In a piece for the Washington Post, columnist Karen Tumulty called out first lady Melania Trump for her statement defending her husband's bullying of 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg in a fit of jealousy after she was selected Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
Responding to a statement from the White House that stated, “BeBest is the First Lady’s initiative, and she will continue to use it to do all she can to help children. It is no secret that the President and First Lady often communicate differently — as most married couples do. Their son is not an activist who travels the globe giving speeches. He is a 13-year-old who wants and deserves privacy,” Tumulty wasn't having it.
"There is a classic dodge that bullies can be relied to fall back on when they abuse someone who is smaller and weaker than they are. He (or she) asked for it. First lady Melania Trump, it appears, subscribes to that defense of the indefensible as well," she wrote.
"A day after her husband mocked a 16-year-old girl who has been diagnosed with a disorder that is on the autism spectrum, the White House attempted to square President Trump’s appalling behavior with his wife’s supposed advocacy against bullying," she continued. "It also asked us to pretend we didn’t see the obvious hypocrisy in the president’s attack on climate activist Greta Thunberg only a week after the first lady expressed outrage at a law school professor who had the temerity to make a play on words with the name of the Trumps’ 13-year-old son, Barron."
"Trump was not communicating 'differently' Thursday, when he tweeted to his 67.5 million followers that Thunberg “must work on her Anger Management problem.” He was melting down in his own fit of rage over her selection as Time magazine’s Person of the Year," she scolded. "But the worst part of all of it is the suggestion that, somehow, Thunberg brought this act of aggression by the most powerful man in the world upon herself. That by speaking up about an issue that she sees as an existential one for her generation, this teen has forfeited any expectation of being treated with decency."
"Is this really the 'best' that Melania Trump believes that we can be?" she concluded.
You can read the whole piece here.