This comes as Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, has given her first major speech since the Republican National Convention. In her remarks in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, she said that, as first lady, she would focus on decreasing cyberbullying and toxic social media culture.
Melania Trump: “We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other. We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children, especially in social media. It would be one of the main focuses of my work, if I’m privileged enough to become your first lady.”
Melania Trump did not mention in her speech the frequent social media attacks launched by her husband, Donald Trump, whose combative Twitter use over the years has included attacks on journalists, women—whom he has called “dogs”—and other presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, once tweeting, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?” Meanwhile, despite Melania Trump’s expressed concern over social media bullying, she did not come to the aid of a journalist earlier this year who faced a barrage of death threats, Holocaust references and other anti-Semitic attacks on social media after writing a profile about Melania for GQ. Instead, Melania said in an interview that journalist Julia Ioffe, who is Jewish, had “provoked” the harassment.