Since the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, First Lady Melania Trump has repeatedly sent out tweets calling for peace and healing across the nation, and now some White House officials are suggesting that the First Lady’s messaging is a deliberate attempt to undercut her husband’s hardline stance which has stressed law and order, according to CNN:
“On Monday, at almost exactly the same time as the President was on a conference call with governors telling them from the West Wing they looked like ‘jerks’ for being ‘weak’ and unable to ‘dominate’ and ‘put down’ protests, the first lady was tweeting about the country’s need for peace.
“‘Focus on taking care of one another & healing our great nation,’ she tweeted.”
Another example of the First Lady’s seemingly incongruous messaging when compared to that of her husband can be found in a tweet she sent out just hours after the president had warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” That posting earned him a rebuke from Twitter.
A few hours later, the First Lady tweeted:
“Our country allows for peaceful protests, but there is no reason for violence.
“As a nation, let’s focus on peace, prayers & healing.”
And that, CNN notes, left some White House advisers unhappy:
“That contradiction did not sit well in the West Wing, a White House official told CNN, who noted Trump’s antithetical tweeting, ‘doesn’t help. It frustrates the West Wing.’
“Part of the animus lies in the timing of her tweets, which are often lobbed after her husband has posted something controversial.
“‘There’s a feeling of deliberateness to her timing that makes it seem even more disjointed,’ said one person familiar with the first lady’s actions.”
In reaction to the First Lady’s tweets, she is now being left out of major discussions, as the East and West wings of the White House engage in what can best be dubbed a sort of cold war:
“Earlier this week, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks were formulating the plan for the President to walk to St. John’s Church and hold up a bible for a photo op. Melania Trump’s name never came up, says someone with knowledge of the meetings.
“‘To be honest, I don’t think it was even part of the discussion,’ a White House official told CNN.”
With major protests planned this weekend in the nation’s capital, it should be interesting to watch both the president and his wife’s Twitter feeds to see if the social media battle between the two continues.
Featured Image Via NBC News
