On Tuesday, after several news outlets exposed first lady Melania Trump’s reuse of an educational booklet from the Obama-era Federal Trade Commission to serve as the template for her stupidly named Be Best campaign, her team reportedly took offense at being called out on it.
Melania, aka Ofdonald, launched her initiative focusing on childhood “well-being, social media use and opioid abuse,” and Politico reported that the documents accompanying said program were nearly identical to an FTC report released by the Obama administration.
Here’s how Politico explained the obvious swaggerjacking:
Included in the rollout for the campaign was a “booklet by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission“ instructing parents on best practices about “Talking with Kids about Being Online“ highlighted on the “Be Best“ website.
The report, aside from a foreword from the first lady, appears to mirror nearly word for word an FTC booklet on “Chatting with Kids About Being Online“ released in 2014 under former President Barack Obama, according to a POLITICO review.
Now Politico reports that Stephanie Grisham, communications director for the first lady, has pulled out the widely used Trump tactic of admonishing the “opposition media” as opposed to addressing the issue.
“Mrs. Trump agreed to add Be Best branding and distribute the booklet in an effort to use her platform to amplify the positive message within,” Grisham said in a statement. “As she said in yesterday’s speech, she is going to use Be Best to promote people and organizations to encourage conversation and replication, and helping the FTC distribute this booklet is just one small example.”
She added: “Despite providing countless outlets with ample background, information, and on-the-record comments from the FTC, some media have chosen to take a day meant to promote kindness and positive efforts on behalf of children, to instead lob baseless accusations towards the First Lady and her new initiatives.”
So basically, Melania Trump’s team knew full well that they were using the Obama administration’s FTC playbook, and they were fine with rebranding it to add the dumbass name and passing it off as a new initiative. Got it.
And let this part be abundantly clear: The original document, “Talking With Kids About Being Online,” was given a ridiculously stupid new name and a foreword by Melania Trump and was hailed on the campaign website as a “booklet by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission,” but the content was exactly what the Obama administration’s FTC wrote in 2014.
“Our office will continue to focus on helping children and I encourage members of the media to attempt to Be Best in their own professions, and focus on some of the children and programs Mrs. Trump highlighted in her remarks yesterday,” Grisham said.
Wait, did Grisham just try to shade the media with that Be Best line? It feels like she did. How about the Trump administration Be Best at leaving the White House? Or Be Best at worrying about Robert Mueller, aka the Gooch, coming for that Russian ass? Or how about Melania Be Best at not stealing from the best administration to ever grace the White House?
We know Ofdonald has a history of stealing everything from speeches to hats; maybe it’s time for her to Be Best at tending to her own garden instead of eating of the fruits that Michelle Obama planted.