they can Be the Best?
this White House is the worst show on earth
12
At what? Lying, cheating, stealing, fraud, conspiracy, oh i could go on and on! Maybe we should follow this twit and get some insight into her husband's devious mind.
7
Is Be Best grammatically acceptable ?? Be Your Best ,no ?
14
"I really don't care. Do U?" Remember that one? Be your best.
15
I wonder who has more "executive time" on their daily White House schedules, him or her? We know what he does with his, largely engage in t.v. binge-watching. What on earth does she do with hers?
21
@John Grillo Severals years ago she told an interviewer, from Vanity Fair I believe, she enjoyed pilates and reading magazines.
9
@John Grillo
Spa time, leafing through magazines, exercise, meeting with hair stylists, makeup artists and aestheticians. Looking at designer clothes, deciding where she will live when trump is out of the WH and she files for divorce. Seriously, this is likely pretty close to what most trophy wives do, especially the ones whose husbands have extracurricular "friends."
11
Eric Bolling, a host for the Sinclair Broadcast Group stated “She or he will continue to shine a bright light on your path for the next six years as first lady, the most important and accomplished first lady in American history, full stop.”
Please, get me a trash can quick because I think I’m going to be ill.
Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest owner of local television stations in the country, with 173 stations in 81 broadcast markets that stretch from coast to coast and just about everywhere in between. This company ordered its anchors nationwide to read a Trump-friendly script which lambasted “irresponsible, one-sided” and “fake” news stories.
It’s difficult to believe a word that comes from this group since they have the Trump hook so deep in their belly, they don’t even know or realize it. They continue to believe Trump’s hype while creating their own fantasies of how great and wonderful he and the First Lady are.
Once again, there’s a huge difference between being supportive of the First Lady vs. the fictitious depiction of her being “most important and accomplished first lady in American history”.
Apparently either Mr. Bolling doesn’t read or doesn’t care to read up on former First Ladies and their many accomplishments.
And folks wonder where fake news is generated from . . .
29
Of course they support her. They have very little aspirations beyond themselves. I prefer my daughter to role model themselves after accomplished women like Rhimes, Oprah, Indra Nooyi, Ursula Burns, etc etc.
6
How appropriate that the Minnesota robotics team was greeted by the White House's own robot Mike Pence, who can now even shake hands and answer simple questions.
29
Please, make Be Best go away, along with Melania. She has done nothing of any value. She is arm candy only.
24
I dearly hope these people are not in the White House for much longer, 2020 is coming and we will then have the opportunity to be best.
23
The photo ops for Michelle Obama in the White House Garden got rave reviews for that first lady. Here, only an opportunity to again criticize the current President and his wife.
How many times did we see the same photos of Michelle, in the same two outfits, out in that garden?
3
@Ray Ozyjowski
Obama wasn't a cyber bully whose wife campaigns against cyber bulling. There is no equivalence.
15
At least Ms. Obama wore clothes in all her published photos. Be b(r)est, Ray.
15
@Ray Ozyjowski Michelle was in the garden in the same clothes because she had a garden there growing good healthy food for the White House. She was showing the people of America how to grow good food for their kids so they wouldn't get obese (and to help themselves, also!)! Be Best makes no sense.....grammatically! So how can it make sense as a project? No one understands it....because there's no goals. And to stay with a husband that cheats and brags.....she has no self-worth!
6
Celebrating a year of little or nothing other than made-for-tv pr events. Mrs. trump is as self-aggrandizing as her husband. I really don't care; do you?
24
I still cannot process that the FLOTUS is a former nude model who came over here illegally and brought her Communist father, mother and sister by way of chain migration.
37
Be Best seems like something made up to give the appearance that this wife of trumpski is doing something for the country. But she has only visited "a dozen states." How come? Is it more noteworthy that she flies about to other countries to be seen as a world-wide figure of some import, which she is not? Really, this is all for show!
14
After Melania's wildly successful anti-bullying campaign, she ought to launch a "pay your fair share of taxes initiative".
27
At least her husband modeled his behavior in accordance with the “BE BEST” campaign. The Donald was the biggest and the best money losing developer in the history of the world. Another first for the Donald.
17
It's not nearly as successful as her signature campaign, "I Really Don't Care, Do You?"
42
@xzbishop
and we have a winner!
5
Was not aware the first lady had supporters. Good to know
10
How about honoring the two students who died in this last week, doing their absolute, fatal best to protect fellow students and teachers from crazed glory-seeking gunmen? Or does this brush up too closely against the husband who is doing his best to protect the right to all guns by all people? How about just a little ethical circumspection Mrs. Trump?
31
Does a high school student who is killed defending his fellow students from a school shooter fit her definition of "Be Best"?
Her silly campaign has certainly "helped [them] with today's challenges."
28
We will never know for sure, but when Melania married Donald, it seems pretty obvious that she did not sign up for being First Lady. That said, she is brought out into the spotlight to confirm that she is still married to the Donald and still presents as a pretty nice piece of arm candy. I don't know what she meant by wearing the stupid jacket with the "I don't care message," or why she never puts her arms into the sleeves of her coats and jackets, but this PR event tells us much about the Trump administration and its enablers. There is no substance to this project, Eric Bolling is not and has never been a journalist if he can declare that Melania will be remembered as the most accomplished First Lady in American history and the fact that this event was about optics and not policy explains why Trump was elected: his base only needs the optics, not the substance.
23
Guess the "Don't Bully People on Twitter" didn't take.
17
The laughter invoked upon reading that the Best Best Group was "Broadening it's focus." Tells me it's another trump administration idea. Well thought out and communicated to the public.
7
I see her as the moral equivalent of Eva Braun.
26
Melania's term "be best" is on the same ethereal plane as her bizarre, satanic christmas tree arrangement, and her bizarre shirt "I don't care, do you?" in response to outrage over family separation. Tone deaf is a kind idiom for her.
18
Well she is ill-equipped, what does she know about American society, she an immigrant.
5
Birds of a feather, she married to Trump, how do you know she’s a kind person.
4
How about being better at getting the 'Be Best' message across instead of just more lip service and another photo-op?
6
Could be worse. Fortunately for us she has neither the brains nor energy of the likes of Evita Peron.
12
As if Nancy Reagan had said--"Just No!"
10
Lol!! Exactly, you nailed it. Hilarious!
1
Relying on the power of her image"....What image? As the wife of the 'Bully in Chief'? Or her 'image' as a housewife/homemaker/mother/surrogate? Or her 'clueless' image...the one most Republicans are swaying to in awe of her "Greatest Ever (in HISTORY) President? Teach him how to spell Kentucky, and stolen. (I'm sure he would have gotten that one right)
4
Mrs. Trump doesn't realize that the words "Be Best" don't translate well in the American vernacular. Someone should have helped her with a slogan more specifically directed at self-confidence that defeats the tactics of bullies.
8
We recently started to jokingly and sternly tell our son to “be best” before he heads off to school. It does sound strange.
3
And I thought Nancy Regan’s anti-drug campaign, “Just Say No” was simplistic.
33
It sounds way too much like the old Apple campaign of Think Different.
10
Melania Trump's slogan, "Be Best," has always seemed like a terrible goal for children. It promotes a message of competition, which is the antithesis of what it hopes to achieve. "Be Your Best" would be a better way to communicate the importance of setting high standards.
"Be Best" is not only a clumsy slogan, it sends the wrong message.
60
@dutchiris.....
Our society teaches from birth that only winning matters. Children and teens and adults alike are saturated with and drowned in the infantile "life hacks" and doctrines of overpaid sports coaches, TED hucksters, professional game players, lying politicians.... "Win-Win-Win-Win!!!!"
Mrs. Trump clearly does not want to go that direction, but has a (albeit nebulous) "be the best you can be" philosophy in mind. Give the woman a break.
@Lowell H Our society does not teach 'winning matters' exclusively. Perhaps it's because there is a difference between succeeding and winning. Succeeding means that you have worked to achieve what you have and winning means that you got lucky!
Both Melania and Donald both won!
For someone who got into this country on an "Extraordinary Ability" Visa, Melania doesn't have much to show for it on the Be Best project or anything else.
94
She's the best...dressed, has the best plastic surgeon, is the best at denying reality, and the best at inducing teeth gnashing ,cerebral shrinkage and slowing down evolution.
79
That’s pretty profound. Being as the news paper in her home town reported that the so called “modeling” company she worked for was really for high end prostitutes. Now I’m not saying that’s what she is, however, her home town news paper reported that, the Mirror then printed it. Seems Trump likes to abuse the H1-B visas, seems even being married to Trump is a job no American will do.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/03/donald-trump-melania-trump-immigration-h1b-visa/
40
How tone deaf! How about be better and stop using our kids for target practice and jailing other kids because they want a better life?
42
Big deal, for an immigrant who’s husband paid for her green card, “Be Best” she optimizes what Trump dislikes which is immigrants flooding into the US, which according to Trump is a bad thing, that is unless your sleeping with him, in which case, it makes little difference what her immigration status is.
Not to mention this is the first time I’ve heard of “Be Best” so it must be a big deal, if it’s for children. With the real previous First Ladies, we knew what they were promoting, like “Just Say No”. Betty Ford, had her alcohol and drug rehabilitation centers that are known world wide. Melania has “Be Best” what happened to her no bullying duties, or was that too much of a conflict, being as Trump is the purveyor of lies, bullying, (which may have worked when he was 40, at a fat 72, he’s not intimidating, I’m taller, bigger, spend time at the gym not getting fat, served in the military, and I’m much younger) along with racism, misogyny, the list goes on.
18
Is that the best slogan she could come up with? It sounds like a bad translation from a foreign language. Since we hardly ever hear her talk about it or do anything but be annoyed at her husband, it doesn't matter. She will go down in history as the first lady who married a philanderer for his money and then complains a lot without ever doing anything constructive.
52
Melanie did decorate cookies and make cards!
So, the metrics of this program involve how many cookies she decorated?
15
"Mrs. Trump said she would focus on the topic of online safety."
Does she have advice to keep your tax documents safe from people who want to use the internet to get at them?
8
Perhaps the first lady's "Be Best" campaign should start with her husband.
I know, wishful thinking.
28
I still just want to know why the campaign isn't called Be THE Best. Be Best is not proper grammar and doesn't even make sense. The goals of the program are noble, and it would be nice if her husband followed her example, but the name needs to change so that our First Lady sounds intelligent.
18
But that would be only sounding intelligent.
4
As to most things Melania, I have had a fair amount of tolerance . . . until now. She is apparently as delusional as her husband. It has always seemed laughable--considering her spouse's behavior--that Melania supposedly focused her vague Be Best campaign on stopping bullying and encouraging kindness. But she has the hubris to commemorate the anniversary of this nothing of a campaign, which initially ripped off Michelle Obama's Be Better women's campaign, on the heels of her best friend going public in claiming to have been thrown under the bus over the Trump Inaugural scandal.
42
I feel like I am reading a section of Orwell's book "1984." Up is down, facts are lies, no results are significant, and we all love Big Brother. Give me a break.
54
“Be Best” seems like a parody. Even the slogan itself sounds like it’s a word or two short of being a full statement. And every time the “Be Best” campaign manages to hit the airwaves, Melania’s husband trumps it with a blistering tweet filled with rancor and lies. Start with getting your own house in order, First Lady. I’d settle for you and yours simply being “better.”
94
@It’s News Here Oh yes! Reminds me of early Google "Don't Be Bad." (was that it?) Like West Coast techies making fun of the whole notion of a core mission statement in as few words as possible.
2
While the First Lady is attempting to "educate children and parents about the issues they face and promote programs and services to help them with today’s challenges" in her "Be Best" awareness campaign (which has no "concrete policy goals") her husband continues his "Me Bad" behavior every single day, acting as if all is right and good with the world.
The President and the First Lady are prime examples of contradiction and juxtaposition under the same roof.
26
I hope she focuses Be Best on getting guns out of society so our children need not fear going about their daily lives and attending school.
Also hope she makes it a priority that every refugee child is reunited with their family. Fix what your husband broke.
97
Simply, Melania Trump is NOT the "most accomplished First Lady in American history".
Melanie does as little as she wants and has received little push back. We just leave her be and are 'grateful' ? when she actually does something. All well and fine. If she has in fact helped some children or a particular program, great.
For the most part Melania seems to have an unusually high amount of 'executive time' similar to her husband. Just don't try to fool us.
69
The Trumps are the VERY WORST this nation has to offer. Enough giving coverage to this garbage. Toothless lip-service isn’t worth reporting on.
98
What a hoot!
22
Meanwhile, the president tweets hate and vitriol daily.
72
This is stage-managed fluff. Melania gives the impression that she's the reluctant, ill-equipped spokesperson of a made to order program that has no real purpose apart from projecting a look of being busy and faux-concern for something as yet not defined. NYC beckons – 2 years to go.
52
" The Woman in the Tower ". Trump tower. When you marry for Money, you'll earn every single penny.
Just saying.
41
Here's a message for Melania - "You have no brand that anyone recognizes or cares about, so Be Quiet and Be Gone."
96
Melania Trump is the living proof that a mildly intelligent but ambitious escort can aspire to everything, even an Einstein visa and the White House.
113
Funny you should mention that.... https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/03/donald-trump-melania-trump-immigration-h1b-visa/
1
@Sylla I can't get over this "Einstein visa". One thing is for sure, she neither earned a degree in Europe not in America. I may be mistakes, for there was this institution called "Trump University", perhaps.............?
3
@Sylla
and don't forget how she got her parents here on a "chain migration", something her husband wants no one else to have.
6
“the most important and accomplished first lady in American history, full stop.”
Oh boy! 😂😂😂😂😂
54
1. "Be Best" is poor grammar. Be The Best? Be Your Best? Perhaps you should have consulted with a native English speaker.
2. How does "Best", implying that you have competed against and defeated others, have anything to do with kindness?
3. Melania, we all know you're just phoning it in. Just continue being the trophy wife your man wants to show off. Forget trying to convince us that you care. You lost that battle when you wore that insulting insensitive jacket to the border. But that's OK. We don't care about U either.
119
“Be Best” at pretending your father is not corrupt, kids. “Be Best” at covering for your father, kids. “Be Best” at also dodging the bullets of the corrupt life you lead, kids. “Be Best” at traveling around the world spreading your pseudo religion based politics, which is nothing but phony.
But most of all “Be Best” in cajoling people into believing you care about them and getting the government to pay for your free ride.
Now that really is “Be Best” Melania Trump’s philosophy.
Can’t wait until these people are no longer in the White House.
65
@MIMA: I would add, “Be best” at going on deadly safari and shooting innocent animals with custom-made NRA-type rifles with mega-scopes. Oh, and then calling it “sport.”
4
Our mothers always told us, " Honesty, kindness, charity and love, (and other positive attributes) always begin at home. They are typically not taught through coloring and other short and short-lived PR events especially those touted by sycophants and cabinet members.
This scatter-shot approach to what could be an effective campaign would be more useful if it had clear-cut goals, was modeled in-kind by all members of the First Family, was engaged in on a continuing basis from week to week, actually accomplished the goals set forth, and was embraced and acted upon nationally by others rather than just the First Lady.
While there is no doubt she is a kind and caring person, she should begin with her own home, her chief of staff ( wow...a pit bull ) and her husband.
Those changes themselves could help change the tenor of the whole country and show her voice can be both effective and heard.
15
I have a whole mountain range of doubt about her kindness, etc. Don’t U?
7
“God will shine a light on your next six years as First Lady”???? Let’s hope Melania takes her insipid campaign that is based on nothing out of our lives in 2020. She can Be Best all she wants as a private citizen where I predict this inane campaign will never be heard from again.
104
Seems to me like this is yet another attempted rollout of ... something. In typical Trump administration fashion, they seem to have some sort of overall goal in mind, but it is loosely defined, gilded in grandiose language, and muddled by how to actually get there.
I believe this is called "poor management".
50
That’s because they don’t really want to get there. They do want to dupe us by appearing to want to get there. That’s all. Insulting to all of us.
3