WASHINGTON — First woman Melania Trump joined youngster sufferers at a Washington, DC, hospital Wednesday for an arts and crafts hour, bringing teddy bears and different presents whereas chatting with the children about their favourite musical artists and what to anticipate for Friday’s Independence Day festivities.
“All people will get a teddy bear — and extra stuff, too,” the primary woman mentioned in greeting 10 inpatients and outpatients at Youngsters’s Nationwide Hospital. “ what we’re celebrating tomorrow?”
“Independence Day!” one keen youngster shouted again.
Mrs. Trump’s journey got here as Home Republicans neared passage of President Trump’s marquee tax-and-spending invoice, sending it to the president’s desk.
A full-fledged signing ceremony may happen on the federal vacation, together with a army flyover together with F-22s, F-35s and B-2 bombers — the identical jets that decimated three Iranian nuclear websites simply final month.
“It’s a really special occasion,” the primary woman mentioned. “So we may have a giant get together on the White Home … if you really feel higher, possibly subsequent yr, you come over and we’ll rejoice collectively.”
Melania quizzed the children about their favourite meals, sports activities and musical as they adorned rocks earlier than inserting American flags in planters within the Bunny Mellon Therapeutic Backyard, devoted throughout President Trump’s first time period in 2017.
One youngster shared that Taylor Swift — whom the president deemed “now not ‘HOT’” in Might — was the perfect singer, to which the primary woman responded diplomatically that the “Dangerous Blood” hitmaker was “very gifted.”
Trump in mid-Might had posted in regards to the pop star, who endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over him within the 2024 election, on his method dwelling from a visit to the Center East: “Has anybody seen that, since I mentioned ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s now not ‘HOT?’”
“I really actually like Sabrina Carpenter,” one other lady coloring on the craft desk added.
“She’s nice too,” the primary woman mentioned earlier than strolling with the youngsters out to the backyard to current the hospital with a brand new yellow tea rose, known as the “Everlasting Flame.”
Requested by a toddler whether or not she favored to golf, Melania mentioned she doesn’t play, although her husband is usually seen out on the hyperlinks throughout weekends at his West Palm Seaside, Fla., membership or Bedminster, NJ, resort.
Hospital president and CEO Michelle Riley-Brown the primary woman and the kids outdoor to put Fourth of July-themed wind propellers and patriotic bows within the planting beds.
“It’s lovely right here,” Melania Trump mentioned.
Later, the primary woman visited a three-month-old affected person and his household within the Transplant Unit in addition to a number of sufferers with coronary heart and kidney illnesses.
Melania Trump is the eighth first woman to preside over the backyard after Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, and Rosalynn Carter.
Photographs of every adorn the wall inside — together with one in all Jill Biden and the daring toddler who stole the present by enjoying catch with then-President Joe Biden on a pre-Christmas go to to Youngsters’s Nationwide in December 2024.
