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Melania Trump

First lady Melania Trump hits the road to promote her 'Be Best' campaign

Maria Puente
USA TODAY

First lady Melania Trump left Washington Monday for a two-day, three-state road trip to promote three of her "Be Best" campaign causes: children's well-being, online bullying and opioid abuse.

Her first stop: Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she visited the Dove School of Discovery, one of a group of public charter elementary schools that incorporates character development throughout its curriculum and emphasizes "kindness, character, strong values and positivity," according to the White House.

“It’s very important: teamwork,” she told a group of second-graders. “It’s very important to get along in groups.”

“We always need to be kind and show love, correct?” she said to another group.

In the pre-K classroom, one of the kids was direct: Where is the president?

“He’s in the Oval Office,” she said. 

First lady Melania Trump visits a prekindergarten class at Tulsa's Dove School of Discovery Monday.

The Dove students are "sculpting our next generation by creating a foundation of youth with strong character," Trump said later in a prepared statement. "I know they will go on to do great things.” 

Later Monday, she flew to Seattle to stop in Redmond, Washington, to visit Microsoft, which is designing applications to teach children online safety and to help children with disabilities.

She got a demonstration of Xbox parental controls (over such things as time kids can play and with whom) from Dave McCarthy, general manager of Microsoft Games. "Incredible," she commented.

On Tuesday, she will head to Las Vegas, where she will give a speech and participate in a town hall about the opioid crisis. 

The first lady was dressed in a blue-gray trench coat over a bright yellow turtleneck knit sweater and yellow plaid Manolo Blahnik stilettos. 

First lady Melania Trump left Washington Monday for a two-day, three state overnight trip to promote her Be Best campaign.

The "Be Best" trip is Trump's first solo domestic overnight foray since moving into the White House. It's also the first cross-country tour since her ill-fated visit to the border to visit migrant children in Texas last summer.

At the time, the message on her jacket – "I Really Don't Care, Do U?" – got more attention than her efforts to quiet the outcry over the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the border. 

Trump launched her "Be Best" initiative to improve the well-being of children last May with an announcement ceremony in the Rose Garden. 

“Through Be Best, I will continue to shine a spotlight on the well-being programs that provide children the tools and skills required for emotional, social and physical well-being and promote successful organizations, programs, and people who are helping children overcome some of the issues they face while growing up in the modern world,” Trump said in a statement released before she left Monday. 

 

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